Of course, Jane Austen is a 5 ++++++. The part that's been added to her unfinished work, though, was so so. It did keep me reading. Not surprisingly, though, it just wasn't up to Austen's standard both plot and writing style-wise.

Read two versions, neither very good

Note: Goodreads does not seem to recognize that the completions of Sanditon by Shapiro and by Dobbs/Telscombe/Another Lady (and possibly others?) are different books. Reviews are thus mixed together. Keep this in mind when reading reviews.

I'm very intrigued by these classic novels that haven't been finished and the opportunity to discuss and think about what was meant to happen. I read this particular copy because it was the one available at my library, but I don't think I would have if I had my choice based on the reviews. While I didn't dislike it as much as many other readers did, I certainly enjoyed Austen's section much more than the second half. I enjoyed the location of this one and Charlotte herself. Might be intrigued to look for other endings to see if any fit into my heart a bit better.

Juliette Shapiro is not Jane Austen, and I think Austen fans will be able to tell precisely at which point the original work ends. To me the "completion" felt clunky, focused on side characters and new characters without actual character development.

At the same time, I now want to read all of the varieties of Sanditon, even though I think I may not like them, either. I might just revisit some Austen favorites.

I'm in a group that does a monthly challenge. For April the challenge was to read the books I’ve been saving for a rainy day, with the intent being that I find something I love. This was one of those books.

After watching the first season of Sanditon on PBS a couple of years ago I was very disappointed when I found out it was canceled. Now, I knew the TV adaptation wasn't very true to Jane Austen's book, because it was obvious that some of the elements that were added into the story would never have been written by Jane Austen, but nevertheless, I enjoyed the show and wanted it to continue after that terrible, heartbreaking cliffhanger. Imagine my delight when my wish came true and it was rescued and given another season! Then imagine my disappointment when the actor that played Sidney wouldn't come back to finish the story! So I gave up on the TV version. I decided not to watch the second season and instead decided to try this book in hopes that it would give me closure to the story of Charlotte and Sidney.

There was a bit of confusion for me concerning the finished versions of Sanditon. I did not realize that there were multiple versions that were completed. I picked this one up thinking it was the only one, only to find out differently afterwards. There is one other in particular that I want to read that is finished by Anne Telscombe, referred to on some of the covers as "Another Lady" I think it would be fun to compare the two different versions.

As for this version of the work, I feel like this gave me some good closure, and I enjoyed listening to the audio version of it. I do recommend it, but keep in mind that it's not going to be perfect. No finished version of another author's work ever is. I have to say though, that not knowing where the original story left off, I couldn't tell at what point Juliette's part of the story took over.

Review also posted at Writings of a Reader.

This completed version of Sandition is vastly inferior to the version published by Anne Telscombe & Marie Dobbs.
The liberty taken with the narration style!! Austen brought indirect dialogue to life, but she did not adress the "reader" directly, using a misguided attempt at humor, falling flat because we don't side with the joke.
We love Prinny, but he has no place in this book. Austen would never have mentioned him, especially not while calling him Prinny.
Shapiro doesn't write a lot more than the original book, but when she does... Anachronism after anachronism... From reference to psychological terms to mentions of people - I kid you not - kissing just after becoming engaged, yes, kissing, written explicitely on page. Completely ridiculous.
Charlotte was given too short a story, leaving the romance arc underdevelopped & the characters having learned nothing, not owning up to their misguided prior behavior.
The rest of the book, though. Pure fantasy. An outlandish tale about the serving class which would have never been written by Austen.
Altogether, this was very disappointing.
I recommand you not read it. Read the other one.

It started out strong and interesting but ended weakly. You could tell where it was no longer Austen's work as the story sagged quite a bit and drifted into the rather ridiculous and far fetched. There was also little depth to the story line - you were presented with facts, but no longer had a fleshed out story so what plot there was was hard to follow and understand.