'“There is one place,” said the voice in my head, “where you have always found consolation and refuge in times of need: your imagination."'

Syrie James has taken the abundant resources available about the Brontes, and turned it into an amazing fictional account of their lives, as seen through the eyes of sister Charlotte. Not actually in a daily diary form (for which I'm grateful - I'm not a fan of those!), the set-up here is Charlotte looking back over her life, from the dreadful boarding school that would later serve as inspiration in her novels to how she and her sisters started writing and their brother's mental health issues. This book takes you into the Brontes world; I was a little sorry to see it end.
( )

Intriguing historical fiction carries the plot through the seemingly never-to-end 6 to 8 year prelude of Charlotte's marriage to Arthur Nicholls. Syria James causes Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their father to become lively and imaginative characters whose quirks and prejudices are wildly out in the open after the sisters finally share their writings. ( )

I've read so many of these Brontë-inspired works that they all seem to mesh together. I can't remember if it felt more like Charlotte and Emily: a novel of the Brontës or The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë or maybe Romancing Miss Brontë: a novel. Yes, that's the one. I think. I'm OK with them all blurring together into a shared history. These have become a nice warm blanket I can get out and snuggle in when the mood strikes.
At times the writing felt a little more Austen than Brontë. Charlotte sometimes feels Austen-like to me. But it was very engaging and I felt myself blissfully immersed in Haworth again. ( )

Bittersweet. Sometimes read a bit like a Jane Austen novel, which was strange, because that really wasn't the Bronte style. But so interesting to see the whole family story and the publication story, and the love story, all in one place. I'm glad I listened. Also, the narrator is one of my favorite narrators, which is how I found this book. ( )

I rated this book 4 stars, but only when viewing it as a work of fiction. It is a very romanticized re telling of her life. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Although I expected there to be more about her writing, but I guess there is only a limited amount of material to work with.

I do recommend this book, but don't expect it to reflect what her life actually looked like. ( )