Customer Reviews

Central Park (The Austen Series, Book 3)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I need to isssue this warning for anyone who is interested in this book because it is a remake of Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park." The author has taken a lot of liberties with the novel and it is really only loosely based on the beloved novel. There are also a lot of religious undertones. But I find no fault with it, nevertheless. I found it a delighful book, very brilliantly written. This book is a part of a series of modern Christian versions of Jane Austen's novels. I have to say I still prefer the origional, but this was a fun read and very hard to put down. Some people may be disappointed because it is so far from the book it is copied from, Mansfield Park. You do not need to read Mansfield Park to understand this book. In fact, if you do read this and like it I suggest you give Mansfield Park a try!

For those of you have read Mansfield Park:
(here is what is different besides what the change of time periods allows) Thomas Bertram has no sons. He has only a foster son (Edmund in Mansfield) otherwise it would be weird for cousins to date. There is no Tom Bertram, the older brother! I missed the scenes where Fanny nursed him when he was almost dead. It takes place in New York City and Fanny goes to college and hopes to become a teacher. In addition, Edmund falls for the Mary Crawford character while on a mission trip in Paris. Their break up scene is quite different from the novel's and for different reasons.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mansfield Park:
(here is the scenario)

A mother has too many mouths to feed so when her wealthy sister offers to take one of her children away and bring her up in New York City, she sends her eldest and most shy, Francine Pounce. At the age of eleven, Frannie is terrified of the graduer of the brownstone and her Aunt Nora, who always tells her she does not deserve this. Yet her Aunt Mariette and Uncle Tom make her feel welcomed and treat her with every kindness they do their own two daughters: Julia and Mary. They also have a foster son named Ethan who becomes Frannie's first friend, being four years older he is a protective brother to the shy and lonely girl. We start the book at her introduction to this home at the age of 11 and then jump to ten years later when she discovers that she loves Ethan. Frannie has grown into a moral, dependable, wise and generous person we can all admire. Ethan is in the process of becoming ordained. However, he meets a girl. Her name is Carrie Casper and she is rich and gorgeous. Frannie is so disappointed to see her reliable and stable Ethan lose his head over a pretty face. Carrie causes a lot of friction also because she brings her brother, Hugh Casper, who is a womanizer and a flirt. The two sisters become his next conquests. The problem is Mary is engaged yet she has her eyes on Hugh. The only female who is able to repell Hugh is Frannie. He doesn't like that one bit and starts to pursue her! Will Ethan marry Carrie or will he come to his senses in time? Will Frannie see that if she marries Hugh everyone will be happy with her and she can save her poor family? What will the outcome be? You should try and read it, I am sure you will like it.

Ms. Smith has her strong points - modernizing character and plot for one. All six of the books in this series kept me reading to the end because of the really smart plots loosely based on Austen's novels.

However, the writing style is too distracting from the novel and makes the reader too aware of the novel. For example, the main character reads an email and then goes to get ready for a visitor. Instead of simply putting her laptop down, we have to read an entire paragraph describing how she uses "a series of clicks" to close the "machine" down. The novel-speak is very freshman literature "how to write a novel" and takes away from what could have been a great read.

Highly recommended! I so enjoyed Debra White Smith's CENTRAL PARK, I read it twice. The author has made this story her own, though it's based on Austen's MANSFIELD PARK. These are walk-off-the-page characters, and the spiritual take-away is awesome. Once I started reading, I didn't want to put the book down, and I didn't want the story to end. But it's a delightful ending, too.

This book had a bit more depth and challenge than some of Debra White Smith's other books in the series. The character, Francine had a menacing childhood and she blossomed in her youth/young adulthood in this book. It was a great read.

As an Austen fan, I am always on the lookout for Austen like books.

This series will hit the spot for the days when you want an Austen story set in Modern times. Added bonus- it's christian based. :)

I recommend the whole series!

I found this book to be annoyingly repetitive. If you took out all the times Franny laments her love for Ethan and all the times Ethan thinks that Franny has changed since his trip to Paris, it would cut the book in half. For kicks I just randomly opened the book to see if I could find an example, and there's one right on the page I opened to: page 229 "Things hadn't been quite the same between them since he got home from Paris." I'm not kidding: it's over and over and over, the whole way through the book!

The book is also not very clever; because each character is specifically one from the original, you know what is going to happen all the way through. I felt like it could have been a bit more creative (i.e. the updating of Emma in the movie Clueless was wonderfully done). As another reviewer mentioned, some of the plot points were a bit of a stretch (the date Hugh arranges without any response is ludicrous, especially when his e-mail to confirm it starts out "Since I haven't heard back from you, I'm assuming you must not be checking your e-mail.")

It was also kind of disgusting how Ethan is just all over the place with his emotions, even passionately kissing Carrie to get Franny out of his mind; it made it hard to feel like he loves either of them, more like he is a hormonal teenager.

All of that being said, I have read far, far worse Jane Austen related fluff, so it's a quick read and not as painful as it could be.

I greatly enjoyed this retelling of Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park." The setting of Central Park in NY was great and the plot follows the original fairly closely. There was a strong religious undertone which I appreciated very much. I have already read 5 out of the 6 novels in the Jane Austen series by Debra White Smith and I find her a very talented author. This probably ranks as my third favorite after "Amanda" and "First Impressions." Whether you are a Jane Austen fan or not, if you like good, clean romance, you'll enjoy this treasure!

So far in this series, Debra White Smith has taken liberties with dropping 'extra' characters and siblings, changing what jobs people have, and even changing how people are related to one another. None the less, I look for how well the characteristics, motives, and interactions of the characters stay true to the Jane Austen stories despite all these changes. Honestly, I loved this modernization and felt that she kept all the characters true as well as keeping all those favorite moments from Mansfield Park even if the settings had changed. This is my favorite of Smith's 'Austen Series' so far.

I have always loved Jane Austen books and did a whole literature study on her in College. So, whenI heard there was a series remade of her stories I jumped on them and finding out they were Christian based was even better! It really parralled the original only being set in modern times. All of her books in the Austen series are heartwarming and make me feel good, I have read all of them in just a few days. These are all fun and make you feel good about life romance and always gives a good spiritual high.

I enjoy Jane Austen and feel that Debra White Smith does an excellent job portraying each character from Jane Austen into a present-day character, for example, in Central Park each character faces the same overall issues that they do in Mansfield Park. I have enjoyed the Austen Series and would recommend it to readers.