Laurie Viera Rigler’s debut novel, Confessions of a Jane
Austen Addict, was a hit with fans and critics, and a
BookSense and Los Angeles Times bestseller. Its
open-to-interpretation ending left readers begging for
more—and Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict delivers.
While Confessions took twenty-first-century free spirit
Courtney Stone into the social confines of Jane Austen’s
era, Rude Awakenings tells the parallel story of Jane
Mansfield, a gentleman’s daughter from Regency England who
inexplicably awakens in Courtney’s overly wired and morally
confused L.A. life.
For Jane, the modern world is
not wholly disagreeable. Her apartment may be smaller than a
dressing closet, but it is fitted up with lights that burn
without candles, machines that wash bodies and clothes, and
a glossy rectangle in which tiny people perform scenes from
her favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. Granted, if
she wants to travel she may have to drive a formidable metal
carriage, but she may do so without a chaperone. And oh,
what places she goes! Public assemblies that pulsate with
pounding music. Unbound hair and unrestricted clothing. The
freedom to say what she wants when she wants—even to men
without a proper introduction.
Jane relishes the
privacy, independence, even the power to earn her own money.
But how is she to fathom her employer’s incomprehensible
dictates about “syncing a BlackBerry” and
“rolling a call”? How can she navigate a world in
which entire publications are devoted to brides but flirting
and kissing and even the sexual act itself raise no
matrimonial expectations? Even more bewildering are the
memories that are not her own. And the friend named Wes, who
is as attractive and confusing to Jane as the man who broke
her heart back home. It’s enough to make her wonder if she
would be better off in her own time, where at least the
rules are clear—that is, if returning is even an option.
Our Past Week of Fresh Picks
|