Lately any books coming out involving Jane Austen and/or her stories seem to have something of the supernatural about them. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; Sense and Sensibilities and Sea Monsters and now the latest I read: Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford.
Jane Austen is running a book-store somewhere in small town America some two hundred years after her death. That's of course because she isn't dead, she's a vampire. Turned by another great writer of her time (which I have yet to read), she lives forever as her forty year old self, never aging, greying or gaining weight. She uses the name Elizabeth Jane Fairfax and cannot get her latest book published. All the fuss over Jane Austen drives her mad (finger puppets? Action figures? Sense and Sensuality?), the man who turned her into a vampire comes back and shakes things up and she's almost romantically involved with the local Mr Perfect: Walter. And finally a publisher wants to publish her book...
Where PPZ and SSSM were adaptations of Jane Austen novels, this is a completely new work and in my opinion the best of the three. Yes, there are vampires in it, but it never becomes ridiculous or unbelievable, because it feels like a beautiful love story with some vampires. I can't wait for the sequel, but since this book has only been out for six/seven weeks, I will have to wait a while yet...
Very highly recommended!
I may look out for this one Mara - could be interesting. A
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