Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

In Rigler's sequel to CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, nineteenth-century Jane Mansfield finds herself transformed into 20-something Courtney Stone, who lives in L.A. Kate Reading's pitch and accent are spot-on as Jane's cultivated British internal voice. Jane's confusion and fascination with our current era's technology and pace are audible in Reading's every voicing of Jane's thoughts. Reading also shifts smoothly from Jane's thoughts to Courtney's actual L.A. American speaking voice. And in a deft blending of the two periods, Reading delivers the charming formality of Regency language when Courtney is compelled to use such phrases in speaking to her contemporary L.A. friends in her American accent. The bewildering complications of 21st-century romance, employment, social strata, and freedoms are depicted in a story that asks if society has truly evolved for the better. A.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

October 26, 2009
This delightful sequel to Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
has 19th-century Jane Mansfield switching bodies and milieus with contemporary L.A. girl Courtney Stone. As Jane grasps the idea that she's a different person in an unimaginable world, and grapples with the radically liberal social mores, dress and language, she leans on Jane Austen's novels as touchstones to reality. Kate Reading performs the first-person narration with a cultured tones and accent befitting an upper-class Regency-era young lady. Her skill as a versatile voice performer becomes evident as dialogue introduces modern American characters, and she skillfully modulates her accent, dialect and tones to accommodate them. The romantically suspenseful story and the entertaining vocal interpretation will keep romance listeners enthralled and amused. A Dutton hardcover.