I received a copy of this book via Netgalley and Random House Publishers in return for an honest review.

Gill Hornby uses the family tree and some historical facts to reimagine the lives of Jane Austen and her Sister Cassandra as they live as Spinsters in a world where single women are unlikely to benefit from regular income. The novel passes backwards and forwards in time capturing the very different time period that the Misses Austen lived in. Loves lost and denied, roles as support and helpmates undertaken alongside some attempts at arranging the lives of others.

It is a whimsical tale that transports the reader into the era. I really felt I was almost living alongside the family. What glorious characterisation

An interesting portrayal of the two Austen ladies Jane and Cassandra. Knowing the places that are in the book helped with the reading. The book demonstrated clearly the role women in Victoria’s England had to suffer, especially when left with no man to be in control. It was interesting hearing all about the family and the interaction of the two other main families that The many marriages took place.
I felt that this was a book about Cassandra more than Jane but was still a very good read.

This was an enjoyable imagining of the lives of the Austen family and friends, told from the viewpoint of Jane's sister Cassandra. The gentle pace of life ad descriptive prose are evocative of Jane's novels. Worth reading even if you are not a Jane Austen fan as you discover the fate of single women in about 1800. Recommended.

If you are a fan of Jane Austen then this is for you. Cassandra Austen, sister to Jane burnt many of Jane's letters and this book delves into a possibility of why she would do this.

Twenty three years after the death of her sister Cassandra returns to Kintbury, aware that Jane's correspondence is hidden somewhere.

This is such a beautiful story of family and friendship. The relationship between Cassandra and Jane is incredible and Cassandra wishes to protect her sisters secrets and feelings from being ousted in to the world. The book flits between Cassandra in 1840 and back when Jane was alive and tells the story of their lives as two sisters who never married.

A well written, captivating novel which drew me in from the first chapter. It is beautifully written and I love that quotes from Jane's work are used throughout.

Reading this has tempted me to read all of Jane's work again.

I have scheduled my review to post on my blog a week before publication day.

I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of this book from the publisher via Net Galley.

This isn't about the Miss Austen we are most familiar with. It's about Cassandra Austen, sister of Jane, and is set over two separate periods of time. We see her at home with her sister and parents, exploring what happened in her own life up to the sad death of Jane. We also get a look at many years later when Cassandra is aging and follow her efforts to retrieve letters sent by Jane.

We know that Cassandra burned letters written by Jane and letters that made reference to her - it seems no one really knows why she did this. This book is fictional, but is clearly very well researched, and offers a speculative look at why she might have done this.

This is not a book full of action or adventure. There are no villains in the traditional sense. It's quite a slow, considered meander through the really quite sad life of Cassandra and her family. It offers historical insight into the fate of women who have no men to protect them. This isn't a gripping page turner of a book - but it's interesting and thoughtful, and will undoubtedly be of interest to those who are fans of Jane Austen, and those who are interested in the Edwardian period generally.

I could imagine this as a TV drama - it would always be gray and raining! There is a real sadness about it, which is perhaps why it isn't a particularly easy read. I'd recommend it to those who are interested in this period of history. It's well researched, well written and realistic.

This historical novel looks at the life of ‘Miss Austen,’ but not, perhaps, the one you expect. For the title character is Cassandra Austen, sister of Jane, and protector of her legacy. It is March, 1840, and a, now elderly Cassandra, returns to Kintbury, the previous home of the man she was once betrothed to. Now it is a poor shadow of the previous family home of the Fowle family and only inhabited by spinster daughter, Isabella, who is packing up the family belongings, and a few servants.

Although she is, quite obviously, unwelcome, Cassandra is in search of letters that Jane had written to their mutual friend, Eliza. She is determined to protect her sister and to control her image. When it is apparent that the Fowle family are suggesting a family history, the search becomes more intense. Of course, the letters are unearthed and this allows the letters to tell the story of both Cassandra and her more famous sister.

This is sure to appeal to lovers of Jane Austen, but it is also an interesting look at women’s roles in that period. For those who see Austen novels as genteel and are, as yet, unacquainted with the author’s sharp eye and sharper humour, this may be a surprise. Isabella is a woman who sees success through marriage and, as the daughter who stayed at home looking after her elderly father, it is clear that his temper was harsh and the suggestion he was often violent. A female in those times, as anyone who has read Austen’s novels is aware, had limited options and a lack of control over her own life – especially if she is seen, as Isabella will be, as an unmarried burden on her family. Overall, a thought provoking read, which gives a good, fictional account, of both Cassandra, and Jane’s, lives. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Interesting premise, based loosely on facts.The characters again were based on real people though, events in the main were imaginary.
The depth of closeness of the the Austin sisters,if true, was extraordinary.Such devotion on Cassandra's part.
In cases of novels based on fact, I hope to glean some insight to the people, but I think in this case, it is best to credit the book's merits purely on entertainment value. Whilst it did prove mildly amusing, it didn't captivate me as I'd hoped.

