Emma of 83rd Street Book Review

I have a complicated relationship with Emma Woodhouse. As much as I laugh and can see where she goes wrong, I can’t relate to her as I do with other Austen heroines. As good-hearted as she is, she can also be a snob.

Emma of 83rd Street, by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding, was published last year. It is the first book in the For the Love of Austen series. Like her regency counterpart, this modern Emma has grown up with a comfortable life. She lives with her widowed father in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and is in her final year of grad school.

After matching her sister with Ben Knightley, Emma is bored. The house feels empty now that Margo is married and has moved downtown. A new challenge comes in the form of Nadine Pittman. Nadine and Emma are classmates. A transplant from Ohio, she is naive and wide-eyed.

Emma’s next-door neighbor and brother-in-law by marriage, George Knightley seems to take pleasure in pointing out her faults. He knows that she is smart and can do anything once she puts her mind to it. But he is concerned that she is more concerned with frivolous pursuits. Knightley also notices that Emma is now a woman with whom he is developing an un-ignorable attraction.

I loved this book. It is one of the best modern Austen adaptations that I have read in a long time. It was charming, funny, and adorable. It is the perfect mix of the original text and the contemporary world that we inhabit. It also helped that the book was set in NYC. I was easily able to identify some of the locations from within the narrative.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely.

Emma of 83rd Street is available wherever books are sold.

I Could Read Jane Austen All Day and Be Perfectly Happy

What book could you read over and over again?

Author. Satirist. Protofemist. Icon. Inspiration. Romantic. All around badass.

Much Ado About Nada Book Review

Love is not easy. It requires sacrifices, hard decisions, and truths that may be hard to hear.

Much Ado About Nada, by Uzma Jalauddin, was published last year. Nada is at a crossroads. At 28, she is working in a day job that provides a good income. But it is not what she wants to do for the rest of her life. Her lifestyle app failed and she is shockingly single.

Coerced by her best friend to attend the annual Muslim conference in Toronto, Nada runs into her past via Baz. He is her friend’s soon-to-be brother-in-law. Their reunion creates both sparks and opens the door to questions about a shared past.

Nada has two choices. She can either stay where she is or do what needs to be done to move on.

I loved this book. I was hooked from nearly the word go. I wanted Nada and Baz to get together so badly that I didn’t want to put it down.

This is not only my new favorite book of this author, but it is one of my favorite Jane Austen fanfictions. Jalaluddin expertly combines Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Much Ado About Nothing. My favorite aspect was the mouthdrop twist I did not see coming. It was the perfect homage to Persuasion while remaining true to Jalaluddin’s narrative.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely. The fact that I am still thinking about days after I finished the novel says everything.

Much Ado About Nada is available wherever books are sold.

Happy Birthday Jane Austen

Here to the wit and wisdom of Jane Austen. May your work last forever.

Jane Austen Oscars

Hello readers! You are about to witness the virtual Jane Austen Oscars awards ceremony. The winners have been selected by a well-qualified committee, which consists of the owner of this blog and her friend Molly. The committee does not have the funds to support the cash prizes, so they are forcing the losers to pay […]

Jane Austen Oscars

Maid of Dishonor Book Review

Falling in love with your best friend is complicated. As much as you know this person, you also know that there is a chance that your friendship may not last.

Maid of Dishonor (the first in the Love Mishaps series), by Gracie Ruth Mitchell, was published in 2021. Samantha Quinn and Carter Ellis have been best friends for as long as they can remember. Neither knows that one is in love with the other. While doing everything they can to prevent Carter’s cousin from marrying for the wrong reasons, their unspoken feelings rise to the surface.

Both Samantha and Carter have emotional scars that are preventing them from revealing their feelings. They can either pretend that nothing has changed or take the plunge, not knowing what their future holds.

I loved this book. It has all of the elements of the genre. But it is neither completely predictable nor boring. The chemistry between Samantha and Carter sizzles. They have a perfect Emma Woodhouse and George Knightly-style relationship that quickly drew me in and held me until the last page.

My only issue is the low point in the story could have been extended a bit more.

Do I recommend it?

Absolutely. Maid of Dishonor is available wherever books are sold.

Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy.

Amanda Book Review

Emma Woodhouse, the eponymous title character of Jane Austen‘s novel Emma, is not exactly the most likable character when we first meet her. She has a good heart, but does not always have the ability to read the room.

Amanda (published in 2006), by Debra White Smith, is the 5th book in the Jane Austen Series. Set in Australia, Amanda has taken over the leadership of the family business. But that does not mean, however, she spends all day working. After disapproving of her assistant’s boyfriend, she tries to set Haley up with someone else. This sets off a series of romantic disasters that force her to re-evaluate her perspective.

Amanda is also determined to remain single. That plan goes awry with an attraction to Nathaniel, a friend of the family. When Haley sets her eyes on Nathaniel, Amanda starts to question her decisions.

