Veronica Bennett

a fictional, though fairly historically accurate, take on Mary Shelley's early life. Mary falls in love with titled, nearly penniless poet Percy Shelley, and runs away with him. They, and her step-sister Jane/Claire Clairemont, live lives full of poetry and squalid emotional scenes amidst a sea of dead babies, suicides, and affairs. Their lives were amazingly tragic, but Bennett mostly manages to keep the book on an even keel. My one problem with this book was the constant, heavy-handed foreshadowing. For fans of this book, I'd recommend reading [b:Death and the Maidens: The Death of Fanny Wollstonecraft|1166343|Death and the Maidens The Death of Fanny Wollstonecraft|Janet M. Todd|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ytPtKU+VL._SL75_.jpg|1154030], a non-fiction look at the same family.… (mehr)

"Cassandra's Sister" is a really interesting story of Jane Austen. There are a lot of facts packed into this story, and for casual Jane Austen fans it might be an interesting read.

I did struggle with this book for a couple of reasons. While the character "Jenny" or Jane rightfully uses the friends around her as inspiration for her stories, it is much too obvious for my liking. I could easily pick out which characters were from "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility," etc. I wish it had been a much subtler approach. In addition, The book itself reads like it is trying to be an Austen novel, but falls short.

I also struggled with Jane's character. For the first part of the novel she came across as very childish, and I had assumed she was 12 or 13. When I discovered that she is in fact 18 when the novel starts, I was surprised and could not find the maturity in her that I wanted.

Still, the book had a lot of charm, and there were a lot of details about Jane Austen that were really fun to read in a novel form. This story might be more appropriate for a younger audience, or for very casual fans of Jane Austen.… (mehr)

This is the story of Mary Shelley (author of 'Frankenstein') and her romance & life with poet Percy Shelley. Talks of her losses & joys and how events led to her famous book.

This was a really good book. Neither thoroughly enjoyed nor disliked...just good. Up until I read this, I had no idea Frankenstein was written by a woman. I was filled with emotion on all Mary's despairing times in her life. Although the author lets us know at the end of this story that it is 'based' off real events and people it is purely fictional...it was believable. Not exactly my cup of tea but entertaining.… (mehr)