Review for Suddenly You (The Jane Austen Academy Series #4) by Cecilia Gray

TITLE: Suddenly You
SERIES: The Jane Austen Academy Series #4
AUTHOR: Cecilia Gray
PUBLICATION DATE: May 7, 2013
PUBLISHER: Gray Life LLC
PAGES: 202 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: Publisher via NetGalley
RATING: 4 bows

Fanny is an athlete. She’s a runner and an academic and the school’s new play should be the last thing she is involved in. But she is determined to help the other girls save the school and the only viable plan involves her joining league with Josh Wickham, the lead actor in the play. Can she get Josh to agree to help or will she be too distracted by Tran to concentrate on Josh?

As with all the novels, we get the same basic bunch. I’m thrilled to say that we finally get to see Josh step out of his designated bad guy role. I’m also thrilled to say that we get more of Tran, who I adore. He’s pretty awesome. Unfortunately this puts us in love triangle (square) territory and we all know how I feel about that. Josh likes Fanny, but Fanny wants Tran who seems to be dating Lucy. Speaking of Lucy, this poor girl just can’t catch a break. First she gets dumped right after coming to this school because her boyfriend is in love with someone else and now, the new guy she likes doesn’t like her nearly as much. I want to hug the poor girl.

I don’t really have a bunch to say about this book in particular. It’s good, though maybe not quite as good as the previous one. It felt a bit rushed, but I think they all do, so that’s nothing new or exciting. The writing and characterization and plot are great. Just enough to keep you begging for more.

Basically, if you liked the previous books, you’ll like this one. Fanny is a interesting perspective to get behind. Though I’d like to avoid the love triangle, it made for an interesting read. I’m still holding out hope that Josh and Lucy both find their happy ending before this is all over. We’ll have to keep reading to find out!

****Thank you to Gray Life LLC and Cecilia Gray for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review****

Review for When I’m With You (The Jane Austen Academy Series #3) by Cecilia Gray

TITLE: When I’m With You
SERIES: The Jane Austen Academy Series #3
AUTHOR: Cecilia Gray
PUBLICATION DATE: December 22, 2012
PUBLISHER: Gray Life LLC
PAGES: 216 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: Publisher via NetGalley
RATING: 4 bows

Kat is determined to become a successful actress. Acting has been a passion as long as she can remember, so when famous classmate Josh Wickham offers to let her be his assistant on a real movie set over Christmas break, there is no way she can refuse him. She’ll be onset with famous actors and actresses and maybe she’ll get her big break.

As the third novel in this series, all the characters are pretty well established. We get nothing new, just Josh being put squarely back into the bad guy role, which I’m slightly annoyed with. I make no secret that one of my favorite Pride & Prejudice retellings is Lost In Austen, A BBC mini-series. Part of the reason I love it is because of what they do with Wickham’s character, so I always feel like his capable of much more and am disappointed when he is still stuck in the perpetual bad guy for bad guys sake role. There are still three more books in the series, so hopefully that will change.

Plotwise, this was adorable. I have not read any of Austen’s works beyond P&P (I know, shame on me), so I can’t speak to how well it represents it’s source material, but I can say that it is my favorite thus far in the series. Kat’s journey felt very realistic and I loved how she just falls into the role of helper on set, trying to give everyone who is struggling a bit of a hand. I also loved how into acting she is. She is hard-core dedicated to that dream and it was awesome to see that.

Henry, the love interest, was a character I instantly loved. He’s charming and sweet and has a hat obsession I can definitely relate to. Once you know the story of the hats, it’s even sweeter. He’s definitely perfect for our Kat, even if it takes a while for them to finally get it together.

As I predicted after reading the first book in this series, it definitely gets better and better. As the series progresses, we get to see more and more of all the characters, even though the books each focus on a specific couple, the other characters aren’t abandoned. In a lot of novels lately where each book in the series focuses on a specific couple, book 1 will portray two girls (or two guys or a guy and a girl) as best friends and then when book two comes out from the friends perspective, it’s like that bestie was lost because we don’t see them much and that is not the case here. We see all the old characters as we are being introduced to new ones. What you really need to know is this series is great, with interesting characters and good writing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

****Thank you to Gray Life LLC and Cecilia Gray for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review****

Review for So Into You (The Jane Austen Academy Series #2) by Cecilia Gray

TITLE: So Into You
SERIES: The Jane Austen Academy Series #2
AUTHOR: Cecilia Gray
PUBLICATION DATE: July 15, 2012
PUBLISHER: Gray Life LLC
PAGES: 216 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: Publisher via NetGalley
RATING: 3.5 bows

Ellie has always been the calm, go with the flow girl. Daughter to yoga fanatics, she’s sensible and caring. But when fate decides to take her away from the academy just as things are starting to get interesting with her crush, she is determined to fight back. Scholarships and work study, whatever it takes to buy her just one more semester. But is there enough to keep her classes paid for or will she wind up in Guatemala with her family?

