Sally Smith O'RourkeCritiques

I enjoyed this. It was a fun story that had its moments of being a bit poorly written, but overall a good story.

La vida aburrida y tranquila de Eliza termina cuando descubre dos enigmáticas cartas en un antiguo tocador que acaba de adquirir en una tienda de antigüedades. Una, escrita de su puño y letra por la autora que más admira, Jane Austen. La otra, más increíble aún, escrita por Fitzwilliam Darcy, el protagonista de la novela de Austen Orgullo y prejuicio. ¿Es posible que fuera un personaje real? Decidida a indagar en un fabuloso romance del pasado, Eliza entra en contacto por Internet con un Fitzwilliam Darcy actual, al que cree descendiente del autor de su carta. Pronto, acude a su mansión a conocerlo en persona. Allí le espera la revelación de un secreto increíble y la ocasión de convertirse en protagonista de una aventura que nada tiene que envidiar a las que inventó, y vivió, su adorada escritora.

* I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*

This book was very romantic, and a lovely read. It gives an interesting twist on a part of history that I had never read much about before. Full reiew to come.

Convoluted plots such as this one only work if well-written. This book, unfortunately, was not.

This was one of those finds at a charity sale table and what a lucky little find it was. A very interesting idea of just who Mr. Darcy could have been and how with a little imagination he could have been Jane's great love. This cover I thought was somewhat deceiving in that it is not a steamy romance but a lovely soft story. Some good characters with a few surprises and an engaging look at Jane and her family. If you are a Mr. Darcy fan do not miss out on reading this book.

Ann Hart is so happy and so in love with her husband Alex as the book opens, and then the unthinkable and the world she has collapses. At the same time an old love Ted has been living a nightmare, literally almost every night, and having out of body experiences.
While I enjoyed this story and read it as rather a fairy tale, there are some who believe in reincarnation, which I do not. This story is based on multiple lives inhabiting Ted’s body, one is a sadist and the other is a heartbroken man who looses his wife on the voyage from Scotland to Antiqua.
This is what puts Ted back into Ann’s life, they are both Doctors she a family specialist and he a trauma specialist and they were previously engaged
I really loved Ted’s spunky and smart teenage daughter Sara Jane, she sure has a lot of insight and good advice. I liked this rather fantasy read, and brings to light a lot of what went on in the beginnings of this Country.
I received this book through I Am A Reader, Not A Writer Blog Tour, and was not required to give a positive review.

I could not stop reading this book. I found myself wanting to find out more and more of the story. Reincarnation, whether you believe or not you will be hooked on this book from page one. This author did an amazing job with this storyline telling multiple stories in one. You start out with Catherine and Andrew, you feel the love they have for each other float off the pages. Then ultimately the pain they feel. Then you are transported to Alex and Ann and their love story that seems to know no bounds till again you feel the pain of a loved one lost. While reading this book you will start to wonder if the loved one you have lost has the power to transcend time and space and use technology to point someone in the direction of happiness. I was truly lost in the feelings of these characters from love to loss and ultimately grief. After the tragic disappearance of Alex you the reader are transported 6 years into the future and find that Ann is not handing Alex being gone. As one of Ann's friends told her"you are not living, you are just exciting."
An earthquake occurs that does more than shake the earth but shakes the lives of a past forgotten but not truly lost. Edward is also just going through the motions of life. Although he does have his daughter, Sara that is his pride and joy. He and his wife divorced many years ago after a tragedy. Did he truly love his wife or was there always something holding him back??? After the earthquake he and his daughter help at the local Red Cross since he is a Trauma Therapist as well as a Dr. When he walks into the room to go over plans to help he is stunned to find the lost love of his life talking, Toni. He instantly looses time like he has done since residency years ago. What is happening to him? Does Toni have something to do with his time loss? He confides in a friend and is told he should do hypnotherapy to find the reason behind his lapses in memory. This is when Edward, Ted is put face to face with Ann, Toni after all of these years. The love they had was lost to lack of trust, will they get it back or will all of this reincarnation roller coaster keep them apart forever?
Do you believe in fate? Do you believe in ghosts? You will question everything you have ever believed or not believed after reading this truly amazing romance. I had every emotion reading this book. I was crying, cheering, and laughing,. You don't want to miss this great romantic read that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Do you believe in reincarnation, or past lives? I know I do, why not? I am sure there are lots of skeptics that will say that such a thing is not possible at all. Maybe, maybe not. Days of Future Past is a story of past lives and how a man who keeps having dreams or rather blackouts and can't understand what is happening to him and why. Ted McConaughy, a trauma specialist has had recurring dreams since he was little but they usually only surfaced when there was a traumatic event that occured in his life. Ted had been engaged to Ann Hart, a family therapist twenty years ago but the wedding was called off by Ann, she thought he was cheating in her. She left him and went on to have her own life, getting married. She has been grieving for about 6 years though as her husband's plane , a pilot, goes missing on a routine flight and he was never found. Ann has a hard time letting go, she thinks that he will turn up one day. Ted had also moved on, he also married and has a daughter, Sarah Jane.

