Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (19/81)

The story’s unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

Well this is the book which is to blame for me not reading too many books this month ... I loved the cover and it is also hard backed .... With uneven pages which I loved !!!! .... I have had this sitting on my shelf for some time and have been itching to dive in ....

I cannot tell you how much I loved this book !!! I totally got lost in the Gothic period ..... And the reason it took me soooooo long to read it was because I just took my time and thoroughly got absorbed into the story and characters ..... So much so that I was actually saddened when I was finished and wanted to read it again !!! I love it when that happens !!!

The story is about a young girl called Catherine who really is coming of age and has lead a quite a happy sheltered life but this all changes when she goes to Bath for the first time .... You will have characters you will dislike and characters that you will fall in love with .... I have to say Henry is one of those characters !!! He is gentle, charming and funny and you do get swooped away !!! ..... The whole book is funny, lighthearted and makes you pause for thought that you should never jump to conclusions, because you might just be wrong !!!

I know that people love Mr Darcy ( I hasten to add that I am one of them ) but I just loved Henry Tilney from the moment he was mentioned ....... It must be the romantic in me !!! ....

This book has everything a girl could ask for Castles, Adventure, Romance and Danger !!!! With an adorable leading lady in Catherine and a most Charming leading Man in Henry !!! ... So if you haven't ever read this book before .... Lock your bedroom door ..... Get your husband to watch the kids and curl up with a wonderful book .... You will not be disappointed !!

Well I couldn't leave you without a couple of my favourite Quotes ...

"No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine"

"No young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman's love is declared, it must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamt of her"

"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pang of disappointed love"

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid"

"I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible"

I rate this book 5 *****

If you have never seen the BBC production of it ... it is well worth the view .... And you can swoon over Henry with a box of chocolates ....