I wanted to like this book. But I didn’t. It was hard to read and it felt like a surface retelling of Emma. It was also missing a key scene from her character arc that makes the narrative.

Do I recommend it? No.

Amanda is available wherever books are sold.

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen

Anyone who knows me (or has read this blog regularly), knows that I am Janeite. In layman’s terms, I am a Jane Austen fangirl. Her books are a huge part of my world.

Today is Austen’s birthday. One of the many things I admire her for is her writing. She had the unique ability to blend satire, romance, and societal criticism in such a way that it takes multiple reads to recognize how perfectly these elements are intertwined.

The focus of yesterday’s episode of The Thing About Austen podcast (which I highly recommend) is Robert Ferrars, the younger brother of Edward Ferrars (Sense and Sensibility). I won’t give the conversation away (which is why I recommend that you listen to it). But what I will say is that her ability to give the reader just enough detail about the character without under or overexplaining is a skill that many writers are unable to accomplish.

Wherever you are Jane, thank you for everything. Our world would not be the same without you.

Thoughts On the Persuasion Trailer

If I were to rank Jane Austen‘s novels, Persuasion would be on the top of my list. This story of second chances is one that over 200 years later still hits readers in the heart and sends a few tears down our cheeks.

The trailer for the newest adaptation of the book was released earlier this week.

The film stars Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot, Cosmo Jarvis as Captain Frederick Wentworth, and Henry Golding as Mr. Elliot. For those unaware, the plot is as follows: eight years before the book starts Anne Elliott and Frederick Wentworth were young, in love, and newly engaged. She was persuaded to end their relationship due to his lack of status and income. Cut to the present and Anne is still single, still hurting from her decision. Wentworth is back in her life. He is a war hero, wealthy, and considered to be a catch. He is also still bitter from their breakup.

I would love to say that I am jumping for joy, but I have a few reservations. I am going to try to keep my concerns at bay because this is only the trailer. Trailers don’t always match up with the full movie.

1. The dialogue in the scenes that we see so far seems to be loosely taken from the original text. Maybe it’s the Janeite in me, but I would prefer the wording to be as it is in the novel. To paraphrase her brilliant writing (especially in a reboot set in the Regency era) could be seen as a shanda (disgrace).
2. The casting of Dakota Johnson as Anne. I have nothing against Johnson. I have a bias against American actors playing lead characters in Austen adaptations. It goes back to the casting of Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1996 Emma. Her portrayal of the character rubbed me the wrong way. But who knows, maybe Johnson will prove me wrong.
3. Her hair should not be down unless it is either the beginning or the end of the day. Only young girls wore their hair loose. By the time they got to their mid to late teens, their hair was up. On a side note, that was my only beef with Sanditon. Charlotte Heywood’s (Rose Williams) hair should have been up.
4. It comes off a little too rom-com-like. I like a romantic comedy as much as the next person, but Persuasion is not and has never been one. To turn this story into a rom-com is a double shanda and sure to turn off the fanbase.

On the upside, we see the early romance between Anne and Frederick. In previous film versions, the audience is only told about this experience.

That being said, I am willing to have an open mind and not condemn the film before it is released.

Persuasion will drop on Netflix on July 15th.

Clueless Character Review: Christian Stovitz

*The schedule for the Character Review posts will be changing to Friday (or Saturday the latest from now on).

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the movie Clueless. Read at your own risk if you have not seen the movie. There is something to be said about a well-written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations. Love sometimes makes us believe what we want to believe, regardless of how far from the truth it is. It is up to us to decide if we are devastated from the truth, or accept it and move on.

In Clueless, Christian Stovitz (Justin Walker) enters the scene, Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) is intrigued. Due to his parent’s divorce, Christian spends one half the year with one parent and the other half of the year with another parent. She immediately sets her romantic sights on him, but her attempts to claim him for herself ultimately fail. Like his literary predecessor, Frank Churchill, he is elusive, but in a different manner.

When her friends tell her that Christian is gay, Cher does not believe it. When they hang out at her house, he prefers to watch a movie than sleep with her. He is oblivious to her unsuccessful attempts to seduce him. Ultimately, they remain friends due to her appreciation of his love of art and fashion.

To sum it up: Not every love interest is going to walk into the sunset with the main character. Sometimes they are better off as friends. opening the door to not only growth for both characters, but for each to find a partner that can make them happy. Christian stands out because his relationship with Cher leads to her ending up with her step-brother, Josh Lucas (Paul Rudd).

P.S. Back in the 1990’s, the idea of members of the LGBTQ community being visible and open with the world was only beginning to find acceptance. Though Christian is just one character, his mere presence in this film is a significant one in the long and hard march towards equality.

This will be the last character post for Clueless. Come back next week to find out the next group of characters I will be reviewing.