Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo

*In an effort to spread the word about my favorite type of book - inspirational romance - I'm doing Christian Fiction Fridays here on my blog where I share my recommendations for books in this genre.

Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo

What It's About:
English professor Emma Grant has always done everything just the way her minister father told her she should -- a respectable marriage, a teaching job at a good college, and plans for the requisite two children. Life was prodigiously good, as her favorite author Jane Austen might say, until the day Emma finds her husband in bed with another woman. Suddenly, all her romantic notions a la Austen are exposed for the foolish dreams they are.

Denied tenure in the wake of the scandal and left penniless by the ensuing divorce, Emma packs up what few worldly possessions she has left and heads to England on a quest to find the missing letters of Jane Austen. Locating the elusive letters, however, isn't as straightforward as Emma hoped. The owner of the letters proves coy about her prize possessions, sending Emma on a series of Austen-related tasks that bring her closer and closer to the truth, but the sudden reappearance of Emma's first love makes everything more complicated.

In the end, Emma learns that doing the right thing has very little to do with other people's expectations and everything to do with her own beliefs. Laced with fictional excerpts from the missing letters, Jane Austen Ruined My Life is the story of a woman betrayed who uncovers the deeper meaning of loyalty.

My Thoughts:
Don't you just love the title and cover? :) I finally got my hands on this book, which is the first in Beth Pattillo's contemporary series based on Jane Austen and her novels. I really liked Emma - she was a great heroine and her journey to self-discovery was believable and heartwarming. I absolutely loved the ending of the first chapter - you'll have to read it to see what I mean. But it was laugh out loud funny and Adam is such a great character. The author has definitely done her research when it comes to Jane Austen, but I also liked her speculation on the story behind Jane Austen's possible true love. The ending isn't typical of a romance - more like women's fiction - but it is happy and there is promise, so I was satisfied.

Find this book here on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.