A rewarding read for lovers of historical fiction and Jane Austen.
A scholar torn between her father’s expectations and her own passion for literature finds herself unexpectedly transported to Regency-era England in Sullivan’s novel.
Janet Roberts is a college student living her dream during her semester abroad in Bath, England, where she’ll be able to take a prestigious Jane Austen seminar. Not even her overbearing father’s stipulation that she intern at an architectural firm of his choosing can dampen her excitement. When a stray cricket ball somehow knocks her out of the present and back into the year 1813, she wonders if she’s hit her head harder than she thought (“Maybe she was in a coma. Do people dream in a coma?”). While waking up in the Regency era might seem like an Austen fan’s dream, the reality is anything but: Janet finds herself woefully out of her depth navigating the strict social codes and expectations of the time period. Her only lifeline, as she struggles to adjust, is the sweet and friendly Emma Huntington, an ancestor of Charles Huntington, who donated one of his properties to the academic program Janet is in. Emma’s brother, the dashing yet aloof Sir Edward, isn’t as welcoming but is just as intriguing. While hiding her true identity and seeking a way back to her own time, Janet must answer an increasingly difficult question: Does she truly want to return? The novel’s incorporation of art, poetry, and architecture creates a vivid and immersive homage to the 19th-century setting; the author’s clear passion for the period shines through and enhances the story without ever overwhelming it. One of the most impressive aspects of the book is the dialogue’s seamless transitions between modern and Regency-era speech, with each character sounding true to their time. However, Janet’s internal thoughts often feel repetitive, particularly in the early and middle parts of the story, which slows down the narrative’s momentum. In the later sections, chronology occasionally shifts between scenes without warning, which can be confusing. Despite these flaws, the novel is distinguished by its rich historical detail and its thoughtful explorations of identity, personal agency, and the tension between obligation and desire.
A rewarding read for lovers of historical fiction and Jane Austen.Pub Date: May 30, 2022
ISBN: 9781737729341
Page Count: 444
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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