Reviews
BookPage – June 2008
“This charming debut novel features Courtney Stone, a 30-something career woman in Los Angeles who’s struggling to get over a bad breakup with her fiancé… Rigler writes skillfully about two very different eras, bringing both to convincing life. This is a page-turner of a novel composed with remarkable assurance by a promising new author.”
Jane Austen Society of North America News – February 2008
“This book, filled with allusions to Jane Austen’s novels, is definitely written for Janeites… Although she briefly runs into Jane Austen herself, the heroine does not come into contact with any of Austen’s characters, so those who have grown weary of sequels need not fear this story. The novel offers readings of Austen’s works while covering timely topics, such as women’s position in contemporary society, in a very entertaining way. I enjoyed this thought-provoking romp through Jane Austen’s England.”
— Alice Marie White
St. Petersburg Times – September 23, 2007
“Laurie Viera Rigler’s Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict takes the familiar arena of Austen’s empire-waist muslin, afternoon tea world and tweaks it in a clever, cheeky way. Courtney/Jane’s horror at the state of medicine and hygiene is understandable and comical. Confessions is a fast read and a fun one for those who, like Courtney/Jane, have read everything Jane Austen has to offer and still long for her refined, gently paced world.” – Tammar Stein
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – August 5, 2007
“In Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, debut novelist Laurie Viera Rigler turns the craze for all things Austen on its head by transplanting 21st-century Courtney into the body of an early 19th-century Englishwoman. Rigler… clearly holds the works of Austen in high regard, liberally borrowing situations, themes and even names from the master of 19th-century chick lit. Time-travel in novels is not new, but Rigler uses it to explore some decidedly modern concerns about personal identity and self-fulfillment. Even hard-core Austen fans sometimes crave a little entertainment of the Bridget Jones variety.” – Amy Woods Butler
USA Today – August 2, 2007
“After discovering that her fiancé betrayed her with the woman designing their wedding cake, a devastated Courtney Stone wakes up not in Los Angeles but in a four-poster bed in 1813 England. A devotee of all things Austen, she now discovers the reality of life in Regency England: rampant body odor, sexual and class repression and a style of medical care involving bloodletting. Rigler does a perceptive job in contrasting the different eras. Despite the smells, little in Courtney’s current lifestyle – including most of the men – can compete with the erotic charge of dancing in a candlelit ballroom.” – Deirdre Donohue
Boston Herald – August 2, 2007
“Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict is written by Laurie Viera Rigler, a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She knows her Austen, and her heroine Courtney Stone lives it. Stone’s in Los Angeles, nursing a broken heart with her beloved Austen novels – and vodka. One morning she wakes up in 19th century England, inhabiting another woman’s body. There’s the downside of ye olde worlde: filth, chamber pots and such, but also the lure of an enigmatic suitor.” – Sandra Kent
The Times-Picayune – August 1, 2007
“Who among us hasn’t nurtured a desire to leap into our favorite books? That’s exactly what happens to Courtney Stone. Courtney Stone has indeed left her troubles behind and awakened to life in an Austenish paradise with a new identity… This is a delightful comic romp: Modern readers are forced to consider life with chamber pots and without hand sanitizer and cell phones. And imagine what those “curative” waters at Bath really were like. Last, but not least, Jane Austen makes a cameo appearance that is pure pleasure.” – Susan Larson
Booklist – June 19, 2007
“Talk about an out-of-body experience. One moment Courtney Stone is a modern-day L.A. career woman lamenting a lost love; the next she is Jane Mansfield, a well-to-do, willowy (though not particularly buxom, unlike her wentieth-century namesake) lady in nineteenth-century England. It’s not long before Jane finds the lines blurred between her two vastly different selves. Like her heroine, debut author Rigler boasts an obsession with the novels of Jane Austen. This frothy take on literary time travel will appeal most to readers well versed in the celebrated author’s memorable characters and themes.”
Publishers Weekly – June 4, 2007
“A clever time-travel setup functions as the prime attraction for this breezy debut novel. Courtney Stone… wakes up after a night of self-medicating with her ‘drug of choice,’ Jane Austen novels, to find herself in… the body of Jane Mansfield, a manor-born Englishwoman. While still haunted by ‘real-life’ memories, Courtney, as Jane, soon gets swept up in this Austenesque world of decadent meals and grand balls… Fans of the ever-expanding inspired-by-Austen-lit garden party will find a winner here; it doesn’t hurt that Austen has a brief, comical cameo.”
