I think your view on this book will depend on what you expect going in. If you expect a straight Jeeves/Wooster novel, you will probably be disappointed. Because this is not only not that, it not a Wodehouse. For how could it be? If you know going in that it is a pastiche (although a very good one) and adds a faintly ridiculous spying storyline that would never really appear in a true Wodehouse, then you are bound to enjoy it, for it is done very well.

It's a hard balance to not over-do the Wooster-isms, but Ben Schott does it very well. He also doesn't shy away from it; at times I really did believe I was reading Bertie's voice. There is the necessary lightness of touch and wry humour that is essential to immerse the reader in the sun drenched world of Jeeves and Wooster, with the structure and storyline necessary for a book released in 2020.

I enjoyed spending time in the expanded world Schott has created. My thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for an ARC of this novel.

Lovely, humorous story. The author has captured the wit of Wodehouse very well. Written with real warmth and affection for the characters.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

'Jeeves and the Leap of Faith' by Ben Schott takes Bertie Wooster, and his famous 'gentleman's gentleman', on an adventure involving crazy aunts, the Drone's club, horse racing, espionage, night climbing and jewellery thieves.

I chose this novel to read and review, because I needed something to cheer me up. This certainly did that. I have to admit I've never read any of PG Woodhouse's novels, so I am unable to say how much Schott manages to emulate them, but the story really hooked me in and I enjoyed the clever wit, which at times had me re-reading paragraphs to appreciate.

When everything is a bit scary and uncertain, Jeeves and Wooster step up.

Ok so I liked this, and it is undoubtedly Wodhouseian in tone and the style is there, but it just felt like it was too long - the plot was too complicated and there was too much of it. One of the things I love about the original books is their light tone and brevity - they breeze in, make you laugh and then they're gone and you want more. But it's a minor quibble, because it is fun.

Schott has captured the warmth and wit of Wodehouse's original characters to produce a thoroughly enjoyable read. There are plenty of shenanigans, red herrings and donning of disguises to keep you smiling. The bumbling Wooster endears as he attempts, to assist marriage proposals (his and others), infiltrate a crime syndicate and save his beloved club by means of an audacious gambling plan. If you enjoyed the original series this will tick all the right boxes.

Quelle horreur! The Drones Club is on the brink of collapse and members must cough up or face nowhere to play Boot-Finding. They launch a cockamamie accumulator on the gee-gees (Jeeves' brainwave), no, wait, or are they on the rob sporting spotty cummerbunds? To further confound matters (yes, please!) Gussie has lady trouble, Spode is an absolute nightmare, there's a gossip columnist on the loose and Bertie has been enlisted to save Europe from Fascism!

Suffocated for months behind a Covid-fighting fabric mask, Jeeves and the leap of faith was a breath of fresh air. Full of the same quirky characters and their outrageous antics, bon-mots, ridiculous lifestyles and knee-slapping humour, Ben Schott has returned in good fun form with another Jeeves and Wooster espionage caper.

Ben Schott is the reincarnated voice of Wodehouse in glorious technicolour and this book will have you in stitches. There are complicated-not-complicated plotlines, hare-brained schemes, fortune-tellers, red herrings, drinking games, malapropisms and a healthy dose of Aunts. Bertie falls in love with a strong-willed and able heroine who swings a mean croquet mallet, and is there love in store for the stoical Jeeves? 'It's called the Secret Service for a reason...'

The city of Cambridge is the setting for the story's international intrigue and illicit goings-on. I'm a librarian, a cruciverbalist and a lover of indexes. My heart was a-flutter at the introduction of a librarian as peacherino for Gussie and raced full-tilt when I beheld the luscious Notes on the Text that appears at the end and performed a triple Axle at the sight of the full-grid crossword!

The story ends with a delicious cliffhanger. Can't wait for Jeeves, Bertie, all and sundry to return and clear it all up (and make another fine mess in the offing). Brilliant good fun.

This was a delightful homage to P.G. Wodehouse. I loved the variety this book had to offer; every turn of the page offered something new and exciting as Jeeves and Wooster went deep into the world of espionage and escapades, with plenty of humour to boot. It was an excellent way to spend a rainy day!

