Persuasion by Jane Austen

I read this book as apart of the Everything Jane Austen challenge hosted by the wonderful Stephanie. :)

Background: I bought my copy of Persuasion after watching the Lake House. Sandra Bullock talks about her dad gave it to her, and if I remember the movie correctly plays a big part in helping the two know where the other has been. It sat untouched on my bookshelf until I read a Jane Austen themed book for the Everything Jane Austen Challenge that was supposed to be based on Persuasion and I thought that if I read it would help me like and understand the book better. (All it did however, was make me realize what a poor imitation the book was of the original version.)

Plot: Anne Elliot is the youngest of three sisters and her father is a very old school aristocrat. He and her middle sister, think only of themselves. When Anne is young she meets and falls in love with Frederick Wentworth. Those around her-including her closest friend, Lady Russell, deem that he is unworthy for the daughter of a baronet. Anne is heartbroken, but follows the wishes of others instead of her heart.

Eight years later fortunes are reversed. Anne's father has lost everything, and they are forced to rent out their house. As luck would have it, the people who rent it are relatives of one Frederick Wentworth who is now a naval captain. Anne's father rents a house in bath, but Anne is invited to help out her eldest sister, and crosses paths again with Captain Wentworth. Thus begins an attempt to repair their past relationships...others try to persuade them in other directions, but will Anne be persuaded by others again or follow her heart?




My review: It did take me awhile to get into the book, but once I did I fell in love with the book. I loved everything about it! After reading so many books that were only 2 star worthy, I finally found a romance I could love. I'm not sure why I could relate so much to the character: maybe it's because I'm the oldest of three sisters and could relate to the different sisterly squabbles and intentions. Or maybe it's because I have many well intentioned interfering friends and family, but I loved every minute of this book. I'm now going to have see the BBC movie.

Austenland by Shannon Hale

This is apart of the Everything Jane Austen Challenge hosted by Stephanie at Stephanie's Written Word.

The Plot:

Jane Hayes is a New Yorker who is in love with Colin Firth and he's ruining her love life. She isn't in love with Colin Firth the actor though..she's in love with his portayal of Mr. Darcy. None of her crappy boyfriends can live up to his standards. Her mom comes to visit her in New York, and she has lunch with her Great Aunt Carolyn who happens to be rich. She discovers her hidden copy of the BBC Production of Pride and Prejudice hidden in one of her plants. She tells Jane that she needs to get her life together and to "figure out what is real for her." Because everyone knows what happens if she doesn't: She'll wind up a spinster like Jane Austen did.

When her Aunt dies, she leaves something in her will for Jane. It's not money like her mom had hoped, but an all expenses paid vacation to Austenland...it's a Jane Austen like world. People dress and act like they are living in the days of Jane Austen. Everyone has to play a part.

Upon arriving all of Jane's modern things are taken away from her, and she is given the last name "erstwhile." Once there she meets Miss Charming a 50 something women who says weird things like: "what-what." in attempt, I guess when at a loss to speak like they would in the days of Jane Austen. This bothered me so much that the character grated on my last nerve. There is also the perfect Miss Heartwright. Then there are the men: Captain East, Colonel Andrews and Mr. Nobley.

Jane however breaks the rules and speaks to the hired help-a gardner. Once she meets him, she finds it hard to throw herself back into the regency role she's playing...could Jane possibly meet her own Mr. Darcy??




My review: I think that I've discovered what bothers me about Jane Austen themed books. (at least the ones I've read) All of the heroines blame their poor choice of boyfriends or lack their of on Mr. Darcy. They spend most of the book saying "woe is me" and by the time they realize that their mistakes are their own and Mr. Darcy and Jane Austen are not to blame, it's too late to save them and turn them into self assured women in my eyes.

One of the things that I enjoyed about this book was that we learned about Jane's past failed relationships through flashbacks. I enjoyed them, until I reached one chapter which had her age at 35 or possibly 40 as it said in the book (this was on page 79) which confused me as in the review I read on Amazon the character is supposed to be 33. Other chapters also have boyfriends at aged 38..I guess this shouldn't bother me as much as it did.

Another thing that bothered me was how shocked Jane continusely seemed to be when she would find the actors playing Colonel Andrews or the aunt at Austenland (Aunt Saffronia) doing things out of character when she would happen on them when they weren't acting. Hello! This is a role-playing place-they aren't really who they say they are!

