Jane Bites Back

October 19, 2009
Ford's (Last Summer
) fang-tastic satire of the Jane Austen craze catches up with “Elizabeth Jane Fairfax,” the undead 233-year-old author and owner of an upstate New York book store. She's disgusted by the Pride and Prejudice
knockoffs that fly out of her store (poor Jane hasn't seen a royalty check in almost 200 years), and her last manuscript's been rejected by 116 publishers. Things start to look up when she finally gets a deal for the book, but two problems arise as she's promoting Constance
: Lord Byron, who turned Jane, wants her back; and Violet Grey, a vitriolic Brontë blogger, accuses Jane of stealing Charlotte Brontë's last unsold manuscript. Ford's Jane is a very fun and funny heroine to root for as she endures the indignities of publishing and bookselling, fends off danger and (perhaps) finds love. Her hilarious smack downs with Violet hint of more madness to come in this first of a series.

November 15, 2009
Armed only with her vampire powers, 192-year-old Jane Austen hits the publicity trail to promote what fond readers think is her first novel.

Though the standard reference works agree that the author of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park died in 1817, they're all wrong. After being turned into a vampire by a bite from a contemporaneous celebrity author, Jane Austen faked her own death and went into hiding. At first she sought the company of her own kind, but she drifted away from vampires and ended up as Jane Fairfax, owner of Flyleaf Books in cozy Brakeston, N.Y. The only blots on her happiness have been her inability to return the love of widowed carpenter Walter Fletcher—what would she tell him when he grew older but she didn't?—and the 116 rejection slips awarded her novel Constance. (There's some justice here, since excerpts employed as chapter epigraphs are rather overripe for Austen.) Now, however, the second of these trials seems to be at an end. Kelly Littlejohn of Browder Publishing loves Constance and wants to publish it in time for the beach-reading season. Jane promptly scores a spot on the TV show Comfort and Joy and an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Soon after she's invited to a conference on romance fiction and Constance debuts as #1 on the NYTBR list. But Jane's Cinderella story is comically curdled by her discomfort with airplanes, makeup and publicity, the need to keep her private life private, dark accusations of plagiarism—not to mention her thirst for the blood of an English professor, one of the talk-show hosts and, most satisfyingly, the philistine author of a self-help volume entitled Waiting for Mr. Darcy.

Ford (What We Remember, 2009, etc.) approvingly cites Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but his own mashup is better integrated, more knowledgeable about Austen and considerably funnier—although not quite as funny as his gorgeous premise might suggest. First of a promised trilogy.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 15, 2009
Turned into a vampire by Lord Byron back in the 19th century, Jane Austen still struggles with her altered nature. Currently living in a small town in upstate New York under the name of Jane Fairfax, she owns a bookstore and is trying to get a new novel published. Turning up out of nowhere, Bryon, now Brian George, wants to woo Jane back, but he faces competition from local carpenter Walter. When Jane finally achieves critical and commercial success with her novel's publication, the publicity draws the attention of a jealous rival from the past. Will Jane finally find personal and professional happiness, or will her secrets be revealed? VERDICT In this clever paranormal tale, YA author Ford has created warm, witty characters that will appeal to both Janeites and vampire fanciers. Literary humor and intriguing snippets from Jane's book are the icing on the cake. Two more books are promised in this series, so readers who fall under Jane's spell will be eagerly awaiting her next adventure. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 9/1/09; ebook available 12/09: ISBN 978-0-345-51900-9.]Stacey Hayman, Rocky River P.L., OH

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