Sanditon Book Review

When someone dies young, there are questions of what this person might have accomplished had they lived longer.

When Jane Austen died in 1817 at the age of 41, she left behind grieving family members, six completed novels and fragments of other novels. One of these fragments is Sanditon. Where Jane Austen left off, write Kate Riordan stepped in to complete the story.

Charlotte Heywood is a young woman who has never traveled far from home. Her fate changes when the carriage carrying Tom and Mary Parker turns over. After their carriage is repaired, Charlotte travels with Mr. and Mrs. Parker to the small seaside village of Sanditon. Tom’s goal is to turn this sleepy seaside village into the must-see vacation spot. Charlotte’s world expands in multiple ways, especially when she meets Tom’s brother Sidney.

Jane Austen is one of those writers who is often imitated, but never properly duplicated. Ms. Riordan was able to perfectly match Austen’s tone, dialogue, voice and narrative in such a way that I was not sure where Austen ended and Ms. Riordan began.

Among those of us who know and love her novels, we know that Austen is subversive when it comes to her opinion of the world around her. In this book, her opinion is in your face. Unlike other unmarried young people, Charlotte’s reason for traveling to Sanditon is not to find a wealthy spouse. It is to see the world and expand her horizons. She also included her first character of color. Georgiana Lambe is a bi-racial heiress who is fighting for her own identity and her own choices in a world that would deny her both.

I absolutely recommend it.

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