Fiona Woodifield ~ A Wedding at the Jane Austen Dating Agency

Synopsis

Sophie Johnson appears to be living the perfect life. She has landed her dream job as managing director of The Jane Austen Dating Agency and is dating the world's most desirable man, Darcy Drummond.
 
But all is not as it seems. The relationship with Darcy is failing to live up to expectations and his awful mother is determined to cause trouble. To add to Sophie's problems, the agency is struggling to attract enough eligible men, she has a Regency wedding to plan, and then there's the amusing and disturbingly cute Henry Baxter who is making it hard for her to concentrate.
 
The problem is Sophie wants it all, but in trying to manage everything, she's in danger of losing what matters most.
 
Can she keep the dating agency afloat and find her own happy ever after? Or is business and romance an impossible combination?

Review

It's no secret that Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books & the BBC adaptation is possibly my most watched series. Although I do have a soft spot for Northanger Abbey.

There's something about Jane Austen that is both empowering and romantic - her characters have real personalities and rebel against convention.

This book had so much potential, bringing the ideals of Austen into the modern day.

It's a brave attempt with plenty of familiar characters, dances and strong women.

It's not a retelling per se, but more a medley of Austen plot lines and characters in a modern setting. This works to a certain extent but does feel very contrived and there are so many characters and sub plots it's a little confusing.

I also found it hard to believe Sophie was an MD. Her character is quite immature and naïve, not to mention indecisive - much more like Catherine than Elizabeth. Hardly a strong businesswoman; I much preferred her friend Mel as a character. And sadly neither Darcy nor Henry had me swooning on the sofa…

What I struggled most with is the author's need to explain every Austen reference. This grew quite irritating as it's pretty obvious to whom she's referring.

I'm also not sure there are many people who would happily attend more than one regency ball per year…

A nice concept, but unfortunately this didn't work for me.
















Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

I was provided with a copy by the author and Random Things Tours. Opinions my own.

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