Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams

Seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.'
Jane Austen, Emma

What would happen if Jane Austen's Emma was set in the twenty-first century?

Emma Woodhouse is a caring, considerate sort of girl who is well aware of her own good fortune and talent for getting the best out of other people. Which is why, when she meets someone with untapped potential, she puts all her own interests to one side and sets out to change their lives for them. Whether they like it or not.

When Emma's childhood friend, George Knightley, needs help at his family's country house hotel over the summer, she sees the perfect opportunity to improve the lot of her new friend, the shy and unfortunate Harriet Smith. But as one after another of Emma's secret schemes go horribly wrong, she finds that nothing (and no one) is as simple as it seems.

'Delightful . . . Rushton adroitly creates a world of tinsel celebrity and shallow self-satisfaction, contrasting it with the humility needed for real self-knowledge and a truly satisfying life.'
Books for Keeps