I pulled Beth Pattillo's Jane Austen Ruined My Life (#706) from my stash of Jane Austen tribute novels. It was the perfect diversion for the holiday season.
Emma Grant, when we meet her, is a disgraced and divorced English professor. Not only did she walk in on her academically famous husband "researching" new depths with her teaching assistant, but the TA claimed Emma had plagiarized her paper. Emma was out of a marriage, a career and any income, all in one fell swoop, and it was all Jane Austen's fault! Emma had devoted her professional life to studying her works, and that meant believing in a happy ending with a trustworthy man. Now she's out to prove that Jane Austen was wrong, and regain her professional standing at the same time. She's been lured to England with the promise of a treasure trove of unpublished Jane Austen letters. What better way to salvage her reputation than by publishing them?
Whether or not Emma Grant finally does get her happy ending depends on the reader's point of view. Of course there's a man involved! But Beth Pattillo really does know her Jane Austen. She's named her heroine well, after the clueless Emma Woodhouse and included many references to my own favorite Jane Austen novel, Persuasion. Thoroughly enjoyable.
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