Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale

Charlotte Kinder is a good woman. She is kind. She is dependable and hard working. When her husband leaves her she puts up very little fuss and just let's her emotions turn numb. After all that does make it easier when she thinks about her ex's new wife Justice. But suddenly she fears that she will never feel anything at all. What was the last thing that made her feel anything? Not the blind dates her friends and co-workers keep shoving her into, that's for sure. Now that she thinks about it the last good feeling she can remember comes from reading Jane Austen's books as it happens. So she goes in search of more of this feeling and finds herself on her way to Pembrook Park, England, and a full immersion into the world of Austen. Soon her heart is beating, and thrills are running through her. But is it from the actors paid to faun upon her? Or a dangerous secret lurking somewhere through the park, nesting in secret rooms. Who can Charlotte trust in a world of make-believe? Is she so caught up in things she can't tell fiction from reality, or will she rise up to be the Austen heroine she always wanted to be?

This novel is a somewhat sequel to Hale's previous book Austenland, somewhat being that it had reoccurring characters from the first and continues to take place at Pembrook Park. Other than that it is pretty unique with a brand new main character and a new story of intrigue.

I really liked this novel and sped through it. Again I was enchanted by Hale's writing style and her character's narration. It was really a hoot to read and I found myself giggling throughout. The story was also interesting with much more action than the first and a whole new set of interesting quirks to explore. I really liked this because though Hale is revisiting a world she has already led the reader through, she doesn't try to tell the same story. She is mindful that we as the reader know what's going on here and therefore dips in and changes things up in a way I might not have expected but thoroughly enjoyed. Charlotte as a narrator is fresh and very different from the previous narrator Jane. I found that I really liked Charlotte more and it lent me more interested in the story. Charlotte has spunk, and though she struggles with finding and accepting this part of herself, she gets there eventually.

I wasn't as impressed with the romantic plot in this one. It wasn't uninteresting and I definitely didn't find it a chore to get through. However I was more impressed with the female camaraderie in this story. I felt like I was seeing the friendship that was alluded to in the movie Austenland turning up here rather than in the book the film was based off. Charlotte and Miss Charming really hit it off and there is some definite friendship between them. It was refreshing and fun to learn more about Miss Charming and I liked seeing more of her in the story.

All in all I'd say this is another great Shannon Hale story and highly recommend it to any Austen fans.

Austenland by Shannon Hale

          

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Jane Hayes has a secret. To the world she is a moderately successful graphic designer, she has her fair share of dates, and she lives a content if quiet life. But behind closed doors she is a hopeless addict, and her poison is none other than Jane Austen. Nothing in real life can measure up to Mr. Darcy or the idyllic romance born of the shades of Pemberley. So when she suddenly finds herself in possession of a fully paid trip to a real live Austen themed vacation in England, Jane feels this might be just the thing she was looking for. Here is her chance to finally get over her ridiculous infatuation with her fantasy Austen world. So she dives in to the Regency era, ready to get all the nonsense out of her system and move on with her life. But when the lines between the act and real life begin to blur, Jane realizes she might be getting more than she bargained for.

I'm just going to lay it out first of all that this is going to be a book/movie review. I watched the movie and was absolutely enchanted with it. So when I discovered it was also a book I naturally made it my next goal in life to read it as soon as possible.

Of course as it always happens, film and written versions of a story both give a much different story experience. In this case I loved both of them, though for different reasons each way.

Watching the movie was so much fun. It didn't remotely try to take itself seriously and it seamlessly made fun of Austen fanatics while also paying a sort of homage to them. On top of this it had just the right amount of rom com to leave me with warm fuzzies but not an over-sugary taste in my mouth. To say I was enamored of the movie wouldn't be to far from the truth, and I'm not ashamed to admit that my own Austen fanaticism, lying dormant for some time, crept back and has now taken over my life again, at least until the next thing that tickles my fancy.

The book is a short fast read. I read it in about 6 or 7 hours. I really loved Hale's narration and writing style. though I didn't find the book as comedic as the movie, the voice of Jane Hayes was a hoot. It cought be from the very first page and I found that while book!Jane was pretty different from movie!Jane, they both had their merit.

The book and its Jane were much more serious than the movie. I was actually somewhat surprised. by it, though it didn't by any means diminish how good the story was. Book!Jane is ashamed of Her Austen obsession, and the reader eventually gets the feel that she is ashamed of how she has lead her own life up to this point. The added seriousness in the book gives Jane more depth as a character. The arguments that happen within her were pretty on point and identifiable. Each time Jane has that moment of clarity and pulls her head out of the Austen mist the reader gets the same dose of reality. I feel Hale definitely did this on purpose, making the reader step back and see the uncomfortable reality the same way her character was. Just as Jane can't fully immerse herself in Austenland, the reader is not allowed to forget that they are reading some perfect historical fantasy but an 18th century world awkwardly forced into the 21st.

In the movie however, Jane is much more comfortable with her obsession. Her fanaticism is overemphasized to the point of hilarity. She is awkward fangirl with no shame over her love of everything Jane Austen. This is shown in everything from her house decorated from top to bottom complete with full sized Colin Firth cardboard cut-out, the montage showing her obsession fro adolescence to adulthood, and then the fact that she initiates the vacation herself out of interest rather than it being a gift she reluctantly accepts as was the case in the book. The fact that she dresses up in a homemade regency dress and goes through the airport like that speaks for this. Some can call it weird, but that is a fearless fangirl. As an unabashedly obsessed fangirl myself, I actually connected more with movie!Jane than book!Jane. I saw myself in her silly obsessive self, as well in her brave jump into her favorite fantasy. Because I have to say, fan that I am, I would actually love to do something like what she does in this movie and I am not at all ashamed to admit it.

One thing I really missed that was in the movie but not in the books was the friendship of movie!Charming and movie!Jane. In the movie, Miss Charming as not only a form of comedic relief, but a real representative of a female friendship. The viewer got a sense of camaraderie and a 'we're in this together' feeling that really brought the words from the book to life on screen in a way that the written counterpart just didn't achieve. I really liked this friendship between them, because though this is supposed to be a romantic comedy, it doesn't end up being just about men. There was some very real feelings of friendship and connection between these two women who have been thrown together in this strange world.

You do get this very slightly in the book with Amelia and Jane, but this is only at the very end when the facade is over, and therefore doesn't really count as much in my opinion.

Overall, despite having a few repetitive descriptive mechanisms, I really liked the book and highly recommend it to any Jane Austen fan. I also highly HIGHLY recommend the movie, though I will warn that you might not like it as much if you can't sit back and have a little laugh at yourself. If you can it is great to watch and just have a little fun with