Review of Jane Austen's First Love By Syrie James

Hey all, so I finished the novel Jane Austen's First Love about a month ago. Sadly, life got in the way of me reviewing it. Let me start off with the most important part, I liked it. I know that some would argue that my personal feelings should not come into play, perhaps my review should focus on the style of the work or how closely it resembles Austen's own. However, I think the best praise one can give a piece of literature is the nod that it was worth reading. While there are a lot of authors trying to emulate the style of Jane Austen around today and in the past, Syrie James captured the light and jovial air that you can find in the most biting parts of Austen's work. The story focuses on a fictional imagining about a summer that Austen spent with her family visiting her brother and his soon to be wife. While the correspondence between the real Jane and her family exists, this particular story is a plausible and yet not all that probable account. However, there are several points in the book where, as the reader, you (if you have read as much of Austen's work as I) feel that you can really hear Austen's voice through the text, springing unexpectedly up as if Jane's ghost had possessed James and was helping to tell a story the world of Austenites would love to know. The references to the era in which Jane lived and the manner her family kept themselves in were spot on, it is obvious that no small amount of research was put into the historical accuracy of the novel. In fact, this is one of the few "Historical Fiction" novels I have read that have met my expectations. There is everything from the fabrics used for dressmaking to the turns of phrase one might expect to hear, it is truly a beautifully written piece. I am looking forward to reading her other works focusing on that time era and those writers who captured it.