Cassandra is the sister to Jane Austen.


As she ages, Cassandra is concerned that letters that was shared amongst their family may fall into the wrong hands and will thus damage the reputation of Jane.

This was a great book and I learned so much more about the life of the Austen's .

It's long been known that Cassandra Austen burned most of the letters which she and other members of the extensive Austen family had exchanged with or about her sister Jane. What is not known is why she did this and at this stage - more than two hundred years after Jane's death - a definitive answer is unlikely to forthcoming. Gill Hornby has provided us with some possible answers in a book that proved to be far more emotionally complex than I was expecting.

Historical fiction is not usually my bag - lightly fictionalised history even less so - but six years on I still have vivid memories of reading The Hive. They were strong enough to tempt me into reading Miss Austen, without really knowing what it was to be about. Which 'Miss Austen'? The family was extensive and there was no guarantee that Jane would be taking centre stage.

In the event centre stage is taken by Cassandra, Jane's elder sister and close confidant. When we first meet her she's just got engaged to Tom Fowle, a curate still awaiting his first parish. They can't marry until he has an income of £250 a year, but Cassandra is patient: almost too patient, you might think. But Tom has found a benefactor who is going to take him on an expedition and then see that he has a parish when he returns. Circumstances will work against the couple though: Tom finds himself terrified of the sea and eventually dies of yellow fever before he returns home. Cassandra is left in limbo - having promised that she will never marry anyone but Tom. To all intents and purposes, she's a widow who has never been a wife.

But she wasn't without purpose, as no unmarried woman of this age could afford to be if she was to avoid the workhouse. Cassy was the perfect aunt, the woman who was called on to run the house when another baby put the wife out of action for a while. She had a way with children. Jane, on the other hand, suffered from what we would now call depression and was only really happy when she was writing. The women in the family largely supported what she was doing and enjoyed her stories: the men - the ones who inherited the wealth, demanded respect and ordered affairs - were less so.

The unmarried Austen women were not alone in having to live a precarious life and Hornby captures their predicament perfectly and does it with humour and affection. As I read I was put in mind of the writing of Jane Austen, but this isn't a pastiche. It's an emotionally complex exploration of what it was like to be an unmarried woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. I laughed, I cried and I finished the book all too quickly. It was superb. I'd like to thank the publishers for making a copy available to the Bookbag.

It wasn’t until reading this book that I realised how little I knew of Jane Austen’s family circumstances. I knew about her father dying unexpectedly, leaving Jane, her mother and sister without a permanent home and I knew about the wealthy brother Edward who provided them with a cottage on his estate but that was the extent of my knowledge. So I found the story told in this novel fascinating, especially the way Cassandra is portrayed. She is obliged to tread a careful, tactful route towards resolving her family’s domestic problems, humouring and soothing the uncertain tempers of her relatives, not least Jane’s, all without any real authority or independence of her own. Later, as Jane’s executor, she again feels obliged to keep the prickly members of her family (on whom she still depends) happily in ignorance by excising Jane’s more acerbic comments about them from her correspondence over the years. If the contents of the letters imagined here were close to the truth, many of the family should be embarrassed if their treatment of Jane, Cassandra and their mother were publicised, but of course we’ll never know what was destroyed.

Taken together with the personal stories of the Fowle sisters, I found Cassandra’s situation as described here very interesting and was grateful for the author’s note at the end detailing the few known facts of their lives. Perhaps it is a book best suited to someone like me, not too well versed in Jane Austen’s life, her friends and family, open to suggestion and inspiration to research her further. Certainly it has left me wanting to know more.

After the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen is left to navigate her life and grief on her own while trying to maintain her sister’s reputation. This is a beautiful and moving novel about the unbreakable bond between sisters.

I found this book very hard to engross myself in and I'm afraid I gave up reading it. It was quite slow and not something I would normally read, but I thought I would give it a try.

