"Miss Austen" by Gill Hornby was such a lovely story. I've read a lot about Jane Austen's life and family, but I still learned more from this book, especially about the extended family that was so focused on in this story. While it was fictionalized, a lot about the story was based on true life events and a lot of it felt believable, including the letters written in Jane Austen's voice. That's an impressive feat in and of itself. I enjoyed the feminist viewpoint that a woman, even in the early 19th century, did not necessarily need a man to have a happy life. I myself have been guilty of feeling bad for Jane Austen that she never got married, but have in my reading of her life come to see that we would never have had her amazing novels if she had, and this book only reinforced that truth. Regardless, Jane and her sister Cassandra and her mother are generally looked upon as poor, sad, impoverished, neglected women—and maybe they were some of those things, but why does that mean they couldn't have been happy in each other's company, that they couldn't have loved as fully and completely and joyfully as any wife and mother? This book about Cassandra brought out that truth more fully for me, and I found it beautiful and compelling. It was a well-written, well-researched, wonderfully thought out novel about what makes for a good life and the different forms that true love can take. I highly recommend it.

This book was...okay. An interesting look at Jane Austen's sister Cassandra, but it did feel like it moved a bit too slowly for my taste. It didn't grip my attention the way I hoped it did, which is especially upsetting because I love Austen. I might return to this one at a later time, perhaps after listening to the author's interview on Bonnets at Dawn. I do think it's fascinating that she chose to focus on Cassandra instead of Jane herself though!

Overall I thought this book was an okay read, but it didn’t always capture my attention. At times I felt the plot was slow moving and boring. I love Jane Austen and her work, so it was interesting to read a story that talked about her life and to see things from the perspective of her sister. You are able to learn a lot about her backstory and what she went through to try and prove herself as a writer. It’s always interesting to read historical fiction from a time period other than WWII (even though that’s my favorite!). I thought this book was worth the read even though I sometimes had a hard time getting into it. But I love the fact that it focused on a character that would otherwise not have much known about her. Thank you for the advanced copy!

Miss Austin
By Gill Hornby

This is a charming book about the life of Cassandra Austin, the beloved sister of
Jane.
The book tells of Janes’ young life until her passing entwining the lives of the
Austin sisters and brothers as they grow into young people, becoming married, and have families.
Another story is told of Cassandras search for letters between Jane and Eliza, a family friend, as well as Cassandra and Eliza. Cassandra was helping pack up the home of the deceased Eliza along with her daughters.
This was a memorable read that was well written with memorable phrases such as “Her love of fiction has spread from the page and into our lives” and “To surrender ones books, well: It is to surrender part of one’s soul”
I received and Advanced Reader Copy from Netgalley in return for a fair and honest review.

The title character, Cassandra, is the surviving sister of Jane. She is single, having lost her fiancé and vowing never to be unfaithful to his memory. Her life has been dedicated to caring for her mother, her sister and the children of her brothers. She has become the guardian of the Jane Austen legacy. At an advanced age she travels to the sister of her deceased fiancé who is in possession of letters written by both Jane and Cassandra and might, she fears, expose family secrets that would tarnish the image of her sister whose popularity has been steadily growing. The letters do reveal past events and raw emotions. Gill Hornby uses them to trigger memories, allowing her readers to share in the flashbacks. We learn about the plight of the unmarried women who are dependent on male siblings and their families. We meet the inspirations for many beloved characters of Jane’s novels and in turn their creator is revealed as human and flawed as these characters.
I

I enjoy historical fiction novels, especially ones sprinkled with mystery and this one was really enjoyable to read.
This novel is about Jane Austen's sister and how she seeks to protect her sister and the legacy she had in the world of writing. I found the book to be and interesting period piece and one that was written through the lens of someone you don't often see mentioned in any books about Jane Austen.

For whoever looked at an elderly lady and saw the young heroine she once was?~from Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

I am old. I am older than my mother and her brothers and two grandfathers were when they died. I am two aunts away from being the eldest on my mother's side of the family, and an aunt and a cousin away from being the eldest on my father's side. I have become a living keeper of memories of times that predate most of my family's birth.

I am also the family genealogist, a role inherited from my grandfather along with his papers after his death. I know things. I know things no one else knows, things that I have kept mostly to myself. I debate about making public this knowledge but am reluctant to cast a dark shadow on the memory of beloved relatives.

I understand why Cassandra Austen was adamant about obtaining Jane's private letters, culling out those too personal, that revealed too much about her beloved sister's life. For as small a footprint as our lives may leave, some things should remain unknown, private, sacred.

