lindaunconventionalbookworms's review against another edition
5.0
This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
Lie Jane Austen Told Me kind of blew me away. I didn't know what to expect when I started reading, but whatever it was, I got much more!
Lies Jane Austen Told Me is Emma's story. How she kept her rose colored glasses firmly in place looking for her happily ever after. Possibly she looked for this in the wrong places, though, and suddenly, she wanted to distance herself from everything and anything that had to do with her former heroine. Especially after she showed up at her boyfriend's place to surprise him. And found him having dinner with another woman.
One of the themes in Lies Jane Austen Told Me is to find oneself. But it's also about finding love, daring to believe in it, and grabbing hold of it with both hands and everything else we got. After Emma left Blake, she met Lucas, Blake's brother, and that made things very complicated for all of them.
Lies Jane Austen Told Me was a complex contemporary romance that also dealt with other subjects, as Emma was working hard to help the company she worked for succeed. When Lucas showed up as a consultant she didn't know whether she should laugh or cry. On the one hand, she wanted to get to know him better. On the other hand, she was sure she could manage on her own.
Emma appeared a bit flighty at first, she really believed in love with a capital L, but once she thought she was proven wrong, she did a complete 180 turn. At least for a while.
Blake wasn't a player, but he also wasn't the right person for Emma. They were together more because of habit than because they loved each other dearly.
Lucas was great. Not only was he a knight in shining armor, he was smart, funny, and fiercely loyal, too.
First person point of view from Emma's perspective, past tense.
I felt lightness and love while reading Lies Jane Austen Told Me! There was humor, friendship, loyalty and courage.
Jane never had the happily ever after she made us believe we can have. Experience from my collegiate years taught me that it wa far better to take advice from people who had walked the walk instead of just talked the talk.
We awkwardly stood at our doors, our demeanors suddenly stiff and uncomfortable as we nodded and parted ways to our individual rooms. It was probable that the discomfort existed only on my side, so much of what we did felt like dating.
Then came the self-admonition. You can't be mad at someone for being mad at you. It doesn't make sense. But I was mad at him. Sense be hanged.
Lie Jane Austen Told Me kind of blew me away. I didn't know what to expect when I started reading, but whatever it was, I got much more!
Story:
Lies Jane Austen Told Me is Emma's story. How she kept her rose colored glasses firmly in place looking for her happily ever after. Possibly she looked for this in the wrong places, though, and suddenly, she wanted to distance herself from everything and anything that had to do with her former heroine. Especially after she showed up at her boyfriend's place to surprise him. And found him having dinner with another woman.
One of the themes in Lies Jane Austen Told Me is to find oneself. But it's also about finding love, daring to believe in it, and grabbing hold of it with both hands and everything else we got. After Emma left Blake, she met Lucas, Blake's brother, and that made things very complicated for all of them.
Lies Jane Austen Told Me was a complex contemporary romance that also dealt with other subjects, as Emma was working hard to help the company she worked for succeed. When Lucas showed up as a consultant she didn't know whether she should laugh or cry. On the one hand, she wanted to get to know him better. On the other hand, she was sure she could manage on her own.
Characters:
Emma appeared a bit flighty at first, she really believed in love with a capital L, but once she thought she was proven wrong, she did a complete 180 turn. At least for a while.
Blake wasn't a player, but he also wasn't the right person for Emma. They were together more because of habit than because they loved each other dearly.
Lucas was great. Not only was he a knight in shining armor, he was smart, funny, and fiercely loyal, too.
Writing Style:
First person point of view from Emma's perspective, past tense.
Feels:
I felt lightness and love while reading Lies Jane Austen Told Me! There was humor, friendship, loyalty and courage.
Jane never had the happily ever after she made us believe we can have. Experience from my collegiate years taught me that it wa far better to take advice from people who had walked the walk instead of just talked the talk.
We awkwardly stood at our doors, our demeanors suddenly stiff and uncomfortable as we nodded and parted ways to our individual rooms. It was probable that the discomfort existed only on my side, so much of what we did felt like dating.
