FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS by CHARLIE LOVETT.

SOURCE: Received for review from Alma Books. 

THE BOOK {According to the back cover}: Book lover and Jane Austen enthusiast Sophie Collingwood has barely started her new job as an antiquarian bookshop in London when two different customers request a copy of the same obscure publication: the second edition of Little Book of Allegories by Richard Mansfield. Their enquiry draws Sophie into a web of mystery surrounding the true authorship of Pride and Prejudice, with ultimately dangerous consequences.

In a narrative that alternates between Sophie's quest, which also sees her dealing with several love interests on the way, and the young Jane Austen's touching friendship with the ageing cleric Richard Mansfield. Charlie Lovett - who first delighted readers with his bestselling debut The Bookman's Tale - weaves a romantic, suspenseful and compelling novel about love in all its forms and the joys of a life lived in books.

FIRST SENTENCE {Steventon, Hampshire, 1796}: Fond as she was of solitary walks, Jane had been wandering rather linger than she intended, her mind occupied not so much with the story she had lately been reading as with one she hoped soon to be writing.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 26}: The walls were lined with books from floor to ceiling. Stacks of books stood neatly arranged on every horizontal surface - tables, window sills, even the top of an unplugged television.

MY THOUGHTS: Another great novel, a must read for all those who love books, fine libraries, and mysteries revolving around rare books. Doing for Jane Austen what the author's debut novel did for Shakespeare, whilst I enjoyed The Bookman's Tale First Impressions is in a league of its own.

An intelligent read, masterfully rendered - there is none of your typical re-workings/sequels/prequels here - that chapter by chapter alternates between the late eighteenth/mid nineteenth century and the tale of Jane Austen and her elderly gentleman friend, the Rev Mansfield (yes, that Rev Mansfield), and that of the very much twenty first century Sophie Collingwood. 

OK, so there were bits of the book that were a bit far fetched and, personally not to my taste, there were some that were epistolary in nature but given the relationship between Sophie, her beloved uncle Bertram and their shared adoration of books, the descriptions of early book publishing, and the intrigue surrounding the publication that connects the two halves of the story together this really was a bibliophile's dream.