Review of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Francesca Segal, The Guardian

Colin Firth striding about the grounds of Pemberley in his wet shirt has a lot to answer for. That particular BBC adaptation marked the dawn of an era in which Austen-mania began to take a slightly painful literary form. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, though, is great fun. Courtney is a modern Los Angeles girl – smoking, drinking and generally self-medicating with takeaways and Austen novels since she broke up with her cheating fiance.

Then one day, she wakes up in the body of a girl called Jane Mansfield in 19th-century England and must navigate her new life, wondering all the while what to do with the unfinished business back in 21st-century LA. Rigler has done a lovely job, balancing the Regency fantasy with enough modern sass to avoid things cloying and also, crucially, making Courtney easy to relate to. Will it win the Booker? Absolutely not, but I’m not ashamed to say that I spent a blissful day with it.