Jo Baker Longbourn (Paperback) - Common Paperback – 2014

I really, really wanted to love this book. This book's greatest issue about the Bennett's servants is that, well, they're servants. Their lives were greatly restricted in terms of interaction with their employers and society in general, due to the undeclared "caste system" that existed in England well into the twentieth century. Their daily lives aren't that interested, and reliving the Bennett sisters' antics through their eyes just isn't that interesting.Sarah is the product of her time, and thus the writer's limitations make her decisions impossible not to anticipate and nothing we haven't seen before in hundreds of other Regency novels. Ms. Baker is a talented author and does her best, but this material just can't be developed into anything new or gripping. I could no more bring myself to care about these characters than the rest of their society did.Sorry, I can't recommend this one. Even hardcore fans of Austen will find this a chore to read.