Review of Ladies in Waiting

If you love Jane Austen, are suffering withdrawal from Bridgerton (or your fav historical drama) or just love an unexpected twist on the romantic heroine, have I got a book for you! Anthology, actually. Check out the Ladies in Waiting: Jane Austen's Unsung Characters book trailer - complete with beautiful gowns and dancing couples - HERE

More About Ladies in Waiting

Celebrate Jane Austen’s classic novels with this short story anthology starring forgotten characters as they experience their own happy endings.

In honor of her 250th birthday, eight authors have come together with wildly imaginative reboots of the lives of several of Jane Austen’s minor characters. Written with plenty of love and wit, these clever stories star everyone from Pride and Prejudice’s snobbish Caroline Bingley to the modern descendant of Sense and Sensibility’s Eliza Williams and much more. Blurring genres and taking us across the oceans, Ladies in Waiting is a heartfelt celebration of Jane Austen and her timeless masterpieces.

More about the Authors

This anthology is populated by names you may recognize who all stepped up to add to the life story of a minor character form an Austen book. The contributors are: Adriana Trigiani, Sarah MacLean, Eloisa James, Elinor Lipman, Audrey Bellezza, Karen Dukess, Emily Harding, Nikki Payne and Diana Quincy. I'm not sure how the contributors were selected for this anthology but I picture a roomful of authors all raising their hand and shouting "Me! Pick me!" Because which writer of books with a bit of romance hasn't been enthralled with Austen at some time in their life?

Thoughts about Ladies in Waiting

If you have even a passing knowledge of Jane Austen - whether it be her books or the many, many dramatic productions of her writing - carve out some time for this book. Ladies in Waiting will allow you to look at the stories in a whole new light. In some cases you're just delving more deeply into the continuing story of one of the characters, in others the characters are re-imagined in an entirely different country, time period or life situation. Can I just say it was delightful?

Each story starts with a brief excerpt from the character's book to give your memory a refresher as well as a bit of behind the scenes from the author on why they chose this character. Do not read the author's intro unless you're prepared to dive into their story. Each intro made me so eager I had to read on to see what they had done with their favored character. Some stories took up the character's story directly from the origianl book but the time shifting! What would Caroline Bingley done in the Wild West in the 1800s? What about Mary Bennet in modern day Soho?

If a busy life in infringing on your reading time this is the ideal solution. The stories range from 14 to 68 pages so you can choose which story to read by how much reading time you have available. This is a perfect read for the waning days of summer.

Ready to Read

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