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A review by bookbriefs
Only With You by Cecilia Gray
4.0
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I'm going to be honest with you. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like this book before I started it. I read it because I have loved all of the other books in the Jane Austen Academy series, but this one was about Emma. And because we started the series with Lizzie, Emma was the "mean girl". I just wasn't too sure how I was going to connect with her. But I am super pleased to say that I ended up really, really enjoying her story.
Each book in the Jane Austen Academy series focuses on a different friend from the school, and each of the books can be read as a standalone. When I first started reading Only With You, Emma seemed like a completely different person than I remembered her. She was such a do-gooder; nice to everyone and she seemed really selfless. But then as the story continued, I started to see more and more of the Emma I remembered, and oddly enough it were these little moments of selfishness, immaturity, and her attention commanding look at me now personality that put me at ease and drew me into the story. I know that sounds weird but it was closer to the Emma that I had drawn in my head. But in Only With You we get to see why she is this way. We really get to dive into her head. Emma is a complete meddler in her friends lives. She thinks that she was the one that set all of her friends up with their boyfriends and she is at it again- this time with Anne.
Since I already knew the characters and their personalities, I loved reading Only With You and trying to guess what was going to happened. I figured out the end game of this book pretty quickly, but I was still surprised a bunch of times along the way. I loved how Emma's character grew. It took a while for her to get there and to admit her shortcomings, but her insecurities and her overall character growth surprisingly turned out to be the most rewarding one yet in the series for me. And that is something I did not expect to happen. Once Emma lets her guard down, she is very relate-able and likable. I wanted her to get her happy ending.
All of the books in the Jane Austen Academy series are light and fun happy ending books. They each standalone and you can read them out of order, but they do have an overarching story theme of what is going to happen to the academy itself. I think that is going to play a larger role in the 6th book, so if you can, I would read them in order. Plus you will fall in love with this group of friends. This is my 5th book with them and they kind of feel like family now to me.
I'm going to be honest with you. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like this book before I started it. I read it because I have loved all of the other books in the Jane Austen Academy series, but this one was about Emma. And because we started the series with Lizzie, Emma was the "mean girl". I just wasn't too sure how I was going to connect with her. But I am super pleased to say that I ended up really, really enjoying her story.
Each book in the Jane Austen Academy series focuses on a different friend from the school, and each of the books can be read as a standalone. When I first started reading Only With You, Emma seemed like a completely different person than I remembered her. She was such a do-gooder; nice to everyone and she seemed really selfless. But then as the story continued, I started to see more and more of the Emma I remembered, and oddly enough it were these little moments of selfishness, immaturity, and her attention commanding look at me now personality that put me at ease and drew me into the story. I know that sounds weird but it was closer to the Emma that I had drawn in my head. But in Only With You we get to see why she is this way. We really get to dive into her head. Emma is a complete meddler in her friends lives. She thinks that she was the one that set all of her friends up with their boyfriends and she is at it again- this time with Anne.
Since I already knew the characters and their personalities, I loved reading Only With You and trying to guess what was going to happened. I figured out the end game of this book pretty quickly, but I was still surprised a bunch of times along the way. I loved how Emma's character grew. It took a while for her to get there and to admit her shortcomings, but her insecurities and her overall character growth surprisingly turned out to be the most rewarding one yet in the series for me. And that is something I did not expect to happen. Once Emma lets her guard down, she is very relate-able and likable. I wanted her to get her happy ending.
All of the books in the Jane Austen Academy series are light and fun happy ending books. They each standalone and you can read them out of order, but they do have an overarching story theme of what is going to happen to the academy itself. I think that is going to play a larger role in the 6th book, so if you can, I would read them in order. Plus you will fall in love with this group of friends. This is my 5th book with them and they kind of feel like family now to me.