Review - - Jane in Love

 

Jane in Love

by Rachel Givney

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Release Date: October 27, 2020

Reviewed by Hellie

 

 

A charming, romantic debut novel in which Jane Austen, heralded author, ends up time-traveling almost 200 years in the future. There she finds the love she's written about and the destiny she's dreamed of...but is it worth her legacy?

Bath, England, 1803. At 28, Jane Austen prefers walking and reading to balls and assemblies; she dreams of someday publishing her carefully crafted stories. Already on the shelf and in grave danger of becoming a spinster, Jane goes searching for a radical solution—and as a result, seemingly by accident, time-travels. She lands in...

Bath, England, present day. The film set of Northanger Abbey. Sofia Wentworth is a Hollywood actress starring in a new period film, an attempt to reinvent her flagging career and, secretly, an attempt to reinvent her failing marriage. When Sofia meets Jane, she marvels at the young actress who can’t seem to "break character," even off set. And Jane—acquainting herself with the horseless steel carriages and seriously shocking fashion of the twenty-first century— meets Sofia, a woman unlike anyone she’s ever met before. Then she meets Fred, Sofia’s brother, who has the audacity to be handsome, clever, and kind-hearted.

What happens when Jane, against her better judgement, falls in love with Fred? And when Sofia learns the truth about her new friend Jane? And worst of all, if Jane stays with Fred, will she ever achieve her dream, the one she's now seen come true?

 

Hellie’s Heeds: 

I confess I started writing this review before I even finished the book. I also confess I committed the egregiously grave sin of reading the last pages to make sure the ending would be satisfactory. I confess the last time I loved a book so much that I was telling everyone about it and insisting they read it before I was even a third of the way finished, it was the book written by the author who is featured recommending this book on the cover, Graeme Simsion, who wrote The Rosie Project. I confess myself utterly charmed from beginning to end with this story, which when one dives into the world of Jane Austen spin-offs, they are a bit like wish-fulfillments of what we wished had happened. In this regard, this love letter to Jane Austen the author is the kind of wish fulfillment I can get behind. While by no means is “finding a man” the be-all and end-all of happiness, for the author who gave us six near perfect love stories, we do wish she had been able to find that sort of happiness for herself too. In this book, she does (to an extent) and it is as witty and delicious and comical as if Jane had composed it herself.  

I enjoy a good time travel romance--tropes ebb and flow in popularity and I do hope to see more time travel in my future reads--and Jane Austen makes the perfect fish out of water in modern day Bath and London. The author does not make Jane Austen a modern heroine--she is quite in keeping with her time period and social mores, which I appreciated more than I can put into words. The modern characters, Sofia Wentworth and Fred Wentworth are delightful, the former an aging movie star wanting to win her husband back (or does she really? I mean, he’s a real asshat in my book) and the latter a history teacher who thinks this Jane Austen wannabe is taking advantage of his dear sister. We also have this handsome librarian who is very helpful and not at all an asshat who I think deserves his own happy ending.  

Urgency commences when Jane’s books start disappearing from modern time (first Persuasion, then Sense & Sensibility? Oh my! My favorite Alan Rickman movie erased for all time? Jane MUST return!) and Jane is unable to figure out how to reverse the spell to get back to her own time. Further complicating her issues is the fact she is falling more and more in love with Fred. A choice between love in a future (that may or may not exist the longer she stays and things keep disappearing) or returning to her own time and becoming the woman we all know and love? A very modern dilemma: career or love? Still...I think Ms. Givney does an excellent job of giving us both, really, and giving us the wish fulfillment we all dreamed for Jane Austen. I think Jane may even give her own nod of approval from The Other Side, or at least enjoy the social critiques similar to her own for the modern era.  