Then came the self-admonition. You can't be mad at someone for being mad at you. It doesn't make sense. But I was mad at him. Sense be hanged.
marshmallowbooks's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a high average, until the cringe-worthy dinner party that had me hating the couple.
bridge_to_bookland's review against another edition
5.0
I just like it! It’s such a cute story. Clean, funny, sweet.
leslie_books_and_socks_rock's review against another edition
3.0
I was really excited for this book but didn't really know what it was about. I guess I assumed it would follow the story of Pride and Prejudice which it really vaguely did. This had a different feel, it didn't feel like a romance but more drama. I can appreciate the author wanting a different angle but I'm not sure it was executed correctly.
randomly_kait's review against another edition
2.0
This was an "eh" book for me.
Things I liked:
Our heroine Emma is 25 (26?) something like that which means she's pretty dang close to being my age. It was a New Adult book that didn't revolve around sex drugs and rock and roll. I mean the majority of NA books that I read are super super super steamy and almost graphic with the sex scenes. And whatever, because I know people enjoy it. However, I like it when things are more of a slow burn. This was more realistic and a nice change of pace for me.
I liked Kinectics and how that whole thing was set up.
I liked how passionate the characters were about their jobs and about their family and things that they cared a lot about.
What I didn't like:
Sometimes the timeline felt pretty disjointed and things seemed to jump around a bit.
I felt pretty unattached to the story for a long time and kept skimming through the book. By the time things got super interesting it was time for the book to be over.
Things I liked:
Our heroine Emma is 25 (26?) something like that which means she's pretty dang close to being my age. It was a New Adult book that didn't revolve around sex drugs and rock and roll. I mean the majority of NA books that I read are super super super steamy and almost graphic with the sex scenes. And whatever, because I know people enjoy it. However, I like it when things are more of a slow burn. This was more realistic and a nice change of pace for me.
I liked Kinectics and how that whole thing was set up.
I liked how passionate the characters were about their jobs and about their family and things that they cared a lot about.
What I didn't like:
Sometimes the timeline felt pretty disjointed and things seemed to jump around a bit.
I felt pretty unattached to the story for a long time and kept skimming through the book. By the time things got super interesting it was time for the book to be over.
lovegirl30's review against another edition
4.0
Previously posted on The Young Girl Who Loved Books
When I see something with Jane Austen in the title I tend to get more than a little excited. This book is no different. I think that this is quickly becoming a major trend. Some do it well, while others simply fall short. I was skeptically optimistic about this novel. I didn't want to give too high of expectations.
The man thing I loved about this book is it isn't a retelling of Jane Austen. It is set in the modern times. I liked the concept of it not being set in the past. It really gave an interesting and different feel to this book. It isn't one of the many simply copycat books out there.
The story follows Emma who is a marketing executive, who has loved Jane Austen for years. She is looking for her Mr. Darcy. When she first meets Blake Hampton she thinks he might be the one. Nervous to take the ultimate plunge she turns down his offer to spend the weekend together, after some interesting encouragement by her colleagues, she changes her mind. Expecting a romantic trip, she ends up learning about his rarely mentioned brother. After a horrid trip, she believes she is done with the whole lot of them. Unfortunately, she can't get rid of them that easily. She ends up meeting him again.
It is a common storyline but the misunderstanding doesn't read like your average trope. It is extremely well done and the pacing of this story is super quick. The story is differently a page-turner.
Ultimately this was such a great book in my opinion. It takes an interesting spin on the Jane Austen book love affair. I think that people will really love the clean romance in this book, and the author's wonderful style of writing. Check this book out for yourself.
Disclaimer: I received this book from Shadow Mountain Publishing in exchange for my honest but unbiased opinion, all thoughts are my own.
When I see something with Jane Austen in the title I tend to get more than a little excited. This book is no different. I think that this is quickly becoming a major trend. Some do it well, while others simply fall short. I was skeptically optimistic about this novel. I didn't want to give too high of expectations.
The man thing I loved about this book is it isn't a retelling of Jane Austen. It is set in the modern times. I liked the concept of it not being set in the past. It really gave an interesting and different feel to this book. It isn't one of the many simply copycat books out there.
The story follows Emma who is a marketing executive, who has loved Jane Austen for years. She is looking for her Mr. Darcy. When she first meets Blake Hampton she thinks he might be the one. Nervous to take the ultimate plunge she turns down his offer to spend the weekend together, after some interesting encouragement by her colleagues, she changes her mind. Expecting a romantic trip, she ends up learning about his rarely mentioned brother. After a horrid trip, she believes she is done with the whole lot of them. Unfortunately, she can't get rid of them that easily. She ends up meeting him again.
