23 year old Emma has just sent her best friend, Aunt Tanya, off on her honeymoon after playing matchmaker for her and her new husband. The thrill of being a matchmaker has Emma looking around for her next victim. She finds it in the form of Harriet, an 18 year-old nanny from Utah living in their ward. Harri has black hair and always wears baggy clothes, she definitely needs a make over and a boyfriend. And Emma has the perfect candidate for her boyfriend too, Phil Elton, he's just got to be looking for a girlfriend. With a plan all set, Emma's off to talk to Harri and get started. But things don't go quite as she had planned, and soon both Harri and Emma are discouraged and Emma feels as though her life is spinning out of control. With the help of friends Justin, and Jenna, and her father and Tanya, Emma is eventually able to get herself and her life back on track and moving forward again. But she's learned a valuable lesson about being overly pushy in the lives of others...or has she?
I really enjoyed reading this book! This book is based on Jane Austen's Emma and Rebecca Jamison has done a great job with it. The plot is fun and moves right along. I especially like the characters, quirky Emma is a really fun main character and it's really fun to be able to see her life through her own eyes. Especially when she's causing blunder after blunder! I really enjoyed the ending though where Emma learns exactly what she's been wanting for her own life. You don't want to miss this book!
I was sent an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And even better you can win an e-copy of this book too! Simply enter the rafflecopter below for your chance to win!
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About Rebecca H Jamison: Looking for love? Rebecca H. Jamison would love to set you up
with that special someone, but you’re better off reading her books. She has a terrible track record as a matchmaker.
Rebecca grew up in Virginia. She attended Brigham Young University, where she earned a BA and MA in English with an emphasis in creative writing. In between college and graduate school, she served a mission to Portugal and Cape Verde.
Rebecca enjoys running, dancing, reading, and watching detective shows. She and her husband have six children. You can learn more about her at www.rebeccahjamison.com. You can also find Rebecca on Facebook.
We are so lucky today to have a guest post written by Rebecca H Jamison!
My Jane Austen Inspiration
Guest Post by Rebecca H. Jamison
When I read or watch an adaptation, I like to find as many parallels with the original as possible. It’s natural, then, that I should write my books that way. Though I want to avoid predictability when writing a Jane Austen adaptation, I also want to reflect Jane Austen’s original work in a detailed way. Hopefully, some of those who read Emma: A Latter-day Tale will pick up on my little nods toward the original. They don’t all come in the same order or in the same way as they do in Emma, but that’s just part of the fun.
One of my favorite things about Jane Austen is the way she handles dialogue. There are so many miscues and misunderstandings. Recreating those kinds of situations in the modern world required a lot of thought. It didn’t come easy.
Then, there were all the little details. I wondered for a while what to do about Harriet’s book of rhymes. Lucky for me, LDS culture came to the rescue, and I had some of the characters ask each other to a dance in elaborate ways. (Yes, that actually happens in real life among Mormon twenty-somethings.) I also made sure Harriet burns things—though she never burns memorabilia from Mr. Elton. And what would Emma be without the gypsies—I mean the paparazzi? There are too many details like these to mention.
The characters, of course, are my favorite part. Emma, with her penchant for giving advice, becomes a life coach who doles out tips of the day in every chapter. Like her Regency counterpart, she has trouble finishing things. Jane Fairfax, musical and secretive, becomes a country music star hounded by the tabloids. Hank Weston, spoiled and restricted, becomes the future CEO of his mother’s company. One of my favorite little details about Mr. Knightley was that he wouldn’t let Mrs. Elton make decisions in his home, telling her that only the future Mrs. Knightley could do that. As a nod toward this detail, my Mr. Knightley informs Emma that he’s not going to furnish his home until he’s married because his future wife will want to pick everything out.
Please don’t worry if you’re not as obsessed with Jane Austen as I am. This is just what I do for fun. People who’ve never read Jane Austen will be fine.
Labels: LDS Romance, Rebecca H Jamison
