Book # 44 Cassandra & Jane by Jill Pitkeathley. Since I am an avid Jane Austen fan, I can never get enough of reading about her in novel form. This story is from the viewpoint of her older sister, Cassandra. The story runs true to the ideas Jane proposes in Pride and Prejudice and the other stories Jane wrote. For instance, the fact that women were expected to marry so someone could take care of them. If they were unmarried they were expected to take care of elderly parents, sibling's children, and run households especially when women died so frequently in childbirth. Her writing reflected the status of women. Jane and Cassandra become best friends as both suffer from painful romantic loss and total dependence on relatives. Of course, Jane's career as an author was frowned upon and it was a struggle to get her work published. Cassandra vows to keep her sister's image pristine and burns all correspondence that might be taken as negative. The two sisters share ideas, opinions, and secrets about love, loss, and the general family drama of women in this time period. Nothing too heavy or intellectual, so I really enjoyed this fast read.