A Little Austen in Everybody ~ guest post from Cecilia Gray

Every heroine is a Jane Austen prototype.

I firmly believe that. Even if the heroine was invented before Jane Austen was written. I’m sure half the women in the original Guttenberg Bible are inspired by Jane Austen. (okay, not really.)
I can’t watch a movie without thinking how much a female character reminds me of Lizzie or Emma or Anne.
I saw Titanic in the theater a half-dozen times. Its heroine, Rose, always reminded me of Anne from Persuasion. Both are stifled by their family’s rich, society ways. Both are educated with a quiet grace and a strong fire burning within. Rose is initially persuaded (ha, you knew I’d work that word in, didn’t you?) to ignore her feelings for Leonardo di Caprio (or…er…Jack) to marry the “right” and rich guy but eventually casts off societal chains to claim a richer life.

The most famous heroine of all time – Gone with the Wind’s Scarlett – reeks of Emma. Scarlett is beautiful, powerful, and intelligent. She’s purused by an elder, wiser man but thinks she knows better who she should love. (She’s wrong…oh so wrong.) She can also seriously rock some drapes…which I’m sure Emma could, too.

Each heroine in my new Jane Austen Academy is modelled after one of Jane Austen’s heroines.




Lizzie (Elizabeth Bennet/Pride and Prejudice) from FALL FOR YOU is an opinionated student journalist protesting her academy letting in boys who she can’t stand – especially Dante (Mr. Darcy/Pride and Prejudice) who is too hot, too rich, and too much of a snob!

Ellie (Elinor Dashwood/Sense and Sensibility) from SO INTO YOU is a go-with-the-flow surfer girl whose zen attitude is seriously challenged when her parents decide to quit paying for her Academy tuition and by the boy-next-door who won’t act on their serious chemistry.

You. Your friends. You are Jane Austen prototypes, too. Good news is – everyone loves a Jane Austen heroine. ☺

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ABOUT THE SERIES:

The last thing that the girls at the elite Jane Austen Academy need is hot guys to flirt with. But over the summer the school has been sold, and like it or not, the guys are coming. And it’s about to turn the Academy—and the lives of its students—totally upside down…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cecilia Gray lives in Oakland where she reads, writes and breaks for food. She also pens her biographies in the third person. Like this. As if to trick you into thinking someone else wrote it because she is important. Alas, this is not the case.
Cecilia has been praised for “instilling a warmth and weight into her characters” (Romancing The Book Reviews) and her books have been praised for being “well-written, original, realistic and witty” (Quills & Zebras Reviews).
Several of her titles - including A Delightful Arrangement (The Gentlemen Next Door #1) and An Illicit Engagement (The Gentlemen Next Door #2) - have spent, in her view, a shocking amount of time on bestseller lists for romance, historical romance and regency romance in the US, UK, Italy and Spain.
Her latest release, FALL FOR YOU, the first in a series of young-adult contemporary Jane Austen retellings received a starred Kirkus review and was praised for being a “unique twist on a classic” and offering “a compelling action of action, drama and love.”
She’s rather enamored of being contacted by readers and hopes you’ll oblige.
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