The Austen Escape (Book Review)

November 07, 2017

The Austen Escape (Book Review)

The Austen Escape

by Katherine Reay

Katherine Reay excels at creating contemporary plots with classic twists of the Brontë and Austen variety. Her previous books include Dear Mr. Knightley, Lizzy & Jane, The Brontë Plot, and A Portrait of Emily Price. Her heroines all deal with real-life issues and typically endure some hardship that press them forward to mature in some way. And they are always in fun settings, from Seattle to Chicago to England to Italy.

Katherine Reay's latest book, The Austen Escape, releases TODAY, and I am so honored to be a part of the launch team for this fun book.

Mary Davies lives and works in Austin, Texas, as an industrial engineer. She has an orderly and productive life, a job and colleagues that she enjoys—particularly a certain adorable, intelligent, and hilarious consultant. But something is missing for Mary. When her estranged and emotionally fragile childhood friend Isabel Dwyer offers Mary a two-week stay in a gorgeous manor house in Bath, Mary reluctantly agrees to come along, in hopes that the holiday will shake up her quiet life in just the right ways. But Mary gets more than she bargained for when Isabel loses her memory and fully believes that she lives in Regency England. Mary becomes dependent on a household of strangers to take care of Isabel until she wakes up.

With Mary in charge and surrounded by new friends, Isabel rests and enjoys the leisure of a Regency lady. But life gets even more complicated when Mary makes the discovery that her life and Isabel’s have intersected in more ways that she knew, and she finds herself caught between who Isabel was, who she seems to be, and the man who stands between them. Outings are undertaken, misunderstandings play out, and dancing ensues as this triangle works out their lives and hearts among a company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation.-- from Goodreads

I haven't read, nor know much about industrial engineering, so it was interesting to read about a protagonist with this career choice, as well as the stress that comes along with it. Reay does a fantastic job making Mary believable. Character development is something I enjoy in novels and Mary's was a written in a realistic way. Mary had to make a few mistakes of her own before she could see clearly, similar to plenty of the lovable Austen characters.

Bath, England was the home for Jane Austen for several years and also the setting of many of her novels, which makes sense why Reay used this town, known for its Regency England history as well as Roman baths, for her this story. The Braithwaite House in Bath is not only a setting in the majority of the book, but practically a character itself. With its ornate and expansive manor, gardens, and rolling hills, it definitely has a Regency England-era feel that helps bolster the idea that Isabel could lose her memory and believe she truly lived in such a time. I would love to walk through the halls and the rooms of such a gorgeous place with its black and white marble floors, oil paintings hanging on the walls, and furniture fashioned in the style of the early 19th century. Not to mention custom-fit gowns that fit the period as well. Any die-hard Austen fan would have the time of their lives in such a place.

But you do not have to be a die-hard Austen fan to know what's going on in this Austin-inspired contemporary novel. Reay provides a useful cheat-sheet at the beginning of the book with notable characters referenced in the book, but even so, you will not miss much at all if you are not familiar with their stories.

All in all, The Austen Escape is a fun escape into the Austen-inspired world, filled with references that make the story nostalgic and endearing without being cheesy. I enjoyed the growth of Mary, the strange memory loss and personality issue with Isabel, and the sweet romances as well.

I visited Bath, England in 2013 and walked down memory lane while reading certain passages from the book. To help capture the Regency England setting and to wrap up the review, here are a few photos from my trip.