I can never resist an Austen adaptation and Jane of Austin delivers on all counts. The writing flowing and effortless and I could not help but smile at each turn of the page. Manton Lodge can craft a character as easily as she can make a cup of tea. I loved every minute of this charming tale.

Jane of Austin
By Hillary Manton Lodge
If you are in love with everything Jane Austin, I am sure this title caught your eye. This spin of Jane Austin’s Sense and Sensibility follows Jane and her sisters, Celia and Margot. After their father ruins the family name and flees the girls are left to try and make sense of what their future will look like. Just when things are starting to settle down into a routine their lives take another drastic change both romantically and physically. The girls are turned out of their LA home and find themselves displaced. The sisters decide to move to Austin with a cousin to start over again. Starting over is not as easy the second time around. The girls struggle to discover who they are and what they want for their future. The move to Austin is not turning out as they expected and begin to shift their focus from each other onto themselves and the chasm between them grows. Jane finds solace in a new romance until she is left broken-hearted and confused. Discouraged and beaten down the girls turn back to each other and realize how important they are to each other. This isn’t the end but it is the beginning for them.
I love Jane Austin so I had to read this. I thought it was an ok read. It felt like many of the plots of Jane Austin’s books were at play but it felt to forced at points. I didn’t really like how different events played out. The events, of course, were made to be extreme and then cleaned up nice and tidy making the situation seem inconceivable and unrealistic. Overall though it wasn’t a terrible read. The characters were developed and it was well written. Different recipes were shared throughout the book that correlated with the girl’s story which was fun.
If you are a Jane Austin junkie and are looking for a good read check it out.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion which I share here.

What a lovely story. Fans of Jane Austen will be queuing up to enjoy another perspective on their heroine and her characters. A diamond in the rough, this is a very enjoyable read.

So when I started this I realized that I have never read Sense & Sensibility. I have seen the movie (RIP Alan Rickman) twice, but I do not remember much about the original plot. This book started off really strong and ended the same way. But, from about 30% to 60% I was bored and wanted something to happen. I think the whole Sean plot line bothered me (I just wanted cute Callum & Jane scenes okay). I loved the reference to Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy's iconic wet t-shirt, quality writing. My only other complaint is the timing was odd. We could go a single day between chapters or go a couple of weeks. I loved the Woodward sister's relationship and seeing them work hard at their business.

Overall, aside from a chunk in the middle, this was a fun read. I loved seeing both Jane and Callum as narrators and loved seeing their relationship grow.

Thanks to netgalley for an eARC. This is a very enjoyable read. Three sisters tragically lose their mother in a car accident and then their father embezzles money from his job leading to his being fired.. The father flees for the Caymans leaving the girls to fend for themselves. The girls open a tea salon in San Francisco. Things move along nicely for a few years, then the evil landlords raise the rent. The girls journey to Austin, hoping to start once again. Many a nod to “Sense and sensibility”, With a few references to Pride and prejudice as well. The characters are well developed and the story evolves in a believable way.
It’s not a preachy read, but I noticed no bad language, no drinking, and no sex, very unusual given one of the characters is in a rock band!

I love a Jane Austen pastiche so I decided to give this ARC a try. It was .. ok. It was very wholesome & sweet, so if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably love it. It's a very quick read, with cute pop culture and Austen references, but in general it's just kind of eh. The characters are fairly flat and their motivations really don't make a lot of sense. [ A guy strands his pregnant girlfriend in Mexico and just ... goes home and dates another girl? Then runs away to Nashville and gets engaged to yet another girl? And Jane falls for this guy why -- because he's good-looking? That's really the only reason she gives. Which is fine except that it fits nothing about the kind of person we're supposed to believe Jane is.

Jane Austen Is My Favorite Author And I Love Sense & Sensibility.

So A Retelling Of That Novel Is Something I Definitely Am Interested In.

Its Cute, Light And Quirky. A Good Beach Read. It Contains No Foul Language Nor Over The Top Scenes.

3 Stars

I think it's rare to find romance novels where the characters actually endure and discover things about themselves which in turn make the romance itself more genuine and makes it based on actually knowing each other.

Jane of Austin had this. This book had the story of shallow insta-love while also showing real love grow.

The book itself was rather slow and there wasn't actually very much that happened. It was a story of life, a story of love and a story about growth. I enjoyed each character and I loved how each chapter felt true to the character as far as the tone and the voice in every word.

