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Reviews
Lansing State Journal
New novel provides comedy, satire and suspense
• August 3, 2008 • From DeWitt-Bath Review
Although "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict" by Laurie Viera Rigler could easily be dismissed as a frivolous story about time travel with Jane Austin thrown into the mix to pull in readers, this novel is far better than that brief description. The details of Jane Austen's life let you know that the author is fully familiar with the charming author's history. So many details of her works are placed in the novel.
Courtney Stone has suffered failure in both her romantic relationship and her closest friendship. Whenever life has gotten her down, she has always retreated to reading one of Jane Austen's works. After a disillusioning night spent with vodka and re-reading "Pride and Prejudice", she wakes up in an unfamiliar bedroom. She emotionally goes through all the usual tests to determine whether or not she is dreaming. Nothing seems to make her wake up.. She learns that her new family thinks that she is recovering from a fall from a horse. She is inhabiting a body with a better figure and better hair. Her immediate problem is the arrival of a doctor who wants to start blood letting. Courtney has her 21st century mind that rebels at, first, the thought of losing blood, and secondly, having any instruments used on her in such an unsanitary situation. She is sure she does not want an infected wound in pre-antibiotic days.
Courtney's new persona is Jane Mansfield, a 30-year-old spinster. Courtney meets Jane's friend, Mary and discovers both she and her new self have an attraction to Mary's brother. She realizes that her new mother's greatest fear is that she will not be able to see her daughter well married. This society with its confining rules is a shock to Courtney, no matter how well read she is. A California girl who likes her vodka and cigarettes has a difficult time blending into a time where she can go nowhere without a chaperone.
Naturally, there is a love interest, but Courtney strangely has memories of that person. She feels very disoriented when she realizes that she can remember incidents from the lives of the new people who surround her.