Publisher: St. Martin’s Press,  May 6, 2025

Format: ebook

Pages: 320

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary (From Goodreads):

Two pairs of siblings, devotees of Jane Austen, find their lives transformed by a visit to England and Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother and keeper of a long-suppressed, secret legacy.

In Boston, 1865, Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, daughters of a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice, have accomplished as much as women are allowed in those days. Chafing against those restrictions and inspired by the works of Jane Austen, they start a secret correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother, now in his nineties. He sends them an original letter from his sister and invites them to come visit him in England.

In Philadelphia, Nicholas & Haslett Nelson—bachelor brothers, veterans of the recent Civil War, and rare book dealers—are also in correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, who lures them, too, to England, with the promise of a never-before-seen, rare Austen artifact to be evaluated.

The Stevenson sisters sneak away without a chaperone to sail to England. On their ship are the Nelson brothers, writer Louisa May Alcott, Sara-Beth Gleason—wealthy daughter of a Pennsylvania state senator with her eye on the Nelsons—and, a would-be last-minute chaperone to the Stevenson sisters, Justice Thomas Nash.

It’s a voyage and trip that will dramatically change each of their lives in ways that are unforeseen, with the transformative spirit of the love of literature and that of Jane Austen herself.

My Review:

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for the copy of the book.
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Read if you like: Jane Austen, character driven stories, themes around feminism
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The book follows two Austen loving sisters, Henrietta and Charlotte, as they travel to England to meet with Jane Austen’s 91 year old brother, Sir Francis, and they get to travel around and see some important sites where Jane lived and wrote. I loved how the book centered around Jane Austen’s novels and the themes found in her books.
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The book focuses on the themes of family and gender, but we also get some romance built into the story as well. There are discussions of marriage during the late 19th century and how women did not have rights when they married. The beginning felt a little slow but overall I loved the book!