This is a strong contender for the annual Modern Mrs Darcy Summer Reading Guide, and will definitely be of interest to my readers.

I am always interested in reading books that tell a familiar story from another point of view. This book was an interesting look at Rochester, who we see only through Jane Eyre's eyes in the original novel. Shoemaker does a good job making Rochester fleshed out and sympathetic without making any apologies for the not-so-great things he does in his life.

I typically don't enjoy retellings of classic stories unless they have some remarkable twist to them. (For example, I yawned quite a bit through Death Comes to Pemberley.) This novel, a retelling of Jane Eyre from Mr. Rochester's perspective, surprised me by how well it captured my interest.

The story follows a similar path to the original, telling of Edward Rochester's boyhood and education. The prose was beautiful, and I felt completely transported into Edward's world of a distant father, a dismissive elder brother, and a longing for the mother he never knew. His education, both in the liberal arts at his tutor's home and in manufacturing at a cloth mill, was fascinating and contained many foreshadowings of later pieces of the story. The secondary characters were portrayed masterfully, and I was reminded of Dickens' supporting casts (albeit, without the humor). When Edward finally took his long-awaited trip to Jamaica, I cringed with anticipation, wondering just how he would be entrapped into marrying the insane Bertha Mason...and then, oh, the horror of the predicament he finds himself in!

If I have any critique of the book, it would be that the last third which retells his relationship with Jane was a little tedious. But at the same time, I enjoyed the surprising twist at the end and the added character which brought a fascinating moral dilemma into a story already filled with moral dilemmas. Even for those who are not fans of Jane Eyre, this is an excellent novel--recommended!

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book is for people who love Jane Eyre and think about Rochester in the same way the rest of pop culture thinks about Darcy. Shoemaker does so well at capturing the spare tone of Brontë there are times that I could have sworn it was written by Charlotte herself. While the fleshing out of Rochester's complicated relationship with Bertha and his family adds some depth to Rochester it does nothing radical to the character or story itself. Nor does the last half of the book shine as much as the first wherein Shoemaker is left free to tell young Rochester's story rather than force her hero to adhere to canon.

I received this title from NetGalley for review. I was attracted by the cover and the promise of Mr. Rochester's story from Jane Eyre. What a beautiful story! Readers are allowed to step into the world of Edward Rochester. We learn of his childhood and his developing years. How he is sent away from his beloved Thornfield Hall and the servants who loved him. How he was taught to become the man that his father wanted him to be by tutors and mentors but not allowed to be with his family. We also see the choices he made as a young man, how he was drawn into a passionate affair with the beautiful Bertha, only to find himself back at his beloved Thornfield Hall with a mad wife and much regret for the choices he has made. Then he meets Jane Eyre, a sweet, innocent woman who changes him forever. Ms. Shoemaker's writing mirrors the writing style of Charlotte Bronte quite well. Fans of Jane Eyre, Jane Austin's Persuasion, and Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South will enjoy this title. I highly recommend it!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and the insight provided into the story of Jane Eyre from Mr. Rochester's perspective. At times, his inner musings and angst grew tedious but the story moved along at a fairly good clip, keeping me engaged. I confess I had to go back and do a bit of a refresher course on the plot and themes of Jane Eyre and am glad I did so to tie it all together. The last part felt a bit rushed though and even knowing the way the story must end, I felt the author could have spent more time in developing Edward and James' relationship.

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. I picked this up hoping for more background on Mr. Rochester's character. After reading it, I'm even less sure of Mr. Rochester's charms for Jane. His marriage to Bertha didn't seem particularly believable. If he was so shallow as to marry Bertha simply because of her physical beauty without looking at everything else, he doesn't deserve Jane. (on Goodreads - couldn't capture the link)

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite novels and my fascination with the Brontes is endless. This is beautiful retelling of Jane Eyre from Mr. Rochester himself. We follow him as a small boy into adulthood. This novel tells of his fascinating life with his overbearing father. I loved the fleshed out story of how he came to be married to his beautiful but mad first wife. The vivid descriptions and unforgettable characters will stay with you long after the last page.