For me, this is a 5 star, Top Dish, and definitely going on my Keeper Shelf (next to The Rosie Project, incidentally.) That said, those who are purists when it comes to romance will be left a bit cold at this story because when taken at its parts, this is much more a women’s fiction/fantasy than romance (i.e. the guy always gets the girl, the story is primarily about the two getting together and overcoming their hurdles), but I quite enjoyed the feminist themes and didn’t mind that the romance was rather secondary. Or that the more engaging romance wasn’t even between the “primary” characters--since some of the other characters seemed to have better romance trajectories. I know some may take issue with the implication that this book is suggesting women can’t have it all, that the story is forcing a choice that doesn’t have to be made. Haven’t we grown up with “Women can have it all”? We can--at least eventually, I say--but I would also say we can’t have it all at the same time. And still...as women, we know when we’re juggling so many tasks, some things have to be let go, and usually the easiest ones of those to drop are those things we do for ourselves, like writing or making art...and I think that is a conundrum explored in this book. Besides, I think those who are successful at juggling all the tasks do have spouses in their lives who support them in honoring that part of their lives, help them create the space for it, and if you do find someone who loves you enough to get out of your way and let you do what you love, isn’t that the real thing? Isn’t that the true love we all hope for ourselves? I think that is the moral of the story in the end.

 

Review - - Scandalous Scot

Scandalous Scot
by Cecilia Mecca and Julie Johnstone
Highlanders Through Time - Book 4
Publisher: Altiora Press
Release Date: May 19, 2020
Reviewed by PJ
  

Ian McCaim is used to following in his brother’s footsteps—even if it takes him to medieval Scotland. When he finally completes the time travel ritual, the magic lands him next to Hightower Castle and his big brother, Greyson, is there to greet him. As soon as the rest of the family returns to Hightower, the McCaims can finally go home, but in the meantime, Greyson has a task for Ian: charm the man whose son is fated to play a pivotal role in the Scottish War of Independence. An easy task—or at least it would be if Ian were capable of behaving himself.

After a lifetime of having endured stares, Màiri Kelbrue is used to being looked at—the strange mark on her cheek ensures it. So when the handsome man she encounters near her father’s loch gawks at her, she assumes the worst. Until he kisses her. The passion she feels for the stranger stuns her—she’d thought to marry her childhood friend, but never once did he make her feel like this. And then the unimaginable happens—when the stranger escorts her home, he tells her very religious father exactly what happened between them.

Within a sennight, Ian and Màiri are rushed to the altar. Ian plans to return to the future sooner rather than later, but the bride he didn’t ask for soon becomes the only thing he wants. What will he do when it’s time to go home?

PJ's Thoughts:

I have thoroughly enjoyed this four-book journey through time brought to readers by authors Cecilia Mecca and Julie Johnstone. Both Mecca and Johnstone have a gift for immersing readers into medieval Scotland with a seamless blend of fact and fiction, intermingling real people with characters of their own creation, and giving readers a breath-stealing and realistic reading experience.

Book four, Scandalous Scot, brings us the story of youngest McCaim brother, Ian, as well as the conclusion of the series. Like his older brothers before him, Ian has time traveled back to medieval Scotland in an attempt to locate his missing mother, reunite with his brothers, and bring his family back to present-day New Orleans. And, also like his brothers before him, a medieval woman has added a detour to his journey.

This book was a bit different from the others in that it not only tells Ian's individual story but also wraps up the series. I enjoyed Ian's growth throughout his journey. He's probably the most emotionally transparent of the brothers, struggling to find his place without disappointing his parents or siblings. I enjoyed his interactions with his brothers and watching him come into his own, though he sure took his good sweet time to do it. And, I really enjoyed the culmination of the brothers' journey and the resolution of their mother's disappearance, along with the final outcome of their father's health crisis. The ending had tears of happiness flowing and me reaching for tissues. Many tissues.

What I wanted more of in this book was Ian's and Mairi's romantic journey. I liked Mairi a lot. She's a sympathetic character with difficult decisions to make and my heart ached for her. I enjoyed how her relationship with her new sister-in-law helps her gain confidence in herself and I cheered for her to find her happy ending. What I had a bit of difficulty with was her relationship with Ian. These two find themselves married at lightning speed, within a few days of first meeting, in a marriage neither wants. They are literal strangers, and not only because they're from different centuries. They need time together to learn about one another, for feelings to develop. And I needed that time to believe in them. There's so much going on within this book in regards to family matters (which I loved) that at times it feels like their romance gets pushed to the back burner. I needed more attention given to these two, more of them together on the page, more development of their relationship, and more depth of emotion. Because of that, while I enjoyed their happily ever after I wasn't as fully invested in them as I was in the other three couples in the series. Others may feel differently.

