Emma Woodhouse knows the world loves nothing more than a celebrity romance. And, as a rising star at Mega! Management, she match-makes some of the biggest names in the business. Who cares if it’s all for show? For Emma, fauxmance beats the real thing any day!
But Emma has a huge task ahead. She needs to find fake girlfriends for every member of Breach of the Peace, the world’s hottest new boy band. Rich, talented heart-throbs, they should have their pick of the ladies – but, with band mates Will and Ed determined to undermine her every move, and her best mate Gee voicing disapproval about her chosen profession, Emma’s carefully ordered world begins to fall apart.
Is it possible that Emma doesn’t know best after all?
Brigid Coady was born in the UK but raised round the world with most of her childhood spent reading.
Brigid works for a communications and digital marketing agency as a producer and storyteller. Much of her writing is done at weekends in various Starbucks around the world.
In the past, she has been the official Writer in Residence on the 06:37 train from London Victoria to Canterbury West.
Brigid is also a voice-over artist, loves country music and has had her own radio show. Brigid’s obsession with One Direction and Kenny Chesney is perfectly healthy, no matter what anyone else says. She lives in London. Persuading Austen and Emma Ever After are her tributes to Jane Austen and fan fiction.
okay, before i get into the review lambasting this book for being very thinly veiled one direction fanfiction... why is no one talking about it being thinly veiled one direction fanfiction???
like, to be clear, this book is to one direction fanfiction what fifty shades of grey is to twilight.
as always, review is in the format of texts to brandon (sorry i put you through the experience of this book tbh)
1. ok i'm reading a really bad modernization (don't judge me i live for the yearning) where knightley is the bisexual ex lead singer of a boyband that was dropped by management when he and another member refused to pretend to be straight and i'm 103% it's just very thinly veiled one direction
i wish the writing wasn't so terrible because it has a lot of fun ideas like emma's a publicist whose job it is to create fake celebrity PR relationships and harriet is a gay man it's just really badly done lmao
Oh my god Emma why do you do this to yourself
because it's funny
2. it's called emma ever after it's... not a great work of literature
i take it back "when you're drunk it's easy to mix up ménage a trois and menagerie" it's absolutely a great work of literature
3. oh my god the band is fake 1D but there's also a random couple that's their friends who are called harry and lewis that is the most transparent wish fulfilment i've ever seen
and there's another different rumoured celebrity couple whose last names are styles and tomlinson oh my god AND THEIR FIRST NAMES ARE BOTH 1D SONGS
Oh my god what This sounds ridiculous
4. it's like 1 part emma retelling 1 part one direction fanfiction
5. this book genuinely just said "when you had to shoehorn in ill thought out story parts it never went quite right" that's it that's the summary of the book
6. also i'm pretty sure the boyband she's working with is the third pseudo-1D all in one book???? one would have been enough
Oh my god what lmfao
yeah there's knightley's old band then the harry/lew and styles/tomlinson allusions and now a boyband she has to create fake relationships for that has two members who are "really close friends who live together and are very touchy-feely with each other"
This is so much overkill you almost have to respect it
correct
oh good one of them is irish and the last non-larry one is muslim it wasn't transparent enough already
7. oh no they're watching clueless this is too meta
8. oh no oh no oh no she is directly recycling 1D fanlore now
that definitely raises more questions than answers, Emma
[screenshot: paragraph of book where the main character discovers a twitter account posting pictures that are described as... basically exactly RBB and SBB]
long story short they're bears that apparently fans gave to 1D at some point and there's a whole conspiracy theory that harry and louis ("larry") use the bears to communicate in code about their forbidden secret love affair
oh my god she's literally now saying there's a theory that the colours of the emoji stickers correspond to members of the band which is exactly what happened with 1D lmao
uhhhhh?????