Most readers will have heard of Jane Austen, some will have read and admired her novels. Others will have read about aspects of her life – there is of course a blooming Austen “industry”. This new novel has as a key character Jane’s older sister Cassandra who it is believed deliberately destroyed private Austen letters that she felt did not reflect well on the character of her sister, or the wider family. This tale is largely based in Kintbury in 1840, bossy and interfering, is visiting young friend Isabella who is clearing out the vicarage after her father’s death and before a new incumbent arrives. Cassandra believes that there might be letters from Jane stored among the family papers that she wishes to check and destroy if necessary. In her searches she does indeed find these (fictional) letters from both Jane and herself that invoke detailed memories of their younger lives. Young Isabella is to be left without a permanent home of her own or a sufficient income as all resources have been transferred through the men of the family – something that most readers will know was similar to the fate of Jane herself until her writing produced an income.
The letters and memories allow the author to explore the back life of Cassandra both as an individual and in the family with Jane – together with their friendships, relationships and family lives both positive and difficult. All of these are going to be seen of course through the lens of Cassandra’s beliefs and standards – a challenge for a novelist who never met her. But expect the basis of her words and actions to be a reflection of actions displayed by Jane’s characters that might (or might not) have been correctly attributed to various family members. But memory may not always be true and even within a close family individual views of the past may not run in agreement. The attentive reader is therefore left with the constant query of the nature of truth and the honesty of one’s understanding of other people.
The perusing of old letters allows the author to explore the back history of the Austen family – maybe not as deeply as some modern research allows one to travel, it puts some of the characters in perspective – although it should be said that Jane herself is a markedly bland shadow through much of this. The occasional hinting of an erratic personality (without fuller reference to the mental illness that ran through the family) is not explored in any meaningful way – and key disruptions to her life though mentioned in passing are virtually glossed over.
The flipping from the years of Cassandra’s early life to 1840 and back again does not always make for an easy read not helped by the host of characters (many of them poorly characterised) meandering through. So a grasp of the family’s real background is helpful to keep the story flow understandable. But one comes out of this with no real admiration or liking for any of the characters mentioned (however creative, odd or put upon) – perhaps not the writer’s intention. Are we really meant to believe that Cassandra – the lead in this novel – was really so stupid and narrow minded, either through lack of imagination or an unspoken jealousy or dislike of her sister Jane?
I would suggest that it is these questions are what make this novel worth reading – because they – rather than the story line itself – are the hook that will hold the reader if they are interested in Jane Austen and the family background that moulded all that creativity. The story otherwise is weak. It might be a good book club choice nevertheless as it could certainly generate discussion, but as an individual reader your admiration of this book will rest on what you were hoping for in the first place.

As she is one of the most famous writers for whom we have rather limited first hand knowledge, the thirst to imagine and invent what we don’t know is understandable. Here Gill Hornby takes the event of Cassandra Austen destroying some of her sister’s correspondence to wonder - in fiction - what they might have held and why they weren’t allowed to remain.

Written in an Austen style the story goes back and forth from their early twenties to a number of years after her death.

I can see the appeal of this to many Austen fans but I have to confess to not being suitably engaged to really appreciate this book. For me the characters were not clearly defined and I struggled to differentiate between them. However it is well written and the love of Jane Austen and her work shines through.

I'm afraid I found this rather slow and rather dull. Perhaps I was expecting it to be as entertaining as Jane Austin's novels and that's why I was disappointed. It wasn't what I expected.

This is an historical novel. It is about Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra and other family members. Their life is told through letters written by Jane and her sister Cassandra to family members. I loved the way their life was revealed and how different members of the extended family viewed Jane Austen’s writing ability.
Jane’s older sister Cassandra is getting old and is concerned about letters Jane and Cassandra wrote to their relative at Kintbury Vicarage over many years. In 1840 Cassandra travels to Kintbury Vicarage to help her relative pack up in preparation of leaving the Vicarage. Cassandra is on a mission to find the letters.

I was slightly reluctant to request Miss Austin to read and review. But as a Jane Austin fan I simply can’t resist any book connected to her, This means that I am so often disappointed. Miss Austin was anything but disappointing however. It is delightful., engaging and beautifully written.

Miss Austin is Jane’s sister Cassandra. She is getting old and wants to ensure that there are no letters in her extended family that might impact on her sisters reputation in the future. The story is believable and intriguing. The cast of characters, predominantly women, are realistic, and strong. The book really has the feel of Austin and I very much enjoyed it.

Thank you to Gill Hornby, the publishers and #NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this lovely book. #MissAustin

A quiet, wistful novel which fictionalises one of the most significant relationships of Jane Austen’s life – that of her sister Cassandra, the actual Miss Austen. Don’t expect daring elopements or carriage rides, but if you’re a Jane Austen enthusiast or even scholar, Hornby has imagined a very plausible story here, explaining things like why Cassandra destroyed so much of Jane’s writing and letters after her death. There’s been plenty of focus on Jane’s brothers, but Cassandra was her first confidante and after her death, shaped what we remember of her far more than anyone else did in many ways. This was a well written and well researched historical fiction novel, that only disappointed me in that it ignored some of Jane’s racier opinions and made no mention of governess playwright, Miss Sharpe, who was Jane’s close writer friend. I did appreciate Cassandra being given space for her own story however. Highly recommend.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What an emotional read, certainly not something I would have bought but saying that I enjoyed it.

Thank you to Gill Hornby, Random House and NetGalley for my ARC of Miss Austen.
Such a charming and witty novel referencing and sometimes written in the style of Jane Austen.
Jane's sister, Cassie, (Cassandra) who outlived her, travels to the old parsonage to retrieve letters written by Jane to herself and Lizzie to prevent them from getting into the wrong hands. She is given a room in the parsonage by Isabella, Cassie's niece who is preparing to leave after her father's death. Cassie is now an old lady, and as she reads each letter we are taken back to the Austen girl's early years and their descent into poverty documenting their expectations of their life as single women in the Regency period. I loved it!