California experiences a 6.8 earthquake and this event brings Ann and Ted back together. Ann still wants nothing to do with him, still experiencing the pain of his betrayal. This event has started Ted's dreams again and he seeks Ann's help in trying to figure out what is going on. It appears that he not only is reliving a past event but it is of two separate men in different times. As Ann and Ted do hypnosis and travel into Ted's dreams, she and Ted start to have feelings once again for each other. Ann has met Sarah Jane and is captivated by the young lady. Can Ann ever forgive Ted for a past transgression or will she hold a grudge forever? Will Ted ever be able to tell Ann that he has always loved her? Well if I told you the answers to these questions I would give away the story.

I really liked this novel, a story about love past, present and future, romance and forgiveness. With a bit of mystery thrown in to keep the reader turning the pages. I highly recommend this book if you want a great engaging book!!

Ms. O'Rourke is the author of The Man Who, Loved Jane Austen, Yours Affectionally, Jane Austen, The Maidenstone Lighthouse and Christmas at Sea Pines Cottage.

I have to start this review with a little bit of a disclaimer: I wasn't entirely aware of what I was getting myself into in this book. I knew there was another book that came before it,  The Man Who Loved Jane Austen, but I thought the two were more interconnected standalones than one being a direct sequel of the other. And maybe they're meant to be, and it just wasn't carried off, but either way, Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen plunges you right into the heart of a story that's already going on. I mean, really - it's right in the middle of a ball, which (to my understanding) the last book spent much of its time building up to.  By the time this story begins, the two main characters are already confessing their devotion to each other, and I'm like, wait - we don't know each other that well, folks, let's back this up a bit. But then they would say things like how they've only known each other 2 days, and I'd be like, Um, maybe I misread the confessions of love? I kept flipping back and forth in the beginning, trying to confirm what was really going on, and how long these characters had known each other, and where the timeslip to Jane Austen's time came in, and Darcy's romance with her, and how Darcy became DARCY, and - it was hard for me to get my bearings, is what I'm saying. And this is no fault of Sally Smith O'Rourke, mind you. At least, not entirely - it's my own fault for reading a book 2, though I still find the brevity of the romance to be suspect... But some of the things that completely threw me off may not phase another reader who has read book 1, and maybe those 2 impassioned days of whirlwind romance are really enough to make the reader buy them as a couple by the time this book starts. I don't know. So: disclaimer. There you have it. Take any negatives I may have with a grain of salt, because I'm kinda shooting blind.

Now, that being said, I was eventually able to make sense of who was who and what had been going on before this. Some things were always a bit unclear to me, but for the most part, I was able to suss things out and dive into the story.  And I have to say, there were some things I really enjoyed, though they're maybe not the things I was supposed to like the most. YA, JA is split into 3 different storylines: 1) at some point in the past, a modern day man named Fitzwilliam Darcy traveled back into Jane Austen's time, and sorta maybe wooed her a bit - storyline 1 deals with what's going on in Austen's timeline as a result; 2) Fitzwilliam Darcy came back to the present, where a woman who has stumbled on his past romance with Jane has come to seek him out - storyline 2 follows their immediate true lurves; 3) a stableboy from Jane's time, Simmons, wants to make a better life for himself, and decides to follow Darcy back home, which means time travelling into the current timeline - pretty straight-forward, that Simmons, and I gotta say, his storyline was my fave, hands down.  The other two storylines had their positives and their negatives: I was amused by Jane, and liked how O'Rourke used her actual words (from her letters and stories) to make her seem more real... but she never quite gelled for me; the romance between modern-day Fitz and Eliza had potential, but it was more of a chaotic neutral - things seemed to happen too fast, and were a bit roller-coaster-y, which auto-tips me into my Prime Judgement Zone, but in the end, it was a pleasant-enough romance.

