Perennially popular, the Jane Austen market grows and grows as shown by the forthcoming film Lost in Austen directed by Sam Mendes, the film of The Jane Austen Bookclub and the BBC's recent Emma adaptation Jane Austen web communities will be targeted in an online marketing campaign to reach ardent fans This perfect package will appeal to traditional Austen fans and people who want a great relaxing read to curl up with
Laurie Viera Rigler is the co-author of He Rents, She Rents and Popping the Question, and a contributing author to The New York Public Library Business Desk Reference and The Big Book of Life's Instructions. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict is her first novel. When not indulging herself in re-readings of Jane Austen's six novels, Laurie works as a freelance book editor. She has also tried her hand at screen writing and script reading, and has worked as a producer of short films - one of which was selected for the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. Laurie has a BA in Classics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a member of the Authors' Guild and, of course, the Jane Austen Society of North America.
Waking up in early 19th-century Britain is not a common occurrence for a 21st-century gal from L.A. Yet Courtney Stone, just having dumped her womanizing fianc, does wake up during the Regency era in the home and body of Jane Mansfield (yes, she acknowledges the irony), a woman of 30 who has just fallen from a horse. As Courtney realizes that she is not dreaming, she becomes attuned to the thoughts, feelings, and memories of her host. First novelist Rigler has taken her own love of author Austen and superimposed it onto Courtney, a repeat reader and viewer of all things Jane. Aside from the obvious, there are other complications afoot, including a possible dalliance with a footman and the confused emotions regarding Charles Edgeworth, a prospective suitor and the brother of Jane's dearest friend, Mary. Throw in Jane's stern mother, her back-stabbing cousin, and a fortune-teller, and it's one wild time-traveling ride. Or is it? At book's end, it isn't quite clear where (or who) Courtney/Jane is. The voice of our heroine isn't well established either. She quotes from her favorite author's novels at will, but her tone and behavior are more that of a recalcitrant Valley Girl. What began as a charming premise becomes downright irritating. Perhaps exhaustive Austen collections would be interested. An optional purchase for public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/07.]-Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
'Laurie Viera Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict leads the field' The Times 'An enjoyable romp, stuffed with Austen prototypes ... highly diverting' Guardian Great fun ... I'm not ashamed to say that I spent a blissful day with it' Francesca Segal, Observer 'A charming novel ... Rigler writes beautifully' www.austenblog.com
A clever time-travel setup functions as the prime attraction for this breezy debut novel. Courtney Stone, a single Los Angeles woman recovering from the double whammy of a broken engagement and a failed friendship, wakes up after a night of self-medicating with her "drug of choice," Jane Austen novels, to find herself in 1813 England. She's inhabiting the body of Jane Mansfield, a manor-born Englishwoman who, at 30, has yet to find a husband, confounding her humorless, "Miss Bossy-corset" stand-in mother. While still haunted by "real-life" memories, Courtney, as Jane, soon gets swept up in this Austenesque world of decadent meals and grand balls, gentlemen in "form-fitting knee breeches" and traveling with her friend Mary, whose brother, Charles Edgeworth, appears to have an interest in Jane that Courtney struggles to understand. As her identity starts to meld with Jane's, Courtney rethinks who she wants to be (and to be with) in any time period. While her 21st-century anachronisms can be comical, Courtney, for such an Austen "addict," is unconvincingly naive about Regency norms. Fans of the ever-expanding inspired-by-Austen-lit garden party will find a winner here; it doesn't hurt that Austen has a brief, comical cameo. (Aug.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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