Jane, by April Lindner, is a modern retelling of Jane Eyre. I kind of expected to swear off reading Jane Eyre spin offs after reading this book, but actually it was really good! It was a surprisingly believable modern telling of possibly my favorite story of all time.
In this telling, Jane is a girl whose parents die in a car accident during her first year of college and their will left the family house and money to her brother and sister. Jane is left with nothing and is forced to quit school and take up a nanny job for the famous Nico Rathburn, a legendary rock star who has a 5 year old daughter named Maddy. Jane and Nico fall in love and almost get married, until Jane learns the truth about Nico's first wife, a schizophrenic living in his attic. Jane runs away without any money or resources and finds Diana, who offers to let her sleep on her couch. Jane stays with Diana along with her sister and brother and works at the local soup kitchen. In this version Diana, Maria, and River are not her long-lost cousins, they just turn out to be nice people who take her in.
I like how the story was told; since it was modernized I felt like I could relate to Jane in a different way from before. Like when she left Rathburn/Rochester, I started to think about what I would do in that situation: no money, no friends, no place to sleep at night, no family, no support whatsoever. And I was reminded of how incredibly lucky I am and how blessed I have been in my life to have had a wonderful, loving, and supportive family, to have gotten an education that enabled me to get a job, and to always have had a roof over my head and food to eat. I can't imagine going through life the way Jane did without any love or support.
Anyway, fun book, not entirely original but definitely an enjoyable read, especially for any Jane Eyre fans!
3.5 out of 5 stars
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