This was yet another book where a couple gets together at the last minute. I suppose it isn't Shannon Hale's fault that this is the second book that I have read had their characters fall in love in the last 10 pages of the book...

I read where Shannon Hale was a Children's author before this book and in Amazon's review they had this listed for readers high school/adult aged. I guess as a YA book this would be a cute book-but why have the heroine so old if it's for YA? I guess I'm just not meant to like Jane Austen themed books.

I'm almost afraid to read "What would Jane Austen Do?"

Yikes! Just realized I never wrote my review for Persuasion! Off to correct that now!

Teaser Tuesday

This is hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading. Here's how it works:
Grab your current read and let it fall open to a random page. Post two (or more) sentences from that page, along with the title and author. Don’t give anything vital away!

I am reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield:




Pg. 273 (hardback version)

Later. Many hours later. The funeral over, at last I could cry. Except that I couldn't. My tears, kept in too long, had fossilized. They would have to stay in forever now.

Take A Chance Challenge: Prom Dates From Hell

I read this book for the Take a Chance Challenge. I have a confession to make: Instead of doing the challenge in order, I cheated I started with #4 Judge A Book By It's Cover. This was actually harder then it seemed. I hadn't realized how many blah book covers there were out there. Of course, it could've been because I did this part of the contest at my local library. The selection books isn't the best in the world. (I so miss the public library in Phoenix. The branch I had actually had tons of new releases instead of just an endcap.) I also realized when I made my Mr.Linky for the post I still had info from my last challenge in there. :sigh: It's just been one of those days.

While I was searching for a cover to stand out to me in the fiction section, I happened to glance over to my right. It was a section I normally ignore-Young Adult. This cover practically jumped off the shelf at me:




With a title of Prom Dates from Hell how could I possibly pass this book up? Who hasn't had a prom date from hell? It's been over 20 years and I still remember my prom date from hell. (He ate with his mouth open!)

In this case though, Maggie Quinn really must save everyone from demons from hell that have been unleashed on the popular snotty clique known as the Jocks and Jessica. Maggie is your typical high school senior. She doesn't want to go the prom, and does her own thing. That is until she is forced to deal with the second sight that runs in her dad's family. Her dad doesn't have the gift because he's well, a guy...her mother doesn't understand it and tends to freak out over Maggie's dreams-which sometimes come true, so she's tried to fight this gift.

It isn't until strange events start happening at Avalon High after the Jocks and Jessicas (I love that name for a clique!) pick on poor geekish Stanley Dozer. One by one each of the Jessicas (there are three Jessicas, known by their nicknames: Jessica Prime, Jessica Minor and Thesipca) The Jocks are: Brandon, Brian and honestly, I forget the third jocks name, but you get the point.

One of the things that I loved about this book was in the process of solving how to stop the demon and figuring what exactly was causing the accidents, there are a ton of pop culture references to things like Nancy Drew, Brenda Star and Ghostbusters. In trying to figure out how and what was causing the demon to cause the Jocks/Jessicas to drop like flies, Maggie enlists the help of one her dad's college students Justin, and somehow finds Brian of the Jocks liking her and trying to separate himself from the Jocks/Jessicas group.

I don't want to ruin the ending, so I'll just say it's cute, and I'm very tempted to read the sequel to this book called Hell Week. The author Rosemery Clements-Moore did a great job describing the angst of high school. This book has been described as a cross between Buffy and Veronica Mars and I have to agree! If you like YA books, then you must give this one a try!!

Another thing that I liked about this book was that it had a strong female character who wasn't afraid to be herself. It also took a pretty honest approach to life in high school. Sure there were touches of "that could never happen in real life" but all in all it was just an enjoyable read. This was a nice change of pace from the romances I've been reading.

Kreativ Blogger Award

My first blogging award!!! Thank you Velvet at vvb32 reads for giving me this award!

The rules state that:

Once you receive this award you are to list seven of your favorite things and then nominate seven other blogs. I have nominated blogs that I am falling in love with day by day!

