I have very mixed feelings on this one. I love the original Jane Eyre, so in my mind nothing measures up. This, as a modern retelling, is decent- probably one of the more enjoyable ones I’ve read.

I love the original Jane Eyre. You should really have read the original before you read the retelling. This version of the story was better than I expected it to be. With retelling you never know if it'll be decent or awful. All of the elements of the original story are there. Overall it's an okay version of the classic. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I received this eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

Jane has been in and out of foster homes pretty much her whole life. So now that she is an adult and is on her own finally, she finds that being a nanny to kids is the best job for her. Especially since she tended to take care of the younger kids in her foster house, she's already had years of practice.

When Jane gets a job that requires her to move into their remote location in the middle of nowhere to help a little girl speak English rather than Spanish, she knows that it will be different than any other nannying job she's taken. Not only because the "house" is really a mansion, but because there is an air of mystery around the master of the house: Mr. Thorneton.

Jane likes to be invisible among the parents. She just wants to work with the children and then go off to her room when she's done. But for some reason, Mr. Thorneton intrigues her more than any other person has done in her life. She knows when he is in the area, and her senses go up in alert.

Then, with the mystery of the house and strange things happening, Jane is wondering what she got herself into when she accepted this simple nanny position. One thing is for sure, though. Nothing will be the same for Jane ever again.

So, I've never read Jane or seen movies of Jane, which means that this storyline was all new to me. And for the most part I really liked it! I loved the way Jane is so tentative in life - even though that was because of her terrible childhood - and how she grew to be the woman she is at the end of the book because of how well loved and accepted she became with the family and staff at the Tower House.

And even though there weren't too many moments, the times where Jane and Thorne were together were great! The suspense was so thick between the two of them, and when the moment finally came where they caved to temptation? Amazing. It gave me goosebumps and I didn't want it to stop.

The issues I had were about Thorne's secret life. I just didn't quite get what was going on and then BAM it was all there, but still no really good explanation of it. In the end, I got over that issue, but I think the book would have been superb if that was fixed/eliminated.

The ending was great. I loved this novel. And it looks like Micah might get his own novel, so I'll have to see if I pick that up or not. I know I loved the way Micah and Jane became friends and tested poor Thorne with their innocent flirting, but I'm not sure how Micah's own story will be.

I'm so glad I got a chance to read this novel, and maybe I'll have to find the original to see how it compares!

This could have been soo good if the manuscript went through a few more re-writes!! Author captured the original setting very well. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t supposed to be set in the 18th century. However, you wouldn’t know it by the way all the characters spoke and acted. From time to time the author reminded us that this is in fact, modern time – Jane has Instagram account, uses internet, etc. But those reminders didn’t fit with how the book was written. In addition, it’s very hard to determine where the story takes place – Jane and Micha shop at Home Depot and Walmart and the price for the bus ticket is said to be 8 dollars, not pounds or euros, so you would assume that the story is set in the United States. However, every single character speaks in a very weird Britain-like language (if my explanation doesn’t make sense, trust me, it’s because it doesn’t make sense in a story either). Let’s talk about characters. All of them were cardboard and flat. A lot of things were left unexplained – who Adelia was and why was she in the care of Mr. Thorneton in the first place? What happened to her afterwards? Why was a full time nanny still employed if Jane was brought in full time as well? The whole backstory of Thorne’s so-called wife was ridiculous at best. It didn’t make sense whatsoever. Jane’s relationship with Saint also needed a lot more development so that a reader can fully understand why she felt compelled to go back to Thorne’s house instead of simply laughing in Saint’s face at his proposal. Now the writing…OMG, what happened there?? There were countless jarring grammar errors and sentences that didn’t make sense at all (because words were missing or they weren’t used properly). Some chapters were better than others and which made me wonder if multiple people wrote this book.

This was something that I did not expect, it was such a well developed book and the characters were fascinating. I am hoping that this author continues to write. Thank you NetGalley.

I love Jane Eyre and was excited to read this retelling. My only problem is the anachronistic tone of the story and the current time of the story. I wish it flowed it bit better. The language of Jane Eyre is gorgeous, and at times, a bit over the top. Although not as desperate as Wuthering Heights. Good story, some fine tuning of the story could make it stronger. Am curious about Micha's story. He was a fascinating character.

