Veronica Bennett

"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 show more 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. show less

Cassandra's Sisters is both the best young adult book and the best Jane Austen based book that I have read recently. Cassandra's Sister explores the life of Jane Austen for a period of nearly ten years from her late teens to late twenties. We read about Jane's home, family, and associates as we see her travel the countryside, attend balls, and sit in her room and write novels based on her experiences.

Bennett does such a good job of conveying a sense of time and place that I had to keep show more reminding myself that this was a work of fiction and that some events may not have happened at all or in the way that they are described. Bennett does not weigh us down with extraneous or voyeuristic details that inhabit so many historical novels, yet she still manages to transport her readers back to Jane's world. Bennett also did a superb job of showing the emotions Jane might have felt watching her opportunities for marriage slip by in world that so valued marriage but provided such a small window for women to embark on it.

Though this book is marketed for young adults, it is highly recommended for Jane lovers of all ages. show less

Sam Gilbourne is frustrated with his life with the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Not that he doesn't love the theater, but after having played second fiddle to the striking William Hughes for so long, he longs to play a lead role. Soon Sam finds that his unassuming steadfastness does, in fact, win him the affection of the beautiful Lucie Cheetham. But their love is surely doomed to failure, for the niece of Lord Essex will never be permitted to wed a mere player, and her uncle's reckless behavior show more is risking the Queen's displeasure - and is sure to bring calamity upon the entire family.

There were some aspects of the story that seemed quite fresh - I rarely come across a Shakespearean tale where the dismantling of The Theatre and its move to Southwark. I thought that was a nice bit of fun. As for the rest of the story - to me, it dragged. The action stretches over almost three years, and while that allows for some time for Sam's relationship with Lucie to develop some, it also introduces an awful lot of downtime where not terribly much happens. Sam acts in plays and pines for Lucie. Lucie is forbidden from seeing Sam and pines for him. Sam has some existential angst over whether Lucie will love him if he has another profession (and whether he can bear another profession when he loves this one so much).

While their relationship was sweetly steadfast, it also simply wasn't terribly interesting. He sees her, she sees him, they fall madly in love, never do they doubt one another. Now all they must do is overcome the adverse circumstances. I mean, it was nice not to have to deal with a love triangle, but Sam and Lucie were simply a bit dull. No one really seemed to be trying to pull them apart, there was no imminent threat to their relationship. I just wanted more than niceness out of the two of them. I wanted a glimpse of passion (not to be confused with lust) between the two of them. Simply put, I was bored with their love story. And since that was most of the book, I didn't find myself eager to return to its pages. show less

3.5 stars.
I loved that it was set during a period of history very rarely visited in historical fiction. However, I found the causalness of some of the conversations quite jarring and probably quite inaccurate to how they would have spoken