[Subdue] Dangerous Alliance by Jennieke Cohen ★★★

[Tien]

An Austentacious Romance! I couldn't not pick this up!

The protagonist, Lady Victoria Aston, loved Austen's novels and that made her immediately lovable in my book. She is an intelligent, independent, courageous, and therefore, did not quite fit the definition of a lady in society's eyes. Although we didn't see very much of what society really thinks of her as this novel is told primarily from Vicky's perspective. She loved her novels so much that she tried to emulate one character or another (eg. Elizabeth Bennet or Fanny Price depending on the situation) and tried to fit her suitors to one or another character (eg. Mr Darcy or even Mr Collins!). While it started off rather humourous, I got quite tired of this unrelenting comparison and the effort of imposing fiction to 'life'.

I truly enjoyed the setting (London in regency times) and most characters were likeable enough. I do feel, however, that the book was about 100 pages too long. I loved the last 100 pages; it was practically unputdownable then but the middle of the novel was just too slow for my liking.