Ben Schott's ability to reproduce dear old Plum is quite remarkable. The fun, the silliness, the word play, the overwhelming affection for the original makes his homages a joy to read. Jeeves, Wooster and all the old supporting cast are perfectly rendered and I enjoy the new additions. Engaging slightly more seriously with the spectre of fascism also reduces the slight discomfort of the originals as well as getting Bertie into some hilarious scrapes

Jeeves and the Leap of Faith is a new Wodehouse homage novel featuring Jeeves & Wooster by Ben Schott. Released 15th Oct 2020 by Penguin Random House UK on their Hutchinson imprint, it's 352 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

Given the dreary, soul-grinding, wearying mess that is the state of the world today, I've depended more than ever on the respite offered by true pleasure reading. I've found over the last year that I've tended toward cookery books (since I have time and always fancied learning to cook), light fantasy, cozy mysteries, and other lightreading. I've been so thankful for Mr. Schott's brilliant homages to the (previously) inimitable Wodehouse that I've read and re-read both the canonical P.G. Wodehouse and the new books several times over the previous months.

Every time I've picked up Schott's new Jeeves & Wooster books I've noticed something new I'd missed in previous reads. The pacing is perfect, the wit is rapier keen, and the dialogue pitch perfect. This book could not possibly be better or offered at a better time. The author's grasp of Wodehouse's writing is sometimes eerily precise with the added codicil of his being able to lampoon both the interwar period in Britain *and* current events without bashing it over the reader's head. This works perfectly well as a standalone. It (as the prior volume, Jeeves and the King of Clubs) ends on something of a cliff-hanger, so I am assuming and hoping there's more in store in the near future.

Brilliant and brilliantly funny, and I say, it's a civilised antidote to the current unpleasantness, what?

Five stars. Looking forward to many many more.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I love this type of books. And I love this type of humor: simply put I find it brilliant! Somehow I've come to associate this type of humor with Britain. I'd say this is typical British humor made famous by the likes of P.G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Jerome K. Jerome etc.
Despite being what one would call the audience for this novel, I really, really struggled with it for the first 60-70 pages. So much so that I was determined to give up on it. It was my guilt that pushed me to read "just another few pages", which turned out to be a fortunate event as Bertie finally departed for Cambridge and I felt as I was finally reading something worthwhile. The reminder of the book is a string of exquisite scenes and neat turn of phrases. In particular the scenes featuring aunt Agatha which really made me laugh out loud( writing this, I feel like re-reading all of them!!).

I'm amazed that somebody should pick up Jeeves and Wooster where Mr Wodehouse left off and do it so well. There are a few things that I felt didn't quite work as well as the original. I thought that the spy story was just a bit too complicated and contrived. I was very surprised that Bertie, who always reveled in a life of indolence in the original books, should prove to be so athletic. Finally, it was a bit rummy to find not one single example of the adjective 'rummy', such a feature of Bertie's speech.

What I did love were the antics of the clubs, the hilariously-inverted Hysteron Proteron and the Drones of course with their Boot-Finding competition; the major contribution of the incomparable Gussie Fink-Nottle; Aunt Agatha on fine form and as demanding and unreasonable as ever; and Bertie's attempt at saying grace in Latin which ended in total uproar.

Thank you to the author for doing a marvelous job of keeping Jeeves and Wooster alive, and for the crossword at the end which I might just have a go at.

This entertaining romp could have been subtitled an interesting/busy/adventurous/thrilling week, since it is all of these. Would that I had Bertie or Jeeves hard by that they might conjure forth a suitable adjective. In essence, Bertie, in his role as a member of the Junior Ganymede, an arm of British Intelligence, is despatched to Cambridge to recover a photograph being used for blackmail purposes. Disguised as the Reverend Wooster, he is placed as a mature student into Gonville and Caius within which ventures, including the event to which the title alludes, occur. Jeeves. meanwhile, is ensconced in splendour at The University Arms Hotel, to which Bertie reverts when possible.
Along the way a number of pertinent or irrelevant incidents are sprinkled as vignettes, featuring what followers of the Woodhouse Canon might recognise as les suspects habituels (admittedly that would be a decade before the saying became common, but Jeeves has always been prescient). Gussie, Aunt Agatha, Madeleine, Spode, Monty, Milly, the whole panoply of Drones, provide scope for tales of love, lost and found, gambling, bizarre dinners, strange and convoluted games; not to mention the episodes involving some significant new characters. All the threads appear to be approaching satisfactory knots when developments in the last few pages suddenly leave us with, by my count, at least five cliff-hanging endings.
An interesting feature is Bertie’s discovery of The Times Crossword and his vain attempts to work out the clues. To an aficionado of cryptic crosswords, the inclusion of such clues in books can be annoying because the clues are often poor but, in this case, Ben Schott has produced a whole crossword (provided in an appendix), with advice from The Times’s editor. Given that this book is a confection of Ben Shott’s, a miscellany of other detailed appendices provide references back into the Canon, plus historical links and Latin translations, so no reader will feel lost in a world of which they know little.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Jeeves and the Leap of Faith by Ben Schott is the second in his Jeeves and Wooster stories.  Bertie and Jeeves are still rubbing along together, and there are hijinks at the Drones club, which Jeeves needs to help save.  There are friends in love, and other people who you desperately don't want to bump into.