It is a common storyline but the misunderstanding doesn't read like your average trope. It is extremely well done and the pacing of this story is super quick. The story is differently a page-turner.
Ultimately this was such a great book in my opinion. It takes an interesting spin on the Jane Austen book love affair. I think that people will really love the clean romance in this book, and the author's wonderful style of writing. Check this book out for yourself.
Disclaimer: I received this book from Shadow Mountain Publishing in exchange for my honest but unbiased opinion, all thoughts are my own.
katherina_lei's review against another edition
4.0
Cute, fun read, especially as a Jane Austin fan. :)
bizzybee429's review against another edition
2.0
2.5
Hi everyone, it's me, your resident Jane Austen super-fan. Lies Jane Austen Told Me claims to be an Austen-esque contemporary romance, but does it deliver? ......kind of. The short answer is kind of. This book really made me wish that Goodreads had half-star ratings, because I struggled with myself for a while on whether to give this two or three stars. I enjoyed it, but there were also some real problems I had with this book. But I'll get to those in a moment.
What I Liked:
1. Contemporary Romance isn't really my favorite genre, but I like Shadow Mountain because they continually publish good, clean romances that are sufficiently cute, and Lies Jane Austen Told Me was not a disappointment in that regard. Luke and Emma had really nice chemistry and I enjoyed seeing the ups and downs of their relationship. The whole air of this book reminded me of a cross between Letters to Juliet and While You Were Sleeping, two of my very favorite movies.
2. I loved the side characters in this book. Sylvia was the perfect best friend and a really good voice of reason. Jared was perfectly balanced between annoying boss and hilarious hippy. I laughed a lot while reading this book.
3. Despite it's faults, which I'll talk about later, Lies Jane Austen Told Me made some strides towards being a feminist romance that are rarely seen in Adult Contemporaries nowadays. Here's one of my favorite quotes:
4. This book had some really good, and quite hilarious, descriptions. I love when authors create similes that can let the reader truly get the feeling of what's going on, and Wright excelled at that with such descriptions as "Dating felt like making caramel: a sticky mess where the chances of getting burned were likely," and, "His parents had moved their heads back and forth between their two sons as if they'd been watching a hypercompetitive ping-pong game."
5. I love how fish and Trish rhyme. I'll just leave it at that.
What I Didn't Like:
1. I felt that Emma's character was pretty flat. I liked what we saw of her, but I wasn't able to get a real read on her character. Though it had a lot of funny similes, this book also tended to over-describe, not really leaving anything to the reader's imagination, and it made the main characters not seem as real or three-dimensional as they could have been.
2. The main reason why I didn't like this as much as I could have is simple: for a feminist romance, there seemed to be kind of a lot of internalized misogyny going on in Emma's mind. There were a lot of times where I wanted to cheer for Emma, but an equal amount of times where some problematic stuff she did/said was seen as normal/wasn't challenged.
2.1. Emma called herself pathetic a lot. A. Lot. And for totally non-pathetic reasons. I did a quick search on my kindle and Emma uses the word pathetic to describe herself five times throughout. One particular quote rubbed me the wrong way especially:
2.2.
2.3.
2.4. A book with zero (0) diversity can't really call itself feminist. Strange how two of the main settings in this book are Los Angeles and New York City, two cities that pride themselves on diversity, and yet every single character is white. I would have liked to see a lot more diversity, especially in a supposedly feminist contemporary.
To conclude, I am not sure if I would recommend this book. If you are a fan of contemporary romances and don't mind having to read over some problematic content, then sure, give it a read. But if not, then don't.
It should definitely be noted that all my quotes are taken from an ARC copy of this book, and when the novel is published I will check them with the finished copy and adjust my comments as needed. I added the bold in quotes taken from the book to emphasize.
I received an eARC copy through NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.
"I just want them to take me seriously. The problem with being twenty-six...and female is that no one considers you the boss; they think you're the one doing the Starbucks run."
Hi everyone, it's me, your resident Jane Austen super-fan. Lies Jane Austen Told Me claims to be an Austen-esque contemporary romance, but does it deliver? ......kind of. The short answer is kind of. This book really made me wish that Goodreads had half-star ratings, because I struggled with myself for a while on whether to give this two or three stars. I enjoyed it, but there were also some real problems I had with this book. But I'll get to those in a moment.