While I may have wanted more in regards to the romantic relationship in this final book, the overall journey and conclusion to the McCaim family saga checked my happy boxes and left me a very satisfied reader. I enthusiastically recommend Cecilia Mecca's and Julie Johnstone's time-traveling McCaim brothers - Highlanders Through Time. 

Guest Review - - Overseas

Overseas

By Beatriz Williams

Publisher: Putnam Adult

Release Date: May 10, 2012

Kate Wilson is a nice girl from Wisconsin whose intelligence and ambition land her a job as an investment banker with Sterling Bates, a Wall Street firm. But Kate is too nice for the knife-in-the-back, eat-’em-alive operating policy of some of her colleagues. She’s not at all the sort of woman anyone, including Kate, expects to attract the attention of hedge fund genius Julian Laurence, who is not only wealthy beyond belief but also charming, handsome, and honorable. It’s not surprising that Kate should be flattered by Laurence’s interest and find the British billionaire appealing, but there’s something mysterious about the connection between them, a connection that has her thinking of a lifetime with the “beautiful, brilliant, leonine Julian.”

When Kate is the victim of a setup that results in her being fired from Sterling Bates, Julian offers her sanctuary at his secluded country home. In the idyllic intimacy of that setting, she falls more deeply in love with the mysterious Julian. Questions nag her, but nothing could have prepared her for the disclosure that Julian Laurence is Captain the Honorable Julian Laurence Spencer Ashford, a famous poet and viscount’s heir, who died in France during a night patrol in March 1916. The whys and hows of Julian’s second life and his connection to Kate are revealed as the story and its characters move between Amiens, France, during World War I and Manhattan in 2007-2008. Regardless of the mystery and the danger that threaten their happiness, both Kate and Julian know that they are meant to be together. As Kate concludes, “What had been enigma resolved into clarity, into the keen marrow-deep certainty that I existed to give Julian Ashford’s uprooted soul a home in this modern world. That his happiness had been placed between my palms, a divine mysterious charge. That he was mine. That I was his.”

Beatriz Williams’s debut novel is romantic in the sense that the love shared between Kate and Julian is its focus and in the sense that the story requires a willing suspension of disbelief to accept its imaginatively constructed world. The reader who can suspend disbelief will find herself caught up in a world where love conquers all obstacles including time and space. Kate is a sympathetic character, caught up in a situation she can’t fully understand, fathoms deep in love, and fighting to hold on to her own identity. The last quality lends a note of realism to the fantastical and creates conflict between Kate and Julian. He is from a different world, and it isn’t easy for him to understand Kate’s need to be more than his beloved. One of my favorite moments occurs when Kate explains herself to Julian: “I never wanted to be Cinderella. Never wanted to be that girl, the one looking for a rich guy to drape her with diamonds. I always wanted to make it on my own, and it scares me that . . . from the moment I met you, I felt this . . . this connection.”

Julian is a hero who not only possesses wealth, looks, intelligence, honor, courage, and so on endlessly but who also wrote a love poem about which students, including Kate, write essays. His need to protect Kate and to make decisions without consulting her keep him from being too perfect to believe. Williams says in her acknowledgements that Julian is a composite character with a “dollop” of Rupert Brooke. But it was Brooke that I thought of throughout the book. Just a week or so before I read Overseas, I commented to a friend that the idealistic Brooke, whom poet W. B. Yeats reputedly described as “the handsomest young man in England,” would make a wonderful model for a romance hero. I felt as if Julian were a gift in response. I loved him. I loved the book. If you are a romantic who believes that love can be eternal, I predict you’ll love it too. My only complaint is that I really wanted to read the full poem that gives the book its title. A few lines just weren’t enough for this romantic. I don’t think I’ve ever before recommended a time travel romance (not even Gabaldon, whose books I couldn’t read—sacrilege, I know), but I definitely recommend this one.

