"There is a trick to spinning lies...you have to embed the truth in there."
Jane Eyre rewritten: Jane as a cynical envious, devious kleptomaniac, Mr. Rochester as Eddie, the contractor with a mysterious past/possible murderer, and Mrs Rochester as a southern belle/mogul. While it sometimes reads like a Harlequin Romance, it held my attention. The last 10% had a bit of a convoluted twist. Therefore, 4 out of 5 stars. ( )

I didn’t give it a four because I didn’t feel it was a retelling but more so a good story using elements of a great story. While I understand this to be a contemporary retelling, some stories are not meant to be brought into a contemporary setting and can lose luster by uber fans of the originals. I decided to restart the story after 7 chapters and remove Jane Eyre from my thinking all together. If I didn’t, this would have been 2 stars.

That said, I enjoyed this story. It was a story I did not want to put down. There were a few plot twist, some I should have known were coming and some I absolutely had no clue would take place. I could have done without all the F bombs and wish authors would understand an F bomb doesn’t make you an adult writer.

After discussing the book with friends I wanted to look at what could cast similarities between stories. I look back at the literature study I did back in my forst round of college.

To me, Jane is two totally different people in each story. The only similarity being the name and having a rough upbringing. I find the original Jane much stronger.

I don’t feel John is represented in the same way and is just a way to smug the Christian view as a lot of books are doing now a days. I do think the original St John is a little grimy and off, not as saint like as many try to make the would be missionary out to be. In this “retelling”, John is made to be thought of someone who would harm or sexually advance on Jane without her permission when in the original, St John’s morals would not allow him to do such things. This all said, the character could surround the grimy cousin John Reed, in which suit would fit the grim he portrayed towards a young Jane. But it feels like they are trying to mix the two.

Making Adele a dog made me laugh ...

As you can see, I am a fan of the original much more than the new story but enjoyed The Wife Upstairs enough to keep it on my shelves and reread it at some point. ( )

Sorta surprising but the ending was only ok ( )

I liked the twisty and turny mystery. I also really found how this story was loosely inspired by jane erye it also a gothic elements that i enjoyed. I also really enjoyed the various POV that we got and thought it was thriller that i did not not see the ending or twists coming. It was super fast pace story, but all of the characters were super unlikeable and that did hinder my enjoyment, but it reminded of the a list but with murder!! Really liked listening to this book as well! ( )

I liked the twisty and turny mystery. I also really found how this story was loosely inspired by jane erye it also a gothic elements that i enjoyed. I also really enjoyed the various POV that we got and thought it was thriller that i did not not see the ending or twists coming. It was super fast pace story, but all of the characters were super unlikeable and that did hinder my enjoyment, but it reminded of the a list but with murder!! Really liked listening to this book as well! ( )