Christmas With Miss Austen

This is a great read. The author makes you care about the characters. Do not think that it is all feel good just like life it takes a turn and you will find yourself wanting to rush to end of the book to find out on things turn out (don't do it). It is well written and you will not want to stop reading until you get to the end.

This was a cute, short read. Literally, it was about 50 or so pages. There was no time for deep character development. However, there was enough to find Julia and Eliot endearing and the reader wants them to try a relationship. Maybe if there was a little more to the story, I would have wanted them to "live happily ever after" together.

I liked the plot line of the story. It is almost Cinderella in that Eliot is mesmerized by a mystery woman, Julia, who drops something as she runs away and Eliot tries to find the owner of the object.

In all, I wish it was longer and had more character development. I will still commend it to my sister.

This is a short fast read. It is well written and holds your attention. This is a fun Christmas story that I really enjoyed. Thank you Pelican Book Group via NetGalley for the free copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.

Ok, so don’t let this book’s creepy cover prevent you from reading it! This is truly a case of “don’t judge a book by its cover”!!! Christmas with Miss Austen by Laura Briggs was a wonderful novella! I think I read it in under 2 hours – so definitely short and sweet! If you love Christmas, romance, and Jane Austen, then this is the perfect read for you!

Julia Allen is a starving artist who works at a coffee shop, paints in the evenings, and volunteers as an actress playing Jane Austen at her city’s historic mansion on weekends. One evening she falls asleep in the mansion, and her fellow volunteers don’t notice her. They lock up, and after midnight, Julia wakes up and realizes she’s inside the mansion still. She is able to get out without any problem, but is a bit nervous walking home in the dark. She is startled by a man in the park, and inadvertently drops the first-edition copy of Northanger Abbey that she was carrying. (She had borrowed it from a friend, in order to look more authentic playing the part of Jane Austen.)

The next day, Julia realizes that she’s lost the copy. She frantically looks everywhere for it, but to no avail. A quick Google search shows that the copy is worth thousands of dollars! Julia decides to try to find a copy to replace her friend’s lost book.

Meanwhile, the man in the park still can’t get over that he’s seen a woman dressed as Jane Austen, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the city park! Eliot Weston is a literature professor at the local university, and had been there late working, when he finally decided to go home for the night – and then stumbles across Jane Austen! He picks up the book she’s dropped, but she hurries away into the night.

Eliot realizes the value of the book, and hands it over at the local police station. He is stunned when a punk-gothic artist shows up in his office, asking for his help in locating a first-edition copy of Northanger Abbey. He thinks Julia’s eyes look familiar, but he can’t place her. (During the week, she has bright pink hair – she dyes it on the weekend to play Jane Austen.) I couldn’t figure out in the story why he didn’t tell Julia that he had found a copy of the very book she was looking for, but it was probably because he didn’t want her to go to the police station and potentially lie about losing it. He had no idea that it was really her who had lost it!) Julia is too embarrassed to tell him that she’s lost a book worth thousands of dollars, so instead just nebulously says there’s been a problem and she needs to locate a first edition for her friend.

So anyways, most of this short novella is them hunting for another first edition copy, while also falling in love with each other. The ending is quite good, so I won’t spoil it!

This was a short novella, but very well-written in my opinion. I love how the author used first and last names from Austen’s books as names for her characters as well. I also appreciated that she wove Christian themes into the book. Overall it was a fabulous short read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.

A nice and lovely Christmas novella. The book was fun to read and entertaining.
It'd be nice to expand the concept into a novel to have a better development of the characters.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

This is a cute modern romance. We have Julia Allen, a coffee shop waitress with a sassy kind of appearance with pink hair and hip clothes. Her passion is painting in a contemporary style melding Regency figures with Piccasso-like images. Oh, and she also moonlights on weekends in the role of Jane Austen doing readings from the author's famous books at a historic home in Delaford, Massachusetts.

When Julia loses a first edition copy of Northanger Abbey a friend had loaned her, she is desperate to replace it before her friend returns from a trip. This leads her to Dr. Eliot Weston, a book historian and university professor. What she doesn't know is that he's the one who found it after she dropped it. However, Julia doesn't mention that she lost a copy, only telling him that she's looking to find and buy one. Although Eliot finds it an amazing coincidence, he never mentions that he's searching for the owner of the same book, which he recently found. Sparks fly between the two, and they meet to look through various bookstores and markets for the rare edition.

I think it relies too heavily on numerous coincidences to drive the plot forward. Also, I can understand Julia's reluctance to admit to Eliot that she was careless enough to lose such a valuable book that wasn't even her own, but it's hard to fathom why Eliot wouldn't mention the coincidence as the two got closer.

However, it's fun to spot all the various names of characters and places from Jane Austen's books that pop up. Julia and Eliot are engaging characters who approach life prayerfully. This is simply a short, sweet, feel-good story.

I received a copy from NetGalley with no promise of a favorable review.

I am usually not a big fan of novellas as they are very difficult to make into a complete story, so it takes some masterful writing to do it. This one with a new-to-me author was absolutely splendiferous!! A touch of Jane Austen, a hint of romance, a speck of mystery all rolled into one delightful Christmas read starring a quirky painter with an affinity for Jane Austen books and a hunky, reading addicted, historical fiction professor who loves the regency period. A quick read to curl up in front of the fire and enjoy a cup of cider while reading. Don't miss this one.

Cute story, very short.

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What a heartwarming and sweet story. This story are fun to read curled up next to a warm fire.
You have Eliot Weston who is a book nerd and Julia Allen who is a completely modern woman meet by chance but then you have this secret which adds a twist to the story and you can't help but must know what happens next. This is a story that will being a smile to your face.

I recommend this book to my family and friends.

I received this book from the publisher through netgalley to read and give my honest opinion.

Christmas with Miss Austen by Laura Briggs is a sweet book. Julia Allen is a waitress and artist who also moonlights as Jane Austen during a Christmas event. In search of a valuable first edition book she meets a book historian, Eliot Weston who helps her try to find it. Neither one realizes or asks the right questions to locate the book she is looking for. Can they find the rare book before its to late? Great book to read at Christmas.

I received this book from NetGalley and all opinions are my own.

What if you ran into the ghost of Jane Austen at Christmas time? Such a cute fun novel with a unique and interesting premise.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author. All opinions are my own.

An interesting story about a late night encounter between an artist and a book historian. You'll love how they meet and team together then fall ib love.

Such a sweet story. There’s much to love about this novella. Julia is a lovable and compelling character. I enjoyed reading the story of how she and Eliot find their happily-ever-after. A perfect length of a story to read during a busy holiday season. This is a heartwarming book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

This was a good book. Not much to my personal liking but it was well written. The characters well developed and it made sense. I do not normally go for modern austen works but I will be reading this again.

This was a super cute, quick Christmas read. Julia and Eliot were fun characters, and the misunderstanding of the lost book wasn't so drawn out as to feel tedious. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of Julia's contradictory characteristics of modern artist and Austen portrayer, and I liked the addition of Eliot's sister's obsession with Austen to drive some of the connection. The one thing that bothered me, though, was the question of if this historical open house is such a big deal in this town as to sell out its tickets, why did it never occur to Eliot that the figure in the park was an actress? However, it was easily overlooked in the interest of the plot, and left the story still enjoyable.
I give this cute seasonal book 3.5 stars.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.