From the New York Times bestselling author of Princess Academy, a delightful novel for the Mr. Darcy-obsessed in all of us. A Book Sense Pick for June 2007

Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen-or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It's all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?



PRAISE for Austenland:

"Gloriously satisfying."--Glamour


"An utterly enjoyable tribute."-Miami Herald
"The Austen-themed resort called Pembrook Park exists so far only in "Austenland," a just-published chick-lit novel by Shannon Hale, whose author's note describes her as "an avid Austen fan and admirer of men in britches." Hale's heroine is a "Sex and the City" career gal who can't keep a boyfriend and who has a crush on Mr. Darcy. Oh, not the "real" one-the one played by Colin Firth in the BBC "Pride and Prejudice."-Newsweek
"Allow me to direct you to the best Austen tribute since Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club: Shannon Hale's clever and imaginative Austenland… Hale's charming first book for adults is chick lit with soul. Though there's a laugh on nearly every page-Hale, like Austen, is adept at subtly skewering the ridiculous-there's also the more serious story of a woman learning the difference between fantasy and reality, and discovering that real life can be better than yo