I received a ARC from Net Galley and HarperCollins of Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell

Adele is a child of the Moulin Rogue and is quickly and abruptly thrown into English life when her Papa comes to collect her, promising her mother to provide for her and give her a life beyond anything she could desire. And what a life Adele has! The twists and turns of her life are intermingled with the life of the literary works of Jane Eyre. Adele is no other than the French girl we see portrayed in Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre. Following Adele's life through the scope of the novels allows for an interesting intermingling between the story and the literary classic. After the story gets to the point of Jane and Edward Rochester reuniting, a new story begins to unfold with Adele as the lead character and the reader hears her story after being sent off to one finishing school and then another where she forms the deepest bonds at Webster House.

At Webster House, Adele learns many lessons and forms many bonds; bonds with her classmates that lead her to make a vow to herself to defend and protect them from the men who would and do take advantage of them, regardless of actions that need to be taken and the consequences. Adele, though, finds the girls she is so close with attractive and longs to be with them in a not-so-proprietary manner. But she holds back her desire and makes true to her vow to protect her friends, starting with Hannah. Hannah needs to find a man to provide for her and her family and is willing to partner with and marry whoever she needs to in order to achieve security for her family. At a ball all the Watson girls attend, one man gets too handsy with Hannah and tries to take advantage and ruin her, so Adele steps in an attempt to save her friend only to end up murdering the handsy suitor. A gentleman who Adele had danced with beforehand, whom she found very attractive, comes to the rescue and verifies Adele and Hannah's factual story in order to prevent problems for either girl. Adele acknowledges that without the gentleman's help, she would have been convicted as a murderess... a title she will take to heart in order to protect herself and others in the future...

There is so much more to this book, including a pen pal and the unlikely turn of events that comes with that communication, the gentleman who came to Hannah and Adele's aid being a women, passion, criminal rings, robbery, and, of course, more murder.

I loved so many things about this novel. The audiobook format with the robot-ish voice was tricky and a bit frustrating, but the plot and character development pretty much had me soaking in the story despite how uninviting the audio is. I loved the mix of old (connections with Jane Eyre's story) with the old - Adele's story and adventure. There are some great one-liners that are *chef's kiss* spectacular. My favorite? Adele recounting to the reader, "Reader I murdered him," when the line fits the crime she commits. I love how the story shows the importance and depth of female companionship and discusses the reality of the time, as well as now, concerning girls and women being assaulted by men (the moral? it happens more than you think). Adele's confusion with her sexual attractions is frustrating and sweet as the reader ventures through the struggle with her and finds joy with Adele when she finds and accepts the love she desires and deserves. I love the show of independence Adele demonstrates throughout her story and how she is a strong enough person to accept help anyway.

Adele is the person I would want to be if I had grown up during the time the story takes place. Her personality and fierceness are huge factors for me to love this character as much as I do. Her thought processes and reasoning are spot on and very much deep; everything happens for a reason in Adele's life; very little is due to happenstance and Adele is very focused on evaluating things around her to make sure she is in control.

I cannot stop with how much I loved this books and the characters!

This was an computer generated audio ARC, so the narration was sometimes a little off. But, enjoyable period piece of feminist fiction. Good for YA crowd.

Audio ARC from publisher via NetGalley, but the opinions are my own.

Firstly, I'd like to comment on the audio portion of the book. This was a voicegalley advanced edition. That worried me a bit. I thought it was going to sound like the Windows voice, but it was actually a lovely narration! I couldn't tell I wasn't listening to an actual narrator. So, don't be afraid of that if you see it. I assume all voicegalleys will be just as good.

This book follows Adele, a character from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. After Adele leaves Rochester and Jane behind to attend boarding school, she explores her sexuality, new feelings about the world, and commits a bit of murder.

