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by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | January 11, 2013 | Friday at 11:35 am | 13 Comments

A shopping cart filled with books I am rocking a marvelously messy headcold right now, so all I want to do is find a blanket, some tea, my couch and some books. So when there's something that's on sale and I'm curious about it, I don't even question buying it. It's medicinal. Right? Of course.

Austenland is $1.99 digitally.

Jane is a young New York woman who can never seem to find the right man-perhaps because of her secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Predjudice.

When a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-obsessed women, however, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become more real than she ever could have imagined.

Is this total immersion in a fake Austenland enough to make Jane kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance is $1.99 digitally.

Fans of romance don’t need to look any further than the fauxmance brewing between teen idols Charlie Tracker and Fielding Withers-known on their hit TV show as Jenna and Jonah, next-door neighbors flush with the excitement of first love.

But it’s their off-screen relationship that has helped cement their fame, as passionate fans follow their every PDA. They grace the covers of magazines week after week. Their fan club has chapters all over the country. The only problem is their off-screen romance is one big publicity stunt, and Charlie and Fielding can’t stand to be in the same room. Still, it’s a great gig, so even when the cameras stop rolling, the show must go on, and on, and on. . . .

Until the pesky paparazzi blow their cover, and Charlie and Fielding must disappear to weather the media storm. It’s not until they’re far off the grid of the Hollywood circuit that they realize that there’s more to each of them than shiny hair and a winning smile.

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo

Mrs. Ames is $1.99 digitally.

The cover copy for this book is mostly biographical, so I (Sarah) am taking a stab at writing a description for a book I haven't read. This ought to be completely bizarre - be sure to let me know what you think.

This book is not fanfiction or a Twilight or Pride and Prejudice retelling, and to my knowledge was not self published. E.F. James died in 1940 and to my knowledge has not been reincarnated as E.L. James. E.F. James (his friends called him "Fred," according to Wikipedia, and really, if it's on the internet, it must be true) was a prolific author best known for his Mapp and Lucia series, and perhaps also somewhat known among his peers as the son of E.W. James, the Archbiship of Canterbury. This book was originally published in 1912.

Mrs. Ames is an Edwardian comedy of manners focused, much like James' other books, on small town and small community life in England. Michael Cohen on Goodreads wrote the following summary in his review, wherein he gave this book four stars: "Mrs. Ames (1912) deals with the struggle of two women to be the dominant social maven in their little town. Millie Evans and Amy Ames are cousins and rivals for the title of supreme hostess of Riseborough, and an additional frisson is added to the plot by the dalliance of Millie and Major Ames, Amy’s husband. Mrs. Ames dares to invite only one member of each prominent Riseborough couple to a dinner party. Mrs. Evans counters with a fancy dress ball with a Shakespearean theme, and Benson makes hilarious use of the ball’s glut of Cleopatras and paucity of Antonys. Then Mrs. Ames begins to read suffragette tracts, and as Benson writes, 'the fumes of an idea, to one who had practically never tasted one, intoxicated her as new wine mounts to the head of a teetotaler.'"

It sounds as if this book is all about manners, gossip, and nosy people - though there doesn't seem to be much romance in it.

Damn, writing copy for a book one hasn't read is hard work.

Filed: Ebooks, Free or Cheap Ebooks, General Bitching

Tagged: ya romance, pride and prejudice, new adult, jane austen, ebook sales

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JessicaL said on 01.11.13 at 12:00 PM • [link]

Kristan Higgins’ Just One of the Guys is a free e-read at Barnes and Noble. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Sarah Wynde said on 01.11.13 at 12:20 PM • [link]

Back when I was an acq editor, I had to write cover copy and marketing blurbs for books that hadn’t been written yet. I sympathize with your pain. At least the book won’t change between now and the time people pick it up!
SB Sarah said on 01.11.13 at 12:42 PM • [link]

That’s true! If it was published 100 years ago, the copy won’t change much!
CarrieS said on 01.11.13 at 12:56 PM • [link]

Has any one read Austenland? I was intrigued by one of the sequels but haven’t read any of them yet. Would appreciate intel.
Lauren said on 01.11.13 at 12:58 PM • [link]

Emily Franklin is an absolute sweetheart and a wonderful writer. I keep meaning to read Jenna and Jonah’s Fauxmance, and I am definitely buying it now! Austenland sounds fun too. Thanks, Sarah!
Hannah said on 01.11.13 at 02:09 PM • [link]

Austenland was a really sweet chick-lit novel with more romance than is typical in this genre.
Jennifer in GA said on 01.11.13 at 02:10 PM • [link]

I really liked Austenland! It made me laugh a lot and it really “gets” the Mr. Darcy obsession.
Joanna said on 01.11.13 at 03:47 PM • [link]

An interesting note, I thought I had read that Austenland was being made into a film. I checked IMDB and it’s listed as starring Keri Russell and completed in 2012 but there is no release date given - so not a good sign. But the book definitely sounds interesting!
Stephanie Burgis said on 01.11.13 at 04:42 PM • [link]

Austenland is about to premiere at the Sundance festival! So - crossing fingers… (I loved that book!)
Cate Hulk said on 01.11.13 at 09:08 PM • [link]

There is a pretty good BBC mini along the same lines, but with time travel! Lost in Austin. I actually liked the Mr Darcy in it better than other iterations, if I remember right.
Cate Hulk said on 01.11.13 at 09:11 PM • [link]

Oops…I mean Lost in Austen. It isn’t about the capitol of Texas.
threegoodrats said on 01.11.13 at 09:35 PM • [link]

Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin are both super nice. They came to my book group! I’ve read two of their books and really liked them both.
LJmysticowl said on 01.14.13 at 05:38 PM • [link]

I should’ve picked Austenland, because I picked up Jenna & Jonah (on the basis of the summary, it sounded interesting and I’m on a YA kick lately) and… wow, did I not like it.

I bought it without checking the pub date and an early mention of Twitter confirmed my assumption that it’s recent. And then, 10% into the book, a teenager says his “sidekick” ran out of charge and could he use his friend’s computer to “AIM chat” with a person. It’s like I time-travelled back to 2000 and didn’t notice, or rather the characters did. I even went hunting for the copyright date to make sure the book wasn’t published a decade ago. Now, nothing else in the book was this egregious, except the mention of the heroine having a blackberry and using “Twittering” instead of “tweeting”.

The thing is, if the book is good, out-of-touch details like this can be ignored, but it really wasn’t. Maybe because it actually skews younger than I expected, it feels more middle-grade than YA, despite the characters being 17. Then again, a young audience doesn’t excuse things like build-up with no pay-off (a whole thing is made of the heroine’s being unable to cry, even for a role, but when she finally does at the end, it’s glossed over completely). I also felt that the only reason the hero was written as having a slightly archaic and overly formal vocabulary not because bookishness was an important character trait (it really wasn’t), but because the writer needed an excuse not to work on writing in a teenager’s voice.

I hate giving books bad reviews, I’d much rather have loved it! And I love fluff! I just feel like I even for $2, there’s better fluff out there.