Some of my favorite things:

1. The most spoiled dog and cat ever: Cleo and Bella (Cleo is my favorite of the two & lets everyone know it.)

2. Reading

3. Coca Cola

4. Torchwood (I'm totally in love with the series!)

5. Popcorn

6. Job hunting for others (I've only actually been successful twice.)

7. Blogging :)

I'm horrible at commenting as much as I should, but here are some of my Favorite blogs:

1. Heidenkind-It's because of her that I discovered the world of reading challenges and book review blogs. She also reads as much as I do-if not more! She also helped to renew my interest in book reviewing.

2. Smexy Books- I love finding blogs where they love romances as much as I do!

3. Tea On Tap- This wonderful blog has interviews, thoughtful insights and so much more! If you love tea, you have to check out Tea on Tap!

4. Thus Speaks A Bookworm-At Pemberly is a fellow Everything Jane Austen particpant. I'm enjoying reading her reviews!

5. Oh Addy! She hasn't updated in awhile, but has wonderful pictures up of Spain!

6. Lustyreader- I found her through Twitter. She reads just about everything like I do. I'm enjoying getting to know her better.

7. Fantasy Dreamer's Ramblings- Another reviewer I found through Twitter. She writes wonderful paranormal/fantasy romance reviews.

Other blogs I really enjoy reading:

VV32 Reads

The Written Word

Books and Bard

One Literature Nut

The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Jenn's Bookshelf

The Book Zombie

Jane Austen Ruined My Life

Or how I wasted a few days of reading this book when I could have been reading better stuff. I wanted to write this review while my emotions were still raw from reading this drivel. It's very rare that I find a book that I find a book as annoying as I did this one. I know I'm in the minority, but I really didn't like this book.

The last book I found this annoying was Eat, Pray and Love by Elizabeth Gilbert-and after many near tosses across the room, I gave that book up. It's still sitting on my bookshelf, but I'm not sure I'll be able to read it.

Jane Austen Ruined My Life tells the story of Emma Grant, a college professor whose career was ruined when she found her husband sleeping with her Teaching Assistant who accuse her of plagiarism. The University of course believes them, and she is fired from her job.

She gets a call from a a mysterious Mrs. Gwendolyn Parrot (who is my favorite character in the book.) about some letters that Jane Austen wrote that are unknown and unpublished to the literary world. To get the letters though, she must first do a series of tasks that bring her to London. Emma's goal is to get those letters publish and salvage her career while exposing Jane Austen as a fraud.

The first half of this book was enjoyable-until Emma starts going on about how broke she is, and how Jane Austen ruined her life. This is said so many times with so many examples that I wanted to scream: "we get it already. Her husband left her broke and ruined her happy ending." When in London she re-connects with an old graduate school friend, Adam who is also staying at her cousins apartment. The two haven't spoken since she married her ex-husband, Edward.

What annoyed me most about Emmas re-found friendship with Adam was after not seeing him for 8 years, she lets him pay for everything, and makes him cart her around England so she can compelete her tasks. She says that she has too much pride to ask Mrs. Parrot for money, but has no problem letting Adam pay for everything. Some where along the way she meets Barry, a college professor from California. As this book was based on Persuasion, I'm guessing he's supposed to be Mr. Elliot.

Possible Spoilers ahead!

She invites him to the theater to finish a task to get another letter instead of asking Adam whose carted her around every where because she's upset with him. (the details of the arguement escape me.) She decides to pawn her wedding rings, and gets so much money she can buy a chanel dress, shoes and purse-but doesn't have enough money to get make up, so she gets a free makeover. This is where I started to lose all interest in the book.

She goes on about completing the tasks while still wanting to publish those letters, even though she was told they wouldn't be published. That's what really put me over the edge...and made me start reading Persuasion so I'd be able to see how closely this story followed the other. While there were similarities, I thought the connection could have been made much better.

In the end the heroine, Emma realizes that Jane Austen didn't ruin her life, she did and ends up doing the right thing but by that time Emma was irredeemable to me. If it weren't for this challenge, I would not have finished this book. I'm glad I got it at the library. Sorry for the lengthy review!! As I mentioned earlier, I'm in the minority-most readers loved this book. I, however did not. ):

A few good things did come out of reading this book: I want to read Jane Ausen's Letters, read more about her life and I started drinking tea again. :)

Mini Update: Everything Jane Austen Challenge

Here are the books I've finished for the challenge so far:

Persuasion: Loved it!!!
Confessions of A Jane Austen Addict-left a lot to be desired, but still an enjoyable read.
Almost finished:
Tea With Jane Austen-I've finished the book, but still need to make a few recipes before I can officially write a review for this book. :) This book was slightly disappointing.

