Jane Austen Made Me Do It edited by Laurel Ann Nattress

I received a galley of this novel from NetGalley for review. This in no way affected my opinions.

I enjoyed this collection of short stories more than I anticipated. It had everything, really – continuations; spin-offs; stories about Jane; stories inspired by Jane; even a couple stories where Jane's ghost was involved.

I really liked the majority of the stories, so I'm not going to list every single story I liked, but here were some of the standouts, for me:

The opening story Jane Austen's Nightmare by Syrie James was a great story to open with. It involved Jane having a dream in which her characters let her know what they think of how she wrote them. This was a very clever idea. I found that the characters who complained made some good points.

Jane Austen, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! by Janet Mullany takes place in 1964 at a high school where Beatlemania is in full force. Teacher Julie is stuck watching three girls at after school detention. However, she finds herself discussing Sense and Sensibility with them, replacing the heroes of the book with the members of the Beatles. This event leads her make an important life decision.

When Only a Darcy Will Do by Beth Pattillo was a sweet story, I thought. Elizabeth has created a Jane Austen tour in London to bring in extra cash, she's even gone all out in Regency garb. Soon, Mr. Darcy shows up. At least, that's what he's calling himself, and he too is decked out in Regency garb. I was tickled at how he maintained his identity, and found the ending to be very nice.

A Night at Northanger by Lauren Willig is about a woman named Cate who is involved in a ghost hunting show. This particular haunted house is none other than Northanger Abbey, and Cate comes across her very own ghost.

And, of course, there were others that I loved. This was also a good opportunity to read authors I've heard about, but have not explored their work yet.

Every Austen fan will find something they will love in Jane Austen Made Me Do It.