Acquired Book By: I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort whereupon I am thankful to have such a diverse amount of novels and non-fiction titles to choose amongst to host. I received a complimentary copy of “Liam Darcy, I Loathe You” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I was keenly interested in reading this novel:
I was curious about how she came up with such a lovely new idea when the sequel Austen section is getting so full of new stories. This one has potential because of the premise and what it could inspire from it. I couldn’t wait to put in a request to be on the blog tour, which gave me the motivation to create a topic for Ms Doxey to respond to as a preliminary step towards sorting out her own inspirations to writing a novel I was about to engage in reading! I am oft curious how writers gather their thoughts about a story and when it comes to Austen Sequel authors there is *such a large net of potential* it is quite daunting at times for a Janeite like myself to sort through the offerings and find the writers who truly pay homage to the original author and the canon she left behind!
I am approaching reading Jane Austen in a rather unique fashion, because I honestly read Pride & Prejudice twice! whilst following it with a reading of only a partial amount of Jane Austen and the Unpleasantness of Scargrave Manor before I tackled Sense & Sensibility: A Latter Day Tale and this brings me full circle back inside Liam Darcy, I Loathe You! I am fully planning to be a more active participant of #AustenInAugust 2015 (I’ve just learnt has a new tag! signups start in 10 days!) however til then, I am simply happy with the stories I’ve met thus far along!
I know one day I’ll be re-reading both Jamison’s novel and Doxey’s too, as I believe I will start to pick up different nuances of inclusions I might have missed the first time round as I was not as familiar with everything contained within the originals. Evenso, for me the beauty lies in the discovery and the joy of following Jane Austen and her Janeites where the written word leads us to travel.
Liam Darcy, I Loathe You
by Heidi Jo Doxey
Source: Direct from Publisher
This brings me to another point. Why do all the guys around here call each other by their last names? It's weird, right? I mean, it's never "Hey what's up, Jack?" or 'How's it going, Sam?" Everything's Elton this, Willoughby that. This makes it extra confusing when you get a couple of brothers who by the same name. Like the Tilneys or the Kulkarnis. Whatever.
I'm just saying, it's not like all of us girls go by Bennet. That would be complete chaos.
Lizzie's family is big and crazy. Nila's best friend just moved to England. Fiona's good at school and nothing else. Alice and Vivian are two sisters who couldn't be more opposite. And Catherine reads vampire novels. What do these six girls have in common?
They all attend Pemberley Prep, where their English teacher, Ms Elliott, has just given them a year-long assignment to write down everything that happens to them - beach trips and boys to picking out ball gowns.
Quirky and cute, this is Jane Austen with a modern makeover. Set in a Northern California prep school, it's a laugh-out loud read that will reunite Austen's fans with their favourite characters and send the younger set straight to the classics to find out what happened next!
Places to find the book:
Series: The Jane Journals, No.1
Also in this series: Intangible, Beneath Creek Waters
Published by Sweetwater Books
on 12th May, 2015
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Converse via: #TheJaneJournals, #LiamDarcy OR #PemberleyPrep
#YALit and #AustenSequels
Extra Bits I found quite charming:
Before you enter the novel, you are first introduced to the story via the book cover art, of which I must confess did not quite float my boat at first sight. I honestly didn’t ‘get it’ at first because it felt a bit disconnected from the story’s premise. Either that, or as a thirty-something reader I’m forgetting something that would have appealed to me as a teenager. The cover art notwithstanding as it’s the synopsis that convinced me to read the book (as it always does) I happily found a scrapbook inspired layout to the internal pages where doodles and swirls and little stars populate themselves between the text passages! It truly has the appearance of a personal diary and this is quite impressive! Read More