Jane Austen Ruined My Life-I got 200 pages into this, and read that this was based on Persuasion, a book I was only 15 pages into. I then decided that I needed to read Persuasion to see if I would like the book more. I'm now dreading finishing this book. The main female character, Emma is annoying the crap out of me.

Summer TV

Here's what I'm watching this summer:

Merlin- This show is about Merlin, Arthur, Guinevere and Morganna when they were younger. Arthurs dad, the King of Camelot has forbidden magic of any kind and punishes those who practice. The catch? Merlin has powers. He's not sure why he has them, and is just learning how to use them. He almost gets caught using magic every week. This storyline could get old fast, but I'm still enjoying seeing how he gets himself out of trouble so far. The characters are slightly annoying, but I love this show despite that or because of that quirk. I'm not sure if it's John Hurt's voice as the dragon, Arthur and Merlins cuteness or the fact that there isn't anything else on during its timeslot, but I've fallen in love with this show.

Warehouse 13- This is just a sad version of a Sanctuary/Torchwood rip off, but I just know I'm going to be suckered into this show. Two Secret Service agents are recruited by the mysterious Mrs. Frederick to work at Warehouse 13 in South Dakota. I'm guessing it's supposed to be like Area 51 or the lesser known Hangar 18 at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. (Hanger 18 is where they took the Roswell Aliens. I know this because I grew up right near the base and grew up on this lore.)

My Life On The D List- My sisters and I think we are the only straight women who watch this show. I've liked Kathy ever since she was on NewsRadio, Suddenly Susan and the little watched reality show The Mole. (She won the celebrity version.)

WipeOut- Is it wrong that I enjoy laughing at people who could quite possibly get hurt wiping out on this show? It's hilarious! My middle sister got me watching this she and her husband love the show. They say they started watching it because her husband knows the brother of Jon Henson, but I'm not so sure about that...

Ghost Hunters International-Another show on the SciFi channel. (I refuse to call it SyFy.) I started watching the Original version of Ghost Hunters right before season 2 started. They had a marathon of shows on day, and I loved how they worked to disprove a haunting rather then prove one. We're on season three of this spin off, and I don't know why but this show has trouble keeping cast members. While Robb and Dustin are no Jason and Grant, they are still fun to watch!

Excited to watch:

TORCHWOOD, Children of the Earth!!!! This is my favorite show on tv right now. July 20th can not come fast enough for me! I hope I'm not disappointed by the long wait we've had after season 2...

Big Brother: Every summer I swear I won't watch this show..and have only been successful twice in succeeding. What can I say, the Chen Bot draws me in with her inability to remember contestant names. (Good thing she's dating the boss of CBS.)

Confessions of A Jane Austen Addict

I read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict as apart of the Everything Jane Austen Challenge. When I finished the book and started reading reviews of this book at goodreads.com I was surprised at the number of people who really disliked this book.

I thought it was a fun take on a lot of different Jane Austen novels. I think the problems that most of have when reading a book with Jane Austen or one of her books in the title is that we take it too seriously and expect the writing and the characters to be exactly like the original-which is impossible.


Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict is about Courtney Stone who wakes up in the England of the Jane Austen books she loves instead of present day L.A. and is Jane Mansfield. Before I get to the parts of the book that had me shaking my head-I'll begin with what I liked.


After reading so many time travel romances I really liked that it started with the heroine already being in the past, and discovering that she is there. I also enjoyed her disbelief over what it was like living in Jane Austens time and what little freedom women of that time had and the insane rules they had to follow or be ruined forever.


Most of the negative reviews I read all stated that they didn't like the fact the Courtney never really dealt with the mess of her life in the present day, I liked that. I hate it when books like this spend too much time on what happened, instead of what is happening.


Courtneys life in Jane Austens time is spent trying to discover who Jane Mansfield was...the book focuses on her friendship with Mary Edgeworth, the sister of Charles Edgeworth, Jane's suitor. This is another one of those books where the girl spends half the book fighting her feelings and doing everything she can to scare the guy away even though she really loves him.