like she's not even pretending to change up the story a little bit
also i hate that i know enough about 1D to catch all this lmfao
9. [screenshot: the emma character claiming she and the knightley character are "just housemates!!!11!!!" and one of the larry characters saying "oh, housemates, just like me and [other larry character], wink wink"]
l m a o
how obvious can you make it yes they’re gggggay we get it
the ggggg was my ipad being possessed but i stand by it
anyway the more i read of this the more convinced i am that this book started out as larry fanfic
10. okay definite improvement on the original is emma and knightley making out at a halloween party like "yes i know it's him and he knows it's me but we're going to pretend we don't know just for tonight" bc that's always the best idea
oh my god
also she kind of tried to pretend to not know him out loud but they've been housemates for nine years so there's no way that worked
and of course it was the best kiss of her life™ but she can't tell him because "it'll hurt too much when he doesn't want to do it again"
she's so stupid i love it
oh my god this is awful
now we've timeskipped two weeks and she's basically not spoken to him
Oh my god HWY
she's become the guy on the good place who's like "i'm going to the gym" every time he doesn't know the answer because she has zero emotional intelligence
she went out of her way as the narrator to describe how this man 1) called her by her name 2) wouldn't let her go until someone bumped into them 3) just kind of stood there touching his lips for several minutes after she ducked away and she's still like "oh no he would be upset if he knew it were me"
11. fake larry just straight up told her they're together shit's about to go down
and she's like genuinely surprised
after months of observing that they are literally always touching each other!!!!
oh my GOD this whole thing is so far off the rails from the original but then she just... throws in some austen dialogue randomly
knightley overhears her telling fake larry that they signed a contract so they have to stay in the closet for now (which, tf) and he just goes "badly done"
it's also just a really shitty thing for her to do bc his life was literally torn apart by people doing the exact same thing and he's her best friend
What the fuck
at least it's a more conflicty conflict than "oh but you're only allowed to say three boring things" which... is weak as far as burns go
12. okay i finished it in her acknowledgements she thanks an agent and editor??????? i cannot for a second believe this book was edited
Oh my Lord
"some eagle-eyed fandom dwellers will spot that there are at least three other fandoms woven into this story" EAGLE-EYED???? it couldn't have been less subtle if they'd literally just had the 1D boys names
This is an Emma for today. It’s a social commentary just like the original. It’s does this beautifully through the medium of romance. I fell in love with Gee on page one and remained steadfastly in love him as he loved loved Emma despite herself as she loses herself in the fake world she creates in role of PR. The whole issue of the what is real and what is false is beautifully shown through the media management of the boy band and the manipulation of the public. Brilliant read. I loved it…especially Gee.
This is a modern adaptation of Emma, not the easiest of stories to adapt because not a lot happens and Emma is so, well, Clueless. In this version Emma works for a PR firm, coming up with faux-mances between celebrities for PR purposes. She lives with Gee Knightly, former boy band superstar. Gee was a really interesting character. Emma was well meaning but a bit of an idiot. The supporting cast were interesting and varied. I enjoyed the stuff about the Breach of The Peace fandom very much. I also found the discussion of the popular perception of bi-sexual people thought provoking. It was nice to see a bi-sexual hero in a mainstream romance novel. A great adaptation of a classic.
I really enjoyed this re-imagining of Emma, set against the backdrop of a media management company. This book has a lot to say about the celebrity stories we are sold, and the media that is telling them. I loved Emma and her best friend Gee - he added a really welcome alternative perspective that made the story all the richer. The secondary characters are well developed, it was particulary great to see a couple of them from Persuading Austen make appearances.
1,5 Stars Before starrting the actual review i have to admit that Emma is not my favorite Jane Austen book, although i enjoyed it a lot, and also that i read many retellings of Austen's books and i have no problem with the idea.
