Review: Jane: A Retelling by Lark Watson

Jane: A Retelling by Lark Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

Jane has been in and out of foster homes pretty much her whole life. So now that she is an adult and is on her own finally, she finds that being a nanny to kids is the best job for her. Especially since she tended to take care of the younger kids in her foster house, she's already had years of practice.

When Jane gets a job that requires her to move into their remote location in the middle of nowhere to help a little girl speak English rather than Spanish, she knows that it will be different than any other nannying job she's taken. Not only because the "house" is really a mansion, but because there is an air of mystery around the master of the house: Mr. Thorneton.

Jane likes to be invisible among the parents. She just wants to work with the children and then go off to her room when she's done. But for some reason, Mr. Thorneton intrigues her more than any other person has done in her life. She knows when he is in the area, and her senses go up in alert.

Then, with the mystery of the house and strange things happening, Jane is wondering what she got herself into when she accepted this simple nanny position. One thing is for sure, though. Nothing will be the same for Jane ever again.

So, I've never read Jane or seen movies of Jane, which means that this storyline was all new to me. And for the most part I really liked it! I loved the way Jane is so tentative in life - even though that was because of her terrible childhood - and how she grew to be the woman she is at the end of the book because of how well loved and accepted she became with the family and staff at the Tower House.

And even though there weren't too many moments, the times where Jane and Thorne were together were great! The suspense was so thick between the two of them, and when the moment finally came where they caved to temptation? Amazing. It gave me goosebumps and I didn't want it to stop.

The issues I had were about Thorne's secret life. I just didn't quite get what was going on and then BAM it was all there, but still no really good explanation of it. In the end, I got over that issue, but I think the book would have been superb if that was fixed/eliminated.

The ending was great. I loved this novel. And it looks like Micah might get his own novel, so I'll have to see if I pick that up or not. I know I loved the way Micah and Jane became friends and tested poor Thorne with their innocent flirting, but I'm not sure how Micah's own story will be.

I'm so glad I got a chance to read this novel, and maybe I'll have to find the original to see how it compares!

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