I Was Jane Austen’s Best Friend

Summary

Bestselling novelist Cora Harrison’s light historical romance in the form of a secret diary was inspired by real life events in the Austen family and will delight Jane Austen fans everywhere. When fifteen-year-old Jane Austen’s shy cousin Jenny comes to stay, their evenings are a blur of beautiful dresses, balls, gossip and romance; their days are spend writing about them—Jenny in her diary, Jane in her witty first attempts at fiction. When Jenny falls utterly in love with a handsome naval officer who better to help her than Jane herself, already an expert in love and relationships? With Alison Larkin’s delightful narration, you’ll feel yourself transported to 1791, meeting Jane Austen at age sixteen, and experiencing what life was like in that long-ago time.

This delightful, meticulously researched novel is followed by an afterword about the actual people and events on which the novel is based, including Jane Austen’s disabled brother, George and the whirlwind courtship of Jane (Jenny) Cooper.