Saturday, July 9, 2016

Create your own Jane Austen adventure...

Title:  Lost in Austen
Author:  Emma Campbell Webster

Your mission:  You get to be Elizabeth Bennet in this choose-your-own-adventure novel.  "Equipped with only your wit and natural good sense, your mission is to marry both prudently and for love, eluding undesirable suitors and avoiding family scandals..."

My thoughts:  This book is fabulously frivolous and fun. It's a basic retelling of Pride and Prejudice, with direct passages taken from the original text, but with a few additions and subtractions. As you read you earn points in five areas: intelligence, confidence, accomplishments,connections, and fortune. They ebb and flow along with the story. As Lizzie, my fortunes quickly fell into negative numbers...and my list of failings and inferior connections grew and grew. (How did she and Darcy ever get together with all that going against her?) But it's the little asides the author throws in as she tells you to add or deduct from your points that make this book so incredibly funny. I laughed all the way through. It's not hard to make the "right" choices as you go, but I sometimes deliberately opted for the "wrong" choice just to see what would happen. (That's when the story really takes some strange and humorous turns.) If you love Pride and Prejudice, you'll like this book. I know I did. It's almost as fun to read as the Pride and Prejudice board game is to play. I even managed to get Lizzie her happy ending, which is all that really matters.

Happy Reading!

15 comments:

  1. I loved these kinds of books growing up. This sounds like to so much fun, Lark! I'm putting this right on my wish list. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

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    1. Hope you can get a copy; it's a very fun summer read! :)

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  2. Oh wow! I didn't know this existed. It sounds hilariously fun!

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    1. I loved it. It's the perfect book when you just want to take a short break from the world.

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  3. Frivolous and fun--that sounds great! Will have to check this one out, Lark!

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    1. It's a perfect beach read...even if you're nowhere near a beach. :)

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  4. Sounds like fun! I should probably read P&P first, though. *hangs head* I'm one of the few people who never had it assigned in high school or college, and I've just never gotten around to it.

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    1. For shame! ;-) I'm kidding. I was an early achiever when it comes to Pride & Prejudice; I read it when I was 12...mostly because I was watching a PBS version of it on TV and didn't want to wait a week to find out how it ended. But yes, before you read this book, you really need to read the real thing.

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  5. Oh, wow! This sounds fabulous! I'm definitely checking it out... I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books as a child, and I love P&P as an adult. This sounds like an ideal mashup.

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  6. Ooh, I love reading this kind of book where you can choose your own adventures. I remember I read a lot of these books when I was in Primary School but sadly, as the years go it seems harder and harder to find them. I'm glad they've this now for adults! ;)

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    1. I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a kid, too. I think that's why I couldn't resist checking out this one. :)

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  7. That sounds so fun. I love when authors pay homage to beloved books but with a sense of humor!

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    1. I do, too. And this one does that in spades.

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  8. This sounds fun! I think I need to check this out. Thanks for the review.

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