Pride and Papercuts (The Austens, #5)

by Staci Hart

[Berls]

3.5 stars
I'm drawn to pretty much anything that refers to Jane Austen and most especially Pride and Prejudice, so this was a no brainer to pick up for me. I read the first book in the series (a Emma retelling) and liked it well enough. Even though I skipped 3 books, I was never lost - they have overlapping characters, but stand alone really well.

That it's a retelling of Pride and Prejudice is obvious from some unmistakable characters - like Liam Darcy and his sister Georgi (spelling? hazardous of audiobook reading!), Wickham, Caroline, Catherine de Bourg and even a Mr. Collins equivalent. But there are some notably absent characters/changed characters as well. Instead of a bunch of sisters, Laney Bennett has a host of brothers. Most notably, Jane has been replaced by her brother Jett. So instead of the Bingley-Jane romance, we have Georgi and Jett. Little differences like that abound and even as a super fan, they mostly worked for me.

The one challenge of these small changes for me was that without the sisters, the Wikham situation wasn't as extreme. And while there was a situation for Darcy to step in and save the family - because of his love for Laney - it didn't feel as big as Darcy's actions for Elizabeth in the original. And The Letter came pretty close to the end, making for a less complete reversal, in my opinion.

But really, I doubt any retelling will ever measure up for me and this is one of the better retellings, for sure. I enjoyed the characters quite a a bit and their placement as rivals in an advertising campaign for the bookshop/bar was a lot of fun. I will definitely read more books in this series eventually, since my favorite measured up so well.

This was narrated by Aiden Snow and Mia Madison. I enjoyed both their styles and would happily listen to more from both of them. They worked well together as well, very complimentary voices.