Dutiful Jane Re, a half-Korean/half-American orphan living in Flushing, Queens, and working in her strict uncle's grocery store, tries to escape her lot in life by becoming the au pair for the Mazer-Farleys, English professors in Brooklyn who have adopted a Chinese girl. She soon falls in love with Mr. Ed Farley, despite the existence of Beth Mazer, his feminist wife. An emergency trip to Seoul because of a death in the family pushes her to consider her choices, especially her budding affair with her boss. The contrasts among the different environments in which Jane finds herselfher uncle's grocery store, the Mazer-Farleys's Brooklyn neighborhood, and modern-day Korea are vivid and pronounced and reflect the different cultures that make up and sometimes cause conflict within the heroine's identity. The young woman's struggle to find the balance between what her family and tradition expect from her and what she hopes to fashion for herself will ring true for teens. The witty and charming protagonist will win over readers. Pair with Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea for a nuanced look at Jane Eyre retellings. VERDICT This fun, contemporary, and moving reimagining of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre offers an honest look at life between two cultures and the importance of living for oneself Shelley Diaz , School Library Journal

Jane never felt she belonged. A half-white, half-Korean orphan living with her aunt and uncle in the immigrant neighborhood of Flushing, Queens, at the start of the twenty-first century, she reluctantly accepts an au pair position after another job offer disappears. In this fresh retelling of Jane Eyre, Jane finds that her new life ring for the adopted Chinese daughter of a feminist academic up for tenure and her high-school-English-teacher husband ens the way for Jane to uncover her past and determine her future. While Park has adopted Brontë hallmarks such as addressing the reader directly, the story line is distinctly modern. This Jane is ever-conscious of her outsider status, her few forays into self-indulgence having met with instant uncertainty, as her stern uncle's voice rings through her head. Park has a gift for presenting scenes laden with the Korean sense of nunchi, or the ability to read a situation to determine how to act. As Jane travels to Brooklyn and Seoul and back again, she finds her voice and learns to forge her own place in the world. An excellent choice for book clubs.