This was meant to be a follow-up for Jane Eyre, I guess, following one of its minor characters that still made such an impact in Jane Eyre. However, it did not do a great job of paying homage to the original text. Jane is quite out of character as is Adele. I understand the author was taking Adele and making her into something that she wanted to see, changing her to meet her idea of the character but it was so far from the original that I wish she had just written something original. Create a new character. Don't take one from something and then change her so that she is no longer recognizable. Along with a failure to capture the original characters, the book fails to capture the time period. I did not feel immersed in the time. I often forgot when it was meant to take place.

I wouldn't recommend this, especially if you've read the original text or know anything about the characters. Or the time period.

Adele lives with her mother, a dancer, within the Moulin until her father reappears and agrees to take her back to to England after she dies. In England, Adele is sent to boarding school after a terrible fire burns her home to the ground. There she learns more than just how to be a well-bred young lady after a classmate and beloved friend is attacked at a ball.

Though there are clues everywhere (including the title), I somehow managed to miss that this is partly a Jane Eyre retelling from the eyes of Mr Rochester’s daughter, Adele. From the description I thought this was going to be a delightfully dark book about a Victorian era vigilante who kills men by night and courts them by day along with her partner/love interest. Instead, it’s a somewhat insufferable retelling. The first 1/2 of the book is rehashing Jayne Eyre and then Adele being sent to boarding school. It takes most of the book to get to the vigilante aspect, and then it is squashed into the last 1/4 of the book…and then just when it’s getting good, Adele is whisked home by her governess/stepmother Jane to be with her sick and possibly dying father.
That’s not to say this was a bad book—it was just not the book I was promised. The characters were well developed, Nan is an absolute delight, and the boarding school girls under the surface are more than just simpering dolls waiting for husbands.
But if you’re expecting a sapphic good for her book, well…that’s not this book. I wish it had focused more on the vigilante aspect and much less on the Jane Eyre connection. If you love Jane Eyre and retelling did Jane Eyre, I am sure you will enjoy this book far more than I did. Honestly, I wish I’d just skipped the first half.

This one wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t get into it for some reason. My mind just kept wandering as I was listening to the audiobook and I had go back and listen a second and third time. I hope other people have better luck with it.

**Disclaimer: I received a free advanced readers copy of Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.

Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell is a young adult historical fiction novel.  The novel is narrated by Adele, Mr. Rochester's ward from Jane Eyre.  The story details how she came to be with Mr. Rochester and then her life after the events of Jane Eyre, so you get to see how she could have hypothetically ended up.  The novel is set to be published on October 11th, 2022.  I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads.


Here's. the summary from Goodreads:

In this daring tale of female agency and revenge from a New York Times bestselling author, a girl becomes a teenage vigilante who roams Victorian England using her privilege and power to punish her friends' abusive suitors and keep other young women safe.
Adele grew up in the shadows--first watching from backstage at her mother's Parisian dance halls, then wandering around the gloomy, haunted rooms of her father's manor. When she's finally sent away to boarding school in London, she's happy to enter the brightly lit world of society girls and their wealthy suitors.
Yet there are shadows there, too. Many of the men that try to charm Adele's new friends do so with dark intentions. After a violent assault, she turns to a roguish young con woman for help. Together, they become vigilantes meting out justice. But can Adele save herself from the same fate as those she protects?
With a queer romance at its heart, this lush historical thriller offers readers an irresistible mix of vengeance and empowerment.

I listened to this book as an audio galley with a synthetic voice narrator.  The synthetic voice is always a little bit strange, but it was okay to listen through.  The book was relatively fast paced, so it was a pretty quick listen even on 2x speed.

The narration was a different style than is usually my favourite.  The story is sort of told to you, with Adele recounting the events from her life in a way that occasionally breaks the fourth wall.  It was an interesting style of writing, but something about it really worked for me this time.  Perhaps it was because Adele was a more intriguing narrator to me.

I think the real draw for me with this book was. who Adele was.  It was extremely interesting to me that she was the character from Jane Eyre.  They don't spend a lot of time on her in the book and she's kind of shunted off near the end, so getting to explore her further in a different way was really interesting to me.  I liked her a lot. She's got an interesting perspective on things. 

