Review Detail

Since my high school days I have always loved Charlotte Brontë and most especially Jane Eyre; the Gothic romance, the mysterious woman in the attic, the haunted nature of the Yorkshire Moors. When I studied in England I lived in York very close to the moors in the novel. Haunting and mesmerizing are just two words I could use to describe the landscape. It is this same feeling Eve Marie Mont brought to her novel.

Emma must go on her own journey. She has depth. She is torn. I loved how Mont gave her multiple dimensions. She moves flawlessly through two realities, her own world and that of Jane's Yorkshire,England. Monte has classic style storytelling. The reader does not get lost through the changes of time and is allowed to feel the same jarring that Emma feels when she is first torn away into a different world.

The female reader can instantly connect to Emma whether she is 12 or 65; the sense feeling confident yet unsure, too visible yet invisible, safe yet uncertain, and yet a sense of where you are going but not where you came from. The woman who wants to speak her mind yet hides her courage behind locked doors.

I have to admit my love affair with Jane Eyre started to diminish after years of teaching the novel. I would like to thank Eve Marie Monte for allowing me to fall in love with the novel all over again. I recommend this book to readers who have read Jane Eyre (even if you didn’t like it) and those who have yet to discover the magic locked in its pages. Looking forward to her next novel with bated breath.