19th-Century Digital Girl?

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Ringler

       When Jane Mansfield awakes, she thinks she's still dreaming.  She's sleeping in a room not her own, with bars on the walls, and with some strange man named Wes she's never seen before asking her if she's ok and telling her she hit her head....and he keeps calling her "Courtney."

       Laurie Viera Ringer's second book is a sort-of sequel to her first novel, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.  Where as Confessions dealt with 21st-Century Courtney Stone waking up in 1813 England in the body of Jane Mansfield; Rude Awakenings deals with 1813's Jane Mansfield waking up in the body of 21st-Century and having to deal with life in 2009.  Switching bodies isn't the most original plot devise, but it definitely works.

       In fact, this book is far more enjoyable than her first novel.  I enjoyed Confessions alright, but the book had some problems and the ending left me a bit confused.  Jane as Courtney is more enjoyable of a character and her desire to come to terms with her situation and the present day of 2009 comes off at times as comical but not to the point of being unbelievable.

       There are some things that I found slightly troubling *kinda spoilery-ish alert behind here: select/highlight the rest of this paragraph to read it, but it doesn't give away much of the plot...just something I thought the character would do but didn't.  Ok ....So, Jane as Courtney repeatedly mentions her friends and family who are, of course, deceased by 2009, however she never thinks to try looking them up online or in history to see what became of herself or travels back to England to try seeing what happened to her.  I would have thought, considering how much she missed her family, she'd try finding out what happened to them, but this potentially wonderful plot line, wasn't attempted.  Also, this novel honestly could have been a bit longer and the end kinda came a bit too quickly.

       I'd almost say you don't need to read the first book to read this one, and while I found this second book much better than the first, they're both quick reads and enjoyable.  I'd love for her to try continuing these characters, but I'm not sure if she'd be able to.  Either way, this was a fun read, even for someone who has yet to finish reading any of Jane Austen's novels.

Rating: 4 out of 5.