I have known Heidi for a long time now, we grew up together in the Pleasanton 4th ward. She is a few years older than me, so we weren't like best friends, but I still talk to her (thanks Facebook!) and wouldn't hesitate to say hi if I saw her again. Heidi has written a few other books for kids, 1, 2, 3 with Nephi and Me (its one of my kids' favorite books), Time to Share, and some of the Tiny Talks volumes. I was really excited when she was writing this book. She posted a lot about it on her own blog, so the suspense was real!
I've always loved Jane Austen movies, I did read Emma a few years back, but never got around to the other books. So I was excited to revisit some of my favorite characters and learn some new ones (I only knew the storylines to Emma, Sense & Sensibility, and Pride & Prejudice). At first it was sort of hard to follow the book; a bit of advice: keep referring to the back of the book for a list of characters. Heidi changes the ethnicity of some of the characters, so therefore not everyone has the same name. The book doesn't have chapters, it's organized by journal entries (just like Lady Susan was, well it was letters, oh hey I have read another Jane Austen book!) So it's easy to read a little here and there. I think about 1/3 of the way I finally had the characters down and all the different storylines. Maybe if I had recently read the books or watched the movies I would have caught on quicker. Heidi does a good job of staying true to the characters while also writing them from this decade. I was glad that each journal entry wasn't too long and the switch from character to character wasn't too fast or too slow.
I really enjoyed this book! I messaged Heidi as soon as I finished it to tell her how much I liked it! I am very excited for the sequel, which she will be self publishing. I'll keep you updated on when it is available. For this book, unless you live in Utah, it won't be available at your local bookstore or library. You can get the book here or here. After I finished the book I went to find out which other movies have been made, nothing for Northanger Abbey or Persuasion (should we start rioting until some one makes it into a movie?) BUT Netflix does have Mansfield Park, needless to say It's on my list and I'll be watching it as soon as I have some peace and quiet from my kids. So yeah it might be awhile...
I hope you enjoyed the book as much as I did! What did you think?
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