Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Wacky Wednesday: Review of EMMA: The Wild and Wanton Edition by Micah Persell & Jane Austen Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the EMMA: The Wild and Wanton Edition by Micah Persell and Jane Austen Blog Tour presented by Tasty Book Tours. When asked if I wanted to join this tour, I didn’t just jump at it, I leaped! A sexy version of one of my favorite Jane Austen novels – was there any doubt that I wanted to read this? No! Have you ever wondered what was really happening behind the scenes at Hartfield?

***eARC provided by author in exchange for an honest and unscripted review.

Blurb for EMMA: The Wild and Wanton Edition:

Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley won the literary world’s heart 200 years ago when Jane Austen first penned the story of their friendship-turned-love.
 
Emma is the young, rich, beautiful heroine with too much time on her hands and an overactive imagination; Mr. Knightley is her long-suffering friend who is always trying to steer her in the right direction. Their love story is one of deep, dedicated affection blooming into passion.
 
But what about all of that sexual tension that crackles in the subtext? In this Wild and Wanton edition of Austen’s classic, Emma and Mr. Knightley burn up the pages as they give in to their baser natures. Discover the sexy scenes that readers of Emma have been imagining between Austen’s lines since 1815.

                              *                     *                      *                    *                     *

Emma Woodhouse is a lady of leisure with little to occupy her time and so fancies herself a talented matchmaker. Taking credit for the successful match between her former governess, Miss Taylor, and the widower, Mr. Weston, she now sets her sights on bringing more unmatched friends together all the while trying to ignore her own desirable thoughts of the noble Mr. Knightley.

George Knightley has known Emma Woodhouse since her birth and until recently had not thought of as anything more than a spoiled girl who he enjoyed goading into temper. But something about Emma has changed, at least in his eyes, and he now finds his thoughts and his desires straying into a territory that has him feeling unhinged. 

Excerpt (a spicy one):
She was his own Emma, by hand and word.
He made a noise that seemed to emanate from deep within his chest, and the light kisses he had been gifting her with continued to travel up from her wrist to her inner forearm, to the hallow of her elbow at which point she completely forgot how to breathe. 
He began to talk again, his breath caressing her skin as completely as his lips had seconds ago.  “You have made me a very happy man, my Emma.”  He punctuated the endearment with another kiss to her upper arm.  “I had dared not to hope—” a kiss to her cloth-covered shoulder “—dared not to dream.”
His words trailed off as he pressed an open-mouth kiss to her collarbone.  She felt the sweep of something velvety and wet, and her body jolted as she realised it was his tongue.  She heard herself make a noise, and heard him echo it.
“I am forgetting myself, dearest,” he said hoarsely into the patch of damp skin.  “Remind me,” he begged.  “Remind me of how I should behave.”
Her Mr. Knightley, Emma thought with exultation, always so concerned with how one should behave.  Emma was entirely uninterested in proper behaviour at this moment. “Not yet,” she whispered into his hair, the scent of the garden and sunshine greeting her as she rested her cheek against his head.  “Please not yet.”
He groaned and his kisses moved to the hallow of her throat.  “Your wish, my lady.”   ***

EMMA by Jane Austen is one of my favorite of her works simply because of Mr. Knightley and the way he stands back and allows Emma her lead. Of course, he does so while keeping her check without her notice, until she makes a fool of herself and then scolds her out of fear of losing her to Frank Churchhill. Micah Persell has taken this beautiful story with its lively banter and unspoken attractions and filled in the blanks for us bringing EMMA to life in a way that I’m sure Ms. Austen would surely have approved - if it would not have shocked her into a blushing silence. Keeping true to the voice of Jane Austen, Micah has improved upon a classic. She has made it even more romantic, if possible. She's filled in the gaps for us. From Mr. Weston’s proposal to Miss Taylor and her wanton acceptance in the garden clear through to the Knightley’s wedding night, which was just as I would imagine it to be since Emma was most assuredly a virgin, when she married her Mr. Knightley. As Ms. Austen ended her own edition, there was most certainly a perfect happiness in the union. 

I highly recommend EMMA: The Wild and Wanton Edition by Micah Persell and Jane Austen to every fan of Ms. Austen’s works who has ever wondered about the true romance hidden between those lines of expert and exquisite prose. Mr. Knightley has always been my favorite Austen hero but now I’m totally in love with this most honorable, noble and sexy man. 

About the Authors:
Jane Austen is one of the most beloved authors of all time.  She never married, and as far as we know, she died a virgin.  More’s the pity.
Micah Persell is the award-winning author of the paranormal romance series Operation: Middle of the Garden.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a double master’s degree in English pedagogy and literature, and she found particular delight in driving her professors to madness by imagining the characters’ salacious untold stories during class discussions of “serious literature.”  She is beyond thrilled that the object of her professors’ horror is now her profession.
To learn more about Micah Persell and her books, please visit her website and feel free to follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads.
Also, Micah Persell is offering a ROMANCE GIFT BASKET to one randomly drawn commenter tour wide. Basket includes:  Books, Chocolates, Wine and Bubble Bath. Please use Rafflecopter below to enter. Good Luck and be sure to click on the Blog Tour Banner to visit all the stops - more chances to enter!
Happy Reading Everyone!
 http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/521ac429/
 
EMMA: The Wild and Wanton Edition by Micah Persell and Jane Austen, Crimson Romance, available now in ebook formats.

                                                                                    

3 comments:

Tasty Book Tours said...

Love the Review! Thank you for hosting today!

NeuroticLover said...

Umm, I'd have to say Pride and Prejudice. But I'm nit finished exploring Miss Austen's works.

Lori Mitchell said...

Sounds interesting! I love Jane Austen :)