Woodhouse Hall by Sara Marks
On October 21, 2019 by Jaye
Woodhouse Hall by Sara Marks
🍸🍸🍸1/2
Synopsis
Amelia is stuck in the worst dorm on campus for a whole year!
She’ll have to make the best of it in Woodhouse Hall and her roommate
Jenna will be her new best friend, Amelia’s sure of that. Jenna’s sweet
personality and openness to new things incite the matchmaking-genius in Amelia
to find the perfect boyfriend for her new bestie. She shoots high by attempting
to entice Eric, the President of the Student Government, to fall for her
roommate. Amelia’s past success makes her confident they will be a couple in no
time. When that turns out to be a disaster, she is forced to face the lies
she’s told herself about her strengths and her assumptions about the
people she loves. Over the year, Amelia learns who she is, what she wants, and
how to fight for what’s really important.
This novel, inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma, will
have you laughing, crying, and finding a little of yourself in one or all of
the characters.
Links
Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46651481-woodhouse-hall?ac=1&from_search=true
Purchase:
Amazon: https://books2read.com/u/3JVl2v?store=amazon
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/woodhouse-hall-sara-marks/1133379555
Review
I loved most of Jane Austen’s books. My favorite, by far, is Pride and Prejudice. Persuasion is a close second, followed by Sense and Sensibility. I even loved Mansfield Park, Fanny Price and all. Northanger Abbey wasn’t quite as beloved. And Emma – well, Emma was probably my least beloved Austen novel.
So of course I signed up to read and review a modern adaptation.
There are so many ways in which Woodhouse Hall surpasses the original – not to denigrate Austen in any way, of course. The titular Emma, by virtue of her time, place, and social class, is a kind of useless butterfly who entertains herself by matchmaking. She’s not very bright, but she’s quite impressed with her own importance.
Amelia, Emma’s modern counterpart, is brilliant. She’s an ambitious achiever, but in her own way – for her own accomplishments, not to reflect the light of some guy. Amelia is also a gifted problem solver. She views matchmaking as just another problem to solve. New roommate is lonely? Awesome, I have a friend to introduce her to. Campus administration wants to close down the only cheap dorm on campus? Okay, I can come up with some plans to fight that. There’s literally no difference.
Something I like about most of Austen’s heroines is that they’re competent, so getting that competence and intelligence returned to the Emma character was a real breath of fresh air for me.
The romance between Adam (the Knightley character) and Amelia fell a little short for me, but the romance between Knightley and Emma falls very short for me in the original. Adam is initially friendly, but has a girlfriend. Then he criticizes Amelia constantly. It kind of reminded me of when male bullies come for my kid, and adults try to “comfort” her by telling her “Oh, it really means he likes you!”
(Her response, for those who care, is “he can like me while he’s picking his teeth off the ground. I don’t like him.”)
Which kind of brings me to a point of difference between Woodhouse Hall and Emma. In Emma, I took less issue with Knightley’s criticisms of Emma because they were so richly deserved. Emma was a busybody who meddled in others’ lives because she had no better use for her time. Adam lashes out because feelings, which is an entirely different animal. He literally tears Amelia down over her friendships, even her minor behaviors, simply because he doesn’t know how to handle his own feelings for her.
To be fair, once she figures out what’s going on, she calls him on it. And deservedly so. Amelia does a lot of good. Is she a saint? No. Does she deserve to be castigated for every step she takes? No. I don’t think I forgave Adam for his commentary toward her.
If Adam is bad, Amelia’s other “suitor” is worse. I’m using scare quotes here because Eric is a bad man, with no redeeming characteristics at all.
There is a scene – followed by a sub-plot – that is all too common on college campuses and elsewhere today. It is presented realistically, and I don’t feel as though it is presented to titillate or shock. I experienced something similar at a younger age, and I found it disconcerting. Again, I’m not saying it shouldn’t have been included, I’m simply saying it exists, and people who may find it more than disconcerting might want to choose carefully before reading.
Which brings me to my next point. I loved Amelia far more than I loved Emma. I liked a lot of the supporting characters. I wasn’t sure about the format at first – I put it down and made myself pick it up the next day, but I was able to finish it without a problem. I cheered for a happy ending for Amelia, even if I could have wished for a better partner for her.
The thing about Austen’s work, the reason it endures for centuries, is humor. Jane Austen’s works are comedies. They aren’t slapstick (Mrs. Norris excepting), but they are intended to evoke gentle laughter. “Comedy of Manners” is the term I usually see used.
The thing is… there’s no place for sexual assault in comedy. I don’t think the author is trying to make sexual assault funny, but when you put Jane Austen into the mix it’s expected it will be a comedy. Adam’s cruel takedowns of Amelia are likewise distinctly unfunny, and they’re deliberately so.
Woodhouse Hall is a fantastic New Adult college romance. I’ve got reservations about it as a successor to Emma, but that’s okay. Like I mentioned before, I personally liked it better than Emma anyway. Â
Author Bio
Sara Marks is a librarian with two masters degrees and plans to never stop getting over educated.   She likes the idea of having all the academic regalia she can ever possess. She cries at nearly every movie she sees (ask her about when she cried at a horror movie), but it’s full-on weeping for Disney animated movies. She loves reading nearly every genre but likes to write women’s fiction, romance, and even horror. You have to balance out the reality of the world if you’re going to be a hopeless romantic! Her heroines are women who don’t want the expected life, rarely worrying about their age, weight, marriageability, or fertility.Â
Author links:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15507164.Sara_Marks
https://www.facebook.com/saramarks01
Giveaway
Tour-wide giveaway (INT)
- A copy of each 21st Century Austen book (autographed), + tons of swag
Ends Oct 31st:
Link:Â http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d04251233345/
4 comments
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Thanks for being on the tour! This sounds like a really well done read and very character driven too which is awesome!
It definitely was! I’ve read other Austen “modernizations” that weren’t anywhere near as well done, so I was a little nervous. Thanks for sending this one my way!
I read the author bio and thought it was the description of the book! –Still, Amelia, also, sounds likable and amusing! This sounds like a fun Austen-on-campus story!
It really was! I’d definitely pick it up. It was a good, solid read.