~Janga

Review - - Lord of the Isles

LORD OF THE ISLES
By Debbie Mazzuca
Publisher: Kensington Zebra
Release Date: April 6, 2010

I was excited when I heard about the upcoming release of Lord of the Isles by debut author Debbie Mazzuca. Containing three elements that always draw me to a story - time travel, fairy magic and Scottish highlanders – I couldn’t wait to start reading. I’m happy to say that Ms. Mazzuca’s story more than met my expectations.

Traveling to Scotland on business, Dr. Aileanna (Ali) Graham is mistakenly taken to Dunvegan Castle instead of Dunvegan Hotel. Stunned by Ali’s resemblance to the portrait of Brianna MacLeod, wife of a sixteenth century laird of Dunvegan, Rory MacLeod, the castle’s caretaker offers her a tour of the castle and a chance to rest a bit in the laird’s bedchamber. Exhausted from travel, Ali gratefully accepts and drifts to sleep dreaming of the handsome sixteenth century laird from the portrait gallery. The last thing she expects is to awaken in that very man’s arms!

Suffering from severe battlefield wounds and still grieving the death of his wife two years earlier, Rory MacLeod thinks he’s dreaming when he awakens to find a beautiful woman in his bed. He soon realizes that it’s not his beloved Bree, but a woman he’s never seen before although one to whom he is powerfully attracted. He has no idea that his well-meaning brother, housekeeper and good friend have used the MacLeod’s magic fairy flag to call her from the future to save his life.

     It was too much, and Ali didn’t plan on listening to any more of it, not without defending herself. With a closed fist, she whacked at the men’s feet. “Get out of my way,” she said, dragging herself from under the bed.
     Two men dressed in old-fashioned attire – fitted suede pants tucked into their boots and white linen shirts – backed away from her with their mouths agape. The older one was tall and had a powerful build, his dark red hair threaded with silver, his brown eyes wide as he stared at her. The other man was much younger, his hair a golden brown, almost as handsome as the man from her dreams. He opened and closed his mouth, his gaze swiveling from Ali to his companion.
     Hands on her hips, she turned to confront the man in the bed. “I didn’t try to kill you…you big jerk, and what the hell were you doing in my bed in the…”
     The rest of the question died on her lips. It was him – Rory MacLeod – the man in the portrait. She rubbed her eyes, but nothing changed. He was still there, in all his glorious perfection – except he was bleeding. A circle of crimson spread over the thick white linens pressed to his side.
     “You’re hurt,” she gasped.

Unfortunately, the fairy flag can only be used three times and it’s already been used twice so, understandably, the three well-meaning conspirators are not willing to defy their laird by using the final wish to send Ali back to where she came from. In fact, the longer she’s there the more they’re convinced that the fairies didn’t just send her to save Rory’s life, but that she was sent back in time for Rory. Now all they have to do is convince a man who isn’t willing to risk heartbreak a second time and a woman who is determined to return to the 21st century that they’re meant for each other, for all time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining “fish out of water” tale. The story moves along quickly, with delightful dialogue written in an authentic sounding Scottish brogue and snappy banter between Rory and Ali.

     His laugh was low and husky. “That brings back a memory of the first time you were in my bed, mo chridhe.”
     Irritation penetrated the passion-filled haze that engulfed her. When she glared at him, he laughed harder. “If you were any kind of gentleman, Rory MacLeod, you wouldn’t remind me of that night, especially since you now know how it came about.”
     “Aileanna, have I no’ told you I’m no gentleman when it comes to you. And I’m thinkin’ I should thank the fairies fer deliverin’ you to me naked.”

With an engaging cast of characters, this book has a likeable hero and heroine I could cheer for and secondary characters that add humor and emotion while keeping the story moving forward. I especially enjoyed the housekeeper, Mrs. Mac, who fits nicely into the role of determined fairy godmother, guiding her Cinderella (Ali) into the arms of her Scottish warrior "Prince Charming" and Alisdair MacDonald, Brianna's father, who plays an unexpected role in bringing Ali and Rory together.   His introduction to Ali is just one of the twists and turns that kept surprising me throughout the book.

If you like strong, sexy highlanders and feisty heroines in a fast-paced medieval adventure that holds your attention from cover to cover, curl up with a copy of Debbie Mazzuca’s delightful debut, Lord of the Isles.

~PJ