"Lies Jane Austen Told Me" by Julie Wright

I seem to be most in the mood to read cute romance stories in the summer and around Christmas.  Other times of year, not so much my thing.  Hmm.  Anyway!  It's summer, this is a cute romance, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  I loved the Jane Austen connections, and I loved that it was clean.

Emma Pierce is a rising executive for a gym chain.  She loves Jane Austen's books, but she's been hurt emotionally in the past, and when her boyfriend Blake disappoints her, she decides Jane Austen has been lying to her, true love is a myth, and men are all Mr. Wickhams, not Mr. Darcys.  

So, of course, she meets a genuinely nice guy.  Like two minutes after she breaks up with her boyfriend.  Because the nice guy is the boyfriend's brother.  And then he starts working at her firm as a consultant.  And then they have to go on a business trip together.  And then they become friends.  And then all sorts of nonsense happens, of course, but they eventually fall in love.  

And did I mention it was clean?  A little kissing, some talk of people being physically attractive, and some suspicions of people having love affairs with others, but nothing that made me uncomfortable.  I'm absolutely going to seek out more of this Proper Romance Series in the future, like around Christmastime.  Or next summer.

Particularly Good Bits:

I understood how Jane had ended up alone at the end of everything all those years ago.  You can believe in love, believe that it works.  You can want love, want it with your whole soul.  But you can't force it.  You can't force it on yourself.  And you can't force it on anyone else (p. 251).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for discussions of drug addiction, single parenthood, and unwed mothers.