Title: Lies Jane Austen Told Me
Author: Julie Wright
Series: n/a
Has its charms but is rather ridiculous
I would like to thank Julie Wright, Shadow Mountain, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book had its moments but overall wasn’t impressive or unique. I did like that Blake wasn’t a superficial cookie-cutter villain. Well, not cookie-cutter, anyway. We didn’t get to know him much at all, so as a character he was superficial. But he wasn’t the cliche cheating boyfriend villain, he was just a good guy miscast in Emma’s life, and once he’d found a role that fit him, everyone was happier. So that was refreshing.
The real antagonist was Emma herself. Forget her abandonment issues; in true Lizzie Bennet fashion, her greatest flaw was seeing what she wanted to see and not so much as entertaining the notion that she was wrong. Clearly her dad never taught her the adage that assuming makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me.” Every thought that passed through her mind was an assumption, and it was infuriating enough to keep me from really liking her. She walked in on a situation for which she had no context and which involved people she didn’t know and drew a conclusion she had no right to make. I cannot believe she never once thought of any other explanation. Her ignorance, arrogance, and the resulting prejudice exasperated me.
It was made all the more ridiculous when you consider the fact that she’d been dating Blake long enough to plausibly expect a marriage proposal—I got the feeling it had been several months, if not longer—yet she knew very little about his family, from whom he was in no way estranged. The Hamiltons were actually very tight-knit and loving. But in all that time, she’d never met his parents or his brother—she didn’t even know his brother’s NAME, much less that he was adopted and had a (half-?) sister and a niece in a bad situation. That makes not one lick of sense. She didn’t even know his brother’s name. His NAME. I can’t get past it. It’s just absurd.
Silvia was the cliche spunky best friend, though Wright tried to convince us otherwise by giving her a glass eye and quirky traits. Sorry, one eye or two, she’s still the best friend seen in every romcom. I don’t feel that everything was resolved with her character. I don’t remember an explanation for her sadness and distraction—but I admit, I was skimming pages by the end and may have missed it. I got the vibe that she and her old boss at Mid-Scene had a thing that wasn’t working out, but I don’t remember the topic being pursued.
Blake served his purpose, but as I said, we didn’t learn much about him. Lucas was meh. Quite meek, which isn’t an attractive trait. I didn’t care much about him.
Something I had a major problem with: about halfway through, Emma finally asks Lucas about the situation with April, and when he figures out that she thought he was a neglectful father, he gets mad—justifiably so, for the most part. After several days he suddenly acts like everything’s okay and he’s over it. When she asks why he’s not mad anymore, he says, “…[T]he fact that you cared enough about my niece to call me out shows a lot of strength on your part.” I can’t say exactly how much time, but several weeks had passed since she witnessed the scene with his sister. If she’d really cared about that little girl’s safety, she would have brought it up a lot sooner. Like, in the car on the way to the train station that very night. Sure, there’s a little strength at play, because she didn’t pretend she hadn’t seen anything disturbing and eventually spoke up, but let’s not get carried away. She sat on that information and stewed for weeks before finding the courage and motivation to broach the topic (saying she “called” him on it gives her more credit that she’s due), and she wanted to talk about it for her own sake, not April’s. But regardless, if she and Blake had been serious about their relationship, she would have already known all about it!
Also, this is one of those romances set in a world where sex doesn’t exist. It was never mentioned or even thought about. Perhaps very, very, VERY subtly implied. Furthermore, Emma never really thought of either Lucas or Blake as sexy. Others said they were hot, and Emma noticed Lucas’s fine eyes—ha—but their bodies and physical appeal weren’t discussed. Is it necessary? No, but it bothered me, because it’s just so unrealistic, and it was one more factor that kept me from taking the narrative seriously.
The writing, mechanically, was okay; neither impressive nor amateurish. The tone was light, and there were humorous bits that I appreciated. The narrative did lag a bit in the middle, between Lucas getting mad at her and them going to his mom’s birthday party. It was somewhere in there that I started skimming, impatient to resolve the conflict and be done.
Overall, I don’t feel that I wasted time reading it, but I definitely won’t be reading it again for any reason.
She didn’t know the name of her long-term boyfriend’s brother. For god’s sake. I’m surprised Lucas didn’t take the opportunity to throw in her face the fact that she’d done exactly what Lizzie did to Darcy, assumed the worst of him without having the authority to do so. I would say it was ironic, but I’m pretty sure it was done on purpose.
