Lost in Austen: Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure

I order the book in “Very Good” quality, and it was somewhat taped up. It was still good quality though and the taping was only on the cover.

Bought this for my college-aged granddaughter for school. She loves it! It was the perfect gift for her right now.

I'm as much a geek as I am a Jane Austen fan; I grew up reading choose-your-own-adventure books and I play computer role-playing games. And on bad days at work when I've had to deal with really rude, uncouth people, I've been known to comically moan, "I wish I could crawl inside a Jane Austen novel and stay there." So when I stumbled across this book, it felt like a gift from above. And that it is! The format is five parts choose-your-own-adventure, one part solo pen and paper role-playing game, so while a d4 or a d6 is optional for the coin-toss choice in the first stage, be prepared to have a character sheet at your side. I wound up pulling an Aeon Flux on my first go (ie. I wound up dying in a very ridiculous manner), but I had so much fun in spite of my failure, I'm looking forward to the other scenarios and paths this book has to offer!

I ordered this book because I wanted to get free shipping, and I was missing a couple dollars. To my surprise and delight, this turned out to be a very fun read! The diversions from the main plot are very ingenious, and you'll recognize many of Jane Austen's works. Totally worth getting.

Combine Jane Austen novels (especially Pride and Prejudice) with the children's Choose-Your-Own Adventure format, and you get this book. Your goal, of course, is a suitable marriage, but beware of the many possible complications. Made the wrong choice, turn to the wrong page, and disater may ensue. You might well be scarred for life, imprisoned in Northanger Abbey, or (worst of all fates) remain a spinster. Oh, well, you can always backtrack. Too bad life doesn't work that way. This is a fun read. It doesn't require extensive knowledge of Austen, though some memory of the book or movie version would probably make it easier to keep track of characters (some of whom are imported from other Austen novels). It might be an effective way to involve students or would-be Austen readers with the novels. And, of course, for the young adult or old adult who enjoyed the choose-your-own-adventure stories as children, it's a pleasant bit of nostalgia.

As a huge Austen fan, I just had to give this book a shot and I was not disappointed at all. It was fun, clever and imaginative. An earlier reviewer mentioned that some of the events - a murder, etc. - were out of character for Jane's writing. Well, yes they were. But in the context of this book, these events just made me laugh. I thought she wove in the characters from the other books quite well. It was interesting to get a different perspective on Emma, for instance. Of course the author had to borrow heavily from Pride and Prejudice - as the reader you are acting as Elizabeth Bennet. But she made Elizabeth very accessible to contemporary readers. I would highly recommend this book. It was great fun and shouldn't be taken so seriously!