A Breath of Eyre

Adult author Mont’s (Free to a Good Home) enjoyable YA debut, first in a planned series based on classic literature, introduces 16-year-old Emma Townsend, a student at the elite Lockwood Prep. At school, Emma and her roommate are taunted for being scholarship students, and she has a crush on her English teacher as well as a confusing friendship with Gray, a reformed bad boy. When Emma is struck by lightning and wakes up in the novel Jane Eyre as the governess herself, the memories of her life at Lockwood soon fade as she falls in love with the dashing Mr. Rochester, “two lost souls trapped in a gloomy mansion together—one haunted by a past he could not relinquish, the ­other haunted by a past she could not remember.” Emma senses that she has ­unfinished business in both worlds (in which characters cleverly mirror each ­other), and she travels between them to discover truths about her past and future. Brontë fans should appreciate this romantic, time-slipping reimagining that addresses finding a voice in writing and in life. Ages 14–up. Agent: April Eberhardt, Kimberley Cameron & Associates. (Apr.)