Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict [Hardcover]

Laurie Viera Rigler (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 25, 2009

<DIV><DIV>This eagerly anticipated sequel to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict asks the question, Can a nineteenth-century girl survive in today's morally confused modern-day world?</DIV>

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This delightful sequel to Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict has 19th-century Jane Mansfield switching bodies and milieus with contemporary L.A. girl Courtney Stone. As Jane grasps the idea that she's a different person in an unimaginable world, and grapples with the radically liberal social mores, dress and language, she leans on Jane Austen's novels as touchstones to reality. Kate Reading performs the first-person narration with a cultured tones and accent befitting an upper-class Regency-era young lady. Her skill as a versatile voice performer becomes evident as dialogue introduces modern American characters, and she skillfully modulates her accent, dialect and tones to accommodate them. The romantically suspenseful story and the entertaining vocal interpretation will keep romance listeners enthralled and amused. A Dutton hardcover. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Review

[Audio Review] This delightful sequel to Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict has 19th-century Jane Mansfield switching bodies and milieus with contemporary L.A. girl Courtney Stone. As Jane grasps the idea that she's a different person in an unimaginable world, and grapples with the radically liberal social mores, dress and language, she leans on Jane Austen's novels as touchstones to reality. Kate Reading performs the first-person narration with a cultured tones and accent befitting an upper-class Regency-era young lady. Her skill as a versatile voice performer becomes evident as dialogue introduces modern American characters, and she skillfully modulates her accent, dialect and tones to accommodate them. The romantically suspenseful story and the entertaining vocal interpretation will keep romance listeners enthralled and amused. A Dutton hardcover. (Aug.) --Publisher's Weekly --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (June 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616880953
• ISBN-13: 978-0525950769
• ASIN: 0525950761
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #671,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurie Viera Rigler is the best-selling author of the novels CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT and RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, both published in North America by Dutton / Plume, in the UK by Bloomsbury, and in Italy by Sperling & Kupfer.

CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT won a Publishers Weekly Listen Up award, and RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Mainstream Fiction. Both novels were nominated for the Jane Austen Centre's Regency World Awards.

Laurie is working on a third and fourth novel.

In addition to writing novels, Laurie is the creator of SEX AND THE AUSTEN GIRL, the Babelgum original comedy web series inspired by CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT and RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. Laurie also contributed a short story to JANE AUSTEN MADE ME DO IT (Ballantine, Oct. 2011), an anthology of Austen-inspired fiction entitled.

Having spent several years writing her first novel and reading all those proclamations about how aspiring novelists were more likely to win the lottery than ever get published, Laurie is passionate about encouraging other writers. Prior to coming into her own as a novelist, she spent an exciting decade as a freelance book editor working with authors of fiction and nonfiction. She has also taught workshops in storytelling technique at Vroman's, Southern California's oldest and largest independent bookstore.

A longtime resident of the very same Echo Park / Silverlake neighborhood in Los Angeles in which RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT is set, Laurie now lives nearby in Pasadena, California, with her filmmaker husband and their cat. Her online home is Jane Austen Addict, http://janeaustenaddict.com. She also enjoys guest blogging on various book and culture sites, including PBS.org's Remotely Connected.

"All this she must possess," added Darcy, "and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading." Oh, yeah. Education. Laurie graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a B.A. in Classics.

That good enough for you, Mr. Darcy?

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cheeky Comedy with a Message July 5, 2009

By Laurel Ann VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Is there always another chance at happiness? Are we bound to our past, or do "we all have the power to create heaven on earth, right here, right now?" Important questions heroine Jane Mansfield must come to acknowledge and understand in Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, Laurie Viera Rigler's parallel story to her best selling novel, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.

This time around, it is Jane Mansfield a gentleman's daughter from 1813 who is transported into the body of twenty-first century Los Angelean Courtney Stone. Jane awakens with a headache, but it will take more than aromatic vinegar to solve her problems. Where is she? Her surroundings are wholly unfamiliar to the usual comforts of her parent's palatial Manor house in Somerset. Is she dreaming? She remembers a tumble off her horse Belle, but nothing after that point. She looks in the mirror and the face reflected back is not her own. How can this be? A young man named Wes arrives who calls her Courtney. Is he a servant? Who is Courtney? Ladies arrive for a visit concerned by her odd behavior. Why is she acting like a character in a Jane Austen novel?

