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shelfesteem's review
4.0
Originally posted at http://christianshelfesteem.wordpress.com.
Very rarely am I afforded the opportunity to read an entire novel in a day, but this past Friday I read Austen in Austin in it’s entirety in one sitting. This book released in January of this year, but before I could review it for you I felt like I needed to read all of the Jane Austen books on which these stories are loosely based. Having done so, I can say authors Welborn, Draper, Dietze, and Marvin pay proper homage to the original texts while making these stories their own.
Austen in Austin is one of the most well executed novellas I’ve read. Each story is set in Texas and together they span from 1882 to 1887. The social structure found in Austen’s novels correlates very well to the upper-crust society of the Texas Hill Country. All of the novellas are interrelated, so where one author leaves off another picks up months or years later, with a new lead character and a familiar cast. I enjoyed the continuity as well as the familiarity which this team of authors developed.
If I Loved You Less probably held the closest to Austen’s works. In contrast, Alarmingly Charming struck me as an improvement on the original (because truthfully, I did not enjoy reading Northanger Abbey). All in all, these stories are irresistibly sweet romances with subtle elements of faith.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Very rarely am I afforded the opportunity to read an entire novel in a day, but this past Friday I read Austen in Austin in it’s entirety in one sitting. This book released in January of this year, but before I could review it for you I felt like I needed to read all of the Jane Austen books on which these stories are loosely based. Having done so, I can say authors Welborn, Draper, Dietze, and Marvin pay proper homage to the original texts while making these stories their own.
Austen in Austin is one of the most well executed novellas I’ve read. Each story is set in Texas and together they span from 1882 to 1887. The social structure found in Austen’s novels correlates very well to the upper-crust society of the Texas Hill Country. All of the novellas are interrelated, so where one author leaves off another picks up months or years later, with a new lead character and a familiar cast. I enjoyed the continuity as well as the familiarity which this team of authors developed.
If I Loved You Less probably held the closest to Austen’s works. In contrast, Alarmingly Charming struck me as an improvement on the original (because truthfully, I did not enjoy reading Northanger Abbey). All in all, these stories are irresistibly sweet romances with subtle elements of faith.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
fiction_aficionado's review
4.0
Janeite though I am, I have tended to steer clear of Jane Austen sequels, rewrites, and the like, and was therefore a little nervous when I agreed to review this volume. Not only was I unfamiliar with any of the authors’ previous books (meaning I didn’t know what to expect from their writing), but I am not a big fan of novellas. I guess you could say these novellas had their work cut out for them where I was concerned! Imagine my relief, then, to find that they were pleasant diversions from my standard full-length reading fare.
Readers who are familiar with the original Austen novels will note that these stories do not simply teleport Austen’s characters into a new setting. Names have been altered (even if it is simply in spelling), secondary characters omitted or redefined, and while the primary characters and the conflicts remain recognisably Austen, the way in which each story develops has been re-imagined, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on which novella you are reading.
Of the four novellas on offer I will confess I enjoyed the third and fourth a bit more than the first two. The plots felt better developed, the writing was tighter and more engaging, and I enjoyed the way the story of Pride and Prejudice, in particular, was re-imagined. I am sure this collection will hold great appeal for Austen fans with an affinity for stories with a Western setting.
Each of these novellas can be read as a story in its own right, but as the stories are all set in or around the Jeannette C. Austen Academy for Young Ladies, the characters do make brief appearances in each other's novellas. For this reason, some may prefer to read the novellas in the order they appear in this volume.
I received a copy of this book from one of the authors in return for my honest review.
Readers who are familiar with the original Austen novels will note that these stories do not simply teleport Austen’s characters into a new setting. Names have been altered (even if it is simply in spelling), secondary characters omitted or redefined, and while the primary characters and the conflicts remain recognisably Austen, the way in which each story develops has been re-imagined, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on which novella you are reading.
Of the four novellas on offer I will confess I enjoyed the third and fourth a bit more than the first two. The plots felt better developed, the writing was tighter and more engaging, and I enjoyed the way the story of Pride and Prejudice, in particular, was re-imagined. I am sure this collection will hold great appeal for Austen fans with an affinity for stories with a Western setting.
Each of these novellas can be read as a story in its own right, but as the stories are all set in or around the Jeannette C. Austen Academy for Young Ladies, the characters do make brief appearances in each other's novellas. For this reason, some may prefer to read the novellas in the order they appear in this volume.
I received a copy of this book from one of the authors in return for my honest review.
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