And Cassandra saw now, understood for the first time, the immensity of the task she had lately set herself: How impossible it was to control the narrative of one family's history.~ from Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

Miss Austen is the story of an aging Cassandra Austen on a mission to retrieve her sister's letters from the estate of a beloved friend. For in these letters Jane had poured out her despair and depression following her father's retirement and later death, her hasty acceptance of the marriage proposal she soon broke, and the startling story of Cassandra's rejection of a marriage proposal, which had she accepted would have entailed breaking her vow to marry Tom Fowle or no man.

Church tradition allowed the relicts of the family two months to vacate the house for the next incumbent.(...)Poor Isabella. The task before her was bleak, miserable, arduous: just two months to clear the place that had been their home for ninety-nine years!~from Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

Tom Fowle's family included three generations of clergymen who inhabited the vicarage, but the chain had ended. The widow of the last vicar, Isabella Fowle had to pack it all up, distribute family heirlooms to her brothers, and find herself a place to live--all in two months. The new vicar was pressing for an even earlier removal.

--to leave a vicarage was to be cast out of Eden. There were only trial and privation ahead.~from Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

Cassandra Austen arrives to 'help' out, but really to locate the letters she and Jane had sent to Isabella's mother Eliza, their dear friend.

The trip brings back memories. Tom was one of Rev. Austen's boarding scholars and had known Cassandra since she was a young child. When Cassandra agreed to marry him, he was impatient to gain a position to support them. When Lord Craven offered Tom a living if he accompanied him as his private minister to the Caribbean he readily agreed. Yellow Fever claimed his life.

Reading the letters she finds takes Cassandra back to when her family had to leave Stevenson. After their father's death, Jane and Cassandra and their mother had no permanent abode, little income, and no place for Jane to flourish and write her novels. Their society of beloved friends was replaced by a turnstile of acquaintances and vapid conversation.

Oh, how deeply I felt for these removals from a parsonage home! After the birth of our son, living in a parsonage became problematic for me. If anything happened to my husband, I had one month to move out! I had no job or income, a baby, a house full of belongings. It terrified me to know how vulnerable I was because of the parsonage system.

The scenes in Pride and Prejudice with Mrs. Bennett agonizing over the Collinses inheriting her home mirrors what Jane must have known, losing the only home she had ever known, the piano, the library, friends, everything that made life enjoyable.

Gill Hornby's portrait feels probable but upset me because I wanted Cassandra to have a happy ending, not the one she chooses.

Miss Austen is a dark novel, like Persuasion which Cassandra reads aloud in the book. Jane appears in flashback scenes with the wicked wit we love her for, but also in her darkest days, the Jane we would prefer to forget.

I also have to mention that during her visit to Manydown, Cassandra works on a patchwork quilt. With swollen fingers, she plied her needle intermittently.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

This compelling novel tells the story of the first guardian of the Austen legacy: Cassandra Austen, Jane’s sister. Through letters and memories, the elderly Cassy looks back on her life with Jane and discovers that she did not know her sister as well as she has always assumed. Hornby boldly takes on Jane Austen’s voice and shows the literary giant as a loving aunt and sister, concerned for the well-being of those around her and wishing for their lives to be uncomplicated and pleasant.

The characters are deftly drawn in these pages. The reader may feel sympathetic toward Cassy, as she misses one chance after another at happiness, but Cassy’s determination in carrying out the mission she has set for herself keeps her from being only a pitiable character. Other members of the Austen family and the Fowles family, the surviving relatives of Cassy’s long-dead fiancé, may drift into caricature on occasion. Because the point of view is firmly Cassy’s, however, even the oversimplified portrayals of sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, would-be lovers and bosom friends have their own charm.

The world of the Austens seems like someplace Hornby has walked; the people, the places, the sights and sounds and events transport the reader to the simpler world in which Cassy lived, first as a joyous young woman surrounded by people who understood her, and later as an elderly woman in failing health looking back at the many roads not taken. In stitching together events separated by months, years, or even decades, Hornby creates a complex tapestry of the life of a woman who would have been forgotten if not for her most famous relation.

A fictionalized story about Cassandra Austen. The famous Jane Austen's sister's insight to her writer sister was highly enjoyable Saturday read. I devoured it. A lovely historical piece the writing flowed and had a wonderful story line. Highly recommended for those that l0ve Jane Austen

I couldn't get into this book - very slow for me and I didn't finish it. Beautiful cover and thoughtful, intersting premise but the writing just didn't grab me to continue.

