Helpful Score: 1
I enjoyed this book, although it was slow to capture my interest, it ultimately did. It is not really a sequel of Sense and Sensibility, think of it more as a book that shares the same era & characters -- social and political events figure more in this book than any of Jane Austen's. All in all, I found this to be a diverting read.
Helpful Score: 1
I for one enjoyed the book. It tells of Colonel Brandon and Eliza's daughter (also Eliza) and her life after her parents move to Portugal. She basically raises herself and I think does a fine job of it. Only thing I didn't like is at the end of the book and how she ends it. Leaves you with a big question mark. Other than that, I loved the book and would recommend it to others.
Helpful Score: 1
I do not recommend this book for Jane Austen fans; it is in an entirely different style, although it makes use of some of the characters from "Sense and Sensibility". It seems to be more of an anti-Austen book: no one gets married, the war with France is frequently mentioned, nearly everyone of any significance dies, and the Austen characters have almost all suffered dismal fates. There is considerable emphasis on the sorry lot of women at the time, as well as some excursions into parapsychology (auras and fortune telling). The whole thing is told in memoir mode, by an unreliable narrator. I was very disappointed in this book; I had previously read "Jane Fairfax", by the same author, and it was very good. Perhaps the difference is that this book occurs after the end of Austen's story, so the author had to invent everything, while "Jane Fairfax" occurs simultaneously with "Emma".
The dust jacket summary was clearly not written by someone who had read the book; it overstates the relationship with the Austen characters and gets the sequence of events wrong.
The dust jacket summary was clearly not written by someone who had read the book; it overstates the relationship with the Austen characters and gets the sequence of events wrong.
Helpful Score: 1
It started off kind of confusing to me. Of course it's going to be that way with so many Eliza's in a story. I did enjoy the story as a whole. It seemed plausible but so much more sad than I would have liked to think of a sequel to Sense and Sensibility.
If you write a sequel to a book, the original characters should RESEMBLE the original characters. Maryanne, Eleanor, Edward, Brandon.... I didn't see them in this book. They had become people they were not.
I really disliked this book. Perhaps if it was not suppose to be a sequel to Sense and Sensibility, and the author had started with "new characters" it would have been readable.
I really disliked this book. Perhaps if it was not suppose to be a sequel to Sense and Sensibility, and the author had started with "new characters" it would have been readable.