What I Liked:
1. Contemporary Romance isn't really my favorite genre, but I like Shadow Mountain because they continually publish good, clean romances that are sufficiently cute, and Lies Jane Austen Told Me was not a disappointment in that regard. Luke and Emma had really nice chemistry and I enjoyed seeing the ups and downs of their relationship. The whole air of this book reminded me of a cross between Letters to Juliet and While You Were Sleeping, two of my very favorite movies.
2. I loved the side characters in this book. Sylvia was the perfect best friend and a really good voice of reason. Jared was perfectly balanced between annoying boss and hilarious hippy. I laughed a lot while reading this book.
3. Despite it's faults, which I'll talk about later, Lies Jane Austen Told Me made some strides towards being a feminist romance that are rarely seen in Adult Contemporaries nowadays. Here's one of my favorite quotes:
"'You deserve to be treated like you're special.'
No, I wanted to say. I deserve to be treated like I'm intelligent."
4. This book had some really good, and quite hilarious, descriptions. I love when authors create similes that can let the reader truly get the feeling of what's going on, and Wright excelled at that with such descriptions as "Dating felt like making caramel: a sticky mess where the chances of getting burned were likely," and, "His parents had moved their heads back and forth between their two sons as if they'd been watching a hypercompetitive ping-pong game."
5. I love how fish and Trish rhyme. I'll just leave it at that.
What I Didn't Like:
1. I felt that Emma's character was pretty flat. I liked what we saw of her, but I wasn't able to get a real read on her character. Though it had a lot of funny similes, this book also tended to over-describe, not really leaving anything to the reader's imagination, and it made the main characters not seem as real or three-dimensional as they could have been.
2. The main reason why I didn't like this as much as I could have is simple: for a feminist romance, there seemed to be kind of a lot of internalized misogyny going on in Emma's mind. There were a lot of times where I wanted to cheer for Emma, but an equal amount of times where some problematic stuff she did/said was seen as normal/wasn't challenged.
2.1. Emma called herself pathetic a lot. A. Lot. And for totally non-pathetic reasons. I did a quick search on my kindle and Emma uses the word pathetic to describe herself five times throughout. One particular quote rubbed me the wrong way especially:
"For anyone to discover I was going back to the guy who liked me after a non-proposal would make me the most pathetic boss ever. No one could respect a woman who acted like a schoolgirl when it came to love. I couldn't respect myself knowing that I was such a hopeless closet romantic."There isn't anything pathetic about being a romantic, and calling yourself a pathetic boss for something occurring in your personal life, when you continually tell your employees to keep their personal lives out of work, is really backwards-thinking. We should still respect women who "act like schoolgirls" when it comes to love. It's okay.
2.2.
"I tried not to feel superior to a woman who used terms like "vacay" and "hottie" when the words sounded so juvenile and empty-headed."Lies Jane Austen Told Me unfortunately fell into the trope of women hating on women for no reason other than they are dating your crush, and though it wasn't as bad as other romances (Emma challenged her own feelings of dislike, though not often), I still wish a book claiming to be a feminist romance hadn't fallen into this trope. I need more women supporting women, some more non-toxic love triangles where everything isn't seen as a competition and the person in the middle, no matter the gender, isn't seen as a prize to be won.
2.3.
"An overweight suitcase is a sign of a seriously insecure woman."This quote sounds worse when it's taken out of context, but in context it's still not very good. It's more bashing on a "stereotypical" woman, which seems feminist at face value, but, in fact, isn't. We should be celebrating our differences in personality, not hating.
2.4. A book with zero (0) diversity can't really call itself feminist. Strange how two of the main settings in this book are Los Angeles and New York City, two cities that pride themselves on diversity, and yet every single character is white. I would have liked to see a lot more diversity, especially in a supposedly feminist contemporary.
To conclude, I am not sure if I would recommend this book. If you are a fan of contemporary romances and don't mind having to read over some problematic content, then sure, give it a read. But if not, then don't.
It should definitely be noted that all my quotes are taken from an ARC copy of this book, and when the novel is published I will check them with the finished copy and adjust my comments as needed. I added the bold in quotes taken from the book to emphasize.
I received an eARC copy through NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.