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Best Mistake Ever by Christy McKellen

  This is a new to me author but I am delighted to feature on the celebrations for the latest novel by Christy McKellen , Best Mistake Ever . It was published by Boldwood on 16th January. Some mistakes are worth making Beatrice Donovan would do anything for her identical twin sister. Including stepping into her hotel management job temporarily and pretending to be her - she’s desperate. What could go wrong? A lot apparently! Because her sister Delilah has hugely understated her role – the hotel is at risk of closure and she’s promised she can turn it around. Now Bea has to find a way to fly under the radar, get the job done before anyone notices their switch up. Sounds easy, all Bea has to do is avoid her temporary new boss Jonah. However, that’s a lot harder than she thought. Not only does he have impossibly high standards, he’s also out of this world gorgeous, an ex-rockstar with a chip on his shoulder and he's watching her like a hawk! So Bea uses her charm to keep him fo...
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Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

    In the bicentenary year of Charlotte Brontë's birth, it feels really appropriate to be reading stories which reference her work and which have so many echoes of it within them. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jane Steele which reimagines elements of the story of Jane Eyre. The first thing that strikes you about the book is that it is great fun. The heroine, Jane Steele, is written with panache and vigour. With a wicked sense of humour, she turns out to be anything but passive.

    I admired how the book captured the feel of its time. Jane Steele admits in the opening pages to having read Jane Eyre and as we see, noticed that parts of their story are similar. However, Jane Steele's reactions are far from Jane Eyre's. Here we have a story in which the heroine has gone to the bad! Incorrigible, Jane Steele charms us the readers whom she addresses directly. Each chapter begins with a quote from Jane Eyre and at times, Jane Steele wonders what Jane would have done. Despite all her deeds, I found myself liking and rooting for Jane Steele.

     Lyndsay Faye writes in a style which perfectly captures the novels of the Victorian era. Jane Steele reminded me of Becky Sharp in Thackeray's Vanity Fair with her irreverence for authority and ability to scheme and survive. The period details are all there and there is a wide cast of eccentric and varied characters whom I am sure Dickens would have been proud of. The melodramatic gothic features are there to be found, from the governess figure, to the forbidding and isolated houses, although I am not sure that Jane Steele fits the bill of the defenceless young woman. I particularly appreciated Lyndsay Faye's descriptions of Victorian London, teeming with all the best and worst of humanity.

In short: Reader, I loved it!
  
Thanks to Caitlyn Raynor and the publishers at Headline Review for a copy of the book.
     

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