The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

Firstly I would like to thank Pan MacMillan and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and provide a true and honest review of this book, having been an avid Jane Austen fan this was a book I could not miss getting my hands on.

This is a continuation story in the style of Jane Austen and set's off with a recap of the Bennett sisters and their trials and tribulations during Pride and Prejudice. Janice Hadlow seamlessly continues the story from the perspective and somewhat ugly duckling of the family, Mary's point of view as she seeks to find her true self and transforms into a women of some substantial substance.

As the marginalized middle daughter to the Bennett family, the plain bookish girl of frustrating intellect takes Mary on a journey by her siblings before her. She learns that true happiness can only be found within herself and that the rantings of her mother are both found less and hurtful preventing her from ever being able to meet with the expectations placed upon her.

The writing is beautifully alliterated in the style of Austen and draws you immediately back into the welcoming and warm embrace of a family known and loved for generations. Mary may not have a leading man as proud as Darcy or as handsome as Mr Bingley but she will find herself in the company of a gentleman in keeping with her idea of happiness and love.

This vulnerable, conflicted protagonist will have you speeding through these pages with great delight until its inevitable conclusion, this book did not disappoint and I shall be happy to read any subequent books by Janice Hadlow.

For this reason I gave this book 4*

About the Author

Janice Hadlow worked at the BBC for more than two decades, and for ten of those years she ran BBC Two and BBC Four, two of the broadcaster’s major television channels. She was educated at Swanley School in Kent and graduated with a first class degree in history from King’s college, London. She is the author of A Royal Experiment, a biography of Great Britain's King George III. She currently lives in Edinburgh. The Other Bennet Sister is her first novel.

Comments

Review: The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar My rating: 1 of 5 stars This book is set in 1785 when a merchant Mr Hancock is handed into his possession a shrivelled body of a mermaid in lieu of a ship he was expecting to return. This starts an event of trying to recoup his losses by displaying the oddity to those of interest at a sum. Angelica Neal is a women used to being kept but has fallen on hard times, her previous lover has passed away and she finds herself fighting for survival and recognition to keep herself out of the high paid establishments and prostitution that will be her plight. Instead Angelica seeks a new lover and a higher status than that previously achieved. Despite the high acclaim from my fellow Book Tuber's unfortunately this book did not quite meet my expectation. I found this book to read in a very slow and dry manner which left me unable to connect either with the content of the story or unfortunately the characters....

BOOK REVIEW: Always Here for You by Miriam Halahmy

Young Adult - Trigger Warning for Child Grooming on the Internet Holly is 14 and feels alone, her best friend has moved away to Canada and her parents are dealing the normal stresses of both work and home life as well as caring for an elderly member of the family. This has caused Holly to feel both isolated and alone, spending increasingly longer amounts of time fending for herself and in the house alone, where she is terrified of every noise that she hears. Her mum does try to get her to befriend Noah, a boy in her year who is experiencing bullying from another class mate and member of his synagogue. Although Holly does not realise it this friendship may not only save Noah, but also herself. Then Holly meets Jay, someone she believes is friends with her bestie Amy and other people in school as he was posted about on an online forum, quickly this situation gets out of hand and she begins to isolate herself from those she cares about and her personality notably changes. Is Jay wha...

Review: A Portable Shelter

A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I am not one to always get on with a book based in magical realism however, I had heard such good things about this book I could not resist giving it a chance. This book is based on a gay couple Ruth and Liska who have moved to a remote coastal cottage in Scotland while Ruth carries their first child. Each of them spends time telling the baby stories containing moral and life lessons from what they have learnt. This includes many magical realism tales including selkies, werewolves and child-eating witches. They agree not to tell stories to the baby so each of them are relaying their tales in secret from each other. I really did enjoy the small tales included within the overall story of Ruth and Liska however, was somewhat disappointed when the concluding story was about Death. I felt sad that the child was not born during the final pages of the book and felt extremely curious to find out with a mot...

Emma's Bookish Lifestyle

Search This Blog