Review: Lost in a Good Book, Jasper Fforde

This is the second book in the Thursday Next series of literary mysteries by Jasper Fforde.  If you haven’t read the first one, The Eyre Affair, you will find spoilers in this review, so go check that out first – I recommend it!

After vanquishing Acheron Hades and giving Jane Eyre a better ending, Thursday Next is dealing with uncomfortable amounts of fame, but is very happy to be finally married to Landon, the love of her life, and expecting his child.  She doesn’t anticipate further adventures, but what she wants is very different from what she gets when the Goliath Corporation kidnaps her husband and threatens her into returning to the world of books.  Apprenticed to Miss Havisham of Great Expectations, Thursday must re-learn how to jump into dangerous texts in order to rescue her husband and the world.

I have to say, I didn’t love this book as much as the first one.  It seemed to take forever for the story to get going and Thursday spent far too much time dodging publicity events rather than engaging in more interesting activities.  Once it picked up and Thursday began entering books again, I started to enjoy it and predictably wanted more by the end, though I was bit perplexed by Thursday’s casual attitude towards Landon.

I love when she gets involved with literature that I’ve read, which she does here; it’s really why I’m reading these books in the first place.  Fforde generally does a good job with the characters, making them entertaining but still like their book counterparts.  The AU setting and time travelling doesn’t interest me all that much.  It feels too much like science fiction.  So if you enjoy science fiction, you’ll probably enjoy the beginning of this book a lot more than I did.  I’ll be picking up the third in the series though, especially considering I already own Something Rotten, number four.

I’ll probably still recommend the series for those who enjoy light mystery with a little book love involved. Buy this book on Amazon.