The novel is relatively short, though I felt it took a little while to get into the main plot as is described in the blurb.  However, I enjoyed the journey.   The main plot was engaging with some good twists.  It made some interesting statements about women during that historical period, that are probably still relevant now.  I liked the dynamics of female friendship.

There was a twist in this that completely blindsided me, and I will not tell you the reveal, but it was one that once I thought about it, it completely made sense.  I really enjoyed it.

Overall, if you're intrigued by the plot or what I have said, but I highly recommend that you check it out when it publishes in October.

Chills and thrills on this one with a lot of male/female imbalance Of the times. Class structure and school structures and so many expectations on everyone. Just when I thought I knew exactly where this story was going to go at end, there was a massive turn. Great!

This is not a actual audiobook. This is a generated voice copy. I was very interested in the story but the narrated voice had no emotion or emphasis.

Captivating audiobook where it is an adaptation of Jane Eyre but this time, it is from Adele Varens’ point of view. Yes, she is the girl from the classic novel, Jane Eyre where just like the original, she was born to Celine (a Moulin dancer who was Rochester's mistress).

Just like in the original novel, Jane Eyre is Adele’s governess in this retelling, as well. However, this Jane is not as strong as the Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte. This Jane is a bit more… MIA as all she does is fawn over Edward Rochester, who is believed to be Adele’s father, according to Celine. Jane Eyre falls for Edward Rochester, gets married, is pregnant, and then ships Adele off to boarding school. While Jane Eyre proclaims she loves Adele, I did not get that feeling. It is more selfish love and when it is most convenient for Jane. Jane is constantly putting Edward Rochester first, and Adele last. Jane writes to Adele about how Adele must be getting along beautifully with the girls there and Jane is sure one of them would be more than glad to invite Adele over. This truly hurts Adele’s feelings but Adele keeps making excuses for Jane. Adele loves Jane and feels Jane is the closest thing to her mother. I suppose when you have lost your mother and you have Bertha, the mad first wife of Edward Rochester and Jane Eyre, I guess Jane does win hands down.

The title is a spin on the line from Jane Eyre’s famous quote, “Reader, I married him,” this is a mesmerizing tale of Adele Varnes who actually grows up in this “would be” sequel that a modern-day Charlotte Bronte would possibly have written if she lived in today’s time. Only this time, instead of Jane uttering the famous line, we find Adele declaring, “Reader, I Murdered Him,” which makes it more wickedly interesting. This is a retelling of Jane Eyre.

We find Adele living in London with her “father” and as she lives with him and later at the Webster school for girls who are coming out to society, think debutante, she notices a common denominator. It’s a man’s world and a woman’s word is worthless unless a man agrees or cooperates with her.

She realizes she must be the protector and vigilante for all the girls who have no voice because of society. She makes the acquaintance of Nan and learns truly how to take care of those who she loves but also how to take care of herself. I love the closeness these two shares and how Adele also has written correspondence, which can also serve as a confessional, as she shares the truth with her distant cousin, Eric Fairfax.

But just when you think Adele has a full grasp of how to be, a horrible event puts her life into another event spins and her life will never be the same. Only this time, instead of being the vigilante, she is in need of rescuing.

What I love is that the author did not make Adele weak and to be pitied. She isn’t the same Adele from Charlotte Bronte’s Adele. We see this Adele grow up and learn how she became a teenage vigilante and the care and love she shows others. She is not one bit selfish and very astute for her age. She goes out of her way to look after those who are in need of help.

