Katherine Reay
Author of Dear Mr. Knightley
Works by Katherine Reay
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 20th century
- Gender
- female
- Places of residence
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Education
- Northwestern University (BA, MA)
- Organizations
- Austen Authors
- Short biography
- Katherine Reay is the award-winning author of several novels. She graduated from Northwestern University with a BA and Honors in History and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most widely known academic honor society. She also holds a Master’s degree in marketing from Northwestern. Katherine then spent several years working in non-profit development before returning to graduate school for a Masters of Theological Studies. Publishing credits also include Redbook, USAToday, Christianity Today and FamilyFiction. Katherine lives outside Chicago, IL.
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Statistics
- Works
- 12
- Members
- 2,152
- Popularity
- #11,950
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 203
- ISBNs
- 84
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 2
The book is the story of Mary and Isabel, friends since grade two, who go to an expensive Austen week outside of Bath where they are immersed in period costume, food, and entertainments, and where Isabel enters a disassociative state, which happens sometimes. In that state, Isabel believes that she is actually an Austen character. The book has interesting historical details, a couple of romances, a happy ending, and some well-developed characters.
But.
The story was chaotic. There were too many characters, and having them doubled into characters/Austen characters that they're playing made that even more difficult to follow. Towards the end of the book, I realized that part of my irritation came from the fact that it read like a soap opera, where most of the action would be extraneous if people only told each other the truth. As in soap operas, this book is full of lies and misunderstandings, far too many coincidences, and a budget amongst characters that allows for first-class air travel and limousines and expensive retreats. I don't enjoy books with unlimited budgets; it's not realistic, and I like my stories to be somewhat realistic even they're fantasy.
There were redeeming qualities. The main character, Mary, is an engineer in love with all things electrical, and the research for her passion was obviously well done. The author's knowledge of the ins and outs of Regency life and Jane Austen novels was excellent. Research aside, I didn't like the book or the artifice in it; the book felt distinctly non-Austenesque.… (more)