What I Read This Weekend . . .
My Jane Austen Summer : A Season in Mansfield Park by Cindy Jones -- Austenesque Fiction
Lily Berry's life is a mess. In a matter of months she lost her mom to cancer, her dad to another woman, her boyfriend and her job (for reading Jane Austen at work) and... she finally finished all of Jane Austen's novels and has come to the sad realization that there will never be more Jane Austen novels. She doesn't know what to do with her life and dreams of living in a novel. She consults her inner Jane Austen (her imaginary best friend) and decides to accept her friend Vera's offer of attending a literary festival in England. The literature professors and professional actors will be interpreting Mansfield Park, Lily's favorite novel; she just HAS to go to this festival. Vera passes Lily off as an actress to get her into the festival. She's supposed to take the place of Bets, a young woman whose father is financing the dying festival. When Bets shows up and the literature professors snub the inexperienced Lily, Lily is put to work to come up with a business plan for saving the festival. With the patroness on her death bed, Lily needs to work fast, but she's distracting by the brooding Deacon in the attic and her obsession with him. She's also determined to appear on stage in a plum role. First she must stop being Fanny Price and find her inner Mary Crawford and then she can get her life on track to where she wants it to be. The characters in this novel are similar to their literary counterparts. Lily is not a very likeable character. She's worse than Fanny Price (who I can not stand) because she's whiny, self-centered and obsesses over every little thing. She acts like a stalker around the men in her life and when even her ex says she's "too needy," she refuses to acknowledge her problem. I do understand about her relationship with her mom and the sentimental ties to her childhood and her reaction to her father's new life. I could empathize but at the same time, I wanted her to move forward like her sister. None of the other characters are very appealing either. I didn't care much for Willis. I couldn't figure out who he was supposed to be and am still confused over what happened. I'm not much into brooding men myself so I didn't see the appeal. Bixby is even worse than Willis for different reasons, Magda is witch with a capital B and even Vera and Nigel use Lily for their own purposes. Bets is a stereotypical teenager but I found her honesty refreshing. I kept waiting for Lily to grow up but she never really did. The story drags on way too long and ends rather quickly. I'm a bit confused as to why it ended the way it did and what the ending is supposed to mean. This book just didn't appeal to me very much. I was also turned off by Lily's obsession with the Anglican church and everything that goes with it that she mentioned far too often in the beginning. If I had known there was strong Christian content, I probably would not have read this book. Other content warning: one mild love scene and one bizarre somewhat graphic scene that I can't explain without spoiling the plot. The only plot parts that really interested me was what would happen with her father and if she would find her necklace. Otherwise, this book was not worthy of my attention. Austenland this is not.
Lily Berry's life is a mess. In a matter of months she lost her mom to cancer, her dad to another woman, her boyfriend and her job (for reading Jane Austen at work) and... she finally finished all of Jane Austen's novels and has come to the sad realization that there will never be more Jane Austen novels. She doesn't know what to do with her life and dreams of living in a novel. She consults her inner Jane Austen (her imaginary best friend) and decides to accept her friend Vera's offer of attending a literary festival in England. The literature professors and professional actors will be interpreting Mansfield Park, Lily's favorite novel; she just HAS to go to this festival. Vera passes Lily off as an actress to get her into the festival. She's supposed to take the place of Bets, a young woman whose father is financing the dying festival. When Bets shows up and the literature professors snub the inexperienced Lily, Lily is put to work to come up with a business plan for saving the festival. With the patroness on her death bed, Lily needs to work fast, but she's distracting by the brooding Deacon in the attic and her obsession with him. She's also determined to appear on stage in a plum role. First she must stop being Fanny Price and find her inner Mary Crawford and then she can get her life on track to where she wants it to be. The characters in this novel are similar to their literary counterparts. Lily is not a very likeable character. She's worse than Fanny Price (who I can not stand) because she's whiny, self-centered and obsesses over every little thing. She acts like a stalker around the men in her life and when even her ex says she's "too needy," she refuses to acknowledge her problem. I do understand about her relationship with her mom and the sentimental ties to her childhood and her reaction to her father's new life. I could empathize but at the same time, I wanted her to move forward like her sister. None of the other characters are very appealing either. I didn't care much for Willis. I couldn't figure out who he was supposed to be and am still confused over what happened. I'm not much into brooding men myself so I didn't see the appeal. Bixby is even worse than Willis for different reasons, Magda is witch with a capital B and even Vera and Nigel use Lily for their own purposes. Bets is a stereotypical teenager but I found her honesty refreshing. I kept waiting for Lily to grow up but she never really did. The story drags on way too long and ends rather quickly. I'm a bit confused as to why it ended the way it did and what the ending is supposed to mean. This book just didn't appeal to me very much. I was also turned off by Lily's obsession with the Anglican church and everything that goes with it that she mentioned far too often in the beginning. If I had known there was strong Christian content, I probably would not have read this book. Other content warning: one mild love scene and one bizarre somewhat graphic scene that I can't explain without spoiling the plot. The only plot parts that really interested me was what would happen with her father and if she would find her necklace. Otherwise, this book was not worthy of my attention. Austenland this is not.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave comments and or suggestions for QNPoohBear, the modern bluestocking.