This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR
Katherine, Warwick and Robyn are attendees at a Jane Austen conference. Dan lives at the stables of Purley Hall the stately home where the actress Dame Pamela Harcourt lives and holds the conference each year. None of them have ever met before, but by the end of the weekend none of their lives will ever be the same again.
Katherine, an Oxford lecturer, immediately bonds with Robyn and together they determine to make the most of this long anticipated weekend. Both ardent Austenites they love and know well the works of Jane Austen and spend as much of their lives as possible being absorbed by the various novels, film and television adaptations.
What Katherine doesn’t know when she meets the handsome, Darcy-esque Warwick, is that he is not the Antiquarian bookseller he describes himself as, but is in fact an author, and his alter-ego happens to be Lorna Warwick, not only Katherine’s favourite author, after Jane Austen, of course, but also someone she considers her friend and the pen pal she’s been confiding her innermost secrets to over the past few months. Warwick, already in love with Katherine is determined to get past her immediate disinterest in him and as the weekend progresses they become closer, however it never seems to be quite the right time for him to disclose his true identity to her.
Robyn, trying to find a way to finish with her long-term boyfriend, meets up with Dan, the stable hand, who as well as appearing to look like a pretty perfect version of Captain Wentworth, also happens to be Dame Pamela’s much younger brother. He offers to take her out riding with him to make the most of their beautiful surroundings and their attraction grows stronger until the appearance of her erstwhile boyfriend causes mayhem at the hall threatening to put a stop to any hopes either may have been secretly harbouring for the other.
Victoria Connelly takes us through the complexities of each character’s relationships, whilst cleverly weaving snippets from scenes out of Jane Austen’s beloved novels. This book is for anyone wishing to enjoy a romantic novel, whether a Jane Austen fan or not, and for those of you, who like me, might have ever wondered what a Jane Austen conference could entail, this book certainly makes it sound like a magical time not to be missed. It is a romantic story with the added feel of being taken every so often into a Jane Austen novel and I loved every moment of it.
A beautifully written book Lisa Jewell rightly describes as, ‘sunshine on a rainy day’. I loved it.
Rating: A perfect 10/10