I was looking for a fun, light book to read between mysteries, and Austenland was just the thing. I'm not a huge Janemaniac, or Austenphile, but I did like the movie Pride and Prejudice, and I quite understand the Colin Firth/Mr Darcy adoration. This book has Jane Hayes, thirty-something New York career girl, who has just about given up on men. This is mostly her own doing, as she falls back on her DVD of P&P when things go bad, and now her expectations are widely divergent from her life, because the guys she meets are not Mr Darcy. When her grand-aunt Carolyn discovers her Darcy obsession, she arranges an all expense trip vacation to Austenland. Austenland is at Pembrooke Place, sort of a fantasy baseball camp for Regency mad women. They come and experience life in early 1800 England, but with flush toilet, and including actors who will become their suitors.
The plot involves Jane having difficulty immersing herself in the acting, and having difficulty differentiating the actor from the man. If you are a Jane Austen fan, and enjoy light comedy romances, that is all you need to know. If you are not, I'm not sure this book is for you. The wonderful Shannon Hale wrote this adult novel and it's really a fairy tale for grown-ups, also known as chick lit.
I really enjoyed this one too. I listened to it on audio on a car trip alone and it was perfect, fun, escapist fiction. I'm not a diehard Austen-head either, but I do enjoy her.
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