Austenland

I know it has been a while since I wrote a book recommendation post but I can assure you that I never stopped reading.  I have been reading two separate series and wanted to finish all of the books in each series before posting about them. The first series that I finished is the ‘Austenland’ series by Shannon Hale, who is one of my very favorite authors in case you didn’t know. There are only two books in this series; ‘Austenland’ and ‘Midnight in Austenland’.  

These books are about a home in England that you can pay to stay at for two weeks where you are completely immersed in the era of Jane Austen.  Everything is authentic to the time period including the clothes, food, speech, and social rules of etiquette.  At Pembrook Manor guests have all of their electronics taken away from them and literally have to pretend like they are living in one of Jane Austen’s novels. Actors are hired to court the women and at the end of their stay there is a grand ball. It is a perfect retreat for all Austen enthusiasts and a place where anything can happen.

Being a Jane Austen fan myself I found these novels very intriguing and entertaining to read. Having said that however, I do not necessarily feel that ‘Austenland’ quite held up to Shannon Hale’s usual standard of writing. It’s almost like you can tell that this is Hale’s first attempt at writing a novel for adults and she doesn’t really know how to navigate herself in this particular genre.  The same cannot be said for ‘Midnight in Austenland’ however. From the very beginning the second book in this series had me completely captivated and guessing until the very end. You can literally see Hale grow as an author as she tries her hand at writing for an adult audience. The first novel was just “okay” literature for me, but the second novel is when I really remembered why Shannon Hale is in my top 5 of favorite authors.  So do me a favor, if you haven’t read Shannon Hale before, don’t judge her just based off from this series. She is an amazing author I assure you.

As for the second series that I have been reading I am on the third and final book in the series so that post should be coming very soon. Stay tuned.