Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

As a lover of all things Austen, as soon as I saw the title and read the description I knew I had to read this. What I thought might just be a cute fun story had a lot of heart in coping with grief, anxiety, and that feeling like you’re a mess and will never be enough, and then finding yourself and strength again. The enemies to lovers banter was great and I loved the nod to Austenland with the Hot in Herre mention (iykyk). I really loved this, and it was the perfect, curled up in a chair while it’s pouring outside read.

The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell is a charming and witty romantic comedy that combines the allure of Jane Austen's world with a modern twist. The story follows Tess Bright, an actress hoping to revive her career by starring in a film adaptation of Northanger Abbey. However, her co-star, Hugh Balfour, a serious method actor, is less than thrilled about their pairing. Their on-screen tension takes an unexpected turn when an accident sends them back in time to Regency-era England.

Bell's writing is engaging and filled with humor, capturing the essence of Austen's novels while adding a contemporary flair. The chemistry between Tess and Hugh is palpable, and their journey from enemies to lovers is both heartwarming and entertaining. The time-travel element adds an exciting layer to the story, allowing readers to experience the Regency era through the eyes of modern characters.

The novel also delves into themes of grief and personal growth, as Tess navigates her mother's death and her own insecurities. These elements add depth to the story, making it more than just a lighthearted romance.

Overall, The Austen Affair is a delightful read that will appeal to fans of Austen's works and anyone looking for a fun, romantic escape. Bell has crafted a story that is both nostalgic and refreshing, offering a perfect blend of romance, humor, and adventure.

I found myself smiling often, both at the clever references and at how naturally the story unfolded. It was a warm, intelligent, and completely charming read that made me want to revisit Austen’s originals immediately after. The characters quoting Austen added so much charm.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=3.75 | 😘=5 | 🤬=4.5 | ⚔️=1.5 | 18+

summary: she’s an actress playing Catherine Morland and gets sucked back into the Regency era with her costar. will they find their way back to the modern age?? will they get caught making out???? who can say!!

thoughts: yes, this was a silly goofy giggly delightful time. no, it’s not a perfect book; I quite frankly couldn't care less about them finding an electric machine to return to the modern day? like how did they even know that would work in the first place?? obv it’s silly time jump nonsense but my suspension of disbelief was slightly fighting for its life on that front. also I have this arbitrary rule for romance novels where you are allowed to mention Taylor Swift only once, and it mentioned her twice but like how much do I really care about that?

however!! you can tell that this book was written by a true Austen fan. that energy is on basically every page, and it feels very real in that sense, while still having a bit of the bodice ripper suspension of disbelief energy; it was a good balance, imo. loved the main couple and their dynamic for the most part, but most of all it was just, like, the vibes. good vibes!! a fun time!! very much enjoyed myself—read it in two sittings, and it kept me up at night! like in a good way!! (view spoiler) huzzah!

ARC - Thank you so much st martin's griffin publishing!

I LOVED this! A time travel, magical realism book set to the backdrop of a Jane Austen novel? Yep, sign me up!

This was such a fun read!! When I saw the description for the book, I just knew I needed to read it. A time travel to Regency era romcom, count me in!!

Tess and Hugh are adorable characters each with their own imperfections. Tess is "messy" and feels big feelings, Hugh is closed off and robotic. But once we start diving in, we see all the layers that make them so much more and so uniquely themselves. Their differences help them fit together like cute puzzle pieces.

This will make for a fun summer read and would be perfect as a bookclub book!! I look forward to looking up other books put out by this author.

Includes:
•Enemies to friends to lovers
•Major swooning
•Cinnamon roll MMC
•Opposites attract
•Grumpy-Sunshine
•Time travel

Big thank you to St. Martin's Press, Madeline Bell, and NetGalley for an eArc to read and review!!

This book was an UTTER DELIGHT.

Tess and Hugh are both actors working on a film adaptation for Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Tess is a bit of a mess, as she lost her mother a year ago, and was recently let go from her television series gig. Hugh is orderly, controlled, and of course, a method actor and cannot be bothered to be friendly to Tess. Tess and Hugh naturally hate working with each other and in the heat on an argument on set on day, they find themselves zapped back to the Regency times 200 years prior.

Tess and Hugh must quickly adapt to the Regency times if they don’t want to draw suspicion. High tea, town gossip, balls, betrothals, and a fake engagement are afoot! This book was laugh out loud funny and I loved all the small town Regency gossipy characters. I really enjoyed Tess and Hugh’s character development while being stuck in the past. Aunt Fanny and Hugh’s meddling family were spot on, too! This book is perfect for Austen lovers and anyone who enjoys a classic enemies to lovers with a dash of time travel.

🌳 Enemies to lovers
🌳 Jane Austen inspired
🌳 Time travel/time slip
🌳 Swooning…PINING!
🌳 Opposites attract

What a delightful and fun rom-com! I love a good Regency read, and the modern twist in this one was so refreshing!

While the stakes were never high and the plot is somewhat predictable, I flew through this read and thoroughly enjoyed every word!

This was seriously one of the cutest stories I’ve read in so long!!! I loved the way things fell together, the story moved at a perfect pace, and things developed naturally and believably!
What a wonderful premise, first of all, I’ll always be taken in by an Austen lover falling into an Austen-esque world, whether it’s modern day dressed up like it in books like Austenland, or falling back in time to regency England.

The characters here are lovable, flawed, and real. I wanted to give them all a huge hug.

Definitely one of my favorite reads of this year so far!

I saw the words Jane Austen and was immediately intrigued. This book was cute and I read it fairly quickly. Overall I did enjoy it!
Thank you Netgalley for the arc.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This was a quick and cute read, but unfortunately the romance didn't really capture me. I didn't really feel the chemistry between the two main characters and the banter often just didn't land.

