Review: A Breath of Eyre (Unbound, #1) by Eve Marie Mont

In this stunning, imaginative novel, Eve Marie Mont transports her modern-day heroine into the life of Jane Eyre to create a mesmerizing story of love, longing, and finding your place in the world... Emma Townsend has always believed in stories-the ones she reads voraciously, and the ones she creates. Perhaps it's because she feels like an outsider at her exclusive prep school, or because her stepmother doesn't come close to filling the void left by her mother's death. And her only romantic prospect-apart from a crush on her English teacher-is Gray Newman, a long-time friend who just adds to Emma's confusion. But escape soon arrives in an old leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre...

Reading of Jane's isolation sparks a deep sense of kinship. Then fate takes things a leap further when a lightning storm catapults Emma right into Jane's body and her nineteenth-century world. As governess at Thornfield, Emma has a sense of belonging she's never known-and an attraction to the brooding Mr. Rochester. Now, moving between her two realities and uncovering secrets in both, Emma must decide whether her destiny lies in the pages of Jane's story, or in the unwritten chapters of her own...

"...the same way I could lose myself in a good book...a willingness to surrender to something greater than oneself."

Normally I'm not one to quote from a book I'm reviewing.  No particular reason why necessarily but usually I'm not one to highlight lines of text for a later date.  But this quote above found within the pages of Mont's work I just couldn't pass up.  When I came across this line of text while reading this book I was struck dumb.  I thought to myself, wow, this author gets it!  Not every reader loves to write, and vice versa, but after reading this line of text I realized that Mont must be an avid reader and bibliophile like myself because her description of being able to completely lose yourself while reading a book you enjoy to the point where i can become all consuming can only be understood by someone who has experienced it for themselves.

As someone who had read Bronte's Jane Eyre and while I appreciated the work for the classic it is, I have to admit that it was never one of my favorites.  So because of that I wasn't sure what to expect or if I'd end up enjoying this story but I did.  Mont actually ended up bringing new life to this classic tale and had me looking at it in a whole new light.  Readers are forced to meet the same characters a time or two throughout this book and maybe see them in a different way or through a unique vantage point.  Emma takes readers along with her while she travels back and forth between two worlds while she learns new things, discovers new truths and must make decisions that she might be not ready to face.

I highly enjoyed this series opener and only wish I hadn't taken so much time to give it a try.  I was drawn into the pages immediately and felt myself not wanting the story to end.  Much to my delight it was the only the series opener and Mont has another two books lined up for the series for her readers to come back to.  I can't wait to dive right into the second installment, A Touch of Scarlet, to see how things continue on for Emma and the rest of Mont's stellar characters.

I gave A Breath of Eyre (Unbound, #1), 4 shamrocks!!!!