Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale

So things have gotten strange since we last left Pembrook Hall. The two other estates that Austenland have occupied have either been sold or rented, Mr. Wattlesbrook has become an even worse drunkard, and it seems that Austenland is on its last legs. At least that what Charlotte, Austenland’s new resident, has come to observe in her first few days on the property.

Like the narrator in Austenland, Charlotte has been unlucky in love, but not as unlucky as Jane was. Charlotte was married to a man named James and had two kids with him. But Charlotte was more successful and made more money than he did, and he decided to cheat on her. Now divorced and sharing custody of the kids, Charlotte has decided to pick up a different hobby other than spying on her daughter’s boyfriend. She finds a list of goals that she made when she was a teenager, and one of them was to read Jane Austen. One weekend while the kids are with their father she picks them up and falls instantly in love. Finding the need to go on vacation, she talks to her travel agent and she recommends Austenland.

When she gets there it’s just like an Austen novel, but this time there’s a hint of mystery and romance when Mr. Mallery catches her eye.

The only redeeming qualities this book had were the fact that it was short, some parts were funny, and the air of romance was quite enchanting. Otherwise, this book kind of falls flat like its predecessor and even the added mystery of what’s going on with Pembrook Hall doesn’t really save it.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. Charlotte needed to grow a backbone, and even when she does it’s because she’s fallen in love. I liked that Miss Charming made another appearance and the character of Eddie was fantastic.

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Austenland by Shannon Hale

The problem with following authors on Twitter is that you want to buy/read/watch everything that they talk about in their tweets. That’s how I came across Austenland, and before anyone asks, yes, I did see the movie before I read the book. But I believe that I can keep the two apart…maybe.

So, Jane Hayes hasn’t been lucky in love. All of her boyfriends (all thirteen) have turned out to be total assholes or gay. The one thing she could depend on was the wonderful Mr. Darcy and the wonderful works of Jane Austen. Her obsession, including the Pride & Prejudice movie with Colin Firth, is not healthy and she knows that. Her best friend has told her that, and even her great aunt told her that. However, after her great aunt dies, Jane is surprised when she is notified that she was named in the will. Her great aunt doesn’t leave her money, instead she leaves her a trip to Pembrook Place aka Austenland.

Jane goes and is swept up into a world straight out of an Austen novel. The only problem is that she can’t seem to wrap her head around the fact that this is supposed to be real. Hence, why she falls into the gardener’s – Martin – arms. He is apart from all of this, and things seem to be going wonderfully until he dumps her unexpectedly. Jane is shocked, but it seems to be the push she needs to fully encompass herself into the theatrics of Austenland.

Only she doesn’t really seem to. She knows that all of this is an act that these are actors trying to win her affection, and that seems to be the rude awakening that she needed to realize that her obsession with Austen and Mr. Darcy needs to stop – am I the only person who didn’t like the character of Mr. Darcy?

Okay, so I really liked this book – no, really I did. It’s just that…I think the movie was better. For instance the character of Miss Charming? She had a lot more character development in the movie than she did in the book. Martin’s character was kind of boring in the book, more interesting in the movie. The only thing I liked more in the book was the final scene with Mr. Nobely. I loved the fact that he jumped onto the plane and followed Jane home. It worked better than him showing up at her apartment the next day with her sketchbook that she left.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Good book, just a little boring in a few parts.

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