The plot, the characters, the setting … all well-developed and original. It makes you a little crazy (KNIGHTLEY GUYS KNIGHTLEY!!! THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH EVERY AUSTEN HERO BUT KNIGHTLEY!!!!!!!!), but not a lesser human being. Darcy does not make you a lesser human being, as Jane seems to think. Then I found the writing a bit immature, and the romance was just a wee bit cheesy at times.

It wasn’t awful (it was better than the very worst Gilmore Girls episode, for my mom’s sake), but it was still there. It was a great book, but there were also a couple things that were not so good. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.ĭecked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Mentions of adultery, and it’s hinted that several of the stayers at the result (they’re all female) have husbands. Never says what that is or goes into more detail about it. There were also three mentions of gay people. I just remember one or two words. A little sexual content – mostly in form of mentioning stuff that could be taken inappropriately, a little innuendo, and then kissing (not extremely detailed). Some cussing, but extremely rare … and unnecessary in my opinion. It’s been a while, so I don’t remember exactly.

Austenland by Shannon Hale