AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell, narrated by Stephanie Nemeth-Parker

KaetrinAudiobooks / B- Reviews / Book ReviewsJane Austen / Movies / NetGalley / Regency / SFF / Stephanie Nemeth-Parker / Time-Travel7 Comments

Content notes: parental death, parental illness, cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease

Dear Madeline Bell,

Tess Bright is an American actor who became famous on a teen sitcom “Chuck Brown”, based loosely on the Peanuts comic strip. After her mother became ill and then died, her grief led to her showing up late for work, messing up on set and pushing her friends away. Eventually the producers of Chuck Brown fired her. The story begins when news about her character being played by another actor in season four of the show has just broken. Tess is, at the time, on the set of Northanger Abbey, being filmed in Hampshire. Her mother was her best friend and also a Jane Austen devotee. Northanger Abbey was her second favourite Austen. Starring in the movie is a way to pay homage to her mother and also feel close to her. As well, it’s an opportunity to revive her career – and maybe also be taken seriously. Chuck Brown was not high art.

Hugh Balfour is a British actor (perhaps somewhere around the success level of Colin Firth or maybe slightly less?). He’s stuffy, taciturn and seemingly devoted to his method acting. He is less than impressed by Tess and her reputation (and her IMDB credits) and has little interest in interacting with her beyond filming their scenes. Needless to say, things are not going well on set.

After an argument where Tess slaps him in the face (for which she never apologises by the way) she races off into a field and he follows her. There is a storm and a puddle and a heater in the puddle and bingo bango bongo, Tess and Hugh are transported back to 1815. 

As it happens, Hugh’s family was local to the area and his family home of Highground* is not far away. He looks strikingly like this (many great) uncle Hugh who died at Waterloo and is naturally mistaken for the war casualty. He introduces Tess as “Mrs Bright” a widow who helped to nurse him after injuries at Waterloo caused him some memory problems. Because they are unchaperoned and Tess has little idea of propriety (notwithstanding her detailed study of all things Austen over the course of her 26 years), they find themselves quickly engaged.

(*Is it just me or does Highground sound like a weird name for a house? Why not Highview or Highmere? Anyway, it’s a trivial thing but it kind of bugged me.)

Given that electricity caused them to be transported back in time, they hope that electricity will do the reverse. But getting hold of an electrical device in 1815 is not so easy and it takes time.

While all that happens, Tess and Hugh are enmeshed in the local society and Hugh’s family – including his (many great) grandfather George, who is only six years old in 1815. Hugh cannot say in the Regency or else George will not inherit and then the future and his own history gets borked. 

Tess and Hugh have to work together to keep everyone from finding out they’re not who they say they are and to find a way home and this brings each to the realisation that their prior assumptions and beliefs about each other were far from complete or correct. They gradually fall in love. Hugh is not the stuffy jerk she once thought; he’s worried about his own family in 2025, he’s shy, anxious and socially awkward. He hides it behind the appearance of snobbery. And Tess isn’t entirely the mess rumours would paint her to be (and, importantly, there is relevant context to what’s been happening) and, she’s very, very talented. As they rely on one another, they come to appreciate the ways they complement and encourage one another and their latent attraction (they’re both beautiful people after all) is allowed to grow. 

Tess, having lost or broken pretty much everything important in her life (I’m not being harsh, this is something she’d say herself) and still deeply mired in grief, is ambigious about going home to 2025, particularly after meeting the amazing Miss Austen in person. Given Hugh’s position, this naturally creates some conflict between the lovebirds. I’m not sure I fully bought Tess’s hesitation. I found it a little incongruous with things she said to other characters about moving on from grief and finally being able to see some sunshine in her life and it felt a bit shoehorned in to the story to create tension.

I felt a bit sorry for George, old Mr Balfour and Aunt Fanny. They would have been left with rather a mess after (is this really a spoiler?) Tess and Hugh suddenly disappear. I don’t know that I’d really thought about it before, or maybe I just haven’t read about time travellers who (at least in Hugh’s case) basically took over someone else’s life, but I found myself deeply curious about the explanations that would be bandied about in the neighbourhood about what happened to them. Surely this had an impact on Hugh’s own history? His ancestor did die at Waterloo but in the new timeline he… didn’t? 

There were some little things (beyond the name “Highground”) which I noted – for instance in the early part of the book there’s a line when Hugh chokes on turtle soup (he’s a vegetarian) and it “fountained out of his mouth like a fountain”. Every now and then there were some lines which felt a bit clumsy or incongruent. Tess and Hugh were anachronisms of course but the story’s set up is that Tess knows Austen backwards and forwards and Hugh is a method actor who has done meticulous research on the era so I didn’t quite buy some of their blunders.

The narration, by Stephanie Nemeth-Parker was good. Tess is American but when she’s acting in the movie or talking to others in Regency times she uses a British accent (of course). There were some mentions in the text of Tess using her own accent when Tess and Hugh were alone but this was inconsistent in the narration. However, it wasn’t made clear in the book that this was all the time or applied when they had people nearby but were not in earshot, and there were times, even when Tess and Hugh were entirely alone when the British accent was used. Sometimes, from context (modern words etc) it seemed to me Tess should have been speaking as herself but others it was a toss up as to what the text required. Ms Nemeth-Parker’s accents and character voices were good – from children to old ladies, toffy men – young and old she had quite a bit of opportunity in this book to show her skills, and her British accent was solid enough.

I enjoyed The Austen Affair even though there were a few missteps and I had some lingering questions. Overall, though, it was an entertaining use of my listening time.

Grade: B-

Regards,
Kaetrin

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Kaetrin

Kaetrin started reading romance as a teen and then took a long break, detouring into fantasy and thrillers. She returned to romance in 2008 and has been blogging since 2010. She reads contemporary, historical, a little paranormal, urban fantasy and romantic suspense, as well as erotic romance and more recently, new adult. She loves angsty books, funny books, long books and short books. The only thing mandatory is the HEA. Favourite authors include Mary Balogh, Susanna Kearsley, Joanna Bourne, Tammara Webber, Kristen Ashley, Shannon Stacey, Sarah Mayberry, JD Robb/Nora Roberts, KA Mitchell, Marie Sexton, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, just to name a few. You can find her on Twitter: @kaetrin67.

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