A Cup of Tea & Biscuits

If the reality that I've read nearly 10 Austen spin-offs (I will not take into account the Austen books I have read this year), of which 8 are based on P & P, in 9 months doesn't cement the fact that I am addicted to Jane Austen, and Mr. Darcy is my idea of a perfect gentleman (and my man, of course), then I don't know what will. Though Jules Verne is undoubtedly the one who opened to me the gates of literature, Jane Austen will always be credited as the one who held me, inspired me, and fascinated me. This, not just because she is one of the best authors ever, or the fact that she had strong feminine lead characters - being a feminist I quite naturally like that -, but more because of her way with words, which I am sure all book nerds will agree with. And because I am such an addict and Austen nerd, and because I love the English language and mannerisms of the 19th century, I've always been a bit wary of reading spin-offs. Some have disappointed me hugely, others h...

The Perfect Poison , an Arcane Society novel, is set in a gothic like late Victorian England was a fun read for me. It was quick, simple and well written enough for me to complete in a single day. I thought it would get monotonous,boring and unbelievable when I realized that the characters were psychic - inadvertently I thought of sorry plight of vampires in today's literature, it just saddened me. Surprisingly I wasn't disappointed. Jayne Ann Krentz , under the pseudonym of Amanda Quick , dishes out a decently sane novel, with a nice serving of botanical interests, though again psychically oriented, and a good understanding of Victorian society! As is well known, I generally stay away from the romance genre on principle (I prefer classic romance and occasionally foray into historical romance but that's it), but I liked this novel because of the storyline and characters. There was a decent amount of depth in the characters of Caleb Jones and Lucinda so as to keep me turnin...