I absolutely love reading reworks of the classics told from an alternate point of view, and "Mr. Rochester" definitely caught my attention. "Jane Eyre" is one of my absolute favorites and Mr. Rochester ranks right up there with Mr. Darcy as far as I am concerned. "Mr. Rochester" is an imagining of the life of Edward Rochester, from his days as a young boy in boarding school, to his formative years as a young man learning the business world at a mill, to his time in Jamaica running his father's sugar plantation. I love how Ms. Shoemaker was able to weave in what we know about the Rochester family, his turbulent love/hate relationship with Bertha, and his caring for Adele into his backstory leading up to the arrival of his dear Jane at Thornfield Hall. It was faithful to the tone of "Jane Eyre" and beautifully told, helping us to understand a bit more why Mr. Rochester had so many rough edges that only Jane could smooth down.

The Bronte sisters have always been a bit of a fascination to me since my late teens. Charlotte in particular after reading Jane Eyre for the first time so many years ago. There is also the fact that 19th Century Gothic Classics tend to be my forte-if you will. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre evokes those Gothic themes many readers love. One can’t be help be drawn to the gloominess and the elements of the English moors, the troubling events unfolding, or the hauntingly beautiful and mysterious Thornfield Hall. The raw emotions of romance, madness, and tortured feelings brings you even closer to the realization of a person’s soul.

After having read Jane Eyre several times over the years I still wondered about so many things. When Mr. Rochester came along I was hoping some of those things would be answered. Like what was Edward Rochester life like as a child and young adult and how did his upbringing shape him into the man we see in Jane Eyre? I wanted to further explore the relationship between Bertha Mason and Rochester. I firmly believe her story of insanity and wretchedness plays a pivotal role in the outcome of Jane Eyre. Does Shoemaker give the reader a better understanding of those important details in her story, Mr. Rochester? What is it convincing enough?

The story starts with Edward Rochester’s early life at Thornfield Hall. Though it is not expanded on, Edward’s mother died giving birth to him, his father indifferent to him and his brother’s unkindness shows his childhood was lonely and neglected at best. At least that is what I got from the brief telling of it. As he got a little older he was entrusted to the care of Mr. Lincoln for his education until the age of thirteen when his father felt he was old enough to learn more of the world. Mr. John Wilson of Maysbeck then took him under his care and Edward soon discovers the education he was to receive from Wilson was not what he thought. You see, Edwards father had plans for him that was not the tradition route for a second son during the era and his class. From there things did get rather interesting at times but I felt Edwards characterization could have been stronger. I don’t feel you get to really know him and it seems like he is doing more telling of his surroundings and what everyone’s else is doing. As he got older and I read about his relationship with Bertha Mason and Jane Eyre, I felt disjointed with the portrayal Shoemakers gives. His upbringing in this story did not convince me of why he became the man he was in Jane Eyre.

There were a lot of miss opportunities in this story. The scenes and Edward’s interaction with the characters didn’t exactly drive the plot and left me feeling dissatisfied with the overall story.

I am not sure I would readily recommend this story to my fellow enthusiasts of the classics. Having said that, I applauded Shoemakers’ efforts in creating Rochester’s early life and despite my shrewd analysis above I respect the authors’ endeavor.

Stephanie M. Hopkins

*I obtained a copy of this book from the Publishers through NetGalley for an honest review*

Mr. Rochester was a particularly hard book to review. After I finished it (and I sped through it, not being able to wait to get to the satisfying end), I had to take a day or three to properly sort out my feelings about Jane Eyre from Edward Rochester’s view.
Give me all the Jane Eyre adaptations and homages and I will be pleased as punch. There was a lot to like here—the beginning was delightfully Dickensian and I was definitely feeling some David Copperfield, which is a favorite of mine. Bertha was a surprising character. She’s no one’s favorite—not even in Wild Sargasso Sea—but she was compelling here. Truly I think the parts set in Jamaica were my favorite since it was something not covered at all by Bronte in the original text. Shoemaker did a wonderful job of setting the scene and fleshing out the looked over characters.
I had exactly two criticisms of this book—one being that the time jumps were a bit jarring. The reader sees Rochester grow up and then suddenly on the next page it’s been x number of years. The second was that Jane herself felt a bit stilted. It could be that we just know her so well from reading and rereading Bronte that maybe her quiet one dimensionalism is truly how other people would see her, since we know better. But their relationship didn’t seem as passionate as Bertha and Rochester’s were, which was disappointing.
All in all though, I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Rochester and would recommend it to any Eyre fan. It made me want to reread the original text and enjoy the new perspective I now have.
5 stars!