But Simmons. Oh, Simmons. I liked his story so much more than any romance. His was a story all about striking out on one's own, about seeking a place in the world where you can be valuable and respected, and about taking huge, bold risks to do so. Frankly, I could have done with a whole story following Simmons and his jarring travels in the modern world. It was funny, it was sweet, and it seemed realistic, which is always a big bonus in a time-slip novel. Even though I enjoyed the other two threads in the book, I found myself constantly wanting to get back to Simmons - this was not the reaction I expected to have when his 3rd POV was introduced into the book. I was worried that so many plot lines, so many different points of view, would fracture the book and make me not like it. Instead, I thought they all worked together well, and gave a more-complete picture, but it was Simmons, the thread I thought I'd find unnecessary and want to just snip from the overall fabric, Simmons whose story I kinda fell in love with.

So, I don't know. It was a bit of a strange reading experience for me, in that I didn't get at all what I thought I was going to get (my fault), but I ended up really liking the things I didn't think I was going to like (Sally's fault, so good on her, 'cause she won me over). It's hard for me to know whether to recommend the book, though, as I haven't read the first one, and so can't recommend it - but while I liked this, and loved Simmons, I can't recommend this either, without saying, read the first book... So, I guess, if you have read The Man Who Loved Jane Austen and liked it, or want to see how the story wraps up, pick this one up and you'll get Bonus Simmons. If you haven't read either, but are curious, just know there's some interesting timeslip and a really cool stable boy to look forward to... =D

My thoughts on the audio:
Please forgive me, Kendra Hoffman, but I did not like your accents. I'm not a fan of accents unless they can be done really well. In this book Hoffman did a New Yorker accent, a southern accent, and an English accent. I completely understand and appreciate that Hoffman tried to give the characters their own 'voice' by differentiating between their geographical regions. It just fell short to me. At times the voices were irritating. I did like it when Hoffman read in her own voice. I think she has a very pleasant and easy to listen to voice, but the accents need work.

My thoughts on the book:
When I first started to read this book, I had no idea it was a sequel. I guess the allure of a time-travel book involving Jane Austen was enough for me. It was halfway through the first chapter when I realized my mistake. I was a little confused as to what was going on. So if you haven't read the first book, I suggest that you do before you start this one. I continued reading and after the first few chapters I begin to understand the story better.
The famous Fitzwilliam Darcy is real! Though he doesn't live in England. He lives in the United States. But if he's real then how is it that Jane Austen could write a story about him? That's where the story begins. You see there is this portal that can transport Fitz into Jane Austen's time. And that's exactly how the two met. Jane falls in love with Fitz but knows it will never work out. Fitz goes back to his own time and meets Eliza. Eliza is a New Yorker who recently purchased Jane Austen's vanity and found letters in it addressed to Fitz. This find leads to the two meeting and sparks fly between the two. Eliza finds out that she has some competition But how do you compete against Jane Austen? To make matters more complicated, Jane Austen's groom decides he wants to work for Mr. Darcy and goes through the portal. However in doing so, he could change history, including Jane's.
This is an enjoyable read. It's a twist on Jane Austen inspired novels that I haven't come across before. I do wish I would have read the first book, The Man Who Loved Jane Austen first because I feel like I came into the middle of the story, which I guess I did. I did like the characters both old and new. Fitz is very much like Austen's Fitzwillian and Eliza and Elizabeth are similar as well. The story line is cute and an enjoyable read. Great for the Austen lovers.

Read more at http://www.2readornot2read.com/2013/08/audio-book-review-yours-affectionately.ht...

Sally Smith O’Rourke’s Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen is the second book in her The Man Who Loved Jane Austen series. I haven’t read the first book, which takes the name of her series, and although I didn’t feel lost reading Yours Affectionately, I do feel I would have been better prepared had I read it. At the time I wasn’t aware it was a second book and it wasn’t until I read it that I felt certain events were missing. I do recommend you read the first book and then proceed to Yours Affectionately.

Yours Affectionately picks up where The Man Who Loved Jane Austen left off. Eliza Knight has made contact with Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley Farms in Virginia and brought him the letters written by Jane Austen herself. Eliza’s arrival coincides with the famous Rose ball held annually at Pemberley Farms and she’s happy to immerse herself in a recreation of the Regency period. She dances the night away with Darcy and believes him when he announces, he time traveled to Austen’s time. Meanwhile in the 19th century, we get glimpses of Austen’s life shortly after Darcy’s departure. He made an impression on her and she still thinks of him. When her brother’s groom, Simmons, announces he wants to go to America to work for Darcy she tells him the truth. Armed with a package and a mission, Simmons manages to time travel to our modern period. What ensues is a lovely tale about love and trust featuring one of our most beloved heroes and author.