I haven't read any Jeeves and Wooster books for ages, but I remember loving them, and I really feel like Ben Schott has continued the hilarity.  Jeeves is still the one with the brains, and Bertie Wooster continues to lack them for the most part, but he's not quite as foolish as I remember, or as I think of Hugh Laurie being, and that's not a bad thing.

I really enjoyed this book, and was laughing out loud on more than one occasion.  If you loved P.G. Wodehouse, I think you'll be pleased at how true to him Ben Schott is, including his references at the back to Wodehouse.

 Jeeves and the Leap of Faith  was published on 15th October 2020, and is available to buy from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and your  local independent bookshop .

You can follow Ben Schott on  Twitter ,  Instagram  and his  website .

I was given this book in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Random House Cornerstone

I had such a fun time reading this book. And I was more than impressed with the author's skill of keeping up with what has gone before for our dynamic duo - read the bit at the back for all the interconnections. There are also quite a few familiar faces to reconnect with, good and bad!
So... where to start - there's so much going on for Jeeves and Wooster to juggle. We have the Aunt who wants to marry Bertie off, his past enemies coming out of the woodwork to taunt him further, a Mayfair club which is on its uppers, and a spy ring. And if that wasn't enough, Bertie is also wanting to decorate his bedroom. What could possibly go wrong...?
They say that when authors die, their series should stop. Piffle I say. Balderdash to that. I have read a couple of series that have been continued by various authors and have to admit that, although occasionally hit and miss, it's just a case of getting the right person for the job. And here, Ben Schott is the perfect person. His knowledge of prior books allows him to pepper the text with links to what has gone before, bringing the reader closer to the "real thing". Couple that with his mirroring of the unique style of Wodehouse and, well in my opinion anyway, you got yourself a winner. It's not quite as good as the real thing but it's the closest it can ever be.
It's funny and serious in equal measure, I laughed, I giggled, I was shocked, appalled and, on occasion, concerned. It's easy to read and thoroughly entertaining to boot. I really did have a blast during my time with it and was glad to read it on a day of nothing as I rarely put it down.
All in all, a cracking read which I thoroughly enjoyed. Having now read both this and the previous - The King of Clubs - I'm hanging for book three.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I enjoyed this read - I could visualise the pair and the writing called to mind the original series by P G Woodhouse.

A gentle farcical story which made me smile.

Bertie lurches from one crisis to another and is saved by Jeeves who sets things right quietly in the background.

An entertaining read.

You know where you are with Jeeves. I’ve read all the other ones as I enjoy them so much as well as having the audio versions. It’s upper class sheltered luxury. Old fashioned cozy laugh out loud historical stories. Love these books. There’s nothing in them that can give you worry or sleepless night. Well done. Feel good book.

Jeeves and the Leap of Faith is very nicely done and extremely entertaining. Who wouldn’t want to revisit Bertie and Jeeves and their unfading early 20th Century upper class world of fearsome aunts, predatory would-be-fiancé’s, villainous rotters, nice-but-dim old school chums and the hard partying chaps from Drones Club? I was especially gratified to reunite with newt-fancying Gussie Fink-Nottle, dippy Madeline Bassett, unspeakable right-winger Spode and Bertie’s Cousin Thos (now a Cambridge under-graduate) once again.

In the words of the inimitable Jeeves, “I believe it will give universal satisfaction, Sir.”

