A review by littlecitycorner
Jane Austen Lied to Me by Jeanette Watts

Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

funny hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

 

I was so excited about this book after meeting Jeannette at a book fair (she’s absolutely lovely) but I couldn’t even finish it. 

I love the idea of Austen retelling and taking different elements of her stories and modernizing them, but I didn’t enjoy the way it was done in this book. It felt like a caricature of romantic love and what falling or having a crush feels like. The story is so focused on telling (and not showing, which was the first mistake) the tropes and how they go wrong, that it fails to develop any character substantially or with any engaging element. That, coupled with the fact that the main character talks and thinks that she should be in middle school instead of college, makes the novel fall short of what it promises to be.