A breath of Eyre, by Eve Marie Mont

Emma Townsend is an average teenage girl who was raised mostly by her father. Her mother died when Emma was very young and her death has a bit of a mystery around it. The book starts when Emma gets a scholarship to attend a prestigious highschool. She is a smart and quiet girl and she feels very out of her depth at her boarding school. She soon meets Michelle, her dorm roomate, and Owen, a free spirited boy from a neighboring school and they all become fast friends. Emma also discovers that a childhood crush and neighbor, Gray Newman goes to school with Owen.  Some things to know are…

1.       *Michelle has tons of issues about her mother who is also dead and about being a scholarship kid surrounded by rich kids.

2.       *Emma has a very strained relationship with her dad and her stepmother.

3.       *Gray has secrets in his past that he doesn’t want Emma to know about and a nasty ex-girlfriend who goes around causing all kinds of trouble.

(These are just some of the issues these kids are dealing with)

Emma goes to a party with Michelle one night and after an upsetting incident she goes for a walk where she is struck by lightning. When she wakes up she finds that she has been transported into the book she is reading for one of her classes “Jane Eyre”.  (I love “Jane Eyre” by the way)

I really liked the idea of this story and was very happy when the author was nice enough to send me a copy. I took my time with this book and found it very easy to read. I thought it was well written and I liked how things connected together in the end. Emma was my favorite character and I found that she was someone I would like to be friends with. I also really liked Gray though at times I found it hard to relate to him. The character I had a real issue with was Michelle. She was moody and seemed to blame others for everything that happened to her. That being said, Michelle did have her good moments and I liked her aunt. I enjoyed the bits of “Jane Eyre” that were woven throughout this book and the different perspective on those classic characters. The romance between Emma and Gray was sweet and satisfying but didn’t overpower the story.

                My very favorite things about “A breath of Eyre” were the life lessons learned by the characters in the story. Things like the value of true friendship, the power of forgiveness, tolerance of other’s situations, and the importance of family are just some of the issues tackeled in this book. I discovered some real gems in this sweet and wonderfully complex story. I think everyone will fall in love with this book.

I look forward to the two other books that follow “A breath of Eyre”. “A touch of scarlet” and “A phantom enchantment” are the further adventures of Emma Townsend.