Book of The Week #26 "The Bronte Plot"

The Bronte Plot

by Katherine Reay

Lucy Alling loves stories. Really, stories are ingrained her. Her father loved telling stories and would animatedly do so for her as a child until he left when she was eight-years-old. Now Lucy is nearing thirty and working in an antique store for home designer Sid as a rare and antique book seller. When the handsome James stops by the shop in search of the perfect gift for his grandmother Helen, sparks fly as Lucy shows him a rare copy of Jane Eyre, which James knows his grandmother will love. The two begin to date and things go well until James discovers one of Lucy's secrets. Though the secret has torn she and James apart, it's bringing her closer to Helen, who also has some secrets that tie into Lucy's past. The two plan an antiquing trip to England where they both hope to leave their pasts.

The Bronte Plot isn't quite what I'd expected. I was kind of thinking it would be loosely based on one of the Bronte's books, or maybe that it would be about a woman that leads a similar life as one of the Bronte's led. But it isn't. It's about a woman who loves the Bronte's and the Bronte's books help her to see things about her life in a different light. So now I finally understand fan-fiction! Haha.

This was a lovely book. Admittedly, there were a few places where it felt a bit lagging, but there were great places in the book that really made up for it. There are tons of golden nuggets of beautiful words in The Bronte Plot and I highlighted so many phrases in this book on my Kindle. I love the setting, as it mainly takes place in England, a place I've always wanted to go. The characters are very down to earth and relatable. A lot of us bookworms can relate to Lucy, Helen and Lucy's dad's love of stories. It's just a great book. I am definitely looking forward to reading Katherine's other books, which are fan-fictions of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.

The romance in this book was okay, I just didn't much care for James, and I think that's what keeps me from giving it five stars. James was a bit of a grump in my opinion. I realize that he was upset when he learned of Lucy's secret and really can't blame him, but he seemed pretty grouchy before the fact. That was my main beef with the book.

I will throw it out there simply for honesty's sake that I won a Kindle version of this book from a contest I entered on Rissi's blog Dreaming Under The Same Moon. But, no one paid me to review the book or even asked that I review it. I wrote this simply because I enjoyed the book and wanted to review it and all of the opinions I have given are my own.

All in all, The Bronte Plot is a lovely contemporary book that fans of classic literature will definitely relate to.

I give this book a 4 out of 5.