I’ve nothing against Charlotte Bronte, but Jane Eyre is not my favorite classic. Jane’s marital struggles hit too close to home and I find that I am more inclined to reference the novel in jest than I am to recommend its contents. All things considered, I probably should have avoided Sarah Shoemaker’s Mr. Rochester, but the novel’s premise proved too intriguing to ignore. I was curious and there was simply no end to the questions that taunted my imagination. How would a woman write Jane’s iconic lover? How exactly did he fall prey to his father and elder brother? How would a woman validate his deceit toward Jane?

Unfortunately, many of the questions that drew me to the novel remain unanswered even after finishing the narrative. I enjoyed the masculine perspective and historical depth of the story, but can’t deny that the reality of the novel left me wanting. Mr. Rochester is an ambitious project and much like Mr. Darcy’s Diary and Rhett Butler’s People, there will be fans who adore it and others who find it flawed. I can’t and don’t pretend to speak for everyone, but I fall into the latter demographic in this instance as I felt the narrative failed to capitalize on the spirit Bronte hinted her hero was meant to possess. In Jane Eyre, Rochester states, “When I was as old as you, I was a feeling fellow enough, partial to the unfledged, unfostered, and unlucky; but Fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me with her knuckles, and now I flatter myself I am hard and tough as an India-rubber ball; pervious, though, through a chink or two still, and with one sentient point in the middle of the lump. Yes: does that leave hope for me?... Of my final re-transformation from India-rubber back to flesh?" This essence of character is referenced once again in the final chapter when Jane relays that “When his first-born was put into his arms, he could see that the boy had inherited his own eyes, as they once were — large, brilliant, and black. On that occasion, he again, with a full heart, acknowledged that God had tempered judgment with mercy.” I may be alone in my assessment, but I feel these lines imply that Jane restored to Edward the generous, optimistic, and grateful nature that was stolen by the betrayal of those closest to him. This understanding manifested itself in an expectation that any story based on Rochester should naturally feature the growth of that personality and the circumstances that crushed it, but that view was not it seems, shared by Shoemaker. Her version of Rochester’s life is stark, muted, and often mimics the experiences of his beloved Jane. In her eyes, Edward is a lonely and neglected child who turns into a lost and rather insecure young man. I respect that interpretations differ, but I personally felt Shoemaker’s approach weakened Rochester’s overall character and that it lessened import and influence that Jane’s affections are shown to afford in the original novel.

Jane herself doesn’t appear until the final third of narrative and their love affair is expanded very little by that which Shoemaker illustrates in the closing chapters. I will say that I appreciated Shoemaker’s treatment of Mrs. Fairfax, but like Bronte, I feel Shoemaker shortchanged Grace Poole and while I liked what Shoemaker attempted to do with Richard, I felt both illustrations could have been more intuitive and enlightening. I felt Edward’s relationship with his father and elder brother equally disappointing and was frustrated that the tension between them was so often muted by physical distance. The fictional supporting cast left virtually no impression on me, but I will note a particular frustration with Gerald. Short of feeling superfluous to the narrative, I felt his scenes forced and unnatural. His existence was enough to serve Shoemaker’s purpose and I couldn’t help feeling his adult presence upstaged that of Richard in the latter chapters of the narrative.

When all is said and done, I don’t feel the narrative allowed any new understanding of Edward Rochester as it did not elaborate on his life, personality, or emotions beyond that of his original incarnation. The same can be said of the supporting cast and while I feel there is merit in the historical scope of the novel, I’m not sure that I could recommend it on other grounds.

It takes a lot of gut to take on the voice of one of the most beloved characters in one of the most beloved books of all time. Jane Eyre remains one of my favorite books of all time, one of the few that I will actually re-read, so it was with some trepidation that I read this book. Shoemaker does a good job of capturing Rochester’s voice and explaining his early years, his horrible father and his ensuing years of debauchery and the eventual marriage to the woman who would become the mad woman in the attic. I had a hard time with Rochester’s view of Jane, but that may just be because I am so used to seeing this story from another perspective. All in all this is a credible and enjoyable follow-up to Jane Eyre and one I actually do plan to re-read after I let it sink in a little. I would encourage readers of the original book to take a chance on this story, I think they will be pleasantly surprised