Jane is indeed a stranger in a strange land. As her friends, or Courtney's friends Paula, Anna and Wes, help her navigate through the technology of cell phones, CD players, washing machines and other trappings of our modern life it becomes les taxing. She relishes her privacy and independence to do as she chooses, indulging in reading the four new (to her) novels by Jane Austen that she discovers on Courtney's bookshelf - one passion/addiction that she shares in common with her over the centuries. Between Jane Austen's keen insights and the fortune teller called "the lady", she might be able to make sense of this nonsensical world she has been thrown into. Is this the same fortune teller she met in Bath in her own life? She had warned her not to ride her horse. Or did she? Are her memories and Courtney's one in the same? The lady tells her she has work to do to put Courtney's life in order. Jane only wants to return to her former life and Charles Edgeworth, the estranged beau she left behind.

Seeing our modern world from Jane's nineteenth century eyes was quite revealing. I do not think that I will ever look at a television screen again without remembering her first reaction to the glass box with tiny people inside talking and dancing like characters from Pride and Prejudice! These quirky insights are what Rigler excels at, and her Regency era research and knowledge of Jane Austen plays out beautifully. We truly understand Jane's reactions and sympathize with her frustrations. Not only is Rude Awakenings a comedy of lifestyle comparisons across the centuries, it supplies a very interesting look at modern courtship and romance with a bit of genteel feminisms thrown in for good measure. Interestingly, what principals and standards that Jane learned in the nineteenth century, will straighten out Courtney's mixed up twenty-first century life at home, work and in her budding romance with Wes.

Rude Awakenings is a cheeky comedy with a message. Like Jane Austen's novel Persuasion, it helps us to look at mistakes in our past, and reminds us that "time is fleeting, and few of us are fortunate enough to notice that there is always another chance at happiness." I enjoyed the humor, fondly remembering why I became a Jane Austen Addict in the first place.

Laurel Ann, Austenprose

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A fun quick read February 14, 2010

By G. McKee

Format:Hardcover

I read the prequel to this book, confessions of a Jane Austen addict a year or so ago and I really enjoyed it. So naturally I wanted to read the sequel to the series. Since other reviewers have focussed more on the storyline I will not go over it again. Just a few comments about the book. The book was definently a fun read, it wasn't that long either. I thought when I started it that I would really enjoy it and not be able to put it down. Unfortunately that was not the case. By the end of the book I was getting a little fed up with the writing style. The author started the book writing the feelings of Jane in her natural language for the most part, which I thought was very fitting. However, I guess this was intended the words that Jane thought about were not very accurate to ones she would have been familiar in her own time. More and more modern moods were brought into her thought patterns which I found a bit annoying. Yes Jane would start to talk more like Courtney's time but would she really start thinking like that? She seemed to just think that is weird and then the next chapter start thinking in the modern way.

My second gripe about the book was the reason for their switch. It was after that chapter that my interest for this book wained. It was rather unbelievable I think not including that section would have worked much better. Leaving the reason for why the two characters switched open ended. It was almost sci-fi like in the description of why they switched and the circumstances and that really put me off the book.

Overall I did enjoy reading this book but it was nowhere near as fun as the prequel. Although this sort of explains the other side to the switch, it is pretty open ended at the end so who knows what will happen. If you read the first book of the series and enjoyed it, then I suggest you do read this. Do not expect it to be as enjoyable though.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict July 2, 2009

By Naida M. VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

In Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, Jane Mansfield who is from Regency England, wakes up in the body of Courtney Stone, current day in Los Angeles. At first Jane thinks she is dreaming, and wills herself to wake up.
Courtney's friends explain to Jane that she hit her head pretty hard while in a swimming pool and that her 'confusion' might just be a concussion. Her friends are also wondering why Courtney is now talking as if she just stepped out of a Jane Austen novel.
The last thing Jane remembers is riding her horse and bumping her head while taking a fall. While in Courtney's apartment, she finds copies of Jane Austen books as well as movie version of the novels. She begins to read the books and watch the films.

Jane is in shock to see so many differences in society. Besides television, cell phones, internet, cars and radio, Jane is stunned to see ladies unchaperoned, working and exposing so much skin. As the story goes on, Jane is getting flashbacks of Courtney's life. She realizes she has alot to figure out and wants to help Courtney set things straight. One thing Jane does find out is that both she and Courtney were unlucky in love at the time they switched bodies. With the help of her friend Deepa, Jane winds up going to a fortune teller who does seem to be other wordly and has some answers to Jane's questions. As Jane is trying to adjust to current day L.A., she is also wondering how and if she can ever get back to her former life.

I had been eagerly awaiting this book. Having read and really enjoyed Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and seeing what happened to Courtney while she lived in Jane's body, I was very curious to see what happens with Jane while she inhabits Courtney's body. Laurie does answer some of the questions, and she leaves the ending a bit open. I wonder will there be a third book?

If you're in the mood for a fun, light read, pick up a copy of Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, you won't regret it! First of course, you have to read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict . These books are the perfect read for Jane Austen fans. The way Laurie writes, you can tell she is a true lover of Austen's work. I like how she refers to Jane Austen novels throughout both books.