Review: A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont - Juhina

Title: A Breath of Eyre (Unbound #1)

Author: Eve Marie Mont

Publication date: March 27th, 2012

Genre(s): Young Adult (Historical/Contemporary)

Publisher: Kensington Publishing

Challenges: Debut

Source: Publisher
Format: ARC

Pages: 342

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Emma Townsend has always believed in stories—the ones she reads voraciously, and the ones she creates in her head. 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 went into a Breath of Eyre without reading the original "Jane Eyre" or any previous retellings, therefore I had no expectations. A Breath of Eyre was a refreshing retelling where Eve Month that took an original story and made it her own. People who already read Jane Eyre will be surprised by the twist and turns in this book. 

A Breath of Eyre has two separate POVs, they are both told from the same female protagonist, Emma, however one is set in the modern world while the other is set in Jane Eyre's world, and Emma finds herself playing the role of Jane! Emma gets transported back in time from her complicated life and Jane's life. As Jane, she doesn't know if she should make the same decisions as her or "re-write history" and it here is where the book gets its own unique voice, based on Emma's decisions. I personally preferred the modern day POVs because I like reading about "THE MOMENT" not the past or something that won't really have an impact on someone's life, however it was pretty interesting and quite creepy at times because of the secrets Mr.Rochester (Jane's love interest) hides in his "third floor". My only issue with the book is the supporting characters, I thought they felt a bit flat and didn't have much depth which is why I couldn't care less about any of them, also for Emma's love interest, he had major problems that were sort of dumped on us and I just felt a bit overwhelmed with them. 

All in all, A Breath of Eyre is definitely a great retelling of another classic story and I recommend it to fans of Jane Eyre and Jane Austen books. Also, even though this book felt like a standalone, it is actually part of a series. Therefore I am pretty excited to find out what is in store for Emma after she found her "happily ever after" 

 

3.5 musical notes