I liked this, but it was a little weird to me. I understand what fanfiction is, and I've actually read a lot of Jane Austen fanfic, although I don't care much for the original books. This one confused me, though.

First, I thought it was weird that out of all the names the author could pick for the heroine, she used her own name. There is nothing wrong with that, but I read about 300 books a year, and I'm not sure I've ever seen that. It almost takes you out of the story before you get started, as if the author is trying to tell you a fiction story as if it happened to her. Maybe that was the idea since it's fanfic. Maybe it's just me.

The Austen fanfic is the only that I've read, and I fell into that, so I don't know a lot about fanfiction rules or any culture that may be built around it. The Austen fanfic uses the names of the actual characters from Austen books. Ms. Haviland didn't do that here, and she even changed the name of the original book. Perhaps there are rules or laws about copyrights or using the real characters if a certain amount of time hasn't passed? I don't know, but as much as I enjoyed the book, it was very hard to read about characters I've known for years, but with different names. I didn't know this was fanfic when I started it, and by the time I did, I was already into it. I don't understand why the author changed all the names except Ian's.

This is a good book, and I'll add the others to my TBR list, but it helps to know what you're getting into.

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