Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed a murder mystery ahead of Halloween: A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales.

Book: My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Harper Audio
Publication date: 2018

Source: audio e-book borrowed from the library

Summary: Ella Duran pursues her lifelong dream when she receives a Rhodes scholarship and travels to Oxford to study English literature. On the day that she arrives in England, she gets her ideal job offer to work as a political strategist for her favorite presidential candidate. She negotiates a deal where she can do both — work remotely during her year at Oxford and return home just as the presidential campaign heats up with the summer.

Then, she encounters someone who was never part of her dreams. Poetry professor Jamie Davenport is arrogant and handsome in equal measures. He also turns out to be smart and funny in just the way that appeals to Ella’s previously non-existent romantic side. Will love derail her plans and her rapidly rising career?

Thoughts: I loved My Oxford Year as a way to vicariously experience an academic year in Oxford, something that I will never experience in real life.

We get to greet the porter at the college gate, climb the narrow stone stairs to lodgings, and experience a formal dinner in a dining hall that looks like the one at Hogwarts. Ella makes friends who add to her very English experience. Naturally, they gather in pubs, including the Eagle and Child, famous as the local frequented by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Reading My Oxford Year reminded me that Oxford hosts summer programs for tourists who want to spend a week pretending that they are a student at this 1200-year-old institution of learning. That will be something to build a fantasy trip around when they release their 2025 course offerings — and maybe even consider implementing in real life.

My Oxford Year is Julia Whelan’s debut novel. She was a child actor, most well-known for her role as one of the daughters in the ABC family drama, Once and Again which ran for three seasons beginning in 1999. She attended Middlebury College, participating in a junior year abroad program at Oxford. Then, she became an audiobook narrator. Naturally, she narrates this novel and it’s a wonderful listening experience!

Appeal: As I researched Julia Whelan, I realized that I encountered her previously, as the narrator of Educated, the memoir by Tara Westover. I really liked that one, too.

I listened to Julia Whelan’s second book first — she is the author and narrator of Thank You for Listening, about an audiobook narrator. That was very funny, and I got such a kick out of telling people that I was listening to an audiobook about an audiobook narrator. My Oxford Year is much more serious. I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it first, since I was expecting My Oxford Year to be funnier than it was.

So, that’s my recommendation for you. Read or listen to My Oxford Year for the pleasure of experiencing Oxford as a student, plus the strong coming-of-age story with romantic elements. Then, listen to Thank You for Listening for the sheer pleasure of learning about the world of audiobooks through another coming-of-age story, also with romantic elements and a lot of comedy.