On the other hand I really liked the family focused parts of the story. They were very touching and nice. I also loved that the story read like a love letter to Jane Austen.

Poor Georgie!

I would recommend this book to fans of Jane Austen's work because being familiar with all her books will definitely make you appreciate this story more.

conceptually i am a fan but the pacing was weird and i *really* dislike when jane is a character in a novel

I was so excited to read it — that premise! — but sadly this one didn’t work for me. I liked how it didn't waste a lot of time in throwing the characters to the past, but from that point forward it did not keep my attention well. I think maybe it was the writing style or the story-telling that wasn't a match for me. I ended up skimming a lot to get through it.

My first ARC! How exciting. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anyone who knows me knows that I did my undergrad in English Literature, and that I took a class called Jane Austen and her Contemporaries. It was a terrible class, and unfortunately, soured me quite a bit to Austen's catalogue. However, in that class, Northanger Abbey was far and away my favourite of her books, so I was thrilled to see it was the inspiration here.

I find that many Austen inspired books are a bit heavy or lean too far into the historical aspects, but this struck an excellent balance between being modern and readable while still making smart references to the source material. As others have said, the archetypal Austen characters are out in full force, and round out the historical setting.

As always, I find enemies to lovers to switch up into the lovers aspect too quickly, but I enjoyed both main characters' development and understand of each other. I would have liked a bit more information at the end about what happened when they returned to the present, but overall, this was sweet, fun, and made me like Jane Austen just a bit more (especially with her cameo!)

A charming and delightful love letter to Jane Austen!

Quick synopsis: movie co-stars, Tess and Hugh, get off on the wrong foot then are thrown back in time to regency England. Once there, they have to navigate social customs, their own animosity, and the baggage from their personal life that is still haunting them.

The story is well developed and written - both the stars and secondary characters are thought out, the setting well established, and the plot albeit ridiculous (intentionally) is just pure fun. Also, for Austen lovers, there is basically a reference on every page (to books, to movies, to Austen herself, and in Tess/Hugh’s love story).

At times I found Tess’s character frustrating - she’s a bit carelessly selfish and could come across mean (e.g., in her insults to Hugh). It worked well for the character and overall story…so in that regard I think it worked. But I simultaneously just didn’t like what she was doing even if it made sense in the broader story.

Thank you to Madeline Bell, St Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars! Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Okay wow I did not expect to love this as much as I did! Somehow an unbelievably silly time travel Regency ‘enemy’ costars premise actually ended up grappling with grief, love, legacy, and identity extremely well. It’s a whacky plot, but it’s easy to root for Tess and Hugh as they navigate the 1800s. I’m a sucker for a fun little hijinks, which this story had plenty of. I very much enjoyed the Austen references, but I could have done with fewer modern day pop culture references. There are only so many times you can read “Taylor Swift” or “Dakota Johnson’s iPhone” face before you feel like you’ve somehow left the novel and logged onto twitter

Thank you to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for this super fun ARC!

4.25 stars⭐ This was SO much fun, I loved it! You give me enemies to lovers/time travel/countless Austen references, I give YOU a big fat kiss. The pacing was well done, the chemistry was MUAH, and once I got into it I never wanted to put this book down!

I really loved Hugh & Tess together (Tess was a LIIIIITTLE bit of a dingo sometimes, but I appreciate that she did at least realize it). I could happily read another 300 pages about them.

Also the cover is GORGE!

My first official arc review :) All of the opinions in this review are my own, and it will be (mostly) spoiler free!

“Oh, my love. Mess is where the good stuff lives.”

This book gave me heavy “Austenland” vibes (a rom-com that I think is HIGHLY underrated). Not only is the story itself heavily inspired by Jane Austen’s works, it also includes Jane Austen as a character! That made me giggle a little bit.

I love me a time-slip story, and this was no exception. A mess of a woman costarring with a prick of a man in a Jane Austen movie adaption = a disaster waiting to happen. They absolutely despised each other at the beginning of the story, and it made it all the better that they got stuck in the Austen time period together. In an effort to get home, they become reluctant allies and create a plan to get back home- all the while using their acting skills to blend in with the time period they’re stuck in. The whole of the execution was relatively well done, especially for a debut novel.
I loved all the modern Austen adaption references (including Austenland, funny enough!), as well as the other modern references. There were traces of some of my favorite romances that I saw scattered through the book, which I got excited about every time :) It truly was a perfect blend of a classic time period and our modern world.

The romance developed nicely. The characters had to learn to trust each other, and their moments of having each others back were beautiful. Not gonna lie…both of them are kind of…red flags…but they somehow balanced out each others? A pleasant surprise to have me start out disliking both just to end the story absolutely adoring both.

I did adore this book, but there were a few clunky and “cringe” moments in the book- particularly the sex scene (The descriptions of “daggering” and “feather-like” were used in the exact same sentence for the same context…which??). However, if you go into this book knowing that she’s a debut author and the story is MEANT to be a little silly, it’s far more enjoyable.

The only thing I would’ve liked to see more of is the effects of everything that occurred in the book. I wanted the epilogue to focus more on how that time skip affected the characters in both the past and present.

I have been hyperfixating on Jane Austen recently and this was fantastic and a great way to continue my fixation. I really really enjoyed this and did not want it to ever end!

I ADORED THIS BOOK! Oh my word - so so fun! I fell in love with our main characters from the start and watch them go from enemies to lovers was just delightful! The pacing, build up, and chemistry between the two was just so well done! Absolutely loved it from start to finish!