The most annoying part of this book was that the romance was really all of three pages at the end. Presto, Courtney/aka Jane discovers that she loves Edgeworth, faults and all. The story never really deals with the stuff that Courtney/Jane did to push Edgeworth away. I really want to find a book where the romance is more then at the end of the book.


Despite the lack of real romance, I rated this book four stars. It was a very quick read and I found the characters all likable and believable. I can't wait to read the second book to see if it has more substance and deals with some of the stuff that was left out of this one.

The Smoke Thief

I'm still trying to decide if The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe was as magical and breath-taking as I thought it was while I was reading it, or if I've just read so many bad romances in a row that this was like a breath of fresh air to a genre that I was dangerously close to taking a long hiatus from.

I love paranormals, and I can't tell you what makes this one different then the other books I've read but it was such a wonderful read that I can't wait to read the other drakon books in this series.

The Smoke Thief is your typical paranormal romance: A group of people have a powerful secret to keep...girl meets boy, falls in love...fights falling in love, secrets abound, guy makes girl upset, then they both admit to being in love, but have trials to overcome before they can live happily ever after. Only there is a twist to this story: Clarrisa (rue) Hawthrone is the girl who falls in love with the boy-Christoff, (Kit) the Marquess of Langford. They are both of the drakon clan and live in a shire that is kept secret from the rest of the world and has it's own rules because they have gifts that no one must know about: They can shape shift from humans into dragons.

Clarissa grows up being made fun of because her mother falls in love with and marries someone who isn't a drakon. So this must mean, she doesn't have any powers at all, right? That's what everyone thinks...to escape the shire and it's rules she goes to London and lets everyone in the shire believe that she died. Once in London she becomes a daring thief..she changes her name to Rue. She lives in secret until she starts becoming known as the Smoke Thief and is said to vanish into thin air. Kit comes to London to find the Smoke Thief because the secret of his kind can not be known to the public. The thief must be caught at all costs.

Kit finds Rue in London by luring her out of hiding to steal the most powerful jewel of the drakon-the Langford diamond. However, someone steals it before she can. The two work together to find it and Kit finds out that Rue while half human has some powerful magic in her. She has the ability to Turn. She's the first female in generations to be able to shapeshift into a dragon. What I loved about this part of the book was that neither of them were surprised by their gifts or tried to hide them from each other as is the case in so many paranormal romances.

This being a romance, Rue's ability to Turn comes with a catch: it means that she's the alpha female, and therefore is Kit's match. She knows this, and of course tries to fight for her freedom and during this time falls hard for Kit..of course she doesn't let him know she has it bad for him, while he makes it known she's the only thing he wants.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this book, and I loved every minute of it. Even though this was one of those lets fight our feelings for each other until the last 100 pages or so, it was well written and not as unbelievable that they end up getting together like it is in so many romances these days.

Everything Jane Austen: Mini Challenge

I am so excited about the Everything Jane Austen challenge that is being hosted by Stephanie at Stephanie's Written Word that I've decided to the mini-challenge Everything Austen Challenge X Two hosted by Austenprose. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a challenge. I'm looking at as a way to expand my knowledge of Jane Austen. Ok, I can hear you laughing from here...

I wanted to add the following books:

Mr Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange. I haven't read Amanda Grange before, but I love everything paranormal, so this sounds perfect for me. Well, I also read an excerpt from Amazon, and now can't wait to read this book. :) Amanda Grange is also hosting a comptetion on her website to win a copy of this book. (Thanks to Austenprose for tweeting about this contest!)

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dicken Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The facts of daily life in Nineteenth Century England by Daniel Pool. I've always wanted to learn more about this time period, and I figure there is no time like the present to do so, right? Right!

Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding- Can you believe I still haven't read this book? I've seen the movie a million times, and have the book sitting on my bookshelf...but for some reason have never been able to make it more then three chapters into the book. I tend to cure that now!

Movies:

Lost in Austen- Heidenkind convinced me to give this movie a shot..and honestly it seems like it's my type of movie. I have a weakness for cheesy movies.

Becoming Jane-I love Anne Hathaway, and ever since I read an article about how she got the role (she was up all night with a sick dog, and didn't look like her normal perky self) I've wanted to see how she did with it.

Bridget Jones Diary-I know that after I read the book, I'll want to see the movie to compare the two!

