Review: Secrets in the Snow

Secrets in the Snow by Michaela MacColl

Rating: ★★★

A quick and easy read—you'll be able to slip into Austen's shoes with ease and join her in an adventure quite unlike those chronicled in her novels!

Jane is visiting her now-wealthy brother Edward's estate with her sister, when she accidentally overhears a plot against her cousin, Elizabeth. Though Elizabeth is English born, the War Office highly suspects Eliza to be a spy for France (obviously: enjoying French food and clothing, and being the widow of a dead French loyalist, a French spy make). Jane stops Eliza from reaching Edward's estate (where she will be spied on) and, in stead, meets Eliza at her own home. Drama and intrigue follow!

A masked gentleman-bandit with a gun waylay's Jane's carriage on the way home, an annoying new Irishman temporarily plagues their lives, and a stalker (the same man who waylaid her) begins popping up around the house. Jane's adventures don't all take place between the covers of a novel, it seems!

This book is perfect for a weekend of easy reading. Jane is entertaining and really quite good at eavesdropping. The CIA should really look into hiring her. 

There were some good feminist moments in there (as those of you who know anything about Austen's personal life will already have predicted). Though she is told repeatedly that wit will keep a husband away...

“You’ve no fortune and are only tolerably pretty. You must hide that wit of yours and behave yourself."

"With such a small fortune as you possess, you must win a husband with your looks and wit—and rather less of it than you are accustomed to displaying.”

...she holds strong to own ideas:

“I would not want a husband who did not value my wit more than my appearance.”

There's also this discussion on logic between the sexes:

“Jane, would you take it amiss if I told you that your thought processes are as logical as any man’s?”
“I would say you do not know enough women,” Jane retorted. “It has been my experience that women are more reasoned than most men. We just don’t make a fuss about it.”

Honestly, it was painful to read some of the dialogue in here. People constantly expecting Jane to faint, or telling her not to read the newspaper because she could just ask one of her brothers what important things were happening in the world. Ugh.

I did think it was interesting that this Jane flouted some, but clung to other social conventions. For example, she still believes that (spoilers removed; go here to see spoilers added). 

She's more rambunctious by reputation in this book than by any narrated portions. She does have a back-bone that's impressive in the face of so many people who want to tell her what she should be, and how she should behave. She's got a knack for getting everyone thoroughly pissed off at her, and it's a hilarious, fast-paced ride that left me smiling.

The murder mystery part of the narrative takes place toward the end of the novel, and I thought it was pretty entertaining, but a little predictable. The point was to be entertaining here, so I suppose I can't complain. It did deliver entertainment. There was this one hilarious quote: 

"And it would have been fine if it hadn't been for inquisitive Miss Austen!"

Which made me laugh—I thought it very reminiscent of the Mystery Gang's: "If it hadn't been for you meddling kids!"

And as far as the romance goes: it wasn't for me. I couldn't really get fully on board with LeFroy though I enjoyed his character immensely in Becoming Jane (where he was played by James McAvoy, *swoons*). Here, he was more of a snot nosed brat, and, towards the end, a unbendable man with a stick up his arse.

This is a fun read, Jane is very relatable and it's easy to slip into her shoes... but that's also a problem in the novel. It shouldn't be easy to slip into Jane Austen's shoes. There's always a danger when writing in the voice of the real, non-fiction characters. Austen was witty to a fault and incredibly "unconventional" (to the point where her sister burned many of her writings and letters after her death, because they were so outrageous! Apparently if the writings came out, they would create a scandal). I wanted to see the outlandish, scandalous, unconquerable Austen running circles around others with her wit. 

This novel delivers a happy story that lets you imagine, even for a moment, that you could be a part of Austen's world. Her day to day life, which really remains mostly unaccessible today, is boldly imagined here.
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