I finished my second Readers Choice Book a few days ago titled Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo. Here is the synopsis from Good Reads. English professor Emma Grant has always done everything just the way her minister father told her she should -- a respectable marriage, a teaching job at a good college, and plans for the requisite two children. Life was prodigiously good, as her favorite author Jane Austen might say, until the day Emma finds her husband in bed with another woman. Suddenly, all her romantic notions a la Austen are exposed for the foolish dreams they are.Here is my review:Denied tenure in the wake of the scandal and left penniless by the ensuing divorce, Emma packs up what few worldly possessions she has left and heads to England on a quest to find the missing letters of Jane Austen. Locating the elusive letters, however, isn't as straightforward as Emma hoped. The owner of the letters proves coy about her prize possessions, sending Emma on a series of Austen-related tasks that bring her closer and closer to the truth, but the sudden reappearance of Emma's first love makes everything more complicated.
In the end, Emma learns that doing the right thing has very little to do with other people's expectations and everything to do with her own beliefs. Laced with fictional excerpts from the missing letters, Jane Austen Ruined My Life is the story of a woman betrayed who uncovers the deeper meaning of loyalty.
The title and cover of this book really drew me in, I thought it would be something fun and light to read. In the end I thought it was pretty good. Not great but I didn't hate it. I'm not much of a Jane Austen fan, I never read any of her books (although most of them are on my list for this year) but I have seen the movies. This book is about a professors that knows everything about her life so it was kind of interesting to get a little of that personal information.
This book also has a small amount of mystery as the main character runs around England finding clues to piece together more information about Jane Austen. It also has a little romance on the side, which I always enjoy.
What this book really did was make me crave to go to England, it has always been a dream of mine and the details in this book made me wish to go even more.
4 comments:
I've always wanted to go to England too. Maybe someday we can talk our hubbies into taking us.
I'm looking forward to seeing you too. We are planning to come up in the middle of March.
Sounds like a good one---I need a new read so I will have to try this one out. Stopping by from SITS
I'm not much of a reader so I doubt I'll be reading it but it does sound interesting :) Stopping by from SITS.
sounds like an easy read for when I am sitting at appts!
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