Historical thriller - check
Complex characters - check
Queer romances - check
Sapphic Romance - check
Bad Ass heroine - check
Women supporting each other - check
Feminism - check
Victorian era - check
Great point of view - check
Retelling - check
Breaks the fourth wall - check

I loved this audiobook! Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper Audios for sending me this digital audio review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ooooh this one was so good! First, the title is wonderful. It pulls you right to the story and it stays with you as the story slowly unfolds. And imagine my surprise when this is the story of Adele, the young girl from Jane Eyre. I have to be honest, in Jane Eyre, I was so completely wrapped up Jane and Rochester, that I never gave the full story of Adele even a pause to wonder how it all worked out.

Here is the story I didn't know I needed. And it's dark! It starts with Adele with her mother at the brothel and gives us the story from a small child of how he acquired her. From there, it quickly moves over Jane and Rochester's drama and moves on to Adele off to boarding school and her life there.

I loved Adele's pov. She's experienced a lot and is trying to find her way in the world. It's told both through her day to day and through letters she's sending to someone else. The story unfolding is shocking and I loved the idea that she'd befriended the hidden one in the house. It was deliciously fun to enjoy this one! I loved it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I listened to the audiobook which has not been recorded by an actual narrator yet.

The first half of this book felt like it was observations being delivered to the reader. I didn't feel a lot of emotion behind it. Then the second half comes along and you feel as though the narrator/main character is finally emotionally invested in her own life. There were a few surprising twists in this book that I did not see coming. It was a different story than I've read before and very much about women taking their power back from men. There is a sweet sapphic romance and bi representation in this novel.

cw: attempted SA, death

After her loving mother (a fallen woman of a dancing hall) dies, Adele is scooped up by a man who might be her father and taken from France to learn how to be a lady. She discovers that men everywhere are pretty much the same (awful) and women, particularly young ones, are constantly falling prey to men's whims and cruelties. Adele doesn't like it.

Reader, if I had known what this book was about, I wouldn't have read it. I present the following reasons:
1. The title is incredibly misleading. While murder certainly happens in this book, it's done as an act of desperation. Nowhere is the quirky narrator I was expecting to be constantly breaking the fourth wall, as the title suggests.
2. Instead of a string of fascinating episodes of vigilante justice, this book is a string of violence against women and girls.
3. The narrator is a mysandrist (I learned a new word! This is a person who hates men and is prejudiced against them). While the protagonist certainly has reason to distrust and despise the men in her life, this isn't what I signed up for.
4. I don't appreciate this book being billed as historical fiction. While it fortunately did not have a "corsets are constricting and a symbol of the patriarchy" scene, the protagonist's mindset just didn't make sense for the time she was allegedly living in. I would rather have seen this set in a fantasy world.
Now, some of these are personal preferences, of course, but I thought you should know anyway. A lot of this could probably be cleared up by just a few category changes so that people who also hate and distrust men can find it and enjoy it without dragging people like me into it.

Other than the theme, writing style, and misleading title, this book was reasonably well written. It doesn't really stand out, but the plot lines made sense and the romance was suitably suggestive.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Adele has always lived in the shadows. First watching her mother at the dance hall and when she passes, in the somber halls of her “father’s” manor. After her “father” remarries to Jane, Adele thinks it’s her time to shine when she is sent away to a London boarding school. She is excited to enter the world.

Adele learns quickly that shadows are everywhere and sometimes they have dark intentions. After a violent assault Adele recruits the help of Nan and takes on the city keeping her friends and fellow females safe. They become vigilantes out for female justice. When the time comes can Adele save herself?

I love this story way more than I expected. It is a dark, sapphic, historical fiction with tons of female empowerment. Thank you Net Gally and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to the ARC of Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell.

I’m sorry but no. I know this was a remix of another beloved classic, but I just could get into it. The narration was monotone and boring, and for the first few chapters it was like nothing was happening except for the murder. I was bored. Then there was the issues of the content. It is marketed as a teen book, and it very much should not be. The adult child relationship should have been given content warnings before hand. I am absolutely not ok with this book at all, and honestly do not feel comfortable recommending it to my audience.

I really loved this book. I didn’t think I was going to but, it drew me in from the first sentence! I really enjoyed it!!

