Review: The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay

The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson Fiction via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Publicaton Date: November 7th, 2017

Rating: ****

Synopsis from Goodreads

Falling into the past will change their futures forever.

Mary Davies finds safety in her ordered and productive life. Working as an engineer, she genuinely enjoys her job and her colleagues—particularly a certain adorable and intelligent consultant. But something is missing. When Mary’s estranged childhood friend, Isabel Dwyer offers her a two-week stay in a gorgeous manor house in England, she reluctantly agrees in hopes that the holiday will shake up her quiet life in just the right ways.

But Mary gets more than she bargained for when Isabel loses her memory and fully believes she lives in Jane Austen’s Bath. While Isabel rests and delights in the leisure of a Regency lady, attended by other costume-clad guests, Mary uncovers startling truths about their shared past, who Isabel was, who she seems to be, and the man who now stands between them.

Outings are undertaken, misunderstandings arise, and dancing ensues as this company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation, work out their lives and hearts.

Review

I love Jane Austen's novels and mixed with a bit of modern thinking and humor, I had high hopes for this book. Luckily, my expectations were met! There are so many themes addressed in this novel and I believe readers will be able to relate to many of them:

- The love for Austen's writing and how some of us wished we could live a day in her fictional world and meet her characters

Most of the story takes place in an English manor where people can come and act as if they are in an Austen novel, or at least be in surroundings similar to that era. Isabel is doing a dissertation about how so many wants to escape into Jane Austen's world rather than being in the 21st century and she believes doing exactly that will give her some much needed inspiration. And of course Mary has to come along, no matter how reluctant she is. In this manor they are given clothes to wear, daily activities befitting Austen's era and they can choose a character from Austen's novels and pretend to be them for the duration of their stay. Of course, this becomes a bit complicated when Isabel has a psychological break and truly believes it is her real life and not just pretend!

- How two best friends can be rivals, but also how many bumps and complications a true friendship can withstand

Mary and Isabel were best friends when young, but after Isabel acted uncaring towards Mary just to be able to have the spotlight for herself, Mary withdrew from the friendship and it was never the same. Now, years later, she has to go on a trip with Isabel again. When Isabel loses her mind much becomes clear to Mary, about their childhood ans Isabel's relationship with her dad and she is able to understand why Isabel acts the way she does. But when she discovers that Isabel has been dating Nathan, the guy Mary likes, behind her back the friendship is yet again put to the test.

- Sometimes we have no clue how the other sex thinks or feels, and this goes both ways. Other times though, one can simply just be oblivious...

As it turns out, Nathan is somewhat innocent in Isabel's game and has no interest for any other but Mary. Mary however, refuses to acknowledge this, she is certain he travels all the way to England to help because of Isabel and not her. Poor Nathan has a hard time interpreting Mary's behavior and understand how she feels about him, while Mary is oblivious to his attempts to show her his intentions. It all takes a turn for the worse when Mary overhear Nathan talking to someone at work and she believes he knows she is about to get fired, but doesn't tell her. Instead of trusting him when he says it's not like that or let him explain as best he can, she flees the country and goes home, determined to quit her job at her own terms. As you can guess, all of this was a misunderstanding and since this is a romance novels, it all ends well! I truly enjoyed this read, however sugarsweet it ended, but then again; you can expect nothing less when Austen is involved=)

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