My Love for Jane Austen

Rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★ After reading The Art of Tangled and Tale As Old As Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast , you may know that I am not adverse to reading some excellent concept art books on animation films. You may not know this but I count Beauty and the Beast , The Little Mermaid , Anastasia , Cinderella and Tangled among my favourite movies in this category. I have watched Frozen when the DVD was released a few months back and love the story. It is therefore with great joy that I pick up The Art of Frozen as my next read. Written by Charles Solomon who is the foremost expert in penning favourite Disney/Pixar film books such as Tale As Old As Time , there are a total of 168 pages detailing the behind-the-scene looks into making this unique, amazing and enjoyable animated feature. With a preface by John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer at Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studio, readers get a glimpse of how the idea of Frozen was born, who the main player...

It's always a pleasure to get to know new Austenesque novels and the authors who penned them. Linda Beutler is no stranger to readers of this blog if you read her guest post and excerpt in her book tour of The Red Chrysanthemum . Today she is stopping by on her penultimate virtual blog tour to promote her second novel for Meryton Press titled Longbourn to London . Read her opinion on Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy and share your thoughts on what she has to say about the master of Pemberley in the comment section. Guest Post Thank you so much for providing the exclamation point at the end of the Longbourn to London Blog Tour. You have requested my topic for this guest post be Mr Darcy, and nothing could delight me better! I've received some comments about how "chatty" my Darcys are (I refer to both Longbourn to London and The Red Chrysanthemum ), so I will make a bit of effort to explain and defend how I write Fitzwilliam Darcy. Writing Mr Darcy Earlier in the ...

The collective group of authors of Austen Variations has arranged a special sale for 27 of their books in conjunction with Misty Braden's on-going Austen in August . The sale is happening right now on Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Kobo and Smashwords until next Friday, 5 September 2014 so take this opportunity to stock up Austenesque titles and novels from other genre in your e-reader. Just click on the book covers and it will take you to the purchase links on Amazon. US$0.99 Sale Amazon.com Widgets Amazon.com Widgets US$1.99 Sale Amazon.com Widgets US$2.99 Sale For further details on the sale and links to other online book retailers, please refer to the original post at Austen Variations .

The Austenesque scout wishes to inform her loyal readers about the following Austenite book giveaways for this week. Meredith Esparza's interview with Claire Johnson is up on Austenesque Reviews . Get to know the author by reading the transcript for you may be the winner when you leave a comment . The two prizes are a paperback bundle of Ms Johnson's novels ( Beat until Stiff , Roux Morgue and Pen & Prejudice ) and a paperback copy of Pen & Prejudice . The competition is open to US and Canadian residents and closes next Monday, 1 September 2014 . For additional chances at winning, comment on Meredith's review of Pen & Prejudice . Author Donna Fletcher Crow was invited to guest post on More Agreeably Engaged where she shares some interesting insights on church bells. Read her post and leave a comment with your email address by midnight of next Monday, 1 September 2014 to enter this worldwide giveaway. You could win an e-book of A Newly Crimson...

Blogger mistress Misty Braden is once again holding an annual two-week virtual love fest in homage of Jane Austen. Now in its third edition (fifth if you count the former incarnation called Jane in June ), Austen in August provides lots of opportunities to celebrate one of England's brilliant novelist through her life and novels. Activities include guest posts, book and movie reviews, movie nights, twitter parties, two book read-alongs ( Northanger Abbey and Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart ) and best of all — giveaways . Check out the schedule of events and join in the festivities. For easy reference, here are the prizes sponsored by various authors and bloggers. All contest are open worldwide unless stated otherwise and the deadline is on Saturday, 6 September 2014 . Please click on the image for quick links. 1) An e-book of Maria Grace's Remember the Past 2) Two Amazon gift cards worth US$25 each 3) An e-book ( Kindle / Nook / Kobo ) of A Love for the Pages by Joy ...

The beginning of a new week signals new Austenesque giveaways to be won courtesy of the Austenesque scout. Candy Morton had the good fortune of attending Syrie James's book launch party in Santa Monica last weekend. She is sharing the joy by sponsoring an autographed paperback copy of Jane Austen's First Love on So little time . Fill up the Rafflecopeter form on her post to enter this US only competition. The deadline is next Tuesday, 26 August 2014 . On top of that another copy of Syrie James's Jane Austen's First Love can be won on Lauren Willig's website . Just answer the question in the comment section on the post by Wednesday, 20 August 2014 and you could be the winner. Author Marilyn Brant's guest post is available on Austenesque Review . She shared a particular wedding that she attended many years ago which inspired her to become a romantic comedy writer. You can also read an excerpt from her recently published novel titled Pride, Prejud...

Rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★ If you have seen my past reviews of The Hobbit film books ( Visual Companion , The Movie Storybook and The World of Hobbits ), you may have an inkling of my interest in the world of Middle-earth. Back in the days before my current obsession with all things Jane Austen, The Lord of Rings trilogy caught my attention with the release of the movies a decade ago. I went on a buying splurge and purchase film books and magazines, original motion picture soundtracks, the theatrical release in VCDs format and VCDs and DVDs of the extended edition. I even scoured websites that are devoted to J.R.R. Tolkien's fantastical creation of Middle-earth, read online articles dedicated to the books and films, save thousands of pictures and creative artwork that I discovered and download the movie trailers, television spots and featurettes just to watch them again. Besides this I own quite an impressive collection of the Tolkien's masterpiece from his published works (...

Rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★ Persuasion , Jane Austen's last completed masterpiece before her untimely death, is one of my favourite novels of all-time besides Pride and Prejudice . I can totally relate to the tale of first love between Anne Elliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth and their second chance at happiness. When I heard that Claire LaZebnik, who wrote two other modernisation of Jane Austen's oeuvre ( Epic Fail and The Trouble with Flirting ), is taking on the task of updating the story for the young adult genre, I'm excited to read The Last Best Kiss . Written in first person narrative, readers are privy to Anna Eliot's heart, mind and soul and view her world through her eyes. She is the youngest daughter in her family and her parents are divorced. Living with her father in Los Angeles, she has two older sisters, Molly and Lizzie, who are both in college. Lizzie takes after their father in many ways where they prefer gourmet food, exercise and gossiping while sh...

The Austenesque scout is dedicated to find Austen-inspired book giveaways which will surely delight her readers this week. Jeanna Ellsworth was invited for an interview with fellow author Linda Weaver Clarke. Read the transcript which is now posted on the latter's blog for there is a chance to win one of Jeanna's Pride and Prejudice novels. If the US winner is picked, a paperback copy of Mr. Darcy's Promise or Pride and Persistence is given away. Otherwise the international winner will receive one of her novels in e-book format. The contest ends next Thursday, 21 August 2014 so leave a comment to enter. Next you may want to head to Laughing With Lizzie and read Sophie Andrews's review of Chosen which is the first book in Leaving Bennet Behind series by Sarah Johnson. The author is generously offering each a paperback copy and an e-book of Chosen and Snow Storms & Kissing Games . Just leave a comment and email address on the post by next ...