I have really, really conflicted feelings about this story. It is my first download from #netgalley, so between that and Jane Eyre being one of my favorite stories, I was really excited to read and review it. The description of the retelling sounded appealing, with more potential to be enjoyable than most retellings of Jane Eyre I've tried to read.
So I was really happy to start reading and to realize that this felt like it could b a good retelling. The world it was set in and the characters who inhabited it felt like they COULD be modern, but yet fit into the original story structure. Jane as a quiet and self-contained young orphan escaped from the foster system felt like a modern parallel to the original orphan Jane. Both were quiet, composed, responsible survivors. and Thorneton (Rochester) captured the combination of wealthy confidence and unattractive attractiveness, as well as his acute judgement of character. I was a little confused by Micha, as he didn't resemble any character I remembered in the original Jane Eyre, but yet figured so centrally in the story. (Also, HOW do you pronounce his name? My-kah? Mee-cha? it bugged me every time I read his name.). But he ended up being a fairly likable character.
Most of the other characters, though? They felt like the cardboard cut outs in the movie Home Alone, used to enact part of the story, but very one-dimensional in those roles. Especially Sophia. For the entire story I was annoyed that all I seemed to know about this ever-present character was that she spoke Spanish and took care of Adelia. But Jane took care of Adelia. so why did Sophia stay? Was she old? Young? Beautiful? Friendly? I literally remember NO information about her. Adelia was a very one-note spoiled child--not only is there no nuance to her character, but her reason for being in Thorne's care is never actually directly explained (nor the resolution for her in the end). She's just there, with Thorne paying at least 2 people to take care of her. Even Saint, Laura, and Maggie were not very nuanced characters--they filled in their roles, and that was that. The relationship between Jane and Saint wasn't very well developed, and the reader is left hanging as to what sort of person or character he really is.
And then there's the grammar. OMG, the grammar. I was highlighting another glaring error at least every page. There were mistakes that could have been typos and/or autocorrect, such as replacing "is" with "a" or "shuttered" for "shuddered". In addition to incorrect or missing words, there were rampant examples throughout the book of incomplete thoughts/ sentence fragments, changes of tense within the same paragraph, etc. This seemed to increase in the last few chapters, with some sentences only making sense after two or more read-throughs. There were also significant info dumps in both the beginning and the end of the story. The second person narration of the beginning info dump was especially unrealistic and awkward. And there were a few places where the narrative seemed to jump ahead, without developing or explaining how we suddenly hit this next step in the story (in Jane and Thorne's relationship, especially. We were jumped from silent longing and inexplicable connection to hot and heavy, and it was disorienting.). The info dump at the end didn't bother to include the fates of several of the major supporting characters, either.
This book needs a THOROUGH editing by someone who understands grammar and can call out continuity issues and leaps in logic as well. Another 2-3 drafts of the story, to develop supporting characters, soften info dumping, and improve continuity and flow of the story would also really have helped make this a good book.
Because here's the thing: despite my distraction by and frustration with the obscene amount of errors and clumsy grammar, the essence of this story was engaging. I liked Jane Byrne, and bought into the chemistry between her and Thorne. Thorne was intriguing, and the mystery that made him who he was was and explained the set up of his estate and the security thereof was creative and fit into the framework of the original Jane Eyre surprisingly well. Micha grew on me, and I think several of the other characters would have done so as well, with a bit more development. Despite finding bad grammar, typos, and clumsy writing to be huge distractions, I still enjoyed the story. Had this book had the services of a decent editor, I think I would have whole-heartedly enjoyed it. Lark Watson has potential as a story teller. She just needs help with refining plot and characters and grammar and the mechanics of writing to become a good author and take her stories to the next level.

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read a copy of this story in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Once A Week or More: https://onceaweekormore.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/jane-retold/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2632901677?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Jane Eyre is back! Jane: A Retelling is a modern day version an old theme. Very moody and compelling writing, and the heroine is a "closet badass". Fans of updated versions of the classics will really enjoy this one. It has the same elevated, rambling style of writing as the original. There were several typo's that interrupted the flow and general tone of the story, which I found jarring, hence my 3.5 rating, but I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys this genre. Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

A lovely retelling of Jane. This book provides an interesting update to the original and brings it into modern times. I'm interested to see where the next book goes.

I actully was surprised how much I enjoyed this re telling. The characters were interesting, plot was good. I won't lie I am excited for the next book

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance read

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books and I wasn’t sure how I would feel about a retelling of this story but I really enjoyed this book. It was true to the original in how the characters were portrayed but was updated and different enough to keep things interesting. The writing style was easy to read and kept me engrossed the whole way through. I couldn’t put it down and I would love to read another book from this author.