Product Description

Amanda, Book #5 in Debra White Smith’s Austen Series, is a delightful contemporary novel set in Australia that captures the wit and humor of Jane Austen’s Emma.

Amanda is a bit bored—until she meets Haley and decides that with a little sprucing up, she would be the perfect wife for the local pastor. Amanda’s plan is falling into place when she discovers that Haley is dating Roger...and Pastor Eldridge is seeing someone else. Not to be thwarted, she steers Haley toward newcomer Frederick West. But when Haley is attracted to Nathaniel, why is Amanda’s heart suddenly anxious?

Readers will love this lively tale of plans gone awry, affection in unexpected places, and the power of faith and love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103264 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 324 pages

From the Back Cover
The Austen Series

If you're a Jane Austen fan, you'll love the engaging characters, contemporary situations, issues of faith and the intricacies of love in Debra White Smith's updated retelling of Austen's endearing book Emma.

Smart, funny, and generous, Amanda Priebe is a great friend to have…until the matchmaking bug bites. Deciding that her secretary, Haley, needs a beau, Amanda dreams up the perfect match—Pastor Mason Eldridge. Never mind that Haley is seeing Roger, a respectable dairy farmer. And it doesn't really matter that Mason might be attracted to someone else.

When it comes to her own heart, Amanda can't seem to make up her mind what she wants to do. The handsome and debonair Franklyn West is available…so is the ever-present Nate Knighton.

In this tangled web of best-laid plans, who will end up with whom? Will Haley find true love? Will Amanda realize what her heart's known all along?

A lively tale of plans gone awry, affection in unexpected places, and the ultimate power of faith and love.

About the Author
Debra White Smith has more than 40 books to her credit and over 1 million books in print. The author of Romancing Your Husband (more than 100,000 copies sold) and the popular Jane Austen series, Debra's award-winning writing, entertaining humor, and solid biblical knowledge have made her a reader favorite and a sought-after conference speaker. Debra holds an M.A. in English.

Customer Reviews

Emma Retold
Amanda, the fifth book in the Austen series, is a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma. Amanda decides that it is her duty to save her friend Haley from a doomed relationship with Roger and to set her up with someone more suitable. This leads her to introducing Haley to the new pastor in town Pastor Eldridge. Meanwhile Amanda's best friend Nate begins to think more of Amanda than just a friend, but Amanda's too busy with her matchmaking to notice this plus she's also interested in the new guy in town Franklyn. But when the pastor beings to notice Amanda and Haley with Nate, it looks like Amanda's plans need some retouching!

I've always enjoyed Jane Austen's stories and so far have enjoyed Debra White Smith's modern retelling of them especially the Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility remakes. Emma is one of Austen's most well known stories and it ranks as my 3rd favorite. So I was looking forward to reading this book to compare it. I did enjoy seeing the story with all the elements from the original novel incorporated. I liked learning about the Australian culture as well. I did fell though that characters were very stock and I didn't get to understand them completely. Amanda's reasons for Haley ditching Roger are very poor and Haley seems very weak not to stand up to her. Meanwhile Nate never seems to be able to stop being at a loss of words in front of Amanda which got annoying after a while. The main problem I have about books that "retell" another story is that the real book will get mentioned in the retelling. In this book, the characters bring up the story of Emma several times. Why then can they not see that what is going on in their lives is EXACTLY what happens in the book? I mean don't the characters see that everything is completely parallel to the story? This books was also the hardest of the series to picture in a modern setting. I think, though, that the reason may be because I had just watched the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma right before reading this book.

This book was an enjoyable read. If you liked the other Austen books, pick this one up.

Emma? Not really.
If I hadn't been told that this was a 'modern retelling of Emma,' I would never have noticed a resemblance. It's a very tenuous connection. The movie "Clueless" stuck closer to the story as Jane Austen told it.

The reason I like Jane Austen's "Emma" is because Emma is so sure she knows what love is (for other people, mind you), that she doesn't recognize it until it hits her (and Mr. Knightly) hard at the end. I also love that her friendship with and scoldings from Mr. Knightly help her grow into someone worthy of that fine gentleman's love. In Amanda, Nate (Knightly) realizes that he loves Amanda from the start of the book and is frankly a wuss in how he handles it. Amanda is also interested in Nate from the start (though she tries to deny it) instead of realizing it only at the end. Also, Amanda doesn't grow up a lick in this book. I'd give this book about 1.5 stars in how closely it sticks to the heart of Jane Austen's book.

However, if you take this book on it's own and don't compare it to Emma, I'd say it's a very funny story and better than many Christian romance stories out there. I do find it silly that Amanda and Nate, these life-long friends, don't say, 'gee, I love him/her for their fine character qualities' more than once but obsess about their physical attraction throughout the book. I can understand focusing so much on the physical looks if you just met the person but isn't that a bit odd for life-long friends? However, I'd give this book 4 stars when ignoring any comparisons with Emma.

Sweet!
Sweet, laughable entertainment! Amanda Priebe is a young, powerful executive--too busy for love herself, but plenty of time to meddle in the lives of her closest friends.

Her friends, however, have issues of their own. Haley, her secretary and best friend, is totally subject to Amanda's suggestions. Mason Eldridge, respectable on the surface, has an evil agenda of his own. Family friend and sensible ally, Nate Knighton keeps secrets that need to be told.

Hidden jealousies, obvious attractions, and the confusion that results from ineffective communication make this book funny yet very, very sweet.

Amanda is the contemporary telling of Jane Austen's story Emma.

Armchair Interviews says: Sweet romantic entertainment!