Mysterious, romantic, funny. The writing is extremely controlled and spare. The characters are all somewhat silly but they have this clear light revealing them. The Austen parallels were pretty great. I was just thinking about qualities of light and the Westport/Bath comparison. But then really Palm Springs is Bath because of all the rich folks going to hang out there and rub elbows. Cousin Lou was hard to imagine as a real person but I love him anyway. And the fact that Roberts is always there and is unplumbed even at the end is great. ( )

This book was just meh to me and I never use that word. The characters and the plot were just plain boring and though I know that you can have a good relationship with your ex even if you divorce at age 78, Betty considered her husband dead. Because of him, she and her daughters (also woe is me, I lost my job, I'm bankrupt (Miranda) but thankfully Annie had a job and wasn't so woe is me) moved to a tiny cottage in CT thanks to Cousin Lou. There were a lot of characters in this book that were sort of quirky. The end of the book was just what I thought it would be except for Miranda which totally came out of the blue. ( )

I completely enjoyed the way Schine adapted the Sense and Sensibility plot to today--changing the character's circumstances in ways that underlined just how timeless Austen's book is. Now to reread Sense and Sensibility.

I really give this a 3.75, but I'm rounding up... ( )

At first I found the characters in this book to be vacuous, narcissistic, and not at all self-reflective. The laugh-out-loud funny bits kept me reading, and eventually I began to not exactly care about the characters but at least to find them less grating enough that I could enjoy the story. I listened to this on audio while perambulating (and occasionally cantering) about my neighborhood, and it was great for that.

It's been too long since I read Sense and Sensibility for me to speak on how similar (or not) this book is to that one, but Schine certainly captured Austen's way of lovingly poking fun at the members of the upper classes. ( )

I am not quite sure why this book has such a low overall rating, 2.86 stars. My guess is the Austenophiles get their hopes up for another Jane book and since no book will ever live up to their expectations they rate these books very low. All I can say to these people is, “Why do you bother? Just stop reading follow-ups, and modernized versions because they will NEVER live up to your standards.” I had gotten this book at the library for 25 cents, and it sat on my bookshelf for years because I kept seeing the low rating and thinking, “I’m not in the mood to read a bad book.” This summer I decided I needed a beach book and figured I would give it a shot.

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself reading a clever, witty and very much in the Spirit of Austen novel. Schine, like Austen takes aim at, and pokes fun at the current social manners of her day. You will recognize most of the characters in this modernized version of Sense and Sensibility with a couple of new ones thrown in, and there is a bit of a twist at the end. I found this a perfect literary beach read; light, but well written and lots of things that will make you smile and chuckle. What’s not to love about that?
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