Review of A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont

Title/Author: A Breath of Eyre (Unbound #1) by Eve Marie Mont
Publisher/Date published: Kensington, March 27th 2012
How I got this book: bought it
Buy it at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Emma Townsend has always believed in stories - the ones she reads voraciously, and the ones she creates. Perhaps it's because she feels like an outsider at her exclusive prep school, or because her stepmother doesn't come close to filling the void left by her mother's death. And her only romantic prospect - apart from a crush on her English teacher - is Gray Newman, a long-time friend who just adds to Emma's confusion. But escape soon arrives in an old leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre...

Reading of Jane's isolation sparks a deep sense of kinship. Then fate takes things a leap further when a lightning storm catapults Emma right into Jane's body and her nineteenth-century world. As governess at Thornfield, Emma has a sense of belonging she's never known - and an attraction to the brooding Mr. Rochester. Now, moving between her two realities and uncovering secrets in both, Emma must decide whether her destiny lies in the pages of Jane's story, or in the unwritten chapters of her own...

I don't think it's a secret that I LOVE Jane Eyre. It has earned a special place on my shelf and I try to re-read it once a year. It's one of the only books I actually enjoyed reading for English class back in high school.
So of course I can't help but be drawn to a retelling, especially one with a pretty cover ;)

And guys, I totally loved it!

I really liked Emma, she's not the most social girl there is, but she does know how to be a good friend and I loved her bookishness. She has a complicated relationship with her father and stepmother and I thought she was sometimes a bit of a brat to her stepmother, but well, the stepmother wasn't always handling having a stepdaughter very well, so I could imagine them butting heads. I really connected to Emma through Eve Marie Mont's writing and that always makes a book more special to me.

Of course there are the boys, I adored Gray! I know he's a bit damaged and isn't the obvious good guy I normally fall for, but really, there's just something about this boy. I got why Emma tried to kiss him when she was 5 years old. So he does this one kinda crappy thing to Emma, but really, do you know any teenage boys who know how to handle their feelings or girls from the start?

I loved the time spent in the 'real world', but I also really loved when Emma got sucked into Jane Eyre's world! It was just so good and it made me want to grab Jane Eyre and just READ IT! I loved how we got to learn more about Mr. Rochester's first wive and that Emma questions Mr. Rochester's behaviour in this particular part of the story. I mean, sure, I support Jane in staying with him and do think they're right for each other, but locking your wive in the attic is not really gentlemanlike. And I love that becoming Jane Eyre for a while made Emma learn something about herself and her own mother.

So yeah, basically I just loved A Breath of Eyre and wished I could be transported to my favourite book for a while, because that would be EPIC! I was right there in the moment with Emma and didn't want to put the book down and I loved falling in love with Gray right along with her! I'm already looking forward to reading A Touch of Scarlet and A Phantom Enchantment!

My rating: 5 stars