That said, this book has been a total disappointment. I could have gone past the fact that Mr Knightley became Gee Knightley, ex lead singer in a boyband, or even the new version of Harriet, Elton and company, i mean of course i was not expecting a clergyman and a farmer in this mix. All this could have somehow stomached , but i felt that the author took the original characters, especially Mr Knightley, stripped them from what made them unforgettable and thew them in this story. The original Emma had some wonderfully ridiculous characters and events that made the story memorable and so much fun to read, i found none of this here. Normally, i wouldn't care. but the retelling of such a classic comes with responsabilities.
Personally, i feel that apart from the names of Emma and George and the fact that story begins with a wedding, there is nothing in it of Emma. And i really hated the use of those trademark sentences of Mr Knightley (readers who love the book will know which one i mean), that really didn't fit the whole thing and they seemed fake, as if thrown in the dialog in a hurry. The extra half star was for some of the scenes that actually made me smile a bit.
I hate being harsh in my reviews, but this is my honest opinion in exchange of getting the book through NetGalley.
A modern re-telling of Jane Austen’s beloved Emma set against the backdrop of a media management company and the music industry. Toughened by years of neglect and indifference from her parents, Emma relies on carefully thought out plans and schedules to realize her dreams. But sometimes, that means ignoring her true feelings and hiding behind a mask. George Knightley is her best friend and housemate. In an interesting twist to the original story, Knightley is bisexual in Emma Ever After.
*Received a copy on NetGalley in exchange for a review.
Emma and Gee are roommates and best friends, despite the fact that Gee dislikes Emma's career in PR. But she loves her job and she's good at it, which is what led her to the greatest opportunity she's had so far: creating fake romances for the guys in the world's biggest boy band to promote their new tour. But this is exactly the dishonesty that made Gee turn away from the music industry, which impacts their friendship. Things get even worse when the guys begin resisting her attempts to improve their PR, and Emma's world starts falling apart.
This was a silly book, and really just made me feel like I was reading Jane Austen fanfiction. At the same time, it was fun enough to go for a ride with it. I wouldn't reread it, but cute.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
4.5* - great to see bi rep in a contemporary romance.
If you love contemporary retellings of the classics, or are interested in how the media manipulate celebrity stories for their own gain, Brigid Coady's new novel, inspired by Austen's 'Emma', is for you.
Heartwarming, witty and full of sass - Brigid Coady just gets better and better!
a very light and pleasant read! this was a fun social media take on jane austen’s Emma, plus a healthy heap of fanfiction tropes. if you’re at all acquainted with fanfic, the writing in this book will seem quite familiar. i enjoyed reading this quite a lot, there are many characters not so subtly modeled after real life celebrities (who are Frankie Quick and Josh Giggleheim?? i’ll give you one guess) which i thought was hilarious honestly. i confess i have a weak spot for fauxmances in general so it’s no surprise i love this, especially since the author included so many references to tv shows and fandoms. though this isn’t necessarily a negative point, it’s worth noting that this is essentially a huge multifandom fanfic. which is to say, you shouldn’t expect too much originality in terms of plots or tropes. that being said, i thought it was a wonderful adaptation with that social media twist. and of course i loved all the bi representation in this book. i love my bi children :’) there are some simple continuity and editing mistakes here and there (i.e. Emma’s last name switches from Woodhouse to Woodward quite frequently) but nothing major that i could recall. if you’re a fan of fic, boyband tropes, bi characters, and jane austen, then you’ve found the right book.
Emma Ever After is a contemporary novel based of Jane Austen's Emma. In this version, Emma Woodhouse is a planner, a hard worker, and quite the control freak. She manages fake relationships - or fauxmances - at Mega! Management to help build the media coverage and popularity of celebrity clientele. She has a plan to stick to and refuses to deviate from that, even if she might be just a little bit completely in love with her roommate and former boyband superstar George (Gee) Knightly. While on a high profile assignment to set up a boyband with girlfriends she runs into some trouble when the boys refuse to cooperate. Emma tries everything she can to make everyone stick to her plan, but along the way is faced with the daunting ask of looking at her life from a different angle, one that tips her world.
