Just finished reading...

Austenland by Shannon Hale.

I literally just finished reading this book about Jane Hayes, a 30-something Manhattanite who is a closet Jane Austen fan. Well, actually, a closet Fitzwilliam Darcy fan. Well, actually, a Fitzwilliam Darcy as played by Colin Firth fan.

In the hopes that Jane might be written into the will, Janes mother brings elderly Aunt Carolyn for a visit. But Carolyn spots the DVD that Jane has hidden behind a potted plant, and calls Jane on it. When she dies a few months later, she does remember Jane in her will. But what Jane gets is 3 weeks at Austenland, an English resort for the Austen-crazed. (I'm deliberately not using the term "Jane-ite" here, because I think that is an entirely different animal.)

Jane isn't quite sure she wants it, but the vacation is non-refundable, so she decides she might as well try it, so off she goes, into a world of the idle Regency-era gentlewoman.

I hadn't realized when I started it that Shannon Hale is the author of a number of YA novels that I really enjoyed, particularly The Goose Girl.

Again, thanks to Katie P. for the birthday present.