The Other Bennet Sister

I was disappointed by this book, yet i was so prepared to love it! I liked the concept and I loved meeting the characters from Pride and Pejudice once more, but because it's another perspective on an already existing book it should follow the character's personality.
In Pride and Prejudice we learn that Mrs Bennet's least favourite daughter is Lizzy but that she loves all her children and is very proud of them, so why is she suddenly so cruel towards Mary?
Charlotte is borderline mean which she never was in the Pride and Prejudice book and her relationship with Lizzy though less intimate after her marriage with Mr Collins was still pretty close, all that was totally erased here.
And somehow Jane's niceness becomes cold indifference?
But all that could be ok if it wasn't just to prove that everyone is mean and unfair to poor Mary who is such a nice underestimated girl.
Honestly I loved to have another point of view and Mary's life must have been difficult but the book would have been so much better if at some point Mary became aware that her own behaviour was partly responsible for driving people away and that she worked on becoming a nicer person ( not only with better clothes)
Or if she discovered that she didn't really apply the pretty words she read in her books it would have been more nuanced and more powerful, here I just didn't like how she was portrayed as a victim throughout the book.
And this is a shame because the author's writing style is really nice and the idea really good.

3.5 stars rounded up. I got kind of bored in the middle and wanted to smack Mary at times, but overall it was fun rooting for the ugly duckling. It's faithful to the original and brought back some of my favorites characters and their villains, and some new ones were introduced too. Maybe longer than it needed to be, but overall, I was satisfied at the end.

Pride and Prejudice part 2 from the viewpoint of Mary, the plain and awkward middle sister. Mary is nobody's favorite and finds herself the outcast in a large family. What's a girl to do?!

I loved P&P - and Hadlow does a good job of picking up where P&P left off and doing it in a way that it reads as a sequel - not just a borrowing of the world and characters of P&P.

In this book, Mary gets her due and becomes a well-developed character. I liked how Mary developed and matures from unlikeable awkward teen with little self-confidence into a more self-assured young woman. Mary's perspective of her friends and family adds depth to the P&P world. There's some rehashing of P&P from Mary's point of view at the beginning of the book- and I thought it was well done, but it's where the story takes off into new territory that things become interesting. (I still don't know what to think of Charlotte, and feel rather sorry for Mr. Collins). Things get a little draggy during a trip to the Lake country, but overall I really enjoyed this one.

I'm a big fan of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and I have adored this book. The only (tiny) con I can mention is that it can get a little boring at times, but again, along the same lines of Pride and Prejudice. The first part is a retelling of the events from Pride and Prejudice, but from Mary's point of view, and then we go on to follow Mary's life after those events. There are cameos from most of the characters we know and love (and others not so much), so this book has sparkled my nostalgia. All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed this book!

3.75 stars. This was very well written and had a very good plot I just didn't love the story. The first part was so sad and depressing. Although it gets better and more hopeful I still get so bummed about the plot of women during this time.

This was a pleasant enough read. The dialogue harmonized well with the original, without too many jarring anachronisms. I found the descriptive passages less successful, with lots of cliches (e.g. a spring in her step, used twice within the first few chapters). I wish that the language had had more bite and originality to it.

As for the plot – there's no way I think Austen would have imagined this kind of future for Mary, in her book an insufferable prig who is the target of scorn, not of empathy and compassion. But for modern readers it's quite satisfying to get inside the mind of this bookish girl, understand how an emotionally neglectful upbringing made her who she was, and see her slowly transform herself into a woman who is capable of loving and being loved, without sacrificing the gifts of her intellect.

I could accept Mary's rehabilitation, but that of Mr Collins was too far-fetched for me! He was much too self-reflective and dignified for the arrogant little toady we love to hate in P&P. Caroline Bingley, on the other hand, became a soulless viper in exchange. Seeing Mary stand up to her was a satisfying moment.

This is the best Pride and Prejudice spin-off that I have read. The P&P characters are all believably Jane Austen's, but have been developed in interesting directions, and influenced credibly by later events. The story starts before Pride and Prejudice, going on to show the events of that story from Mary's very different point of view. The bulk of this story takes place a couple of years after P&P however, when Mary is struggling to find her place. I found this mostly pretty convincing as well. If I have a criticism it is that there was eventually a bit too much romantic angst, going on for too long for my taste. But degrees of angst are a personal thing, and this may well be right up your street. If you like P&P spin-offs I highly recommend it, especially the audiobook version, read excellently by Kristen Atherton.

A Pride & Prejudice variation from Mary's perspective that starts a few months prior to P&P events and runs a few years past its conclusion. The book develops Mary's character and gives her greater depth where she is often otherwise treated as little more than a prop in Lizzie's story in many works (or absent altogether). Telling and continuing the story from Mary's perspective is an unusual conceit for P&P variations, even stories that further develop the other Bennets are usually focused on Lizzie as the protagonist.

Mary's character isn't the only one developed further. Mr Collins became more sympathetic and likeable whilst remaining true to Austen's portrayal of his obsequious and ingratiating manner. Charlotte is portrayed as very shrewd, and at times this comes across as somewhat cold and calculating/ruthless, though only so far as she is aggressively protecting her own interests. There are insightful discussions between Charlotte and Mary regarding their places & prospects in the world as ‘plain' Regency gentlewomen.

There were a few callbacks/nods within the text to P&P's famous lines/scenes that were very well done - subtle and satisfying rather than in-your-face and forced as they can feel in other works.

The original characters did not feel at all out of place among Austen's creations. I found Mr Hayward instantly likeable and impossible not to fall for. The progression of his interactions with Mary was well-executed and nicely paced. However I did feel that the presence of Caroline Bingley didn't add much to the narrative beyond a stock ‘Mean Girl' to add conflict - her character would have benefited from the development and greater depth other characters such as Mr Collins and Mrs Hill got but she remained rather two dimensional. This is a minor complaint though and didn't stop me from immediately looking up the author to see if there are any more books by her to consume!