Jane, Unlimited

Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore, 463 pages

Jane is a young woman adrift: her closest relative, Aunt Magnolia, died a few months back, and Jane dropped out of college, yet still works at the campus bookstore when she's not building artistic umbrellas in her tiny bedroom. That's Jane's life when the ridiculously wealthy Kiran Thrash stops by and invites Jane out to Tu Reviens, the Thrash family mansion that sits on its own private island, and turns Jane's world... well, not upside-down, but perhaps on a roller coaster that spins and makes breakneck turns at random. Cobbled together from seemingly random architectural styles, Tu Reviens is more than it seems, and one decision makes all the difference for Jane's future.

This book is more than a little odd, and I'm still mulling it over. I love Jane's umbrella artistry, and Jasper, the resident basset hound at Tu Reviens, but I felt like the multiple, non-intersecting storylines were a disservice to the secondary characters, all of whom had the potential to be fully formed and three-dimensional, but instead were little more than fancy window-dressing. Same goes for the house itself. I loved Cashore's earlier Graceling trilogy, so I had high hopes for this one. Sadly, it didn't quite measure up.