This book is in a class by itself when it comes to Jane Austen-related fiction. Far more than the ubiquitous Regency fan-fic full of meet-cutes and enjoyable enough fluff, this work sits neatly on the line between biography and fiction. It is a thoughtful, well-written reflection upon Jane Austen's closest friend, her sister Cassandra. Cassandra and Jane are both somewhat shrouded in mystery: there is just so much that we can't know. Which is the very point of this book. It deals with themes of privacy, family legacy, and the strange ways that narratives get shaped once other people or later generations take over.
There's not much plot here; the story alternates between elderly Cassandra (1840) and young Cassandra and Jane. In this setup, Cassandra in later life journeys to visit extended family with the goal of retrieving letters written by Jane. As she reads through the letters, she remembers in detail the events of her life with Jane. She also ponders on the way that life has turned out, the dreams vs. the realities, and what kind of legacy people might foist upon Jane compared to the way she and Jane really felt about their lives. Of course, the author introduces some speculative material, but none of it is wildly improbable, and it beautifully illustrates the themes. While Cassandra has sometimes been given short shrift as the destroyer of Jane's letters, this novel explores why she did it and reflects us readers back to ourselves as we ask, really, how much right do we have to intrude on all the details of a life, or make judgments in areas where there is bound to be complexity and context?

I initially passed by this book on NetGalley, but then I heard the author interviewed on the Bonnets at Dawn podcast and it convinced me that the book would have substance. I'm glad that I was convinced to go back and request it!

What a terrific story, it kept reminding me of the film, “Becoming Jane,” and all the writings about Jane Austen. The best part of the book is it fill in the blank spot of Austen’s story that I wonder about. Although it’s fiction, it doesn’t feel like it’s fiction, it feel like a great representation of the life Jane and Cassandra and how their life would have evolved together. It explains in an interesting way why Cassandra would have burnt those letters and how her brothers help them have a good life.

Thank you Netgalley, for a copy for review! I found this book in retrospect a bit of a chill, teatime read - perhaps in light of the subject? In any case, this was a very slow read for me, and I'm not sure what I expected, but I was a bit disappointed.

Alternating between the present (1840), older Cassandra, and the past via letters and flashbacks, there is at least a tad of urgency added to the plot by these means, but this is otherwise a book very reminiscent of Austen's own prose, syntax and time. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, and perhaps I have may enjoyed it more as a beach read or something of the sort. I suspect an older or calmer reader would've enjoyed this more, as I expected more modern prose and galvanizing plot, from the summary – some titillating heretofore-hidden secret hiding in the correspondence Cassandra is looking for in an old friend’s estate, in an effort to get ahead of the curve on the mainstream story of sister Jane Austen’s life.

I was simultaneously impressed and, as mentioned, sort of dragged down by the imitations of Austen’s own lines and prose. I couldn’t undertake such a thing, so kudos to Hornby, but having come into this expecting a smoother read, it really slowed me down at times. There were some great lines, though. At one point spinster Cassandra says “do not think me to have had a sad life, Isabella. After all, there are as many forms of live as there are moments in time”, and I thought it was great. Actually, Jane and Cassandra’s mutual, amiable spinsterhood was made very relatable here, and that is a kudos to the writing itself as well. Jane herself, a fellow Sagittarian, really spoke to me in this book. Her fits of melancholy, her listlessness and lack of sense of purpose when she isn’t writing, her uselessness at household chores – wow, I saw myself in everything. She became a real human off the page, as opposed to sort of bland portrayals I’d gathered before in other writings or documentaries.

There is a lot for Austen fans to enjoy here, with a bit of patience. Despite having watched a documentary just last week on Jane, this mostly-fictional adaptation of her and Cassandra's lives held some surprises - some surprising theories, I suppose I ought to specify, since it's made clear in author notes that a lot is speculation. There are a couple of proposals and even a one-night engagement in here, elaborated upon a bit from what I learned in that documentary last week.

The writing in here also highlighted similarities between Jane’s life & its ensemble of characters, with her novels’ plotpoints and characters. Jane is Lizzie Bennet, Cass is Jane Bennet, her parents are the Bennet parents – and beyond that, a sister-in-law is remarkably similar to the one who casts out Elinor & Marianne in Sense & Sensibility, another sister-in-law is markedly similar to the bizarre take on Mary Bennet that the film Bride & Prejudice attempted, etc… It was fun to spot the supposed real-life counterparts of novel characters and plotlines. Even at the end, a family members’ situation is snuck in that is very similar to Persuasion, though Jane is long dead and it’s left to Cassandra to smile to herself over.

