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Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

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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

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.

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.

Jane awakens to strange surroundings, not the bed of her manor but a small room with iron bars on the window and not a servant in sight. Her voice is unfamiliar and her reflection shapely but not her own. A young man enters from the adjoining room, and Jane finds that he has mistaken her for a woman named Courtney. She has never laid eyes on the stranger, Wes, before, and he tells her that she hit her head at the bottom of a swimming pool. Nursing a headache but certain that Wes is mistaken, Jane knows she is not this Courtney who has injured herself and forgotten her past, but is Miss Jane Mansfield. Her efforts to convince Wes concern him, so he calls her two closest friends, Anna and Paula, who of course Jane has never met.

Upon arriving, Anna and Paula quickly become as alarmed as Wes has been. All three insist on taking her to a doctor, and clothe her in garments that are shocking to Jane in their impropriety. They then push her inside the body of a strange carriage called a "car," which begins the surreal, illuminating ride that Jane's dream has been. She is seen by a physician who drugs her with some unpleasant pill, and when she awakes from an indistinct sleep, her situation is unchanged. Jane's more practical side kicks in gear, and she calms herself enough to become determined to make the best of the situation, or at least try to keep Courtney's friends from thinking she's gone mad.

Jane herself is much like the heroines of her favorite Jane Austen novels: charming, humble, kind and, yes, very proper when it's called for. She never, ever forgets what society expects of her. So it's disturbing for her to learn that Courtney was about to be wed to a questionable man named Frank but had called off the wedding just before hitting her head, apparently because Frank is a cheat. On actually seeing Frank, however, Jane is surprised to find that he still has some kind of hold on her, or at least on Courtney's body, because she can't seem to keep her eyes off him. She wonders immediately if Courtney has been spoiled in her courtship with this man. Even more disconcerting and exciting, Jane discovers that Wes is more completely alluring than Frank is. Wes saves the day when Courtney is in a pickle financially and helps Jane learn the ropes of using a computer and a phone, even finding a new job for her. He's handsome, kind, wealthy and an eligible bachelor.

On an outing with Frank and Wes, Jane runs into an old acquaintance of Courtney's, an Indian barmaid named Deepa. Jane instantly trusts Deepa and dares tell her who she really is within the impostor, nervously asking Deepa if she believes in reincarnation. Deepa is quiet yet seems convinced and leads Jane down the hall in the bar to the door of a psychic, an oddly familiar woman who resembles a fortuneteller Jane recently met at a fair in England. This strange lady warns her of the danger in judging others, particularly Courtney and her life. Her words are prophetic:

"Most of us walk through our daily lives as if we were asleep. We regard not what is before our eyes. We see not how we construct fantasies of our own and others' intentions without having the smallest knowledge of what we, or they, are truly about. We are all imaginists, storytellers if you will, and the pity is that none of us recognizes his sorry state."

The fortuneteller asks Jane to return only when she understands the meaning of those words and hints that understanding will come only by seeing in the present through Courtney's eyes.

So, as you might have guessed, there are revelations to behold and implications to consider in RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. These revelations are Jane Mansfield's awakenings, and fittingly, they echo frequent themes of Jane Austen's literature: that imagination often takes the form of prejudice, that graciousness and respect come with their own rewards. But Laurie Viera Rigler's stories aren't meant to be taken all that seriously, and they are definitely not meant to be reproductions of Austen's novels (although they are always respectful of them.) CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT and RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT are clever parodies of the customs of 19th-century English socialites and modern-day Americans, and both books are absolutely uproariously funny. I laughed from the first page to the last, and I can imagine a great many other die-hard Jane Austen fans will do the same.

--- Reviewed by Melanie Smith

I won't write a synopsis as others have already done that. I simply want to express how much I love this book. If you haven't read Confessions...read it first and continue on with Rude Awakenings. It's an entertaining, seamless tale. I love especially the author's writing style. I felt drawn into the story immediately. I had been waiting for some months for the sequel and found it to be a thoroughly satisfying read. Highly recommend both books.

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict is the sequel to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. This time the tables are turned--a young 19th century woman named Jane Mansfield wakes up in the body of Courtney Stone, a 21st century woman living in LA. Jane here has more challenges to overcome than Courtney did, as she learns to adopt herself to a totally new life. Along the way, she becomes attracted to Wes, one of Courtney's friends. She also learns a lot about herself, and she learns that the 21st century isn't so much different from the 19th, after all.

This book was a quick read; I finished it in two sittings. It's enjoyable for the most part, and funny. There's good character development, but only insofar as Jane/ Courtney goes; the other characters aren't as well defined. The ending of the novel was very open-ended, too. There's not much focus on how or why Jane and Courtney exchanged bodies (yes, Courtney hit her head in a pool and Jane fell off her horse, but that doesn't quite explain how time travel resulted). On the other hand, I thought the author captured Jane's sense of confusion upon waking up in Courtney's body perfectly. It's a cute idea, and a unique take off the whole "Jane Austen lit" craze, that isn't a continuation of one of Austen's novels. It's a good summer book that good for escapist reading.

