6 Budding Austenesque Romances Begin to Sprout!
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Review Copy from Authors
After releasing their first holiday anthology about Christmas magic and festive spirits, this lovely team of six talented and inventive writers has joined forces again to give us readers another holiday anthology brimming with Janeite goodness, fun, and love! (Can I get a woot woot?!?) This time we are celebrating all things spring – baseball, Easter miracles, weddings, and spring break. In this anthology there are six contemporary short stories, and each story is inspired by and pays tribute to a specific Jane Austen novel.
I hope you find this breakdown helpful!
EXTRA INNINGS – Jessica Grey
The Premise: A new assistant coach joins the Chawton Choppers club and he just happens to be the man Anne Elliot, administrative assistant and social media guru to the Choppers, broke an engagement with ten years ago…
What I Loved: Jane Austen and Baseball! Yes. Anne was awesome – I felt connected to her right away, she was a wonderful blend of dependability, kindness, and quiet passion. I also loved seeing her stand up for herself – twice! And Rick Wentworth…sigh. I love how he delivered his famous “half agony, half hope” letter – brilliant and adorable! The inspiring baseball epigraphs were a perfect touch. Loved it all! One of my faves!
MIRACLE IN THE ABBEY – Cecilia Gray
The Premise: Popular TV host of the hit paranormal investigation show, Phenomena, Kathia Ivanova, is forced to revisit a former home she ran away from for the shows 100th episode…
What I Loved: That Kathia (modern-day Catherine Morland) is a paranormal investigator who believes in ghostly phenomenons! There is a lot of tension between Kathia and Henry, and I greatly enjoyed the flashbacks to what happened between them their senior year. I thought the Easter miracles and tv show interview segments wonderful additions.
WHINE AND WINERIES – Melissa Buell
The Premise: At their new home in Barton Winery, the Dashwood sisters help Mrs. Jennings and her wedding business as she prepares a wedding for the indecisive and über-extravagant Anne Steele.
What I Loved: Seeing Anne Steele as a crazy bridezilla! Talk about entertainment! I loved all the fun with wedding themes, designs, and details! I also enjoyed how this story focused only on the Edward-Elinor-Lucy story-line; poor Edward is often overshadowed by Brandon and Willoughby. And lastly, I loved the setting – Barton Winery sounds heavenly – I would totally choose to get married there! (with The Rustic Simplicity Package!) 😉
EMMA’S INBOX – Rebecca M. Fleming
Premise: While writing articles about important town events in the local paper is her day job, Emma Woodhouse has made it her mission to set up Hartfield’s new reverend, Elton Phillips, with his future wife…
What I Loved: All the digital communication! What a brilliant way to tell this story! I love that the readers learn about characters and important events solely through emails, text exchanges, and newspaper articles. I loved how Emma teased Mayor Knightley about using emoticons and how she felt a generation gap with Harriet because of her grammar-impaired texting! Very clever and sweet!
NO VACANY AT MANSFIELD MOTEL – Kimberly Truesdale
Premise: Spring Break with her cousin and closest friend doesn’t go as planned when Eddie shows up with his new friends that he is so eager to please and impress…
What I Loved: Fanny and the sea! I love that Fanny (a.k.a. Fish) loved the ocean and wanted to pursue a career in marine biology. I loved learning about artificial reefs and lionfish – and imagining Mrs. Norris as a “goliath” grouper! LOL! While this story did not end with a romance, it did have a happy ending and a promising dynamic between two characters that my romantic heart likes to think will lead to a romance! 😉
LYDIA REIMAGINED – Jennifer Becton
Premise: Even though George broke her heart years ago, Lydia Bennet comes to his wedding to finally show everyone she is no longer the wild party-girl who used to worship him…
What I Loved: That Lydia is reformed! I loved that she used her pain and awareness to transform her wild ways. I also loved seeing her strike up a romance (unintentionally) with someone else! She was admirable and adorable. The premise worked perfectly and the conclusion was wonderfully satisfying! Loved it! One of my faves!
CONCLUSION:
I truly love these compact, clever, and contemporary renditions of Jane Austen’s novels and characters! I’m always impressed by the creative and unique way each author paid homage to Jane Austen – the subtle winks, inside jokes, and imaginative reincarnations – just brilliant! Such an awesome team, and such a remarkable collection of stories!
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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
The lovely ladies of Indie Jane Press have generously donated ONE lovely new paperback copy of Holidays with Jane: Spring Fever for me to give away to ONE lucky winner!!
To enter this giveaway, leave a comment about my review!
- This giveaway is open worldwide. Thank you, Indie Jane Press!
- This giveaway ends May 25th!
What a great review of the book of short stories – thank you! Although I am not always a fan of modern day Jane Austen, the premises are very intriguing and am sure that the antics of the beloved characters are the same today as in Regency England. Can’t wait to read it! Thank you for the giveaway.
