First Impressions by Charlie Lovett

  First Impressions, A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen. Written by Charlie Lovett. Viking, 2014. Adult Fiction.


Sophie Collingwood takes a job at bookstore that sells antique editions. She soon finds herself on a search for a title that may change or even endanger her own life. Very much a modern woman, Sophie alternates thinking about the dashing Winston, the abrasive but interesting Eric who makes her heart race, and the dasterly Smedley who threatens her. In alternating chapters, Jane Austen meets Richard Mansfield and begins her writing career. The intersecting stories involve a manuscript that may prove Austen plagiarized a Mansfield work. It's up to Sophie to find the truth.


Part literary mystery, part love story, First Impressions is a story that not only Jane Austen fans will enjoy. It's fun. It's believable. It's a unique look at Austen. Try it!

Juliet's Nurse by Lois Leveen

Juliet's Nurse by Lois Leveen. Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 2014.
                   Adult fiction.


If you remember reading Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet only vaguely when you were younger, it's time for an update! In this novel, Lois Leveen gets the setting, the times, the characters, and the tone all pitch perfect in her imaginative retelling of the classic play. The nurse in the title, Angelica, comes to work as a wet nurse for Juliet soon after the baby's birth and stays into the girl's teenage years. This is her story, really, as much as Juliet's as readers learn about her husband and children and her own heartbreaks. What does it take to survive in a city where power, politics, family feuds, and plagues are mainstays of life itself? Modern readers may find much to identify with as these Veronese characters walk tightropes of the past. A teacher's guide is available at the author's website: http://loisleveen.com/index.php/loisleveen/juliets-nurse-for-teachers