Midnight in Austenland

More fluff. A bit better than the first though. I liked that Miss Charming was back and more developed. The mystery wasn't great though.

So much better than the first book! There are a few returning characters but nothing requires reading the books in sequence, so do yourself a favor and skip ahead.

Charlotte is a recently divorced mother of two whose attempts at dating keep failing. So she goes on vacation to Pembrook Park, ready to dive into the make-believe and enjoy herself, but then one of the actors/bachelors stages a murder mystery game and reality and fantasy get all muddled.

Not as good as the first one.

Sometimes it is so nice to read a book with a main character that you can actually identify with. They are few and far between for me, especially in the chick lit/romance genre, so this was a breath of fresh air.

So, just over 200 pages and I nailed it in 4 hours. Perfect! It was fun, it was exciting, funny, and I could read it without having to spend days on it. As a new mom, that's VERY important to me.
****
Second read and it admittedly took a little longer (darn obligations, haha), but still just as enjoyable! It had been long enough that I remembered few enough details that it didn't spoil anything. Still 100% will be recommending to anyone who seems inclined.

After the amazingness that was Austenland, I have to say that I ended up being rather disappointed with this book after all. One of the biggest reasons I adored the original Austenland so much was all the Regency interactions between all the guests (and Jane/Henry), I was really disappointed that the majority of the book ended up being Charlotte talking to herself about the murder. AND she ends up with her housemate “brother”? Eeew. I'm glad I read it, but I hope Shannon Hale goes back to a story like the original next time.