Thank you, Eva! This book is filled with Jane Austen love and admiration, so even if you don’t care for contemporary stories and moderns, I’m sure you will find much to love in these stories!
This looks like a fun read. Your review highlighting each story and what you loved didnt give too much away but dangled that carrot to make me put it on my tbr list! Thanks
Definitely fun! I try hard to not give away anything important! 🙂
Although I prefer historicals, I read and really enjoyed the holiday collection from this group of authors. I’d like to be in this giveaway!
They do a great job, don’t they?
Your wonderful review of this delightful giveaway was excellent and peaked my interest. Thanks for this great feature and giveaway.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed my review!
Oh I am so excited! I loved the Christmas one. Thanks for letting us know about this!
Becky
Happy to share my thoughts with you all!
I.want.this.book.:-). It’s time to start my summer TBR stack and I would love to start with this book. Thanks for the opportunity to win it.
A perfect book for this time of year! Best of luck!
I also loved this book… I agree with you on Extra Innings, Persuasion has become my favorite JA novel and I love modern re-imagining, especially this one!
🙂 Glad you loved this book, Cindy! The authors do such a wonderful job!
Sounds interesting. The one about the paranormal investigator sounds good. Mostly I enjoy the historical ones but some modern ones are good.
I think having the stories take place in modern-day gives the authors an endless line of possibilities and scenarios. It’s fun to see all the different settings and situations they can tell their stories.
I love this blog and really appreciate the reviews! I have found many great books from your lists and I am sure this latest book is just as terrific 🙂
Thank you for such kind words, Erin! This book is terrific! I hope you get the chance to read it soon!
Those are creative modern retellings for the stories. I need to get busy and read the Christmas one too. Glad this was a good one!
Creative with a capital C! I look forward to hearing what you think about both anthologies!
I love modern retellings! If you say it’s a good book I’d love to read it!
It’s a wonderful book! Best of luck!
I knew you’d love this one! 😀 It was so beautiful to read a new anthology by these amazing authors! My favourite stories were Extra Innings (I basically love any “variation” of Rick’s letter!), Miracle at the Abbey (loved all the tension between Kathia and Henry… yeah, I know, I’m weird :P), and Lydia Reimagined (a new, sweet and charming boyfriend for a new, lovely Lydia? I loved this change!) Though, if I had to choose, I’d say that I liked the Christmas collection better. Somehow I found there was more magic in it. Guess it depended on the season. 🙂
I’m the same way, it is so interesting to see how many different way Wentworth delivers his “letter!” I agree with you about the tension between Kathia and Henry – I wish that one was a little longer. 🙂 I’ve heard a rumor that there might be an Autumn Holidays with Jane anthology!! *fingers crossed*
I know!! I’ve heard that the theme will be Halloween! 😀
Thanks for describing each story! I have the Christmas volume, and look forward to reading this one, too.
This is probably one of my longest reviews! Glad you liked the description of each story! 🙂
This book seems very funny and I Always love Reading about Jane Austen ‘ characters. Thanks For the giveaway.
It definitely has a lot of wit and humor! 🙂
Love how you give a snapshot review of each short story! I can never get enough of Jane Austen’s characters! Thanks for the giveaway.
Thanks! Each story was so well-done, I wanted to say something about each of them! 😉
I read the Christmas edition and liked it. This will go on my Wish List. Sounds delightful. Good review – you never disappoint, Meredith.
You are so sweet, Sheila! Thank you! 🙂 I hope you enjoy this one as much as you did the Christmas one!
These little snippets sound perfect!
🙂 Glad you like it!
Gosh this book sounds super fun!! Lots of stories, hard to pick one to begin with 😉 Would really love to win, so please count me in 😀
Absolutely! It’s great to have so many options and so many lovely stories in one book!
Great review! This book is definitely on my ‘to read’ list! Please don’t judge – but I love these modern day retellings better than the originals! Maybe I need to try to go back a try to read the originals now that I don’t ‘have’ to.
Thanks! You might feel different about the originals this time around! I can understand liking the modern-day retellings a lot – many are very well-done!
I enjoyed reading the review, Meredith. The cover is beautiful and I can’t wait to read the stories inside.
Thank you, Sylvia! I love their cover designs!
I’ve enjoyed your review a lot and now I have a good perspective of these short stories. I haven’t read anything of these authors and this spring book would be a delightful way of meeting them. Thanks for your opinion and the giveaway 🙂
If you never read anything by these authors – getting a little taste of their work in this anthology is a great way to determine if you want to read more by them (which I definitely recommend you do!)
Sonds very interesting. I like the contemporary variations of Jane Austen. I have just finished Boots and Backpacks and I have loved it! I imagine I can really like this one as well 🙂
That’s a great story! Glad you loved it! I think you would love this one too! 🙂