Austen in August - Week 2

I've been immersed in Jane Austen works this week. Reading The Jane Austen Guide to Life during lunch, listening to The Three Weissmanns of Westport on my drive to and from work, and reading Love is a Battlefield before bed. I had hoped to be done them in time to give you some reviews today, but alas that didn't happen, so instead I'll provide you with my brief opinion with reviews to follow next week.

I mentioned this book awhile back either on here or on our Facebook/Twitter. Our heroine is Kate and she is a devoted member of the Jane Austen Regency Re-Enactment Society or JARRS. She is in charge of organizing their annual Vauxhall Gardens party. She finds the perfect spot, but there's a problem. Julian and his group have plans to use the spot for their Highland Games annual event. These two battle it out for both their events and love.

The book blurb does give fair warning that "The historical re-enactments in this story contain very little actual history. Battle chess and ninja stars may apply." I'm just getting to the battle chess and I have to say, I find myself chuckling while reading this book.

As with any interpretation of an author's work, Lori Smith uses what we know about Jane from her letters and those of her family to advise us on how Jane might advise us to live our lives. She uses examples from the books and it makes a nice little, light advice book.

I have had one little problem with the book and it's kind of had me question some other information in the book. Lori Smith writes that Jane never wrote about love at first sight and a relationship lasting. I think that's wrong, I think Jane and Bingley were a successful love at first sight relationship, and through a discussion on Facebook we think there are more. What do you think?

I'll admit this here, I'm a cheater. Let me explain, when listening to an audio book, I'll listen the the first disc before deciding if I'll listen to the whole book. When I finished the first disk of this book, I was torn. I wanted to keep listening, but I didn't feel invested enough to put in the time. So I went in search of a review with A LOT of spoilers. I'm so glad I did! I got an idea of where the book was heading (quite a different direction than S&S!) and it interested me enough to keep listening.

When I'm done, I'll write two reviews, one spoil free and one with spoilers! I just started disc 7 of 8 and I'm really enjoying the book now, so if you have this on your To Be Read list, I highly recommend picking it up soon and reading it!

How is your Austen in August reading going?