Edited to add: My mini challenges:

1. To read/re-read all of Jane Austens books.
2. To get the Jane Austen craft book (the name of which escapes me right now, and create at least 2 crafts from it. )

Best Friends? Not Yet.

When I stumbled across Camera Critters Meme, I knew I had to do it! While I love reading, there are two things I love even more: spending time with the family dog Cleo, and the newest addition to our pet family, Bella the cat. Cleo has become slightly jealous of Bella when I'm around and goes out of her way to show Bella that she doesn't have a chance of becoming my favorite.

This weeks obnoxiousness came while Cleo and I were playing our weekly game of chase. What happens is that Cleo purposefully steals my shoes, and I chase her around the dining room table for them. It's a game that we've played since she was a puppy. Normally when we play this game Bella wisely stays far away from us. I thought she was downstairs hiding and she was actually right in our running path. Cleo, not caring that she was there leaped over her tail a good three times. On the third time I spotted Bella, frozen and felt bad that I hadn't noticed her there before. As Bella was escaping to her lair in the basement, Cleo gave her such a superior look that I couldn't believe it.

While the two are having some growing pains adjusting to living together they are getting along surprisingly well. Bella has picked up all of Cleos bad habits. The two bark/meow in unison when we are eating to con us into giving them food. Bella once chewed through McDonalds bag that was left alone on the table a minute to long to get to her much loved french fries, and tossed the dog one when she was barking. My mom was laughing too hard to yell at either one of them for that...
Here are some pictures of them:

The Everything Jane Austen Challenge

I found this challenge through Jenn's Bookshelf. :) Stephanie, at Stephanie's Written Word. The Challenge details are this:

The Everything Austen Challenge will run for six months (July 1, 2009 – January 1, 2010)! All you need to do is pick out what six Austen-themed things you want to finish to complete the challenge. What is considered Austen-themed? Any books that Jane Austen wrote herself or any Jane Austen themed books or movies. I just couldn't resist doing this challenge...

(I am probably over doing it in reading challenges, since I am new to them, but it's been so long since I've challenged myself at reading, this will be good for me!)
____________________________________________________________________

I have to admit when I started researching the different Jane Austen themed books that I could read for this challenge, I had no idea that there were so many different ones out there. I have to admit I haven't had much luck in finding an Austen themed book that I've liked.


The first one I read was Me & Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter and I hated it. I guess I should have known when the title started with the grammatically incorrect Me instead of I that I was in trouble with this book.



The second book I attempted was The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Fowler. It got such glowing reviews that I finally broke down to read a few weeks ago. Maybe I'd read too many bad books before it to judge it fairly, but I just couldn't finish the book.


After scouring Amazon this morning, I realize perhaps I was to hasty in that decision...I've decided to take the plunge and discover the world of Jane Austen again. Did you know there was book called Jane Austen and the Navy? It's a non fiction book about how Jane had two brothers in the Navy and what an important part it played in their life. It sounded really interesting until I saw the price ($75.00) and something tells me my local library isn't going to have this one in stock. In my picks, I've decided to add a few extras, in case one of the books turns out to be as bad as Me & Mr. Darcy.

My picks:

1. Persuasion by Jane Austen-This one has been lingering in my tbr pile ever since I saw the movie The Lake House and it had quite a large role in the movie. I knew I had to read the book, but just haven't actually opened it yet...
2. Tea With Jane Austen by Kim Wilson-This book describes the different teas in Jane Austens books. I love tea, so this book sounded right up my alley. I plan on making at least two cups of tea from the reciepes in this book. I can't wait.
3 . Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo-I loved the name of the book, and the plot sounds interesting.
4. Austenland: A Novel by Stephanie Hale
5. What Would Jane Austen Do? By Laurie Brown
6. Confessions of A Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler-Time travel to a Jane Austin like world? I love a good time travel romance book, and have to give this one a shot!

The Extras:

7.Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor: Being the First Jane Austen Mystery by Stephanie Barron. I had no idea that there were Jane Austen mysteries! (I really need to broaden my reading genres.)
8.Seducing Mr. Darcy, by Gwen Cready

Two more extras:
I couldn't believe my library had these in it's circulation so I added them as well:

Jane Austen Cookbook and
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dicken Knew: life in 14th century England