Austenland by Shannon Hale (amazon.com)

This book was not very good, for a variety of reasons. I guess I had high expectations because I enjoyed reading Princess Academy, so I was hoping that Shannon Hale’s first non YA book would be a fun summer read. It ended up being merely okish.
One thing that I thought was odd was the timing of the book – although I would be the first to agree with anyone that Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy obsession is eternal, I felt like I should have been reading about Jane and her compulsive habit of watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice several years ago, shortly after the series came out. Jane is given a trip to a resort where travelers get the opportunity to immerse themselves in Jane Austen’s world. She has to don a corset and give up the trappings of her modern life. She makes the acquaintance of a handsome gardener as well as a Mr. Darcy analogue named Mr. Nobley.
Character and plot development are both thin, the book is less than 200 pages and might have functioned better as a short story. The plot developments towards the end of the story seemed more like the type of thing that you’d encounter in an uninspired movie – I don’t know if I really need to read any more scenes about people rushing off to catch their lover in an airport before they are parted forever. I usually have a fairly high tolerance for chick-lit, but this book didn’t do much for me.