Overall, the novel was very readable, it was light and quick and uncomplicated. I find many contemporaries to be predictable, and since I had already known the story of Emma, this fell under that category as well. However, I found it a nice book to read for relaxing as nothing was too high-stakes. The setting of the novel is in England, but beside the occasional mention for media purposes, there was not a lot of description with the setting. This was disappointing as I would have enjoyed a bit more of a backdrop on Emma's life, but it did not take away from the story.
The characters and the plot were the focus of this novel. The plot was a little repetitive and tedious but flowed together really well with the events of the story and the timeline of what was happening. I enjoyed that the author decided to address the topic of biphobia within her novel as it is an incredibly important topic and usually overlooked by the general public. That being said, the main character is the one being biphobic most of the time, having a very ignorant outlook on the LGBTQA+ community, therefore some of her thoughts were uncomfortable to read because I did not agree with her. This can be tricky as every reader should be mindful that the characters they are reading about are flawed and not always good examples, as the case is with Emma. I think the author generally handled it well and I enjoyed the end notes they provided that focused on the stigma on bisexual people, but I think there could have been more dialogue and turmoil in Emma's interior monologue to suggest her dynamic change regarding the subject throughout the novel.
Something that was unfortunate regarding the characters was that Emma was almost the only female in the entire novel and was most certainly the only female with any shred of sense. Understandably, being based off a novel where women had very little agency, there would be threads of that, but I found it to be incredibly disappointing that in a novel about a woman seemingly empowering herself, there would be other women around. I did enjoy that there were LGBTQA+ characters and thought that it brought a lot to the novel, but it seemed unrealistic that all of Emma's friends were gay or bi men and I would have liked to see more female representation.
Overall, I found this to be a very different and unique retelling of Emma and was entertained throughout the novel (if a little frustrated with her character). Reading about the boyband and the way that Emma regarded relationship and the medias purpose within them was really thought provoking and eye opening. The work that she does throughout the novel is important in societies current use of social media and our views on celebrities. It was a interesting, back-stage approach to the media and how our lives and relationships have been affected by social media and the internet.
3 stars! “Emma” is my second favorite Jane Austen book and, like with P&P, I’ve watched and read my fair share of variations and interpretations. This modern take aims to be a fun, inclusive, well-intentioned spin on the classic and it sort of succeeds in spots but there are some lingering issues. It’s like main character Emma Woodhouse, in that it’s cutesy and cringey in equal measure and even though it means well, you can see why it ruffled some feathers, even if it does conclude with the expected happy ending.
Emma Woodhouse works for Mega! Management and specializes in creating “fauxmances” between celebrities to keep their stars burning bright for longer than their expected shelf life. Her latest clients are a suspiciously One Direction-like musical act but, luckily (and somewhat head scratchingly) she has experience in the area, as her best friend that she feels only extremely and exclusively platonic feelings for, George “Gee” Knightley, used to be in boy band. Knightley’s time in the spotlight, some 15 years before the start of the book, was cut short when he and his bandmate were outed as bisexual. The media storm caused Gee’s band to implode and keeping her friend’s experience in mind, Emma is determined to spin the rumors surrounding her current clients’ sexuality into something more quote unquote Midwest America friendly.
There’s a certain tone deaf quality to this Emma’s good intentions that echo Jane Austen’s original character but a large portion of her words and actions leave a sour taste in your mouth. In an effort to give bi rep in an Austen remake, there is unfortunately a fair amount of biphobia. Yes, it does get addressed and yes, amends are made but you can’t ever really forget what was said and done in the name of career advancement. One glaring example is when Emma gets into an discussion with the BOTP band members (mimicking the Box Hill scene in the original) in a frankly disgusting confrontation that I’m still not sure how she was ever forgiven for. Another off-putting scene has Emma inwardly comparing her need to keep her feelings locked away so she doesn’t get hurt to Gee being forced to stay in the closet during his boy band days. In the words of Knightley, badly done, Emma.
