AudioBook Review: Rude Awakening of a Jane Austen Addict

Book Details
Title: Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict
Author: Laurie Viera Rigler
2009, Unknown
ISBN: 978-1400162499

Book Summary:
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.

My Review:
Jane Mansfield has ended up in a body she does not know and in a time she does not recognize. In this follow-up to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, where 21st-Century Courtney Stone ends up in a regency-era body and life (Jane Mansfield's), this novel follows regency-era Jane Mansfield as she finds herself in a 21st-Century body and life! What the two women have in common are their love of Jane Austen novels. Jane must now make sense of this modern world she finds herself in with cars, movies, bathrooms and women's rights.

Wonderful follow-up to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. I actually enjoyed this book more than the previous one because I felt that the main character, Jane, was smarter in this future world than her counterpart, Courtney, was in the last novel. Although Jane has been transported through time into another body and place (200 years in the future!), she takes everything in stride and quickly picks up on many lifestyle and cultural changes. It is amusing how she talks throughout the book - in her old-English style phrases and words - and I think it adds to her charm.

Whereas the previous novel left its readers hanging at the end, this novel wraps up both stories nicely and answers some of those unanswered questions from the previous novel and this one.

I listened to the audio book version of this novel. I really enjoyed listening to it, Kate Reading, the performer, did a good job of voicing the duel person of Jane and Courtney. I thought her voice was a little annoying when she was reading the men's lines, as she tried to lower her voice into a more "male" tone, but I suppose that can't be helped. She did a wonderful job of switching between a British accent when talking like Jane and American when she was talking as Courtney.

Good book for Jane Austen lovers. A fun read - I found myself laughing to myself several
times!

This is my honest opinion. The book came from my personal TBR pile and I was not compensated in any way for this review.