Lily is struggling to get over the death of her mother, as well as recently being fired for reading on the job and being dumped by her boyfriend. Desperate for an escape, the bibliophile and Jane Austen fan jumps at the chance to leave the States behind for a literary festival in England, where she'll join a cast that is re-enacting Mansfield Park. (The fact she has no real acting experience is only a minor drawback.) But when she arrives at Newton Priors, the English manor house that will be her "stage," and meets the real actors, as well as the eccentric folks behind the scenes, Lily realizes she's in over her head. Then her job is threatened when the flighty actress no one figured would show up actually does. With a ghostly Jane Austen looking on, Lily fumbles her way through a different culture, meets a mysterious and handsome seminary student, learns to act and deals with more problems that arise back home. So much for escaping...

I'm probably just an average Austen fan and have not read Mansfield Park. Perhaps if I'd read it I would have appreciated this story more. For me, there were too many characters, many of whom weren't really likable. Lily is not a happy person -- although heaven knows she has good reason not to be -- but that makes it hard to warm up to her and enjoy being part of her journey. The idea of her own personal Jane Austen was clever, but I felt like more could have been done with it. I liked the background of the lit fest, and some of the scenes were amusing, but overall I just never engaged with the book. I would be interested to hear what readers who are more familiar with Mansfield Park think, though. That may be the reason for my disconnect.