Actor, cook and author Tess Masters comes from a family of storytellers and book lovers. Today, Tess shares some of these stories on her popular BlenderGirl blog, where she offers countless fun and healthy recipes for life on-the-go. Her first book, THE BLENDER GIRL, is a cookbook full of some of her favorite recipes for meals, snacks and desserts. In her Holiday Author Blog, Tess describes her long relationship with Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and how it helped mend her broken heart.
I was born into a family of voracious readers, and the tradition of giving and receiving books is central to our love language. I am an actor, presenter and writer; my sister works in film and television; my mother is a teacher; and my father is a movie buff. We are all storytellers and story lovers, and rejoice in being time travelers of sorts, journeying to new worlds and meeting new friends in the books we exchange.
I hold so many memories of holiday reading in my heart, but the two most poignant memories are all wrapped up in receiving a copy of one glorious book, my favorite novel, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.
My sister and I share a healthy obsession with Jane Austen and her heroines, particularly Elizabeth Bennett. We grew up imagining ourselves as Lizzy and Jane, and in true Austen fashion, getting everything our hearts desired.
So, when I fell madly in love and moved my life to America to live with my husband, never did I dream that I would get my heart broken in the cruelest way imaginable. I was utterly devastated, and the pain was almost unbearable. I wanted to be in any story other than my own.
I stumbled home to Australia into the loving embrace of my family, who were at a loss as to how to console me. When her own words failed, my sister wrapped up her dog-eared copy of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in the hopes that Mr. Darcy and Lizzy would comfort me with theirs. Every day for two months I lived in the halls of Pemberley and Longbourn, and fell in love with hope again.
I returned to the U.S. and started a new life in Los Angeles, where I met my own Mr. Darcy, a man who made his living narrating audiobooks. On our first date, he asked me what my favorite book was, and I told him. Some time later, on our first Christmas together, I found an embossed copy of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE wrapped up on my nightstand, and every evening that holiday season, the greatest narrator in the world wooed me in true Jane Austen style, carrying me forward into my new life through the words of my favorite story, and it’s with Mr. Brick. Scott Brick.
