I received this book for free from Booklook Bloggers, Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay Published by Thomas Nelson on November 7th 2017
Genres: Christian, Clean & Wholesome, Contemporary, Fiction, General
Pages: 320
Source: Booklook Bloggers, Netgalley
Goodreads
After years of following her best friend’s lead, Mary Davies finds a whimsical trip back to Austen’s Regency England paves the way towards a new future.
Mary Davies lives and works in Austin, Texas, as an industrial engineer. She has an orderly and productive life, a job and colleagues that she enjoys—particularly a certain adorable, intelligent, and hilarious consultant. But something is missing for Mary. When her estranged and emotionally fragile childhood friend Isabel Dwyer offers Mary a two-week stay in a gorgeous manor house in Bath, Mary reluctantly agrees to come along, in hopes that the holiday will shake up her quiet life in just the right ways. But Mary gets more than she bargained for when Isabel loses her memory and fully believes that she lives in Regency England. Mary becomes dependent on a household of strangers to take care of Isabel until she wakes up.
With Mary in charge and surrounded by new friends, Isabel rests and enjoys the leisure of a Regency lady. But life gets even more complicated when Mary makes the discovery that her life and Isabel’s have intersected in more ways that she knew, and she finds herself caught between who Isabel was, who she seems to be, and the man who stands between them. Outings are undertaken, misunderstandings play out, and dancing ensues as this triangle works out their lives and hearts among a company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation.
Ever have a novel just leave you feeling wow??? this is the second novel I’ve read by Katherine and again I’m in awe!! I read her first one cause it was sent to me from a book review site…but this time it was all my choice to review it.
I love that even though its a contemporary novel Jane Austen is woven through out it. I’m gonna admit something…I’ve only actually read pride and prejudice(maybe 4-5 times….but still) I’ve watched a couple movie adaptations of a couple other of Jane’s books but haven’t actually read them. So I didn’t know all the characters mentioned as well as I probably should have. That being said I was able to follow the story(even when they were on their get away and being characters from different novels)
I loved that this wasn’t a straight up romance(don’t get me wrong I love them) and there was some romance in it, but this was more about Mary and her life, her difficult friendship with Isabel, and her job and the challenges she was facing there. Even though I read the description and knew what to expect I was still a bit shocked when Isabel had her Mental break down(I guess is the best thing to all it) watching Mary take care of her even after she found out who Isabel was off and on sort of dating really made me root even more for everything to work out for her. I was already wanting things to go a certain way but it just made me love her more. And I really felt like both her and Isabel not only grew closer together but really grew as Characters too
The characters were really relatable and I just want to join them on their vacation lol….the whole book just kinda left me in awe and wanting to read all of Katherine’s other books!!
This book looks very interesting and I hope to read it sometime soon! Great review!
It definitely was interesting!!! You’ll have to let me know if you like it 🙂 and thanks