Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Book Review: A Fairy's Human Love Experiment

Title: A Fairy's Human Love Experiment 

Author: Claudine F. Knight

Date: 2018

Publisher: Amazon 

ISBN: 1072806347

Length: 123 pages on Kindle (my e-copy made 240 pages of it)

Quote: "Sometimes, I wonder what my life would be like as a fictional character."

That's Eva, one of the contemporary characters, opening a novel in which two contemporary couples get the chance to meet--and be involved in a bit of romantic drama with--Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley, with the help of the fairy Raine, the sprite Snowflake, and the genie Alawin. 

Eva, the younger sister, is partial to a co-worker, Paddy, but they're in the friend zone--or are they? 

Dana, the elder sister, is engaged to Mark, but are they sure they want to marry each other?

And poor Mr. Knightley is stuck in the eighteenth century, having few friends and little life of his own apart from the Woodhouses, and does Miss Woodhouse care for him at all? Isn't she about to plight her troth to an unappreciative...

When Mark and George get to change places for a few days, among other things the number of days varies between their dimensions of reality...anyway, a chance to change partners in the social dance (and social dancing is the most intimacy that goes on!) helps all six of them sort out what they want to do, in a romantic comedy with the obligatory happy ending. At least they're all happy. Though not necessarily all married, yet. 

I thought the narrative style was hasty and unpolished, and other Janeites, e.g. the late H.B. Gilmour or the late Joan Aiken, could have pushed this story's comedy level from a chortle to a long series of whoops and whinnies. Tastes differ. If you like a straightforward, clean-cut narrative uncluttered by visual details and subplots and "aside" jokes, you'll like this cheerful little "Experiment."  

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