A Certain Appeal

A Certain Appeal is fun and unique retelling of Pride & Prejudice!

One of my favorite things about this retelling is that the characters feel familiar, but I didn't know what would happen. Sometimes retellings stick too close to the inspiration and are a bit too predictable. A Certain Appeal didn't fall into that category!

I didn't know I needed a burlesque!Pride&Prejudice until I had it, and I'm delighted it exists. I definitely recommend it and will be rereading it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Yet another Pride and Prejudice retelling (that's not shade, I can just think of at least three others I've read in the past few years, so it's a popular mini-genre at the moment). This is a modern era retelling, set in and around the NYC burlesque scene, and it dispenses with Mr. Collins/Charlotte/the Bingley sisters altogether. I liked the setting and of course, the story is a classic. The plot/timeline changed a little as well, specifically Lizzie and Darcy have hooked up and are basically together when the whole Wickham thing happens, at which point the story shifts to saving the burlesque company and doesn't have the whole aspect of family disgrace that was so powerful in the original P&P, which kind of shifts the stakes of the story in a way I didn't love. (Also I just realized there's no equivalent of Lady Catherine in this book either, which is a legit bummer.) All in all, this was fun, but as far as retellings go, I would recommend [b:Ayesha at Last 43124133 Ayesha at Last Uzma Jalaluddin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1544037862l/43124133.SX50.jpg 57683370] or [b:Unmarriageable 39926661 Unmarriageable Soniah Kamal https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524485741l/39926661.SY75.jpg 61800121]. Probably 3.5 stars overall, rounding up. (2022 Summer Romance Bingo: dance. Would also work for property inheritance, loosely for architect.)

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Someone reviewed this book ages ago and I added it to my TBR because of them. It's been...forever, so I'm not sure who it was. Maybe Dini? DOESN'T MATTER. Either way, I picked this book up on the premise that it was Pride and Prejudice but set around a burlesque club. Putting those two things together didn't sound like it would work, but I was interested enough to give it a go. Overall, A Certain Appeal is a pretty dang cute romance book, but it was lacking something that really pushed it up and over the edge into awesome territory for me.

I think it might be because we only see Bennet's point of view, never Darcy's. We really don't know that much about him other than the fact that he's 1. rich, 2. standoffish, 3. really hot. Like, that's barely anything! I know he's supposed to be inspired by Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, but we don't know much about that Darcy either. You gotta give us something a bit more to go on. He struggles with the idea of burlesque, and of Bennet being a part of it. He comes around, but he seems kind of a dick for a great chunk of the book. Not that anyone could expect differently from a Pride and Prejudice adaptation.

Bennet and Darcy are, of course, snippy with each other for most of the novel, until things come to a head. There's one full steamy scene, but a few sizzly ones after and before. Nothing extraordinarily explicit. If you've read or watched any adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, you know how the book goes. It follows the plot pretty identically, just pulled forward into the modern day and set around a burlesque club. The characters were all entertaining, though some I wasn't sure who they were ‘supposed' to be. Wickham is, of course, a rather slimy character, and easy to dislike. Bennet's best friend, Jane, is a jazz singer. Her cousin, Chloe, lives across the country and is seen frequently on video chat. Ming was one of my favorites of the bunch — she's a curvy burlesque dancer with a dirty, dirty mouth. She was hilarious and just the bright spark the book needed.

Bennet was much more confident, much more interesting character. She's proud of what she does, and isn't afraid to admit it. She doesn't dance in the burlesque club — she's the show's stage kitten. She goes on afterwards and cleans up all the discarded clothes, all while wearing very little herself. I liked hearing all the descriptions of what she and all the other club members were wearing. King dominated at that — every outfit was easy to see in my mind, and they go through a lot of outfits.

To round this rather rambly review up — if you like Pride and Prejudice adaptations at all, I think you'll like this one.