I got this UK-edition softcover from Better World Books, as it's a selection for my monthly book group. It's a two-timeline story, one featuring a modern-day young woman whose love of books gets her involved with the search for an extremely rare edition of a work by a man who was allegedly a good friend of Jane Austen's during her life. The other timeline deals with Jane herself and the elderly minister who befriends her - and advises her on her writing.

I enjoyed the Jane-Austen part of the story, even though I found it a bit weird of the author to add a fictional friend/mentor when Jane's own circle held plenty of intriguing characters. The modern-day side - I didn't enjoy that as much, partly because the book-loving heroine never seemed to be that well-realized a character, and partly because she reacted to the unfortunate loss of a hoped-for legacy of books by stealing a very valuable one at the first opportunity! (I'm talking a multi-thousand-dollar book here; major felony that.)

There were plenty of fun riffs on Austen, from the many character names taken from her works to the overarching "wacky hijinx/self-referential humor" bit based on Northanger Abbey, but I didn't find it as successful as I'd hoped. (The scenes about Austen-day book-publishing were fun, though I was saddened to learn that the character of the printer Monkhouse was fictional!)

I'm adding this to the Bookish Book Box in Memory of MaryZee, which will be on its way to its next stop soon. (The mailing order is in the forum-thread in the previous link; I'll add my choices and contributions to the bookbox-journal's JE, here.)

*** Released for the 2019 Tick Tock release challenge. ***