Emma Grant walked in on her husband and her teaching assistant having sex. In that instant, she saw her marriage, her confidence, and her trust in her husband completely destroyed. As part of a nasty divorce, Emma’s husband accuses her of something that results in the annihilation of her career as well. Poor Emma, left with nothing, blames it all on Jane Austen.

You see, Emma believes, it really is all Jane Austen’s fault. From a young age, Jane Austen was, without at doubt, Emma’s favorite author. She loved Austen’s writing, her wit and sarcasm, and social commentary. She fell in love with Darcy, and Knightley, and dreamed someday of finding her own wonderful husband just like those two romantic icons of modern literature. If it wasn’t for Jane Austen, Emma wouldn’t have decided to go to college to become an English professor, fallen in love with and married her English professor, and ended up with her life in shambles. Jane Austen ruined her life!

At the start of this book, with her marriage officially and legally over, Emma finds herself on a quest. She received a letter from a Mrs. Parrot, who claims to have some of Jane Austen’s unpublished letters. This starts Emma’s head spinning with possibilities. Perhaps Emma could get a hold of these letters, publish them, write about them, and get her career as a scholar back on track! With no husband, no home, and now no job, Emma has nothing holding her back. She takes a big chance, and flies to London with almost no money to her name, to attempt to find these secret Austen letters.

Conveniently, Emma has a cousin who lives in London, whom she can stay with. Emma arrives with a few unexpected surprises. First of all, her cousin seems to be away on a trip. Secondly, it appears her cousin accidently told a mutual friend of theirs that he could stay over at the same time as Emma. Adam and Emma were close friends, with the possibility of more, before Emma got married. They haven’t spoken since.

The story line of this book feels very much like something out of a Jane Austen novel, with the tension between the Emma and Adam going on. If you read and enjoyed Pride and Prejudice, you will find some parallels between Emma and Adam and Lizzy and Darcy. There are many misunderstandings, and confused feelings, that eventually get sorted out, and then sorted out once again.

After Emma gets settled at her cousin’s home, she embarks on what turns out to be a series of quests, in hopes of finding the letters. Mrs. Parrot proves to be very eccentric, (part of her charm), and she keeps sending Emma to many of the places that Jane Austen lived in, or wrote about. Fans of Austen will recognize the places, and the settings, and that is part of what makes this book a fun read. However, a knowledge of Jane Austen and her writing is not a prerequsite for reading this book because Pattillo does a wonderful job of explaining for the novice reader why certain places are important, and the meanings that fans of Austen will surmise on their own.

Also, the many small adventures that Mrs. Parrot sends Emma on make for a great mystery all by themselves. Emma cannot guess what she will be asked to do next, or where she will be sent. She starts to wonder if there is a secret society that has been keeping Austen’s letters away from the general public. What is in those letters, anyway? What is so important that they need to be kept secret in the first place? Why does Adam suddenly seem to be popping up at the same locations Emma has been assigned to go visit?

In short, Jane Austen Ruined My Life has something for every reader. There is a love story (possibly more than one, depending on how you count them). There is an in-depth mystery to keep you guessing. And, of course, there are echos of Jane Austen’s writing all along the way, as die hard fans of Austen will immediately recognize. I don’t usually enjoy books that feel like Romance novels. There are very few Mystery books that capture my attention the whole way through. I have only read one of Austen’s books, Pride and Prejudice, and know little about Austen’s real life. Still, I found Pattillo’s writing to be fresh and engaging, and the story itself to be captivating.