Jane Mansfield is a well bred British woman living in Regency England. So when she wakes up in the body of Courtney Stone in the year 2009, living in L.A., she does not know what to make of this strange world around her. On the one hand, she finds herself free of all the ridiculous constraints of femininity in the 1800s, but on the other hand, she has no idea how to survive in these modern times. What's a prim and proper modern girl to do?

Having read and loved the first book by Laurie Viera Rigler, there was no way I was passing this book up. And it was a wise choice. The second of the Jane Austen Addict books was just as deliciously whimsical as the first, but I think this one had even more heart. I found I liked the Jane character even better than the Courtney character, and while it was not quite as funny watching Jane in modern times as it was watching Courtney in the past, it was much more poignant.

I also loved the male characters, particularly Wes, and while some readers may have found him unrealistic, I found that he made me have faith in modern men again. Having married a sweet man much like Wes, it pleases me to see such a character portrayed so well in a book.

I liked looking at my familiar world through Jane's eyes, and having it seem unfamiliar to me. This is a hard thing to accomplish, and I think it was done quite well. While the book did not have me rolling on the floor, there were quite a few bits that were laugh out loud funny, and the book kept me engaged from the moment I started until the moment I finished, which were about 10 hours apart. All in all, a great book for an Austen fan, or a fan of more modern romances.

I wasn't a fan of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, but decided to give the sequel a second chance. I think it's funny how the ratings of the sequel are so much better than the original - I bet most people who read it had read the first one, and liked it enough to read the second. "Confessions" has a much lower average ranking than "Rude Awakenings" which makes me think that this book was kind of like preaching to the choir - the audience was already into the book. I was a little different in that I was disappointed in "Confessions" and just decided to give this a chance.

As another reviewer said, it's a quick read. I read it on a flight from LA to Chicago. I thought Courtney's character was well developed. I wasn't a fan of her friends who didn't seem very supportive. And I couldn't understand why they couldn't get it through her head that Courtney has no memory (they might think it was amnesia). I mean, the girl doesn't know how to dress herself. She's not going to remember that she has a job. And (spoiler) why-oh-why would you call Courtney's horrible cheating ex-fiance just because you can't reach her all day? I guess he had to get introduced to the story somehow, and that was the most convenient way, but I found myself questioning their loyalty to her if they were so ready to get the horrible ex involved rather than go visit and check on her themselves.

So yeah, her friends annoyed me. And I had so many unanswered questions. Like in the first book, who was the fortune teller? Why did the girls exchange places? I was really distracted by all the questions I had, so I guess some of the good stuff got lost on me. If a third book comes out, I probably won't be reading it.

This book si wonderful not only for Jane Austen Addicts like myself, but for any modern woman sho might be tired of this modern life.
The cahracters are smart and funny and Wes is the kind of friend that everyone wants around.
This book is for anyone who loves a good story and wants to sit on a sunday afternoon with good food and a good book.

What a befitting title for this companion novel to "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict." Instead of reading about Courtney Stone's experience in 1813 Regency England, we encounter Jane Mansfield, a well-bred Regency lady, waking up to find that it is the year 2009 and that she is in Courtney Stone's body and apartment located in Los Angeles, California. Jane finds this inexplicable transformation to be a very rude awakening indeed, yet, not an unwelcome one... She is now the proud owner of six Jane Austen novels instead of two, can take luxurious showers with running water, and doesn't have to live with her overbearing mother!

Jane learns that she has switched lives with Courtney for a purpose and that purpose is to fix the mess that is Courtney's life. Courtney was avoiding her former best friend, Wes, who she believes to have betrayed her; mourning the loss of her cheating exfiance, Frank; and working for a unsympathetic, tyrannizing jerk. Jane sets about to restore order and happiness to Courtney's life, and what ensues is an entertaining and lively excursion of how a 19th century woman endures being transplanted into 21st century.

Jane was a very likable heroine, I enjoyed her innocence and astonishment with all things modern. Laura Viera Rigler excellently portrayed Jane's impressions and confusion with the 21st century covering everything from cellphones and electricity to living in a tiny apartment alone without any servants. Jane is an endearing character that the reader cannot but help fall in love with. The same could be said for Wes; I fell in love with adorable, kind, and considerate Wes. In addition, I enjoyed the tension and angst Laura Viera Rigler created in his relationship with Courtney. Even though he is very grateful to be back in Courtney's life, he fears that it is only a matter of time before she remembers what he's done wrong and gives him the boot.

Like in "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict," there were scenes with the fortune teller and a lot of time was devoted to explaining how and why Courtney and Jane switched bodies. Again, this seemed to be a little too complex and I would have enjoyed a shorter explanation for it all. In addition, I sometimes felt these passages created more questions instead of answering them.

If you are in the mood for something "light, bright, and sparkling," then look no further! I found this to be such a delightful and diverting series, and Laura Viera Rigler a very talented and witty author. I highly recommend that if you do read these books, that you be sure to read both of them, and that you read "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict" prior to reading "Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict."

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