Austenland by Shannon Hale

Attention Jane Austen fans! Here's a treat for you.

Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen—or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It’s all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

This thoroughly enjoyable story is one that you'll finish all too soon and will be left wanting more from Mrs. Hale. Luckily for you the sequel Midnight In Austenland just came out, so you can enjoy another enchanting tale by this very busy and talented author, who by the way went to high school with me!
  Yes, I'm gonna brag!
She even used my maiden name in the book (Riboldi, you'll have to look for it of course, because I won't give out any spoilers here). But yep, we were friends in high school, and somewhere in the back of her mind while she was looking for funny names to give to her characters, my last name must have crept up and she used it. Shannon was in fact, one of the first people I remember meeting when I first moved to the U.S.  She was kind and found the time to be interested in a blond, South American, who spoke very little English. I distinctly remember showing a skinny, tall, redhead, the face of my Benetton watch (that had a map of the world) and telling her where Argentina was.

Since high school, Shannon has kept very busy getting degrees, having a family and writing many books, one of them The Princess Academy, that won a "Newbery" award!

Still to come:

A movie for Austenland is currently in the works, so for those of you who like to read a book and then watch the movie, keep a lookout for this one. It's being directed by Jerusha Hess (Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre) and produced by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!

~The Supernatural Chick~