Book Review: Jane

TITLE: Jane
AUTHOR: April Lindner
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: retelling, romance, drama
PREMISE: A modern day retelling of Jane Eyre with Rochester as a rockstar and Jane as the down on her luck girl hired to be his daughter's nanny.
MY REVIEW: Okay, before I go into my ranting stage I will say this book wasn't horrible. The author writes well (mostly) and has definite potential. There were some very cute scenes and ultimately this is a nice quick fluffy read in case you don't feel like tackling Jane Eyre. Plus, it makes you want to read the book and it does follow Jane Eyre so there was good effort here. For those who haven't read Eyre, this will be a cute book that will maybe be a good lead in for it.
However, the author missed the mark completely on character. She cut the first part of the story that deals with how Jane grew up and basically skipped to when she gets hired for Rochester (I'm sorry, Rathburn). Look, I know girls like to skip to the romance but that first part is necessary because it is what develops Jane's character, makes you root for her, and makes you want her to find love. In this, she's already developed (sort of) and is kind of a whiny pale imitation of Jane to be honest. The modern day Rochester also paled in comparison to the original and seemed like a watered down version of himself. I almost didn't want them to get together and was happy when Jane left! Not a good sign.
It was a nice effort and I appreciate the sentimate behind it. But ultimately Jane is a watered down version of the original book and I'd honestly only read it if you haven't read Jane Eyre yet.
WHO SHOULD READ: younger teens, those that haven't read Jane Eyre
MY RATING: Three out of Five