Pride and Premeditation

I came across this book by chance when I was browsing audiobooks and since it's been a while that I've picked up an Austen retelling (I used to that pretty frequently until a couple of years ago) and that I'm feeling no mood to pick up a fantasy, I thought I should give this a try. And it was a delight.

I'm glad that just like she mentioned in the author's note, she took quite a few liberties with regency England because it means we are able to get a very feminist and unexpectedly bold retelling of Pride and Prejudice here. It remains familiar by giving us the characters who keep most of their original attitudes and personalities as well as sprinkling the story with some of the most famous lines from the classic. But we also get a braver and bolder Elizabeth who wants to be a solicitor and challenges her father that she'll prove her capabilities, and then clashes with Darcy when they both inadvertently get involved in the same case. The mystery solving can be a bit predictable though I didn't guess one part of it till almost the end, but the writing and banter just keep us engaged throughout. The writing is a lot of fun, very witty and entertaining, and gives us quite a few memorable confrontations between Lizzie and Darcy. And I didn't feel at all miffed that it's too much of a slow burn because I was just chuckling at most of the story and loved the characters a lot. And it's perfectly complemented by some evocative narration by Morag Sims.

Now that I've encountered the author's lovely writing, I'm quite interested to see how she retells Sense and Sensibility and hope to get to it soon.

I haven't read Pride & Prejudice (yet), so I stepped into this book with basically no knowledge of the original story. I don't know if this is an advantage or a disadvantage, but I didn't feel like I needed to have had read the original story to like this one.
I love how feminist Pride & Premeditation is. Elizabeth tries to prove that she - just like any other men - can be a sollicitor or barrister. I loved this aspect: fighting the patriarchy.
I also really appreciated that the story wasn't too predictable (at least not for me). Near the ending, I had an idea who murdered Mr. Bingley (and turned out to be right), but I really loved the fact that I guessed it, instead of thinking it was too predictable. I flew through the book and really enjoyed it.

Thank you TBR and Beyond tours, Edelweiss and Harperteen for the free review copy. This in no way affected my opinion.

This is pretty much a chick lit murder mystery with 21st century characters casually dressing up as P&P characters and with a Regency painted backdrop. Pretty mindless entertainment, but entertainment nevertheless. It's a very quick and easy read, sometimes a little silly.

The story kind of, but also kind of doesn't, follow the story of Pride & Prejudice. On one hand, it sticks to it enough that, if you're familiar with the original, a lot of character personalities and dynamics aren't out of place - and you might have some idea about the solution of the mystery pretty early on. But on the other, it does diverge enough from the source material that there is something fresh at every turn in the plot, and the complete picture of the solution probably will still catch you by surprise, so props to the author for that.

I wasn't a huge fan of the main character, Elizabeth. She came across mostly as petulant, impulsive, and sometimes “thick for a solicitor”. She rushed around blurting out unfiltered comments and remarks to every character even while she was trying to investigate the mystery on hand. She jumped to conclusions so often, and seemed to snap back at every male character in the book, “Are you telling me this because I'm a woman?!” I mean, I get that her struggles against the patriarchal society that she's in is a huge part of the plot - after all, she's been overlooked by her dad in getting an employment position in his law firm and constantly has credit stolen from her to bolster Mr Collins's career. But I found that the overcompensation with immediately accusing everyone around her of misogyny without the slightest basis was counterproductive to her cause. I varied between feeling indifferent to annoyed at her, and never really found myself rooting for her honestly.

Needless to say, the book is rife with historical inaccuracies, some of them intended (as the author acknowledged in her notes at the end of the novel) while others weren't. If you are able to put aside qualms relating to that, and go in just expecting a very, very casual modern take on P&P characters (despite being set in the Regency) romping around London solving murders, you might enjoy this. (Of course, it helps that the cover is one of the most gorgeous I've seen this year)