We get the same group of characters from Fall For You, with a few new additions and obviously a bit more focus on Ellie. She’s so sweet and caring and I just felt so bad for her in this whole situation. I also felt a bit annoyed at Lizzie. I expected her to fight tooth and nail to find a way to keep Ellie in school, but she just accepts it. I found that a bit uncharacteristic after the fire she showed in Fall For You. I’m still not Emma’s biggest fan. She really fights for Ellie, but she seems to be on the shallower side of things and oh so dramatic. I tend to avoid drama. As for the new additions, I loved Knight. He seems like such a sweetie and I hope he can win Emma over easily enough.

It was nice to see Ellie put up some effort to stay where she wanted. I really rallied behind her efforts and hoped she’d find a way to make it work. She really deserves the chance to excel in this school that she loves so much. I found it a little selfish of her parents to try to take it away from her. In fact, I found her parents to be a little selfish in general. Who forgets to pay their bills and then lets their child take the heat? That’s just irresponsible and a bit infuriating. I came from a household where I was in charge of the majority of the bills for my teen years. I understand that it teaches money management and allows teens to learn and I’m all for that. But if that is what you want, hand over the checkbook. Don’t just attempt to pay for it and then let bill collectors hassle your kid because you are forgetful.

This novel is a bit more pulled together than the previous one. We already know the cast, so we don’t waste any time introducing characters. I love getting to see the group band together. In book one, there is a lot of tension because of the new roommate situation. Here, they aren’t completely over it, but they are on the way to becoming a fearsome foursome. After all, part of the draw of this series is seeing how Austen’s character interact and there is a great joy in that. None of these characters are perfect, or maybe they are. They are perfectly flawed and I love all of them. Reading this makes me want to go and pickup Sense & Sensibility and dig in. I know, I can’t believe I haven’t read it either considering how much I love Pride & Prejudice, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. I fail, I know.

This is a fun, fast read that will make you smile and giggle along with the group’s antics. It will also have you feeling Ellie’s heartbreak. I enjoyed it quite a bit and I can’t wait to read the next one!

****Thank you to Gray Life LLC and Cecilia Gray for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review****

Review for Fall For You (The Jane Austen Academy Series #1) by Cecilia Gray

TITLE: Fall For You
SERIES: The Jane Austen Academy Series #1
AUTHOR: Cecilia Gray
PUBLICATION DATE: February 10, 2012
PUBLISHER: Gray Life, LLC
PAGES: 144 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: Publisher via NetGalley
RATING: 3 bows

Lizzie is astounded to learn that this year, things at her precious school are changing. Not only are they doubling the population by adding boys to the formerly girls only school, but she has learned they also plan to change the name. The Jane Austen Academy is near and dear to her heart and she’ll fight tooth and nail with every journalistic bone in her body to prevent such a disastrous change. She’d stay focused a little better if snooty Dante would quit distracting her. The fact that he is attractive as sin goes out the window every time he opens his arrogant mouth. Can she ignore him long enough to accomplish her goals or is she doomed to fall under his spell?

Lizzie is a pretty relatable character. She’s struggling to hold onto tradition while the world around her moves on without really caring. Lizzie is determined to make them care. This year was supposed to be an easy year, rooming with Ellie, her BFF, but no such luck. Not only is she not roomie with Ellie, she is stuck with her nemesis, Anne and the headmistress blackmails her into staying there. Things look bleak at best, but she will make it work and she won’t let her friendship with Ellie fade just because they can’t room together or because Ellie’s new roommate becomes fast friends with her.

Anne isn’t as bad as Lizzie made her out to be. She’s not really uppity or snobby at all, just quiet and diligent and completely in love with the Academy. I really like Anne quite a bit more and I’m ready for her story.

Dante is everything he is supposed to be in a Darcy reincarnation. He’s snooty and quiet and kinda mean, but not really, just untrusting and unforgiving. Those are two traits I can relate to all too well, so I’m in no position to judge. I do think he is quite a bit overbearing with Georgiana, especially in this modern setting.

This is a Pride & Prejudice retelling. I love almost any incarnation of that story. I especially love the BBC mini series Lost In Austen, so it’s clear I’m okay with changing the rules up a bit, as long as we remain faithful to the original tale in spirit. In that regard, this succeeds. I love the idea of taking the main characters from Austen’s six novels and placing them in one story. Bravo Gray for a wonderful idea. Really, it’s a promising start. My problem is it wasn’t extremely well fleshed out. This novel is short, like less than 200 pages, and I feel like that isn’t room enough to do a P&P retelling, much less add in characters from the other works and do it properly. Lizzie and Dante’s story felt very rushed and a bit instalove-y, though the word love was never uttered.

But, despite my issues, the writing is good and the plot is interesting and it’s very readable (a term I seem to use a lot lately). It feels like the first or second draft to a story that will be epic if we just add and edit a bit more. Get it to 300 pages and I’ll probably fall in love with all the extras you’ve added. I do plan on reading the sequels because I feel this series has great potential and I want to see if it grows into more than what this one showed me.

****Thank you to Gray Life LLC for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review****