An Austen Blog

I have always loved Jane Austen and have enjoyed many retellings of the Austen books. This year however, I read a ridiculous amount of these books and what better thing to do than start a blog?! (It was a tough year and I will get back to reading useful things, but for now I hoping to make my pleasure reading useful for others.)

As a background to my tastes, my fav Austen is by far Pride and Prejudice with Emma as second. I prefer the Colin Firth version of Darcy as well as the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma and freely admit that I actually laughed out loud when Matthew Macfadyen said, "You have bewitched me, body and soul." Romantic? Yes. The Darcy of Jane Austen? Not so much. (That version has grown on me, but feel free to hate me and leave now.) I prefer an Austen retelling to a sequel or a modern retelling and I prefer the characters more Austen-esque in dialogue and romance.

Whenever I encounter a new title, I have trouble determining whether it is for me or not, sometimes even after reading the reviews, so here are some categories I have made for myself.

Type: P&P Parallel/Retelling (true to the original plot line from a different perspective), Variation (a key plot point is changed altering the story),  Modern Retelling (the basic plot retold in a modern context) 
Perspective: Elizabeth, Darcy, Both, 3rd Person 
Romance Level: Austen-esque, Mild Romance, Modern Romance

 By the way, I am not generally drawn to the more sexy stories or vampires or zombies, so if I find those titles, I plan to skip them. Please comment if you find my reviews helpful, interesting, or even if you disagree, just do so respectfully and we can still be friends. 

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Top Ten Austen Retellings

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Elizabeth and Darcy: Ardently Yours

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