Finding Jane Fairfax by Robbin J. Peterson (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

Title:  Finding Jane Fairfax

Author:  Robbin J. Peterson

Narrated by:  Noah Wall

Publisher: Shadow Mountain

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 8 minutes

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com.  Thank-you Covenant Corporation and Austenprose for the review copy of the physical book.

Have you ever wanted to know the back story of a secondary character in a novel?  If so, which character and novel?

I have always been intrigued by Jane Fairfax in Emma by Jane Austen.  She was an orphan that was raised by her father’s wealthy friend from the military.  Although she was raised with his daughter as a lady, she has no dowry or prospects of her own.  In Emma, she is quiet, beautiful, and accomplished, all of which makes Emma dislike her.  How does Jane’s secret engagement to Frank Churchill come about?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I LOVED this regency romance.

·       The story was told through Frank and Jane’s alternating viewpoints.

·       Frank and Jane have a great friends to lovers’ vibe and also have some great witty banter.

·       I’ll admit that I liked them both much more in this novel than I did in the original Emma novel.

·       Jane and Frank were both raised by others.  Frank still has a father, but he gave him to rich relatives to raise after his mother died.  They are both troubled by their situations in life and how they are not in control of their own destinies.

·       While Jane was raised well by a happy family, Frank was raised by a distant aunt and uncle who taught him to look down on people.

·       I enjoyed how Jane and Frank bonded over poetry.

·       I also enjoyed getting to know Mr. Dixon and Cassandra (Miss Campbell).  They were both delightful secondary characters, although I felt so bad about their unrequited love story.  Cassandra loved Mr. Dixon, but he loved Jane.  There was hope at the end though that Mr. Dixon would grow in his love for Cassandra.  She was much more suited to him.

·       I thought it was interesting to see the anti-Irish sentiment against Mr. Dixon.

·       The overall question in this novel was should you marry for love or for wealth and security?  This was an all-important question in this time period.

·       This prequel really made me see how this romance between Jane and Frank will work and how much they have in common.

·       I want this to be a trilogy.  Book two can take place during the events with Emma through their marriage.  Book three can take place after their marriage and be a romance between one of their children and the children of the Dixons or Knightleys.

·       I enjoyed the author’s note about the song “The Irishman” that was used in the story.

·       As I have been doing lately, I started this physical book and then finished it on audiobook as I have had a lot of driving time for work.  This story worked well in both formats.

Overall, Finding Jane Fairfax by Robbin J. Peterson is a riveting prequel to Emma that finally gives Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill the story they deserve.

BOOK DESCRIPTION
Jane Fairfax knows she is truly fortunate. Most orphans face lives of hardship, whereas she was adopted by doting surrogate parents who elevated her place in Society and love her as their own. Yet even they cannot shield her from the grim realities of life without a suitable marriage. In moments of despair, Jane comforts herself with a well-worn memory: that of a young man whose kind words when they were children once soothed her heartbreak. But now that boy has grown into a dashing gentleman―and their lives could not be more distant.

Frank Churchill is a prisoner of his station. His inheritance is held in the balance by his demanding aunt, and the weight of her expectations is suffocating him. But when a chance encounter brings the lovely Miss Fairfax back into his life, he discovers what it is to truly live. As the pair secretly become acquainted amid the confines of Society’s strict rules, their friendship blossoms into love. But in a world ruled by unyielding traditions, endeavoring to build a life together would mean inviting a scandal that would shake the very foundation of the ton.

AUTHOR BIO
Robbin J. Peterson is the author of Going Home, Conviction, and 13 Days of Girls Camp. She earned her degree in English literature from Utah State University and her associate of arts degree from Snow College. She has six kids, plays the viola, and works as an elementary school librarian.