Review: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

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Genre: Contemporary Romance, Historical Romance, Regency, Fantasy
Format: Paperback
Buy: Amazon / Book Depository / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

In this Jane Austen inspired comedy, love story, and exploration of identity and destiny, a modern LA girl wakes up as an Englishwoman in Austen's time.

After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy?

Not only is Courtney stuck in another woman's life, she is forced to pretend she actually is that woman; and despite knowing nothing about her, she manages to fool even the most astute observer. But not even her love of Jane Austen has prepared Courtney for the chamber pots and filthy coaching inns of nineteenth-century England, let alone the realities of being a single woman who must fend off suffocating chaperones, condomless seducers, and marriages of convenience. Enter the enigmatic Mr. Edgeworth, who fills Courtney's borrowed brain with confusing memories that are clearly not her own.

Try as she might to control her mind and find a way home, Courtney cannot deny that she is becoming this other woman and being this other woman is not without its advantages: Especially in a looking-glass Austen world. Especially with a suitor who may not turn out to be a familiar species of philanderer after all.

Review:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is human nature for our subconscious to wish for an escape when the going get's tough and Courtney Stone's subconscious didn't just "wish" for an escape. It conjured it. The hows and whys of the situation is still remains at loss for me even after I finished the book. 

Courtney Stone's life is in the gutter and at the end of the day she releases grief and takes refuge in all of Jane Austen's work. Somehow between the world of waking and dreaming, Courtney get's teleported 200 years back in time. She didn't land in the 1800's century as herself but as Jane Mansfield, a beautiful, slim, refined, and unmarried woman in her thirties. She doesn't know who Jane is except for the reflection she sees in the mirror and only gets glimpses and fragments of Jane's memory to help her blend in.

Courtney/Jane was first convinced that all she was experiencing was a dream caused by her obsessive readings of everything Jane Austen. But as days, weeks and months passed on, she just had to accept and take her Jane Austen training and put it to good use to please Mrs. Mansfield and shoo the Lords and Dukes, who are great big horn-dogs.

In this century, the author explains to us that there's more to the world Jane Austen has written. And that Austen only sugar coated the real happenings within a distinguished family, town balls, and overall, men of that time. Yes, mothers only think about their daughters marrying rich. Yes, they go to balls and dance way too much. Yes, there are rich handsome gentlemen who court and flirt. But Austen and many other authors of that age didn't tell us about the obsessive and urgency of the mothers, or that a lot of harassments occur during balls and most of these rich handsome gentlemen have nasty attitudes and only have one thing in mind. Courtney realizes this as she starts getting accustomed to the simple routine of an accomplished woman and starts traveling with her suitors sister to Bath and London.

I enjoyed coming to terms with the reality of how the 1800's is really like and how suffocating it is to be seen with a male underclassmen unchaperoned. And at the end of the book, I came with the conclusion that I didn't really know if Courtney's life in the 21st century was real or where the real Jane Mansfield is. It was a good end but an end that still made you ask what really happened to Jane and Courtney.

Rating: 4/5

Review: The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin

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Title: The Darkening Dream
Author: Andy Gavin
Publisher: Mascherato Publishing
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Format: eBook
Buy: Amazon




The Darkening Dream is the chilling new dark fantasy novel by Andy Gavin, creator of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter.

Even as the modern world pushes the supernatural aside in favor of science and steel, the old ways remain. God, demon, monster, and sorcerer alike plot to regain what was theirs.

1913, Salem, Massachusetts – Sarah Engelmann’s life is full of friends, books, and avoiding the pressure to choose a husband, until an ominous vision and the haunting call of an otherworldly trumpet shake her. When she stumbles across a gruesome corpse, she fears that her vision was more of a premonition. And when she sees the murdered boy moving through the crowd at an amusement park, Sarah is thrust into a dark battle she does not understand.

With the help of Alex, an attractive Greek immigrant who knows a startling amount about the undead, Sarah sets out to uncover the truth. Their quest takes them to the factory mills of Salem, on a midnight boat ride to spy on an eerie coastal lair, and back, unexpectedly, to their own homes. What can Alex’s elderly, vampire-hunting grandfather and Sarah’s own rabbi father tell them? And what do Sarah’s continuing visions reveal?

No less than Gabriel’s Trumpet, the tool that will announce the End of Days, is at stake, and the forces that have banded to recover it include a 900 year-old vampire, a trio of disgruntled Egyptian gods, and a demon-loving Puritan minister. At the center of this swirling cast is Sarah, who must fight a millennia-old battle against unspeakable forces, knowing the ultimate prize might be herself.

An overwhelming dark tale of mixed-mythology, religion and a hell lot of vampire hunting.

The moment I started reading The Darkening Dream, I noticed how complex, sophisticated and incredible unique the writing was, even the dialogue was different. You can tell how intelligent and talented Andy Gavin is just by the way he writes. And the information he put in one book was overwhelming. There was vampires, werewolves, demons, witches, greek mythology, talks about religion and a hell lot of other stuff that I can't begin to comprehend. This book is definitely not for younger readers.

Sarah, our protagonist, reminded me a lot of Hermoine from the Harry Potter books. I think its just the fact that she's a know-it-all. Then that image of Sarah and Hermoine shattered when I realized that she was a little naive and annoying at times. Not as annoying as Emily (a secondary character), but still annoying. Now, our male lead, Alex is dark-haired and Greek. I found him great at the beginning until I began reading his very male and very teenage side, and all I have to say about that part is that it's very realistic. My favorite character is definitely Sam, one of Sarah's childhood friends. He was sweet and one of those characters that was always there when a friend nearly gets himself killed.

The whole plot of the story was so deep, unique and incredibly dark that I couldn't grasp what I was reading sometimes. Its like reading something from an entirely different new genre. Everything Andy wrote here was different from anything I've ever read before and its safe to say that it was overwhelming. I loved how it began and ended but everything in between was not as fluid as I thought.

The Darkening Dream is pure fantasy, fantasy that is dark, historical and extremely twisted. Its versions of the usual vampires, werewolves and witches are classic and brutal. This book is not any readers usual read. Its different, its unique and readers who aren't used to the genre should be careful. The book can be overwhelming and very descriptive. This is a perfect read for those who love dark, and haunting fantasy books that are mixed with mythology and religion. But its not the read for me. If I enjoyed the genre, I would have given the book 5 stars but though the book had elements that I usually read about, the style, and how everything was, isn't my cup of tea. And for that, I'll give it a firm 3/5 stars.