The Austen Escape

Reay (A Portrait of Emily Price) adds to the ever-expanding genre of Jane Austen–themed literature with her latest offering. Mary Davies, an industrial engineer from Texas, has been working on augmented reality glasses for years but her work has been for naught and she has been downgraded to working on batteries. She is also secretly enamored with Nathan Hillam, a consultant working at her engineering firm who will soon be moving on to his next assignment. Her father convinces her to leave it all temporarily behind and head to Bath, England, with her emotionally fragile best friend, Isabel Dwyer. There they will immerse themselves in Austen escapism for two weeks so that Isabel can do research for her doctoral dissertation. Mary and Isabel dress up in Regency clothes and act as characters from Austen’s books, and then things quickly get complicated: Isabel suffers memory loss and believes she really is part of the past. In this world of grown-up make-believe, Mary will discover much more than she ever expected about both Isabel and herself, including that Nathan is an important part of both their lives. When he hurries to Bath to help them both, will Mary make her feelings known? Unlike many books written in homage to Austen, this is not a modern retelling of any of her stories, but rather a romp among contemporary Austen fanatics. Readers eager for anything Austen-related will enjoy this clean romance that explores the concept of escapism and what it may reveal about our real lives. (Nov.)