I also really enjoyed the intricacies involving the tea, I loved how it all felt accurate and so precious to Jane. The recipes were cute too, but I don't know if putting them in between the chapters was the best idea since I'd skip them to read what happened next.

Though I liked the book, I made the decision at the time I finished not to review it on my site. Maybe in the future I will include it in a book list post or another article.

This new version of a classical Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility story is quite good and entertaining. This old story has been perfectly seated into modern day Texas, with the vulnerability from the girls, who had to leave their successful teashop in San Francisco, and masculinity from the men from Texas, with their southern charm and dark side from military.

It’s a sweet love story, with misunderstanding and too involved relatives. Reading it, I could not shake the feeling, why is there a need to rewrite the classic, to make it more modern, if the classic is well known and loved? Is it the easy success or just need to write a fanfiction? Anyway, it was written well, and these small snippets from other books about tea were lovely and all the recipes were intriguing.

Good read!

I adore sisterhood stories and I adore Jane Austen. And I believe you can truly build a unique stories even when using one of Austen's plots as a backbone. I truly believe this was one of those unique books and the author is talented. The fact that it had so much tea and food involved was a cherry on top for me!
I guess what I struggled more was with the inst- love - though expected considering I know Sense and Sensibility.
I would recommend this book and will be on the look out for others by this author.
She's is definitely creative and talented. Unfortunately I had a bit of trouble to connect with this book enough to give it four stars.

I loved this book. It’s my favorite retelling of Sense and Sensibility to date. (In fact, it made me want to reread Jane Austen’s classic.) The author does an excellent job of taking elements of that book and working them into a modern story of love, heartbreak, and family loyalty. Every character held their own place well in this story. From the opening chapter, I was drawn into the story, and II was actually sorry when I finished because I was enjoying it so much.

This is a clean, sweet book with no foul language or embarrassing scenes.

Austen fans, you’ll love this one. Even if you aren’t an Austen fan, you’ll find this a great read. I’ll be reading this one again.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I love Jane Austen, and Sense and Sensibility is one of my favorite novels. These are the reasons I was interested in this book. Yet I had been a bit apprehensive, thinking this may turn out to be a southern romance, which is not my cup of tea. Thankfully, this book had enough quirkiness to keep it from feeling like a southern romance novel–rather, it’s simply a novel set in Austin (though I will say that at times it seemed like southerners were a bit idealized in the book). I think this novel sticks more with the original plot of Sense and Sensibility than some Austen retellings I’ve read. However, there were some things that I just didn’t care for. I wish Celia had played a bigger role in the novel. I love Elinor Dashwood and I wanted to see more of her character in this book. I didn’t have much of an opinion on Teddy because he played such a small roll in this book. I couldn’t stomach Sean Willis. I think he was even worse than Willoughby, and I didn’t think it was possible to find a worse literary character than him. For the most part, I liked Jane. Like Marianne, she’s quite dramatic and at times that got on my nerves, as did Marianne’s dramatics in Sense and Sensibility. The thing I liked the most about this book was the same thing I enjoyed in Jane Austen’s classic; the close relationship Jane and Celia have. I love that no matter what, they’re there for one another and will stick up for each other. And I loved Dash; he was the sweetest dog!

All in all, I thought Jane of Austin was a decent novel. It wasn’t what I was expecting and it isn’t my typical read, but I liked it for the most part.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Waterbrook Press through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I loved Hilary Manton Lodge's other series but there was something about this book that seemed off. Like she was trying too hard to appeal to a certain audience. The story felt shallow compared to her other books. I really wanted to love this book but it fell a little flat for me.

If you're a fan of Jane Austen you might enjoy this book. Living in Austin, Texas and being a fan of Austen I couldn't resist this title and am thankful for NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an advance review copy. The parallels to Austen's works were light and fun, though it left the book without much substance since the storyline was highly predictable.

I couldn't put this book down. It was different than most of the romance novels I've read lately. I loved the sisters and their strong bonds through the loss of their mother then the betrayal of their father. The acts of their father caused them hardship they eventually overcame with the help of extended family. I would so love to visit their tea shop and sample the teas and baked goods.

TL;DR – Overall, a good Jane Austen retelling. I liked all the characters, but found Celia hard to read at times. This book also heavily features food which is a definite plus in my opinion.

First off, I have always loved the idea of books that come with recipes. Have I ever tried any of those recipes? No. But that’s beside the point. Books that center around food are wildly attractive to me. I love food and I love reading about good food even if it makes me jealous and hungry. That’s why having books with recipes is so genius. Not only can you read about the food, but you could (hypothetically) actually make it afterwards.

