Picked up at the Aurora Hills Branch Library's book sale shelf.

From Goodreads.com:
Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen is still surrounded by the literature she loves—but now it's because she's the owner of Flyleaf Books in a sleepy college town in Upstate New York. Every day she watches her novels fly off the shelves—along with dozens of unauthorized sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations. Jane may be undead, but her books have taken on a life of their own.

To make matters worse, the manuscript she finished just before being turned into a vampire has been rejected by publishers—116 times. Jane longs to let the world know who she is, but when a sudden twist of fate thrusts her back into the spotlight, she must hide her real identity—and fend off a dark man from her past while juggling two modern suitors. Will the inimitable Jane Austen be able to keep her cool in this comedy of manners, or will she show everyone what a woman with a sharp wit and an even sharper set of fangs can do?

Light and fluffy. A fast read but ends a bit lackluster for me.

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Added to the Round V Vampire Bookbox.

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This book rode to the end of the box, since Azuki said they didn't need them sent back at the end. Unfortunately, the box got soaked, and several books have some water damage. This one seems to have slipped through unaffected.

The concept of this story is so interesting, I'll have to give it a go.

I think I liked this better as a concept than the execution! Writing a fictional version of a famous author must be very challenging, because every reader who has enjoyed their work is going to have their own experience and vision of what that author's voice is like. I personally didn't find Ford's interpretation of any of these authors in line with my own, so it took some suspension of disbelief, and I mostly thought of them as their own characters rather than as historical/literary figures. (I do have to say that this book featured the most bland, hetrosexualized version of Lord Byron I've yet encountered, and given how very popular he is to include in fiction, I've seen a lot! Given that the author apparently writes a fair amount of gay fiction, I was disappointed that Byron, of all fascinating figures, ended up boring, merely a cookie-cutter "sexy villain" plucked from hundreds of romance novels who never develops any menace.)

Once I disconnected these characters from my own opinions of their historical counterparts, I enjoyed a lot more of the elements here. The author's writing style isn't one I particularly enjoy, and the more romance-novel-esqe bits definitely had me rolling my eyes. However, the pacing is solid (although some bits felt rushed), and there are many intriguing plot threads that keep you wondering what might happen next and a hearty cast of engaging supporting characters. Overall, it was a entertaining, quick read, even if it isn't particularly memorable.

Left on top of beer cases in the convenience store