RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT
LAURIE VIERA RIGLER
Rating: 4 cups
Miss Jane Mansfield remembers riding her horse, Belle, in Somerset, England in the year 1813. She fell off, bumped her head and blacked out. When she awakens, she is inside the body of Courtney Stone, a young woman living in Los Angeles, California in the year 2009. While life is baffling to Jane, she does discover she and the woman whose body she inhabits have many things in common. It is their love of Jane Austen which gives Jane a link to her former life.
Wes is a handsome young man who is beside Jane/Courtney from the start. He has been in love with Courtney for awhile, but his betrayal of her friendship put him on the outs with her friends. Now, Jane/Courtney needs him in order to cope in this world.
Imagine waking up in a time and place you have no idea even exists, complete with automobiles, television, Blackberrys and ipods. Courtney’s friends believe she is merely suffering from temporary memory loss. They do not realize she is not Courtney anymore. If life is not confusing enough for Jane, she has to go to work at a job she knows nothing about. Toss in the man who is by her side at a moment’s notice, and living in the twenty-first century may not be all bad. Falling in love may just find her not wanting to leave the twenty-first century.
The title of this book alone brought a smile to my face. The idea of waking up in the bed and body of a stranger would definitely be frightening, but what Jane has to deal with would petrify me. The differences Jane encounters in this time and place added so much humor to Ms. Rigler’s story. What made me laugh hardest was Jane’s reaction to the plethora of machines we use in our daily lives. I have never really given it a lot of thought until reading about Jane’s adventures. This is the follow-up to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, but this book can stand on its own very well. I could not help but fall in love with this story and I hope you take the time to pick it up.
Kimberly
Reviewer for Coffee Time & More