Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

I am a huge fan of Jane Austen. I've read and reread all of her novels. I watch every movie adaptation I can find. I even scan the websites of several Jane Austen organizations searching for new products and news. Occasionally I will even indulge in one of my favorite guilty pleasures, Jane Austen fan fiction. I love the time period and the characters that Jane created, and I like to try to revisit them as often as I can. I am constantly in search of something that is similar to what Jane would write. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised, but most often I am disappointed.

While I am used to soft plots, uninteresting characters, and the poor attempt at Jane's irony and wit, this book is absolutely the worst fan fiction that I have ever read. The premise for the book was great. A supposed Jane Austen aficionado nurses a broken heart by rereading Pride and Prejudice. She falls asleep with book in hand, and she wakes up in regency era England. The book jacket description says that she uses the information she learned from reading Jane Austen novels to help her survive, however, she obviously didn't read the books very carefully. It was very evident that the character knew almost nothing about the time period, while the writer seemed intent on showing off her vast knowledge of the subject. Some things shouldn't be written about, and the menstrual cycle is one of them. Chamber pots and body odor should also be avoided.

The character Courtney wakes up in the body of Jane, and she spends almost three hundred pages whining about how to get back to her old life. The author gives many details about Courtney's real life, and the men she knew there. After reading the first half of the novel, I started wishing that Courtney would find her way back because the people and events there seemed much more interesting. The writer did not attempt to explain where the real Jane had gone to, how she was dealing with her new life, and what was going on with the men Courtney left behind. There were many loose ends that were left unfinished. This book has taught me a lesson about reading Jane Austen fan fiction. I will be much more careful in the future. I give the book, and author Laurie Viera Rigler, two thumbs down.