I would say this would be 4 stars if there was an actual narrator. I did think at one point that the Eric letters didn’t need to be present but they did come in at the end to serve a purpose. Overall an enjoyable experience.

3.5-3.75 Stars

I did not know that was an adaptation/continuation of Jane Eyre written from the perspective of Adele, Jane’s pupil. I was excited to read about a historical murder mystery thriller, and yes it did give me that. Was it an interesting and unique take? Absolutely. Did it accomplish what it wanted to accomplish? Yes. On its own, it was fine, good even, but associated with the classic Jane Eyre, it left a not-so-good taste in my mouth. To be honest, I nearly DNF’d it but I wanted to see if I was right. And sure enough, I was. While I did appreciate the changes she made to Adele’s character - she was strong, protective of others especially women, and incredibly perceptive (a huge change from the original) - the rest of the characters were completely different and their essence was lost. Charlotte Brontë, in Jayne Eyre especially, was already feministic with her writing and her themes, but a lot of the changes that were made to the story in order to serve this plot line ruined that for me.

Slight spoiler: We lost the essence of Mr. Rochester and Jane and they were completely out of character. The twist was predictable since from the beginning we can see these characters being villainized in a way.

I, however, did love and appreciated the themes that she tackles and the individual character arcs she wanted to tell. Perhaps I would have loved this story if it didn’t have any connections to the classic. As mystery/thriller historical fiction, it was good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for an audio arc. Opinions are my own.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, but I didn't hate it either. Having never read Jane Eyre before I can't say for certain, but it did not seem like this book needed be an adaptation or continuation of it. In fact, I felt that this just lead to part one of the book being very slow. There is also very little of the book actually dedicated to Adele's vigilante-ism, though when it is I really enjoyed it. I also really like the relationships between Adele and the other school girls, I always appreciate books that show women supporting each other. As far as the ending goes, I understand why it went that direction but it probably could have been set up a little better.

All that said, I would recommend this book for fans of LGBTQ+ romance (I thought it was done pretty well here), historical fiction, and books about female empowerment and independence.

I honestly had no idea that this was a Jane Eyre retelling, but from Adele's pov. Jane Eyre is not my favorite of all the classics that I've read, but strangely, it is the one that I've read the most. I liked how Adele was straightforward in her remarks and her letters. She had the natural grace and beauty to be accepted by society, but she also had a backbone. I also liked how we got an outside view of Jane - small, kind, and strangely loveable. And the romance between Rochester was not as detailed, but you could see that it was real between the two of them.
The writing style is similar to the classic book and I would recommend this if you loved the original.

Book: Reader, I Murdered Him
Author: Betsey Cornwell
Audio: Voice Galley
Publisher: Harper Audio
Genre: Historical Fiction –Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: October 11, 2022
Rating: 3.5 rounded up Stars

If you are a Jane Eyre fan, you just might enjoy this!
This is Adele Varen’s story - she grew up somewhat on her own watching her mother perform in Parisian dance halls. When her mother is dying she asks Lord Rochester who is Adele’s father if he would raise Adele. He takes her in but decides she needs to be a proper English girl and hires a governess ~yes – Jane Eyre.
Once Adele is a proper English girl, she attends a boarding school in London. While there she finds the wealthy society girls are being courted by wealthy men- only most are not ideal suitors as they have improper intentions.

This situation as well as what she witnessed when she met Papa first wife Beth, leads her
to organization kind of a vigilante group; the idea is to help females as well as teach them how to help themselves. Of course, they didn’t solve the problem as it still an issue today.

Adele is certainly an interest gal.
Story is a bit dark ~it is a mix of a historical thriller and also some romance including Adele’s relationship with Nan.
Although slow in parts, I enjoy this story more than I thought I would.
Want to thank NetGalley and Harper Audio for this early Voice Galley which was created with a synthetic voice and not the final audiobook which will be narrated by a professional audiobook performer.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 13, 2022