It’s not all terrible, though; Gee is a delight and the clear highlight of the book. The dialogue is pretty tight, as is most of the characterization, and Coady’s writing makes for a quick read. Even though there were some problematic elements to the novel (which, I get are intentional to show Emma’s growth, even if they are sort of gross to read) in addition to missing some of the enjoyable subplots from the original “Emma”, I’d give another one of Coady’s books (especially an Austen variation) a try.
I enjoyed most of this book, but you need to know up front that it’s got a problem. As it happens, at the front. You, see, I accepted the book for review on the promise that it was about a girl who dies, and what happens after that (Hence the title). The tone seemed light-hearted, for a spook story. Sort of Cozy Horror, if you can picture that. The originality appealed to me.
Instead, the first seven chapters tell the realistic story of a girl who becomes a paraplegic. There’s nothing wrong with the writing. It’s a good story, in itself. But it’s definitely not light, and nothing to do with the afterlife. Quite a downer, in fact. I have often said that bad reviews come from unfulfilled expectations. This one is a classic.
But that’s only the first tenth of the book. After that the girl dies, as promised, and the story builds beautifully from there. It’s that sort of humour.
The main character is nicely presented and develops realistically through the story, so when she comes up with an almost happily-ever-after solution, we understand and agree heartily. The secondary characters are also well portrayed and interesting, and the rest of the hotel guests are appropriately bizarre.
The internal conflicts provide the basic interest in the story and keep us involved. The horror sections manage to be pretty horrific and provide tension and a contrasting setting to the positive viewpoint without spoiling the tone.
A minor cavil: this author has a rather loose control of point of view. I understand that Andrew, the love interest, needs some time with the readers, but a secondary character called The Bellboy keeps slipping in with details of his inner thoughts.
Don’t get me wrong. The paraplegic part at the beginning is essential in a tale about getting the most joy out of life, no matter what. But two chapters max, please.
Nine-tenths of a really good story, which will appeal to young adults and fans of lighter present-day occult. Don’t let the opening chapters put you off; it’s worth the read.
This review was originally written for Reedsy Discovery.
Another great re-imagining of an Austen classic from Brigid Coady. This is such a great social commentary as well and features many timely issues that we are facing today.
Emma is me and my friends all rolled into one, trying to have it all and living life constantly under threat from her calendar alerts. I can recognise the characteristic in myself, the need to have success and try and do everything you can to be the best at your job. She has put her personal life on the back burner in favour of the personal lives as others, part of her job. We've all been there and it made for some great reading.
I also loved her friend Gee and his ability to ground her. I am amazed that he is a grounded person and not the ego maniac we might expect from a former pop star super star! He makes for some real comedy moments in the book, as do the boys from the band that Emma is trying to catapult into even higher stardom.
This book really does explore the fandom and the role that social media can play in people's professional and personal lives, quite a brave thing to write about. This also covers some great LGBTQ+ issues and the stigma surrounding bisexuality and the connotations that that has. Whilst theses things are covered and fully explored, they are woven well into the storyline and so this book isn't an 'issues' book in any way.
This was an entertaining read with characters and events that I could definitely identify with, it made me laugh and it made me think.
I’m not really sure how to review this. I’ll start with the positives. Gee. I loved Gee, he was the brightest star in this book and the way he was so comfortable in his own skin was my favourite thing about the entire plot. The fact that he was so patient with Emma when she was so. Bloody. Clueless. I also enjoyed that this book tried to cope with homosexuality and bisexuality and how it is dealt with in and by the media. Unfortunately, this fell a bit flat, which brings me to the negatives. For someone who has been friends with an out and proud bisexual man for a decade, Emma really has no idea about the issues that are important to the LGBT community and it really bothered me that, throughout the book, she said more than once that she would have encouraged Gee and Johnnie to hide their sexuality too, if she had been managing their PR. Also, for someone who supposedly has a brilliant gaydar, she must have been the last person to realise that Ed & Will were in a relationship. She came across as, while not maliciously homophobic, completely oblivious to the hurt she was causing by trying to get other people to hide who they are, including their desires. In all, I think Gee was the saving grace of this book and, after the previous book, I was quite disappointed with this one. It had the potential to be great but Emma was too managing of things that she had no personal experience of and didn’t even stop to think of what she was doing was right. 2.5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
So this is the oldest book from my NetGalley shelf! It’s been gathering dust on there for about two years, oops!
