Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale

Have you ever loved a book so much that you wanted to live in it?  Austenland is the chance for the contemporary woman to experience living in the regency period like in a Jane Austen novel.  The first novel and movie are a lot of fun, but this second novel takes things to another level by introducing a murder mystery.

Charlotte Kinder has built up a successful business and has two lovely children.  Her world comes crashing down when her husband leaves her for another woman.  She decides a break is needed and heads to England for a stay at Pembroke Park, a Jane Austen-themed retreat.  While trying to solve a fun party mystery, Charlotte stumbles across a real murder mystery.  Who was killed and why?

I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery.  I was surprised by the mystery as I thought this book was making fun of Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey and her ability to think everything is a Gothic mystery when it was indeed not.  Charlotte is a bit like Catherine at first, but it does turn out to be a real mystery.  I liked seeing favorites like Miss Charming reappear and get a real happy ending for herself.  I enjoyed that we got Charlotte’s backstory in flashbacks at the end of each chapter.  Charlotte has a mid-life coming of age story where she has to figure out for herself what she wanted moving forward.  I wasn’t feeling the romance as much as I should have in this one, but I did enjoy the story.

Midnight in Austenland was one of the March selections for the JASNA Northwoods Book Club.  It was agreed that it was a fun, lighthearted book.

Book Source: Purchased from Amazon.com