Vanessa Roberts is a PR guru who owns her own boutique business. She is constantly connected to all social media, immersed in her phone and computer, posting and tweeting and maintaining an online presence for her clients. She is good at her job and she believes in the power of the internet, often citing how many relationships start online whenever she contemplates her online dating profile. The most important person in Vanessa's life is her Aunt Ella, who stepped in to raise her when she was 13. For her Austen-loving Janeite aunt, who is beginning to show signs of Alzheimer's, Vanessa agrees to represent Julian Chancellor, an Englishman who is raising funds to restore his ancestral home by promoting his book, My Year As Mr. Darcy. The sinfully gorgeous Julian has come to Chicago to do a Regency striptease (only down to his drawers) discussing historical clothing at the JASNA Annual General Meeting.
Julian stays in character at almost all times, challenging Vanessa on her dependence on the impersonal internet, even while it is one of the things that will most quickly raise him the money he needs for the extensive repairs to his historical home. Vanessa sends out teasing suggestive tweets, keeping Julian in the public eye during his stay in the states. But she, who has never paid much attention to anything Jane Austen related, seeing it almost as a rival for her aunt's affection rather than something worthy of interest, starts to succumb to the magic of Austen's Regency world. And she certainly succumbs to the magic of Julian.
The Chicago event happens to overlap with a Comic Con, being held in the same hotel convention center. So gowned and frock coated people mingle freely with Wonder Woman and Trekkies. And it is at this strange commingling of events that Vanessa meets Chase MacClane, dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. Apparently she went to high school with Chase, not that she remembers, and he is the trusted assistant of her Aunt's boyfriend, making them almost family. As obsessed as Vanessa's becoming with her own Mr. Darcy, she cannot help but notice that Chase is good looking and kind and perfect in his own right.
Throughout the immersion in Jane Austen world, including more festivals and even a trip to a convention in Bath, England, Vanessa learns about love and relationship. Along the way she also makes a new friend in an ardent Janeite, she forgives an old friend, and she comes to understand the importance of very real personal connection rather than just a superficial cyber connection. This novel is fun and humorous, a gentle romance (with some steamy sex), even as it points out one of the perils of our very online driven modern lives. Vanessa is eventually seduced by the pull of real life and the beauty of the people who love and care for you in person, understanding that while her job is important, she sometimes needs to disconnect from the internet and revel in the real world. Doornebos has created appealing characters who need a little bit of the old fashioned in their lives. And although there cannot be a romance without some conflict, the interactions between Julian and Vanessa and Chase are interesting and revealing. While the ending itself feels a little rushed, it couldn't have finished any other way than it did. Janeites will thoroughly enjoy this modern delight of a novel but so will anyone who appreciates a sweet romance, anyone who finds it just a little bit overwhelming the way we live so completely on our computers and phones and tablets these days, and anyone who wants a little chuckle inducing innuendo in her reading.
Thanks to Kayleigh from Berkley/NAL for sending me a copy of the book for review.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I have had to disable the anonymous comment option to cut down on the spam and I apologize to those of you for whom this makes commenting a chore. I hope you'll still opt to leave me your thoughts. I love to hear what you think, especially so I know I'm not just whistling into the wind here at my computer.