Character development is strong. There’s a cast of secondary characters that are needed, but they don’t distract from the plot. They actually enhance it. At Pemberley Farms, Eliza gets to know Darcy through his employees and they help clear up any misunderstandings. As for Eliza, I have a feeling O’Rourke developed her more in The Man Who Loved Jane Austen, but I still feel we got to know her. She’s an artist and isn’t afraid to voice her concerns. On the other hand, I feel as if we got two different Darcy’s; the first being, the one who shows a different face to Austen and the one who is most comfortable at Pemberley. As for Austen herself, she plays a minor role, but O’Rourke developed her enough for non Austenites to appreciate her.

Yours Affectionately is well written and the language used for the 19th century scenes doesn’t sound modern. I liked how O’Rourke used modern words and had Austen speak them, but always as an afterthought and explanation. I particularly enjoyed Austen thinking about our modern world and couldn’t help but imagine her in it. O’Rourke also does a superb job detailing the relationship between Austen and Darcy. Eliza at one point is jealous of that relationship, but it is clear that Austen is never far from Darcy’s mind and vice versa. I liked how she incorporated the past to run alongside the present. For example, Austen writing a letter to Darcy that turns out was resealed twice because his business card at one point was with the letter. That could only have happened in Austen’s time and yet in the present an Austen expert brings this situation to light and questions it.

I debated with the rating between a three and a four. In the end, I decided on a four because of the emotions O’Rourke evokes when Simmons in our modern world and the confusion he has towards this century. Also due to the romance between Darcy and Eliza and how they grew to trust to each other.

If you’re an Austenite, I recommended Sally Smith O’Rourke’s Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen. Just be sure to read the first book before delving into this one. You’ll see Darcy a little differently and can’t help but think, “what if.”

Who amongst readers hasn't wished to be able to meet her favorite author? Some people can fulfill this desire by going to a signing and exchanging small talk with the author. For others though, their favorite author is long dead and nothing short of time travel would make meeting them possible. I fall into this latter camp as Jane Austen is my favorite author. So a novel with the premise of characters truly stepping through a rip in the fabric of time and meeting Austen as happens in Sally Smith O'Rourke's novel, Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen, was eminently intriguing to me.

The novel opens as the elegant and historic Rose Ball at Pemberley Farms is winding down and New York artist Eliza Knight is reflecting on the fantastic, enchanted events that brought her to this Virginia horse farm and into the life of the gorgeous and enigmatic Fitz Darcy, Pemberley Farms' owner. Finding sealed letters behind the mirror of her new, antique vanity table, she discovered that they were from Jane Austen to Fitzwilliam Darcy. She then subsequently discovered that the Fitzwilliam Darcy the letters were written to was in fact did not live in 1813 but was a time traveler from the present day and the current owner of Pemberley Farms in Virginia. Eliza traveled from New York to Virginia to deliver the letters to him (still thinking they were in fact written to his ancestor as he had not told her his story--told in O'ROurke's first book The Man Who Loved Jane Austen--yet) and found not only the real life inspiration for one of Austen's most famous characters but also a good and upstanding man who might just turn out to be the love of her life.

But Eliza and Fitz's budding relationship is not the only plot thread here. There's the matter of Eliza processing Fitz's deep and abiding affection for Austen; an overbearing woman determined to authenticate the letters and solidify her reputation as the preminent Austen expert; the culture shock that Simmons, the stableboy from Austen's time who steps through the time portal into the twenty-first century in search of Fitz Darcy and a job in his stables, faces in this most curious of times; and of course the daily life and thoughts of Austen herself still in 1810.

There is much that must be explained from the previous book, at least in the beginning, and because of that the narrative pace is much slower at the start than at the end. Eliza's insecurity and growing jealousy of Fitz's love for Austen hampers the progress of the relationship as do Fitz's occasional evasions and abruptnesses. Fitz is not entirely the character that Austen created and Eliza, while pragmatic and accomplished, is not quite what we could of expect of a modern day Lizzie Bennet but Austen's characters are very much bound by the conventions of their time and Fitz and Eliza are clearly twenty-first century characters. The scenes with Simmons experiencing technology and all the differences between the 1810s and now are delightful, especially when he is once again helping a sick horse, comfortable in his element, and curious about advances in equine treatments. The scenes with Austen herself are interesting and shed light on the life she could have lived amongst her family and small circle of acquaintance. The eventual twining together of the three plot lines works and the twist in the end is clever and satisfying. Those readers who enjoy all things Austen will find this a fresh and original take on their favorite author and her most beloved characters

Do you ever wish that Jane Austen might have know love such as she chronicled, despite the historical documentation of her spinsterhood? Such a dream is the basis for O'Rourke's novel.

