The Awards


An Excellent Read

The JA Book  Award  is for excellence in quality of narrative, natural dialogue, the overall plot structure, characterisation, and that wonderful word *Austenesque* as nuance of old England in manners, mores, and loose morals where appropriate. 

We are not so blinkered as to reject steamy romance scenes some readers may rate as un-Jane Austen or un-Heyer. In the lifetime of Miss Austen and Ms Heyer, novels of more earthy context existed. In today's world of Fifty Shades of Grey, [not at all to my taste] a well-written love scene devoid of excess in crude language is A okay.    

There are times when a JAFF novel is an excellent read but deviates too far from original characters and then falls within the JA Complimentary categorisation. However, both Awards grant merit for the books listed.      


A Good Read


The JA Complimentary is for work bearing good narrative, good dialogue, good overall plot, and characterisation, excellent or good historical facts, and that wonderful word *Austenesque* . The novel though has factors which prevent a full award.  

Explanation: The difference comes from observance of minor noted elements. 
1) Observations may pick up on hesitancy in narrative, where reader flow jars to a halt in two short sentences instead of a well punctuated free flowing sentence. 
2) Ill-defined paragraphs, where consistency of thread is lost. 
3) Mismatched dialogue, where a character of formal dialogue suddenly morphs to informal and consistency in character is lost. 
4) Plot holes where a part goes missing and is never recovered, or needless explanation and repetition arises as where perhaps the author fears a reader may not understand or remember previous incidents. 
Last but not least, the Complimentary defines a book as a good read.        



The Award for a Typically Classical, Swashbuckling, Georgian Period Read.



The Award for a Typically Classical Genteel or Swashbuckling Regency Period Read.

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