With three sisters, you might think that it would be hard to connect with all of them or to make them distinguishable. However, I thought the author did a great job of helping us to understand each of the sisters as individuals even though Jane was clearly the main character. I still felt like I connected with both Celia and Margot. I also thought Callum was a good character and I enjoyed his narrations as well as Jane’s.

Sometimes I like multiple POV books and sometimes I don’t. This time I think it worked, but wasn’t necessary–or at least, wasn’t necessary from Callum’s point of view. I didn’t mind it, but I thought that having Celia as a narrator might have made more sense? Of course, that may have made it so the book was more about the sister relationship than the romance, but would that have been so bad? There were just times when I felt like Celia was hard to figure out, so I wished that she got a chance to narrate.

Overall, the plot was pretty similar to the original Sense and Sensibility. I always love retellings and this one was as good as any. I will say that I thought the ending was a little abrupt and fairy tale-ish (especially the epilogue portion). Despite that, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun, clean romance or anyone who enjoys Jane Austen retellings.

Overall Rating: 4
Language: None
Violence: Mild
Smoking/Drinking: Mild
Sexual Content: Mild

Note: I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I did not finish reading this book. It just didn't hold my attention. It's possible it's just not a good fit for me as a reader, and that others may enjoy it.

Sense and Sensibility was my first ever Jane Austen book. I remember asking my eighth grade language arts teacher for book recommendations one day after class (*cough* nerd *cough*) and borrowing it from the school library later that week.
I hated it.

I hate-read every page of that book, the slow burn of Regency society wearing on me like a cheap gingham. Little did I know that Sense and Sensibility would start my long love affair with all things Austen in the future. After retiring Sense and Sensibility (may its pages forever gather dust on the shelf), I somehow stumbled into the rest of the Austen canon and found it delightful. Moral of the story, friends don’t let friends start their Jane Austen conversion with the Dashwood sisters.

That being said, Jane of Austin, a modern retelling of Sense and Sensibility is nothing but pure, palate-cleansing refreshment. This book was exactly what I needed to re-approach the original after all these years.

Jane of Austin follows the Woodward sisters, a trio of smart, savvy, modern women rebuilding their lives after their father’s financial ruin (embezzlement) and subsequent abandonment (flight to the Caymans). The sisters start a tea shop with elder sisters Jane and Celia at the helm. After they are forced out of their location in the Bay Area, they relocate to Austin, Texas to stay with family.

Along the way, Jane gets romanced and jilted by a handsome musician while Celia tries to mend her heart after abandoning a steady relationship in California. Parallel to Jane’s story, a wounded war veteran, Callum Beckett, rebuilds his life after returning from active duty and gradually falls in love with Jane.

The story is a perfect translation of the Sense and Sensibility plot in modern day. It’s quite difficult to explain a ‘jilting scoundrel’ in modern terms and make it feel authentic, but Hillary Manton Lodge does it beautifully. Old-timey financial ruin? How about embezzlement? Social scandal? Try being the equivalent of Bernie Madoff’s daughter. A modern day scoundrel? He leaves you pregnant in Mexico without a passport, of course!

The book alternates perspectives between Jane and Callum to tell their romance, with a secondary focus on the relationships between the two elder sisters struggling to keep their business afloat. Each chapter ends with a recipe referenced earlier in the plot, which is a cute touch to a fun, summer read.

At times, I wish the book focused less on Jane’s romantic interests and more on the interpersonal relationships between the sisters. Celia and Jane’s relationship was strained throughout most of the book, and I could have used more establishing shots of sisterly affection and silliness before things turned frosty. The social satire angle isn’t played as heavily in the update as it is in the original Austen, but that’s easily forgiven. What’s not as easily forgiven is the repetitive opening quotes about Texas and tea that precede every chapter. I get it. They’re both the bees’ knees.

Another thing: I love love love tea and even I found all of Jane’s references and interactions with it a little tiring. It felt somehow inauthentic, like someone researched the details of a tea maker’s trade but regaled me book-report style with what they learned instead of conveying experiences and passion authentically to the reader.

Other than those minor detractions, Jane of Austin is a brilliant update on Sense and Sensibility, and I highly recommend it for any Austen or budding-Austen fans! So snuggle up with a cozy cup of chamomile and check out this easy, romantic read!

Perhaps the most charming modern retelling of an Austen story to date.