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Also by Cora Harrison:

Murder in an Orchard Cemetery, September 2021
Hardcover / e-Book
Death of a Prominent Citizen, July 2020
Hardcover / e-Book
Death Of A Novice, July 2018
Hardcover / e-Book
A Fatal Inheritance, March 2016
e-Book
A Shameful Murder, August 2015
Hardcover / e-Book
Scales of Retribution, May 2011
Hardcover
I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend, October 2010
Trade Size
The Sting Of Justice, December 2009
Hardcover
My Lady Judge, September 2007
Hardcover

I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend
Cora Harrison

A Secret Diary

Delacorte
October 2010
On Sale: September 28, 2010
Featuring: Jenny Cooper; Jane Austen; Thomas Williams
352 pages
ISBN: 0385739400
EAN: 9780385739405
Trade Size
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Jane Austen | Young Adult

When shy Jenny Cooper goes to stay with her cousin Jane Austen, she knows nothing of the world of beautiful dresses, dances, secrets, gossip, and romance that Jane inhabits. At fifteen, Jane is already a sharp observer of the customs of courtship. So when Jenny falls utterly in love with Captain Thomas Williams, who better than Jane to help her win the heart of this dashing man?

But is that even possible? After all, Jenny’s been harboring a most desperate secret. Should it become known, it would bring scandal not only to her, but also to the wonderful Austen family. What’s a poor orphan girl to do?

In this delicious dance between truth and fiction, Cora Harrison has crafted Jenny’s secret diary by reading everything Jane Austen wrote as a child and an adult, and by researching biographies, critical studies, and family letters. Jenny’s diary makes the past spring vividly to life and provides insight into the entire Austen family—especially the beloved Jane.

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Comments

3 comments posted.

Re: I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend

This sounds like an intriguing book, especially since Jane Austen was also a character in another book I recently read: Lauren Willig's "The Mischief of the Mistletoe." I didn't know too much about Austen's life before reading that book but found that she was living in Bath at the time the book takes place. And yes, the author through Jane Austen's friend also spilled some of the beans on Austen family life. I'll definitely want to read "I was Jane Austen's Best Friend." I found it in our City Library among the Teen books. I hope it still means that we more elderly can also read it. I just finished reading the Geoffrey Trease's "Mist Over Athelney," about Alfred the Great's defeat of the Danish. Anything that has history in it is fine for me.
(Sigrun Schulz 5:35am March 23, 2011)

I would love to read this intriguing novel.
(Gloria Walshver 7:38am March 23, 2011)

Jane Austin was such a powerful force in fiction that even a fictional tale about her best friend will be fascinating.
(Betty Breithaupt 10:58pm March 30, 2011)