Many thanks to Penguin, to Ben Schott (who did a marvellous job) and to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this brilliant book.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot (plenty of reviews like that out there already!)

As a lifelong fan of the esteemed P G Woodhouse, I was in two minds about reading this - I was not entirely sure whether I approved of someone else taking up the pen and attempting to recreate his genius...

I need not have worried! This lively book carried on the great traditions of the Jeeves and Wooster novels. The multi-stranded, unlikely and comedic plot was most entertaining - featuring the usual mix of narrow escapes from matrimony (Bertie); sudden engagements (Bertie's chums): the usual Bertie bumblings and Jeeves-to-the-rescue scenarios; and a cast that included some of our old favourites like Gussie Fink-Nottle (and uber-dragon Aunt Agatha!).

To say that the book lifted my spirits during the current dark days is an understatement - it made me laugh out loud (which startled the cat!).

I understand that there is a previous novel in this series, and will be seeking it out.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC, and to the author for a job well done. All opinions my own.

A good effort but doesn't quite pull it off. The characters are all there but Bertie as a spy? Really? Some elements are true but overall it doesn't quite get the Wodehouse genius. Enjoyable? Yes. Spot on? No-definitely not. Clearly the author has a talent for entertaining novels, so fly solo rather than on someone else's coat tails

I am a Wodehouse obsessive - a connoisseur of the Jeeves and Wooster novels - and so I was excited to be granted an advance copy of the new novel by Ben Schott, written with the blessing of the Wodehouse estate.

It should be said that a new Jeeves and Wooster novel has been attempted twice in recent years. Sebastian Faulks offered us 'Jeeves and the Wedding Bells'; this I thought misfired on providing too much context when Bertie's world is blissfully oblivious and mostly unaffected by unpleasant world events. To be honest, I never recovered from the shock of reading about the deaths of Bertie's parents in that one!

Ben Schott's first novel, 'Jeeves and the King of Clubs', was the other offering and was - in my opinion - much more successful in emulating Wodehouse's tone and the feeling of the original novels. However, he did start mixing in a spy theme which I wasn't so keen on but - hey ho - I went along with it, albeit with some reservations.

Both attempts were enjoyable to read, I should say, but not perfect.

In this second outing for Jeeves and Wooster by Ben Schott, the spy theme is enlarged upon and there is a strong espionage storyline that takes centre stage. In the background, a sub-plot involving the Drones Club's finances is also under way, plus the usual romantic entanglements that Bertie is trying to escape and difficult encounters with his nemesis, Spode. As usual. Jeeves is in the background as the faithful valet, picking up the pieces for Bertie.

Again, this book (like the other 'new' Jeeves and Wooster books) is very enjoyable, but still not perfect.

Some of this book is absolutely spot-on and pitch-perfect. I loved the boot competition at the Drones Club, the hilarious 'replacement' valet's encounter with Aunt Agatha and the one-upmanship over the wallpaper choices, So far, so Wodehouse. The characters (for the most part) are also pretty good - Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeline Bassett and all the various Drones are great and Spode is as (intentionally) awful as always! Aunt Agatha seems a bit more fallible that Wodehouse's original, but still credible.

What worked less well for me is Bertie himself. He seemed far more intelligent than in the original books which detracts from his charm and the ability of others to manipulate him - the central joke of the original books is that Bertie is essentially a charming, amiable but dim man-about-town whose puppet-masters include Jeeves and a host of aunts. In Schott's hands, he has to be a credible spy and seems to have his wits about him a bit more and even a (requited) love interest.

The plot was clever and as tight as Wodehouse original. I actually preferred the Drones sub-plot, the shenanigans with jewel theft and racehorses, marriage proposals and interfering aunts, because it felt more authentic than the spy story. However, more than in the first book by Schott, I just felt that this was an imposter Bertie.

I feel that I do need to say that I really enjoyed this book - as a light-hearted read with familiar characters and a comfortable world in which nothing truly bad will happen, it is a success. My reservations are more about whether it is a Jeeves and Wooster novel and that is because I am a stickler for authenticity!

I do recommend this book as a fun read and one that will make you laugh. If you have read the originals, there's a sense of cosy familiarity in Schott's novel you will enjoy. If you haven't read the originals then you should - they are an absolute treat and hit the spot in a way this one doesn't quite.