Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

Can a girl from Regency England survive in today's morally confused world?Jane Mansfield has long wished to escape the confines of life in nineteenth-century England. But awakening as twenty-first-century Los Angeleno Courtney Stone is not what she had in mind. Nor is Courtney's barred-window urban box of an apartment. Gone are the rolling lawns and hovering servants of Jane's family estate. Gone is even a single friend who sees her or knows her as Jane. Nothing—not even her face in the mirror—is the same. The only thing familiar, the only thing she appears to have in common with the strange woman in whose life she has landed, is a love of Jane Austen.Not everything about the modern world is disagreeable. The apartment may be tiny, but it has a delightful glass box in which tiny figures act out scenes from Pride and Prejudice. And Jane may not be rich, but she has her first taste of privacy, independence, even the chance to earn her own money. Granted, if she wants to leave the immediate neighborhood on her own, she may have to learn to drive the roaring, horseless metal carriage. And oh, what places she goes! Public assemblies that pulsate with pounding music. Unbound hair and unrestricted clothing. The freedom to say what she wants when she wants—even to men without a proper introduction.There are, however, complications. Such as the job she has no idea how to do. The bills that must be paid, despite the dwindling bank account. The confusing memories that are not her own. And the friend named Wes, who is as attractive and bewildering as the man who broke her heart back home. How is Jane to navigate a world in which kissing and flirting and even the sexual act itself raise no matrimonial expectations? With only Austen's words and a mysterious lady to guide her, Jane cannot help but wonder if she would be better off in her own time, where at least the rules are clear—if returning is even an option.