When Eliza Knight finds the perfect vanity table in a run-down antique market, little does she know she is changing the course of her future. Behind a warped mirror backing, Eliza discovers correspondence between a Miss Jane Austen and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy! An avid devotee of Miss Elizabeth Bennet's quest for love, the open letters leave Eliza thrilled, enchanted, and determined. With the help of the Austenticity.com web site, and her cat Wickham, Eliza traces clues which reveal the truth behind Jane's exchanges with a supposedly fictional character of her own creation. By delivering Jane's final letter to Darcy, Eliza discovers true love equal to that which Elizabeth Bennet enjoyed.

For another tale based around a hidden cache of Jane Austen letters, but without the time travel elements, check out Beth Pattillo's debut novel Jane Austen Ruined My Life.

I picked up this novel because I was on a literary trip following Miss Jane Austen's steps in Bath and in Chawton.
Having read most of her books and wanting to keep the one I had left for after the journey, I chose "The man who loved Jane Austen" looking for a light entertainment and because I wanted to read something related to Austen as well.
I didn't expect a masterpiece and the book started quite well. I thought it to be a predictable story but a good romantic one, with some of Austen's touch. Well, I was entirely mistaken. The novel resulted to be a cheap sci-fi story, treating time travel as the commonest thing in the world.
And then...the assumption that Mr. Darcy (our dear Mr. Darcy, pure embodiment of the ever-after perfect English gentleman) was an American was too much for me, even with the author's foreword apologising for her daring imagination.
Jane Austen appears cheapened, shallow and uninteresting. A middle aged poor woman in search of an affair.
The Mr. Darcy of this story is a snob and a big headed guy who behaves like a puppet without will or determination like the Mr. Darcy that we know. He is not appealing at all, just a fake and unsatisfying replacement.
And Eliza, the heroine of the book, is conceited, uni dimensional and superfluous.
I was actually a bit ashamed to keep on reading because the book loses all the essence like in chapter 4.

So, I think I'll stick to Austen's books, they are far more rewarding and always a pleasure to read for any kind of public who appreciates a good novel.½

This was an "OK" read- silly and a bit stilted in its language. Had a sci-fi twist I did not expect, if you do not like that sort of thing, then don't read this one.

Fabulous story with lots of plot twists and turns, with something for almost everyone. Susan Marks and her partner Ramon run an antiques business, but when her fiance, Bobby, goes missing from an airplane crash, she goes into retreat at the home of her great aunt in an old Victorian home near the lighthouse where a family member died. The plot thickens, as she searches to solve this mystery as well as one unknown to her in the present and a new-old love arrives in her life.

This was a fun read as long as you don’t look at the story line too closely. Mr. Darcy claims to Eliza that the sealed letter she found was indeed meant for him and I actually found his explanation for this crazy statement more believable than the fact that he and Eliza could fall crazy in love with each other in a matter of days. Seemed kind of strange. All the same Mr. Darcy’s story did catch my interest and the concept of the book was interesting. The author tried to mirror modern day Eliza and Mr. Darcy’s relationship to that of Lizzie and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. Eliza has a suitor who is pretty much an idiot like Mr. Collins, when she visits Pemberley there is a woman, Faith Harrington, who believes she and Mr. Darcy are meant to be married and her brother, Harv Harrington, indulges in innocent flirting with Eliza similar to the lines of Lizzie from P&P and Mr. Darcy’s cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam.

I love Pride & Prejudice and this was actually one of the better books I have enjoyed that stemmed off of Pride and Prejudice.

See other reviews here: http://debbiesworld.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/the-man-who-loved-jane-austen-by-sa....

This was a light and entertaining read told from the dogs point of view. It offered a unique point of view to an enjoyable tale.

As I read this, it felt as if I had read it before... so may be that it is just cliched - but it is always fun to read a story with a ghost in October! Full review is here: http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/10/maidenstone-lighthouse.html½

Light, predictable and lacking in style but what do you expect? A decent distraction from life.½

Jumps from cliche to stereotype and back again. Terrible!

This is a sweet little fantasy about a young woman who finds a set of letters belonging to Jane Austen in an old piece of furniture, and sets off to solve the mystery they present. Along the way she meets a modern Mr. Darcy with mysteries of his own. The premise is fun, but their stories aren't really fleshed out enough to make the book a convincing read. If you're looking for Jane Austen, this isn't it, but it's a pleasant enough romance with an interesting twist.

For hardcore classic Jane Austen fans, this one is a bit of a stretch, but a fun twist in it's own right.

If you're hoping to find writing as good as Austen's, this is not the place to look. If you're looking for a fun little read you might enjoy this book.

Obviously not great literature, but anyone who has fallen in love with Mr. Darcy will enjoy this sweet tale.