Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Fun,For Lovers of Austen and/or of Good Chick Lit!!
Review: NOT imitation Austen--there is waaaaaay to much of that out there already! Instead, it's a modern tale of a group of actors--amateur and professional--putting on a charity performance of "Pride and Prejeudice". It's a pleasure to read--especially when discovering which character matches which Austen character, and anticipating what will happen (some of the Austen characters have someone in the cast AND someone off stage who REALLY represents the Austen characters!) But even if you haven't read any Jane Austen, this is an entertaining, funny,read--and just might make you give the original a chance!
Rating:
Summary: A Modern Day Romance
Review: I was initially very sceptical about reading a book based upon an established classic - I tend to avoid any type of re-writes, "based-upons" or sequels written by other than the original authors. However, I was delightfully surprised with "Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field". It was a little slow-going at first but I soon began to enjoy the paralleling stories of the real characters vs. the characters they were playing in a stage production of the original Jane Austen classic. Some people may find it somehow intellectually offensive for a writer to use such a format but I honestly found it to be a very entertaining and heart-warming read. The book has even prompted me to re-read the original, it having been close to 30 years since I have done so.
Rating: 
Summary: ouch, ouch, ouch
Review: A few of the other reviews say "I never read the original P &P...". Egad, if you've never read the original, do yourself a favour and begin it immediately! Don't waste your time with this inane drivel. I know this is Ms Nathan's first book, but I wonder how she got a book deal with this idea. What was the pitch? "I'll write a book and base it on a classic. No wait, I'll just copy (in some places word for word) the classic in plot and characters, thereby saving myself from having to come up with anything original." Poke my eye, this was horrid stuff.Now, I myself like a good romance to read while soaking in the tub, but a good romance doesn't have to mean predictable to the point of boredom (I mean really, if you know who every character is immediately and exactly who they are going to end up with, and exactly how they will get there, and exactly what they'll say while they're on their way...).Ack, Ack, Ack, big ol' hairball.
Rating:
Summary: trashy, Jane Austen would roll over in her grave
Review: I am a big Jane Austen fan and when I heard about this book, I was excited to get a copy. I loved the idea of it!
But I read only a few chapters of this book and decided to stop reading it. Perhaps it is unfair for me to write a review since I did not read the entire book, but enough was enough.
Call me a prude. Call me old-fashioned. Call me what you will. But this is a trashy book. It is filled with cursing: all versions of the "f" word, frequent profane use of the name of Jesus Christ, and much crude, vulgar slang and references. If books were rated like movies, this would be a definite rated "R".
Jane Austen books do, of course, portay immoral situations and other seedy sides of life. But the issues were handled "delicately". The immorality was viewed as shocking and inappropriate. The immorality was certainly not described in detail. Her writing had refinement and class. Things were proper. I would think that a modern re-write of a Jane Austen story would at least maintain this same perspective.
But this modern re-telling has no shame! I felt like I had descended into a gutter. Jane Austen would roll over in her grave to see such a trashy, vulgar, crude book published as a re-make of Pride and Prejudice.
Well, I must sound like a raving lunatic... and no one will probably like my review. But I am just being honest. The idea and basic story line for this book was a good one, but it is unfortunate the author had to make it so crude. If Jane Austen were alive today, I know she would have more class than this...
Rating:
Summary: Written really quick on the beach?
Review: NOT imitation Austen--there is waaaaaay to much of that out there already! Instead, it's a modern tale of a group of actors--amateur and professional--putting on a charity performance of "Pride and Prejeudice". It's a pleasure to read--especially when discovering which character matches which Austen character, and anticipating what will happen (some of the Austen characters have someone in the cast AND someone off stage who REALLY represents the Austen characters!) But even if you haven't read any Jane Austen, this is an entertaining, funny,read--and just might make you give the original a chance!
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