I just closed "Finding Jane" and have to catch my breath! I don't have enough adjectives to describe this novel. It's delightful, engaging, clever, creative!
Of course, there's the central time-travel romance theme throughout, but you'll find philosophy, wisdom, a bit of the paranormal, science fiction, and suspense, the latter with twists that you couldn't expect. In one particular storyline, Conte gives the reader just enough of a hint to predict what might be around the corner but holds back enough to let readers have the fun of finding out for themselves whether their assumptions are correct. That's just good pacing, and the author gets that rhythm right throughout the whole story. And speaking of pacing, the love scenes flow seamlessly and have just the right amount of sensuality for this genre.
The characters in "Finding Jane" are distinctly drawn and totally likable, except for one sleazy nineteenth-century cad. (A reader forgets that amid all the gentlemanly honor and propriety, there certainly must have been a couple of those 'characters' back in the day.)
Adding a loveable motherless child to the story helps us imagine an oscar-winning supporting actress role on the big screen. The wise-beyond-his-years teenage time-travel facilitator, although a minor character, would be fun to cast as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Or am I?
The descriptions of the gowns and English countryside are sumptuous and reflect the author's obvious aesthetic sensibilities. Of course, before we fall too much in love with the era, the author brings us up close to reality with her description of nineteenth-century London's air that's 'saturated with grime' and the 'pungent smell of coal, smoke, rotting food, and sweaty people.'
As other reviewers have mentioned, this book will transport you out of 2022. It's precisely what we need to renew our energy to face this period of our own history. I highly recommend this debut novel that Elizabeth Conte has fashioned out of a brilliantly creative mind. I'm glad I "found Jane," and I think you will be too.
An exceptional book that not only tells a great story it also transports you to another time and place. The author's attention to detail makes this read an authentic and entertaining experience. I highly recommend it.
My only problem with this beautifully written work is that it kept me up too late for a couple of nights! Jane and both the main and supporting cast are well developed, complex personalities, the twists and turns in their relationships keep the reader guessing, and the writing is exquisite. Highly recommend it!
A most enjoyable read. You can't help but fall in love with the main character, Jane. "What's next" keeps you enthralled at turning the page again and again. There are lots of questions as you read on, all of which happily get answered. The author's descriptive style of writing puts you, the reader, right into the clear and vivid setting of the story. Would love to be "a fly on the wall" at a book club discussion as they discuss this fantastic book. Extremely well done, well written Elizabeth Conte. I'll be patiently awaiting your next book.
Finding Jane is a captivating story for Historic-fiction fans as well as those with an interest in Sci-fi. I fall into the former category with only passing interest in the latter. Author Elizabeth Conte effortlessley blends the elements of time travel and 19th century English culture. I was propelled through the plot twists and the interesting set of characters.
I was satisfied with the ending of this captivating book, and No I won't tell you! Because of real life obligations (sigh) it took two days to read rather than devour it in one.
I suggest you take this journey with Jane!
This is a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. I know Jane Austen by heart, and have reread her works for decades, so I didn’t know what to expect with this new book. It was enthralling and convincing—with a solid character in Jane, who rings true as a modern woman, without being a caricature of feminist ways. I like her unselfconsciously ‘real’ quality. Jane is authentic, and the other characters have that same quality. I find the descriptions of the setting fresh and vivid—like a lovely painting.
This book was breathtakingly beautiful. Jane and her boyfriend breakup and she travels to England for her job at a beautiful estate to get away. She winds up taking a walk one day and wakes up naked in a field back in the 1900s near the same estate. What happens then is a world wind story that will have you mesmerized and your heart captured. With each page read, you are drawn in and can’t let go until the end.
This is a book I looked forward to reading, because I’m a big fan of the author, Elizabeth Conte, as a poet. Finding Jane is her first venture into novel writing and I hope it won’t be her last. There are two qualities that distinguish this novel from other contemporary works: its beautiful, emotive, figurative language and its compelling story line. Conte’s use of her wonderful poetic voice is evident throughout the book, especially in her close attention to the visual details of the setting, the faces and physical qualities of the characters, the food and clothing, all of which are described in vividly imagistic words, which bring the reader right into each scene as if he or she were actually there. The reader, along with Jane, the protagonist, is transported completely into the early 19th century where the bulk of the novel takes place. The beautiful descriptions give the Eaton estate, much of the books’s setting, and its rooms, its atmosphere, and its grounds a magical quality that thoroughly convince the reader, along with Jane, that she belongs in that era.
The story told in the novel is a captivating one. When Jane, a young woman recently abandoned by her unfaithful lover, is suddenly transported nearly 200 years into the past, will she encounter an opportunity for love that has the power to heal her broken heart? As she acclimates to the customs and manners of upper-class English gentry, will she find a new home or desperately want to return to her former life? The story is filled with twists and turns, ups and downs, with as much suspense as a modern mystery or thriller. The characters are well-drawn, each an individual in him or herself and the complications Jane encounters keep the reader guessing right up until the end of the novel.
This is a literary novel. It would qualify as one simply on the basis of the figurative language, which brings each scene alive in the way a poet can paint a picture with words. It is also a romance, in the tradition of great romances, such as Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre. The characters fall deeply in love, their thoughts and actions, their hopes and fears, are shaped by their love and the reader falls right along with them, hoping, in this case against logic and against probability, that their love will be strong enough to bring them together in the end. Nothing is easy. The characters are real, complex people with their own tragedies and foibles to contend with. Jane, the young woman is headstrong, independent, and determined, often at odds with the role of young women in the era in which she finds herself, yet she is sensitive, generous and caring, capable of great love and faithfulness, as well as unselfish moral behavior. One finds oneself both rooting for Jane’s success and simultaneously learning to value, as she is learning it, the traditions and mores of a more rigid, but also more genteel society.
As a genuine romantic novel, Finding Jane certainly qualifies as “women’s fiction.” I am a man who ordinarily reads mysteries and science fiction, although I also love becoming swept up by the, usually, larger, more sweeping stories of literary novels of earlier times. This novel swept me off my feet. I read the last half of the book non-stop, eager to find out what destiny had in store for Jane and whether or not she would accept or defy that fate. I discovered that it is really a novel for anyone who loves an absorbing story and who hasn’t lost their yearning for an old-fashioned tale of love. I can heartily recommend it.
This is a fantastic book. We meet Jane as her long term relationship with Stephen has just ended. As part of her job she visits an estate in England, home of the Eaton family for hundreds of years. After a cryptic message from a mysterious woman in a book shop, Jane soons finds herself magically transported back to the Eaton Estate in 1833. Jane is taken in by the family but only a few know her secret. Jane needs to find how to get home but life in 1833 is fulfilling and her attraction to Henry Eaton is growing... but any interference in his relationships could be devastating for the timeline of events in the future.
I really enjoyed this book. Jane is a lovely character- she's bold and self assured and struggles with the way women are treated in the 1800's but makes every effort to fit in and forges lovely relationships with the many other lovely characters in this story. Its quite a long book, but this author manages to create really vivid imagery without spending pages and pages detailing descriptions. Consequently there is a lot of story- I felt really sad to leave these characters behind when I finished the book... they are lovely!
This is a really good story, very well told with a few little twists and turns along the way that will keep you guessing!
This book was breathtakingly beautiful. Jane and her boyfriend breakup and she travels to England for her job at a beautiful estate to get away. She winds up taking a walk one day and wakes up naked in a field back in the 1900s near the same estate. What happens then is a world wind story that will have you mesmerized and your heart captured. With each page read, you are drawn in and can’t let go until the end.
