Such a friend....

"I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed. She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow; I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself."

Cassandra Austen's words always break my heart a little. On this day exactly 200 years ago, my favorite author died at the age of 41, at the very horizon of her success. I couldn't let the day pass without writing a few lines of commemoration on this poor, neglected blog. I will never cease to wonder what other marvelous stories would be in existence had she lived as long as many of her family members did. Her own mother outlived her! It seems a cruel twist of fate, but I am so glad for the six novels and various other writings she left behind for countless generations to enjoy. If she only could see what an impact she has made on the world!

Ridiculous Regency: Edition the Second

    Amber Marie Sterlington, the Rage of the Season in Regency-era London, has her pick of men and she knows what she wants most in a husband: a title and a fortune. Why would she ever marry for something as fickle as love? And why would she ever look twice at Thomas Richards, a third son of a country lord?
    But Amber's social standing is shattered by a rare disorder which causes the loss of her hair. Publicly humiliated and estranged from her shamed family, she is exiled to Yorkshire, facing a future she never expected in a circumstance far below what she has known all her life. Humbled and lonely, Amber wonders if isolation is for the best and questions what real love means until she finds a romantic path to a man who offers unconditional love.

Oh my.  Oh my, my.  Where to start with this cover?!  I saw it at the library and thought to myself "Ha!  Is this supposed to be historical fiction? That looks like a girl going to prom!"  I flipped it over and discovered that it actually claimed to be set in the Regency era.

What the hiccup.

In what universe is that acceptable?!  And then the STORYLINE-- pain.  Utter pain.  Also, a heroine named "Amber"?  The Regency Encyclopedia catalogs baby names from the latter half of the 1700's, and Amber is not among them.  Aurora is.  Even Audrey is there.  She could have used something that gives the idea of modern times and still have been historically accurate if she'd actually wanted to.