So with that said, you really ought to be an Austen fan already when starting this, or the Easter eggs won’t be so clear or enjoyable. Not sure you’d go for such a book otherwise, but people do weird things in life! All in all, a calm read for someone looking for that.

As a big Jane Austen fan, I was excited to learn more about her sister Cassandra and the rest of the family in this historical novel by Gill Hornby. However, I had much difficulty getting into it because of both the writing style itself and the flat tone of the novel. Overall, I found this to be a disappointment, but I'm sure that many Austen fans will still flock to this book for more insight into the famous author's life.

I really enjoyed this fictionalized look at Jane's sister Cassandra. It was a great story.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

The life and memories of Jane Austen;s sister, Cassandra, and the whole Austen family is told in Miss Austen by Gill Hornby. Cassandra is an old lady and is visiting Isabella, her niece. She is there to find and take the letters that were written by she and Jane to Isabella's mother. Cassandra does not want the letters to get into the wrong hands and give the public the wrong impression of Jane, who suffered from occasional melancholia. As Cassandra reads the letters, she remembers the lives she and Jane shared. Those are beautifully retold in the book.

If you are a Jane Austen fan, you will enjoy Miss Austen. The memories shared are based on careful research. It will give you insight into the whole Austen family.

This is a really lovely book for a Jane Austen fan, and one I would recommend. It didn't feel too contrived and didn't offend a true Austenite such a myself;-)

I am very pleased to say that this was a good book, which is a difficult challenge when dealing with fictionalizing real people. While I haven't done a lot of study on Jane Austen or her family to compare this book to the truth, I enjoyed it. I think it stands on its own well because it illustrates the difficulty of being a single woman in the 19th century, but the joys as well.

The main premise of the novel involves Jane Austen's sister Cassandra traveling to visit a family friend whose parent's recently passed away. Isabella's mother owned letter's written by her sister Jane and Cassandra is the protector of her sister's letters and reputation. Cassandra searches for and finds the letters and begins reading them to make sure that nothing about Jane is revealed in them that would be damaging. As Cassandra reads them, the book flashes back to the years Jane and Cassandra were growing up and spending their lives living together with their parents.

There was a lot that I liked about the book, most especially the glimpse into an untraditional life for a woman in the 19th century. So many people in the novel feel sorry for Cassandra, but as we get to know her, we see that she is living the life she wants to live. The books starts a bit slow, but as I got to know the characters and Cassandra better, I became more and more invested in the story . By the end, I was so glad I got to spend time with the Austen sisters.

I did get a free copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book. I learned a few new things about Jane Austen and her family. The writing was pleasurable. We will have patrons who will really enjoy this book..

For me MISS AUSTEN was a charming, enjoyable reading experience. I like the idea that the story features Cassandra and takes place some years after the death of her beloved sister Jane. This fictionalized version of events allows author Gill Hornby to present her own stamp of imagination on this pair of fictional characters who are so familiar to me. I've read quite a bit of factual and fictional information regarding these two well known women and am pleased to say I was well satisfied with this personal interpretation of what may have gone on in their lives.

Cassandra is in the act of finding, reading, and perhaps destroying personal correspondence written by Jane which might show her or the family in a less than appealing way. This visit to Kintbury in March 1840 is Cassandra's chance to search for any letters between Jane and Eliza Lloyd Fowle. What Cassandra had not been expecting was to find letters concerning herself. The letters are all fiction so this is the area where each reader will react according to their own notions of what type of personality Jane Austen might have had.

Because Cassandra Austen did such a good job of destroying anything she thought might present her sister Jane as being involved in any drama during her lifetime readers and scholars put their own interpretations on what everyday life with Jane Austen might have been like. This book seems to be a balanced look at how trials, misfortunes and physical illness might have had an impact on Jane. If you don't want to think of Jane as anything other than someone approximating one of the heroines in her novels, then this book may not be completely enjoyable for you. But it is good to remember that this is all fiction even though it is woven skillfully around the historically accurate dates and locations in the lives of these two women. Cassandra is presented here as a lovely, thoughtful woman who only had the best interest in her sister's legacy when she consigned those letters to her special bonfire. How I can wish she hadn't been quite so determined, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a book that gives me a lot of possibilities to think about.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for an e-galley of this novel.