The Jane Austen Project

A Novel

By: Kathleen A. Flynn

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Perfect for fans of Jane Austen, this engrossing debut novel offers an unusual twist on the legacy of one of the world's most celebrated and beloved authors: Two researchers from the future are sent back in time to meet Jane and recover a suspected unpublished novel.

London, 1815: Two travelers - Rachel Katzman and Liam Finucane - arrive in a field in rural England, disheveled and weighed down with hidden money. Turned away at a nearby inn, they are forced to travel by coach all night to London. They are not what they seem but rather colleagues who have come back in time from a technologically advanced future, posing as wealthy West Indies planters - a doctor and his spinster sister. While Rachel and Liam aren't the first team from the future to "go back", their mission is by far the most audacious: meet, befriend, and steal from Jane Austen herself.

Carefully selected and rigorously trained by The Royal Institute for Special Topics in Physics, disaster-relief doctor Rachel and actor-turned-scholar Liam have little in common besides the extraordinary circumstances they find themselves in. Circumstances that call for Rachel to stifle her independent nature and let Liam take the lead as they infiltrate Austen's circle via her favorite brother, Henry.

But diagnosing Jane's fatal illness and obtaining an unpublished novel hinted at in her letters pose enough of a challenge without the continuous convolutions of living a lie. While her friendship with Jane deepens and her relationship with Liam grows complicated, Rachel fights to reconcile the woman she is with the proper lady 19th-century society expects her to be. As their portal to the future prepares to close, Rachel and Liam struggle with their directive to leave history intact and exactly as they found it...however heartbreaking that may prove.

©2017 Kathleen A. Flynn (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Enjoyed, but

Overall, I enjoyed the book—it was fun and the reader is fantastic. I didn’t love it, but I liked it. The writing has some quirks. The time travel is believable enough, but I never understood why they needed Jane Austin’s writings. Even at the end of the book, it was never explained clearly. I had other unanswered questions as well, but don’t want to spoil anything. The oddest part was the awkward shifting between American and British accents for the main character. Why didn’t the author just make the character British? It wasn’t so bad that I didn’t want to finish the book, but sometimes the jump from one to the other, especially during sex scenes was abrupt and jolting. I will still recommend this as an easy, fun read, but don’t go into it thinking everything will be understood in the end.

Loved it!

Very entertaining and fun. Had me on the edge of my seat during the last third of the story, I was that invested on the story and characters. Not something that will blow your mind away, but you'll definetly will have a fun ride.

Will There Be A Sequel?

Any additional comments?

In the feeling of Jodi Taylor's St Mary's series and the All Souls trilogy from Deborah Harkness, Kathleen A Flynn brings us a sweet, rich time travelling tale. Rachel, a humanitarian physician, and Liam, an actor-scholar, travel back to 1815 to save Jane Austen's letters to her sister Cassandra and possibly bring back her manuscript for a lost novel.

The story is a love letter to Austen -- the author's passion for Austen and her times helps bring the era to life. And I'm hoping for a sequel -- will Rachel and Liam return to the 19th century to explore the mystery surrounding the Bronte sisters? I certainly hope so.

What genre is this?

In the end, my feelings about this novel weren’t very strong, and I decided it was because it didn’t fit anywhere. It’s not science fiction though time travel is the source of most of the action. It’s not historical fiction either because its purpose is not to tell us anything much about the early nineteenth century or even about Jane Austen. It’s also not a romance novel, though the protagonists fall in love. That lack of a focus simply produced very little in the way of a reaction in me.

I also thought the narrator, Saskia Maarleveld, was generally quite good, switching easily between American and British English accents, but she needs to be better educated to avoid pronunciation errors such as the total failure to pronounce Anthony Trollope‘ s name correctly. There were others, but that was really indicative of a lack of knowledge of English literary history. Given the subject of this novel, that should be something directors/editors listen for.

Disappointing in the end

Nice but clumsy

Interesting story and a bit clumsy, especially at the end. The narration was overall good except for mispronunciations of a few words that made me cringe. Is it possible that Saskia Maarleveld haven’t read Sense and Sensibility?!? How could she mispronounce the name of Edward Ferrars?!?

Where was the ending?

This book was absolutely wonderful until the last two minutes. It ended in such an anticlimactic and abrupt way I dropped one star from an otherwise five-star book.

Interesting story

This is an interesting story that starts out a little slow and builds into a reasonable tale. I was hoping for more historical reference and less science fiction.

Whelmed and not just in Europe

As an avid Austen fan, I truly wanted to like this. The characters were enjoyable if a bit two dimensional, and the settings seemed well-researched. My praise for the book ends there. The book's interesting premise turned out to be entirely predictable and even contrived. the ramification of time travel could have been done so much better and was truly a missed opportunity. I also think the author capitalized on the loyalty of Austen fans but then failed to really interweave those references.

Thoroughly enjoyable!

This may contain some spoilers!

I’m a Jane Austen fan through and through (seriously named my daughter Austen after her). And I adored the concept of this Jane inspired book and that it combined the regency era with time travel and the future.

The author did a great job bringing Jane’s character alive. And I really enjoyed the main character too. I loved their challenges in infiltrating in and acclimating to proper English Regency life.

Here is where I drop some spoilers. So stop here if you must. I did not adore the main character Rachel/Mary falling in love with her colleague. I feel as if when drawing up his character the author was going for a Lizzie Bennet and Mr Darcy romance..... but he was no Darcy and she though lovely and interesting no Lizzie. It seemed forced. His character seemed flat to me. But then again maybe it was something with the way he was portrayed in the audible reading and I’d have felt different had I actually read the book myself.

I was actually rooting for Rachel/Mary to be with Henry and stay in regency England. Alas even though I wasn’t in love with the romance of the novel I did enjoy the escape and the writing.

The book eludes to a “bronte project” at the end which makes me wonder if it’s a possible follow up book to be seen by the author in the future. If so I’d still happily read it as well.

Biting my nails

At first i was not sure about this book, but as the story unravelled I became more intrigued. Once we got to the last third of the story I was biting my nails. I found interesting what happens at the end, how the author chose to end it. I enjoyed both of the main characters. Henry Austen has a bit of a frisky fellow and Jane very cautious and not very friendly. She was not warm and fuzzy. but that was ok, i was more interested in Rachel and Liam. I really enjoyed the story.