Review: The Austen Escape

Title: The Austen Escape
Author: Katherine Reay
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: November 7, 2017
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

After years of following her best friend’s lead, Mary Davies finds a whimsical trip back to Austen’s Regency England paves the way towards a new future.

Mary Davies lives and works in Austin, Texas, as an industrial engineer. She has an orderly and productive life, a job and colleagues that she enjoys—particularly a certain adorable, intelligent, and hilarious consultant. But something is missing for Mary. When her estranged and emotionally fragile childhood friend Isabel Dwyer offers Mary a two-week stay in a gorgeous manor house in Bath, Mary reluctantly agrees to come along, in hopes that the holiday will shake up her quiet life in just the right ways. But Mary gets more than she bargained for when Isabel loses her memory and fully believes that she lives in Regency England. Mary becomes dependent on a household of strangers to take care of Isabel until she wakes up.

With Mary in charge and surrounded by new friends, Isabel rests and enjoys the leisure of a Regency lady. But life gets even more complicated when Mary makes the discovery that her life and Isabel’s have intersected in more ways that she knew, and she finds herself caught between who Isabel was, who she seems to be, and the man who stands between them. Outings are undertaken, misunderstandings play out, and dancing ensues as this triangle works out their lives and hearts among a company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation.

Review:

I love Jane Austen adaptations, so when I heard about this one, I had to get it!

I really liked this story. It had some great twists. There were a few moments when my mouth dropped open, I was so surprised.

I loved how they were from Austin, Texas. It was a subtle reference to Austen that I didn’t pick up on at first, but it was a cute addition. 

I also really liked the Austen references. It made me feel connected with the characters, like having an inside joke. There were also a variety of ages of characters, from a couple in their eighties to an eight-year-old girl. This variety was great because it gave the opportunity to show many different Austen characters, such as Mrs. Jennings and Margaret Dashwood.

This story reminds me of Austenland, so the story wasn’t too original. But I still enjoyed it. I recommend this story for all Austen lovers!

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett