Tag: Pride and Prejudice

REVIEW: Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

REVIEW: Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Lizzie Bennet longs to become a barrister and study the law and argue cases. But as a young woman – with a mother who thinks only of seeing her daughters married – that is never going to happen. But she holds out hope that her father will hire her to be a solicitor and investigator. He’ll have to be convinced, though, so Lizzie decides she will solve (another) case to prove her ability.

There’s been a murder and an arrest. Mr. Bingley is accused of killing his brother-in-law. Lizzie hopes to convince him to hire her father’s firm to represent him. (They could use the business!) And Bingley is impressed by Lizzie. But he already has help from his good friend, Mr. Darcy. Darcy is arrogant, condescending, and dismissive of Lizzie from the start.

Darcy’s plan seems to be to present Bingley as “too good” of a person to be a murderer. But Lizzie knows the only way to truly protect Bingley is to find the real killer. And she feels she is just the person to do that.

Review

Delightful!!

I have to confess: I’ve never read – or watched – Pride and Prejudice. I’ve never been able to make myself care enough to push through the reading. I love the Sense and Sensibility movie, but I could not get into that book, either. Austen just doesn’t click for me. But I do enjoy retellings in general, as well as mysteries, so I decided to give this a try. And I thoroughly enjoyed it!

There are TONS of nods to the original plot (which I read online) with regard to the characters and relationships, but also lots of twists to keep fans engaged. But you don’t have to have read Pride and Prejudice to enjoy this. The author takes some liberties with the timeline (which she explains in an engaging author’s note), but it didn’t bother me in the least. I am not a purist about such things.

The mystery was fantastically twisty. I figured out part but not all of it before the end, which I enjoyed. I like both solving the puzzles and being surprised by them. And I can’t wait to read more mysteries in this series. Book 2 – Sense and Second-Degree Murder – will release in 2022 and book 3 – Manslaughter Park – will release in 2023. Mystery fans and Austen fans should be sure to pick this one up asap!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥♥½ = I loved it! Would re-read.

REVIEW: Bookish Boyfriends - A Date with Darcy by Tiffany Schmidt

REVIEW: Bookish Boyfriends – A Date with Darcy by Tiffany Schmidt

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Merrilee is a book-obsessed romantic – in all the best ways. She reads avidly, and she’s convinced that boys are just better in books. While her friends and family adore her, they sometimes have to remind her that she should pay attention to the real world since she lives here and all.

As a new student at Reginald R. Hero Preparatory School – a co-ed school after her previous all girls school – Merrilee is excited to spend time with some boys other than her best guy friend, Toby (who wishes they were more, but Merrilee just doesn’t feel that way). When her English teacher assigns them Romeo and Juliet, Merrilee is thrilled to be revisiting such a classic romantic story. But Ms. Gregoire seems to have ulterior motives to having Merrilee read it.

Soon Merrilee finds herself in a real life version of Romeo and Juliet. Monroe is the son of her older sister’s soon-to-be mother-in-law’s political rival. It’s like the Capulets and Montagues again. And Monroe is intense and interested. Merrilee responds to the grand romantic gestures and the brooding, handsome boy. But Ms. Gregoire may be right – there may be more to Romeo and Juliet than Merrilee ever noticed before. And maybe Romeo and Juliet isn’t the story she wants for her life after all.

Review

I fell in love with Merrilee and this story in the first chapter. I love meeting fellow avid readers, even if they are only fictional. All of the characters were fantastic – well-defined, interesting and nuanced. I laughed – loudly and often – as I read. The descriptions are terrific. I read passages aloud to my family because they begged to be shared. And I read the book non-stop from start to finish because I loved every bit of it.

I was not expecting a thread of magic/fantasy to the story – for the English teacher to have a mystical sort of way about her and for the stories Merrilee reads to be reflected in her real life. It was a delightful surprise! I hope there will be several more stories with these characters and Ms. Gregoire.

I pre-ordered my own copy of this the moment I finished reading. This is my favorite sort of book – it has all of the qualities I look for. There are terrific characters. It’s funny. It’s also smart, the premise is clever, and the execution was perfect. And there’s depth to the story and the characters. Merrilee grows up and matures and sees things differently in the end while still retaining all the things I loved about her character from the beginning. And by the end you discover some nice depth to a few of the secondary characters as well once Merrilee gets past her assumptions about them.

This was a delight from start to finish. I highly recommend this book. This could easily be one of my favorite books of 2018.

Many, many thanks to Netgalley and Amulet for the opportunity to read an electronic review copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are solely mine – I honestly adored this book!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