Sense and Sensibility updated: HIllary Manton Lodge's Jane of Austin

In the world of Austen adaptations, there are four main categories: spin-offs that tell the continuing adventures of one or more of the characters (Molly Greeley's The Clergyman's Wife), retellings from a different point of view (Jo Baker's brilliant and beautifully written Longbourn), modern retellings that update Austen's characters (Curtis Sittenfeld's Eligible), and re-writes that stick to the story, but place it in another setting to show how Austen's insights on class, gender, and prejudice continue to be relevant (Soniah Kamal's amazing Unmarriageable and Ibi Zoboi's fabulous Pride). 

This novel fits into the third category: a modernized retelling focused on updating the story for fans who know the story and can appreciate the cleverness of Austen's characters reimagined today or readers who are unlikely ever to pick up the original. Jane of Austin is a modern take on Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility featuring three sisters whose father embezzled money from his firm and disappears to avoid the repercussions. The sisters ultimately have to relocate to Austin, where they hope to open a tea shop and support themselves. It's a fun read, and the modern twists on Austen's tale are creative, including shifting the Colonel Brandon character to a disabled war veteran.

Lodge makes the interesting decision to tell the story through Jane (the Marianne character) and Callum (the Colonel Brandon character). Austen's original emphasizes Elinor's story and point of view, so this adds another perspective and makes Marianne's point of view easier to understand (and feel less over-emotional and melodramatic). Margaret (here Margot) also has a chance to come more into her own because she's depicted as an older character with more chances to show her personality.

I had no idea that this was published by a Christian imprint until I read a few other reviews. It doesn't come through strongly in the novel, so I'm wondering what makes it specifically Christian.

Overall, I found this a light and enjoyable read, and I plan to make some of the recipes that are included (not the tea, though. Way too fussy.).

I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The latest installment in the Maisie Dobbs series and a new one from Tessa Arlen

I had given up on Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series for a while because I found all the discussion of psychological detecting tiresome (and I zone out every time Maurice Blanche is mentioned). I decided to try her again recently when I got an ARC from NetGalley of her latest novel, The American Agent. I enjoyed the atmospherics of this novel, especially the accounts of the Blitz, Maisie's work driving an ambulance, and the passages taken from actual reporting by Murrow and others.

One of my problems with Winspear's novels, however, is that I find it hard to keep track of the characters, and she never leaves any breadcrumbs in the narrative to help you remember who people are. The solution to this mystery was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat because it felt completely disconnected from the information that Maisie had gathered in her investigation. I know red herrings are important in mystery novels, but this solution left a lot of interesting threads hanging and came out of nowhere. My other complaint is that the love story was completely unbelievable because there was no build up. Instead, it just comes out of the blue with no romantic tension between the characters. As a reader, I didn't care if it went anywhere or not.

Those complaints aside, I still enjoyed this book, even though I felt like I was just along for the ride on the detecting part. 

Another novel that I read recently and thoroughly enjoyed was Tessa Arlen's Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders. I haven't read Arlen's Lady Montfort series, but I'm definitely going to seek it out when I need some escape reading. Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders is the very definition of a cozy mystery. Poppy Redfern is a plucky (sorry, there's no other word for her) young air raid warden during WWII who's responsible for making sure that her fellow villagers in Little Buffenden remember their blackout curtains. She patrols every night in the dark on her own until a young woman is strangled and her grandparents insist that she is accompanied by the aggravating Sid. Poppy decides to investigate what becomes a series of attacks and spends much of the novel ferreting information out of her fellow villagers - at least, when she's not hanging out with (or arguing with) an American airman who has been stationed in Little Buffenden. You won't be all that surprised by the ending, but it's an enjoyable read. I'm already looking forward to the next installment.

I received ARCs of both these novels from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Are there other historical mystery series I should try?

Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age

I haven't stayed up late to finish a book in a long time, but I couldn't stop reading Kiley Reid's amazing novel Such a Fun Age (coming out Dec. 31, 2019). This is such a smart book, intertwining a sharp commentary on race, class, identity, motherhood, and privilege in an engrossing narrative. 

The main character, Emira, may feel adrift  and unsure about when she'll ever be like her friends who have "adult jobs," but she is also a sharp-eyed observer who stands up for herself and doesn't feel compelled to play nice. When she is accused of kidnapping her white employer's child by a woman in a high-end grocery store, she stays calm, stands up for herself, and doesn't let anyone off the hook for their racism. She isn't interested in the outrage shared by her employer and the white man who videotaped the incident; she just wants to live her life and do her job without being harassed - and she definitely isn't interested in being a viral sensation.

Circling around Emira's story are two white characters - the man who recorded her in the grocery store and the mother of the child she sits - each invested in proving how racist they aren't. They are each deeply problematic in different ways that propel the narrative. Emira rightly sees their attempts to "save" her as stemming more from wanting to feel good about themselves than really caring about her. 

This is both a deeply troubling and satisfying read. I, for one, stayed up most of the night to see what Emira was going to do next.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.