Truthfully I don’t remember what drew me to this book, I think at the time I was looking for something a bit fun and light hearted.
So I’m going to admit I didn’t realise that this was an Emma retelling, you’re probably thinking but it’s got Emma in the title you dope but again I didn’t make the connection until I started reading it.
I usually do enjoy a Jane Austen retelling but this one fell a little bit flat for me. Maybe it’s because my favourite retelling of Emma is the nineties movie Clueless and the subsequent TV series or maybe it’s because Emma is my least favourite of all of Austen’s books, I can’t exactly pinpoint it.
Overall not my cup of tea but I think if you enjoyed the original Austen novel then you may like this a bit more than I did.
I'm such a sucker for an Austen adaptation...and sucker I was for reading this one.
Okay, it wasn't the worst thing I've read. But it wasn't good. First, I refuse to believe Gee Knightley would've let Emma get as far as she did with her work without saying something. He's been set up to be this always-honest, strong, principled character yet he lets her do her thing with no interference. And EMMA! My god is she oblivious! Sure, people like Emma exist but I very much doubt they're that blind to all social cues.
I'm not entirely sure why I finished reading this one. Emma was uber-annoying by the end and there were a ton of SPAG mistakes that drove me crazy. And the sentence fragments?! They didn't even make sense half the time.
This book may be for other people, but it was not for me. In fact, I couldn’t even finish it (which is pretty I almost never do—but I couldn’t force myself through the rest of this one). There were too many times I was pulled out of the story in this book, thinking about the original. Or I was over analyzing Emma’s character. Or hoping Knightly would just settle down with someone else because this Emma did not deserve him. It just didn’t resonate with me the way that I expected and/or wanted it to. Again, other people may love it, but there was just something that kept me from enjoying this modern adaptation.
It seemed like a fun concept and I was quite excited to read it but, unfortunately, I couldn't go even through the beginning. I tried several times but I DNFed at Chapter 5. Too much exposition and telling-not-showing. After the 50th time the book said that Emma loves a plan, and planning is the best, and organization and planning are essential, and without a plan, life is not worth living, I just gave up. I didn't read enough to rate it, but I think with some very VERY thorough editing with professional help, the whole book shows promise.
The main character seemed irritating, but to be fair, so was Emma in the original (which btw I also DNFed - the only Austen book I didn't finish)
I received a copy of Emma Ever After by Brigid Coady from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was intrigued by the summary - because a modern retelling of Emma by Jane Austen? YES, PLEASE! - and really wanted to like this novel, but the storyline could have been pulled together better and the characters better fleshed out (not so flat).
This story was a very sweet contemporary take on Jane Austen's Emma. Emma in this case was as irritating as the original, I wanted to shake some sense into her although it was easy to see how her childhood traumas set her up to be the consummate control freak in her job and personal life.
I liked the concept but Emma was just too infuriating a character for me to enjoy reading about- entirely arrogant and meddlesome and an over-inflated sense of her own self importance. She didn't trust anyone to make their own decisions and it made it very hard to root for her despite her sob story
I was going to make a joke about how liam and niall feel that they are constantly combined into one person in these 1d books, but, you know what, please for the love of God, write one other woman besides the main character into your book who is not evil.
I found the first half of the book irritating, and it was very disappointing that a happy ending for Will and Ed wasn’t even hinted at. I preferred persuading austen.
Fun characters in a complex world of celebrity gossip and spin. The clueless heroine is lovable and (almost) believable in her world of created storylines.