The Austen Affair

Time travel disrupts the filming of a Jane Austen movie adaptation in Bell’s captivating adult debut (after the YA novel The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray, written as Christine Calella). Sassy American actress Tess Bright has been depressed since her Austen-loving mother’s death, which has negatively affected her work and cost her a big TV role. The chance to play Catherine Morland in an adaptation of Northanger Abbey seems like a perfect way to get her career back on track and honor her mother’s memory—if only Hugh Balfour, the snotty and standoffish British leading man, would meet her halfway in generating on-screen chemistry. When a storm strikes the set, Hugh and Tess are struck by electric sparks and sent back in time to Regency England. They’ll have to learn to rely on each other if they hope to navigate the era and make it back to their own time. Along the way, Hugh realizes that Tess has hidden depths behind what he’s viewed as her “vulgar” facade, and Tess discovers that Hugh’s aloofness hides anxiety. Bell makes a meal of the Austenian setting and does a fantastic job peeling back her well-matched leads’ layers as they learn to let go of first impressions. It’s an utter delight. Agent: Laurel Symonds, KT Literary. (Sept.)