Netherford Hall

1.75/5

I was disappointed by this book. I was expecting something better, frankly.

For a book that is marketed as a Pride and Prejudice sapphic retelling with magic it lacks the most important part of the book: the romance between the characters. The chemistry just wasn't there, there was no banter or any connection, really. Is it a retelling? A bad one. It's more of a distorted copy - one that includes all the iconic lines from the original book like “it is the truth universally acknowledged” etc. Unfortunately, the style it was written affected the book.

Jane Austen lived in 19th century so she wrote the way she spoke. It feels authentic because it was authentic to her. Unfortunately, Natania tried to copy Austen's style too much. It didn't feel genuine or effortless - it felt pompous and disgenuous.

The characters weren't written well. Poppy was a fun character, but the rest weren't. Where Edith was supposed be a brooding Darcy and Poppy a light-hearted Elizabeth, it gave them a role reversal. Darcy (Edith) was the one who struggled trying to keep the family together from cousins who tried to take away everything, while Elizabeth (Poppy) ... What, exactly? There weren't many elements from Darcy's live in Poppy, perhaps except for a loving sister. But unlike the original book, Poppy wasn't the eldest and she didn't have to be a parent to her siblings.

Like I mentioned, the writing was just bad. The chapters were long and pov changed between the paragraphs so fast, it was jarring. I couldn't get into a mind of one character and try to understand their motives and try to like them, before I was ripped away from them, forced into someone else's pov and the process began from the start again. I didn't like that, and it made me enjoy the book even less.

Thank you, NetGalley and Rebellion publishing for providing me with an ARC for my honest opinion.