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Pen and Prejudice
Using the mystery writing world as a backdrop, Pen and Prejudice is a modern pastiche of the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice, but instead of our witty, playful heroine and attractive but arrogant suitor willfully misunderstanding each other while attending balls and dinner parties in the nineteenth century, they metaphorically duke it out in the twentieth at mystery writing conferences. A cross between I Don’t Know How She Does It and Bridget Jones’ Diary, this novel is a romantic comedy that provides an insider look into the struggles facing most writers of genre fiction.
321 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 11, 2013
5 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Claire M. Johnson
19 books39 followersClaire M. Johnson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in history.
Armed with a whip and a knife-roll, she worked as a pastry chef for eight years in San Francisco and Oakland during the height of the food revolution. The passion and frenzied pace characterizing the food scene on the West Coast during the 1980s is well documented in Ms. Johnson’s first novel Beat Until Stiff, for which she won the 1999 Malice Domestic Writers Grant.
Ms. Johnson stopped cooking professionally when her children were born and is currently an editor at U.C. Berkeley. She lives in Lafayette, California, with her husband, Mark, two children, Emma and Paul, and numerous animals. Eating at restaurants is still her favorite hobby, with her most severe criticism reserved for the dessert menu.
Series:
* Mary Ryan Mystery
Armed with a whip and a knife-roll, she worked as a pastry chef for eight years in San Francisco and Oakland during the height of the food revolution. The passion and frenzied pace characterizing the food scene on the West Coast during the 1980s is well documented in Ms. Johnson’s first novel Beat Until Stiff, for which she won the 1999 Malice Domestic Writers Grant.
Ms. Johnson stopped cooking professionally when her children were born and is currently an editor at U.C. Berkeley. She lives in Lafayette, California, with her husband, Mark, two children, Emma and Paul, and numerous animals. Eating at restaurants is still her favorite hobby, with her most severe criticism reserved for the dessert menu.
Series:
* Mary Ryan Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 13, 2016
William, Lizzie, publisher, writer, the world of the publishing industry... I wanted this story. It took me a while to actually pick it up (thank you awesome Austenesque Reading Challenge group), but I was all eagerness when I dove in. It was not long before I was rolling my eyes, smirking, snorting, and giggling with pleasure between groans over misunderstandings and a need to cheer this charming cast of characters on to happiness. This author's wit and her creative portrayal of a modern Pride & Prejudice in the retelling was spot on with me.
Many times its tough to translate a story from the past and make it work as a contemporary, but that was not the case here. While the story had many familiar elements that kept the original P&P firmly in the reader's mind, the author took the right amount of liberty with the characters, backgrounds, settings, and plot to make the story her own. The tone is a blend of light and realistic. These folks have annoying family, broken marriages, bad jobs, eccentric friends, disappointments, embarrassments, mistakes, and secret dreams just like the next person.
With a life not as settled as she would like by this time in her life and still striving for something better, Lizzie Mansfield is forced to evaluate things. Amicably divorced, middle aged mother of two children still coping with the divorce, one time published yet still aspiring writer for a small publishing company, legal assistant in her day job to a dragon lady, member of a quirky writing group including her best friends, Jane and Charlotte, and member of a family that should have killed her belief in lasting love, but hasn't. Lizzie is excited by a chance at a big break as an author when her book is nominated for a prestigious award until supercilious big name publisher, William Pemberley takes a shot at books like hers and seemingly her particular book that pretty much sinks her chances.
Between mystery book conventions, email exchanges, and blog posts, the back and forth has her struggling with the mixture of emotions and impressions of the enigmatic William Pemberley. With life swirling around her and a series of events that help her to know herself and others better, Lizzie might find that life has some surprises for her yet.
Whenever I pick up a modern retelling, I am both looking for the connection to the familiar, but more so, a chance to get a new take and perspective. I found the setting a good choice to showcase this and I did indeed get that new take and perspective. I liked how the social class issue from the past is translated easily to the class issues in the publishing industry of the present. I felt she had a good grasp of her setting. This may or may not be a source of more or less interest to the reader depending on interest in that facet of the book world.
The author took the time to develop interesting and authentic backstories for each character whether it was Collins' quirky dual personality writer of dog hero mysteries or Caroline being Lizzie's Cruella de Vil boss. Lizzie's prejudice and quick assumptions and William's haughty arrogance work in their roles of small-time author and big name publisher. The cast was large, but made up of flawed, but lovable people. Even the ones that are meant to be detested were explained and their motives understandable.
I also felt the author captured another thing well when it came to her modern retelling. She captured the balance and style that Jane Austen achieved with her own books. While I have no argument to the romantic presence- it's definitely there and I love it- in Austen's novels, there is also the fact that they are more than romances. The same is true of this book. This actually feels more like women's fiction to me than romance.
This is Lizzie's life and that of those connected to her. Her connection with William Pemberley is one of those. There is chemistry and sizzle, but because of her prejudice and his bumbling arrogance, they don't act on all that until near the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, but that said, I wouldn't recommend it for the romance aspect. No, this is about a middle-aged woman finally finding what she has been looking for and coming to terms with all aspects of her life.
So in summary, this was humorous and engaging, introspective and a fantastic homage to Pride & Prejudice. I think fans of modern retellings who don't mind a low-key romance and a flawed, but likable heroine narrator should give this a try.
Many times its tough to translate a story from the past and make it work as a contemporary, but that was not the case here. While the story had many familiar elements that kept the original P&P firmly in the reader's mind, the author took the right amount of liberty with the characters, backgrounds, settings, and plot to make the story her own. The tone is a blend of light and realistic. These folks have annoying family, broken marriages, bad jobs, eccentric friends, disappointments, embarrassments, mistakes, and secret dreams just like the next person.
With a life not as settled as she would like by this time in her life and still striving for something better, Lizzie Mansfield is forced to evaluate things. Amicably divorced, middle aged mother of two children still coping with the divorce, one time published yet still aspiring writer for a small publishing company, legal assistant in her day job to a dragon lady, member of a quirky writing group including her best friends, Jane and Charlotte, and member of a family that should have killed her belief in lasting love, but hasn't. Lizzie is excited by a chance at a big break as an author when her book is nominated for a prestigious award until supercilious big name publisher, William Pemberley takes a shot at books like hers and seemingly her particular book that pretty much sinks her chances.
Between mystery book conventions, email exchanges, and blog posts, the back and forth has her struggling with the mixture of emotions and impressions of the enigmatic William Pemberley. With life swirling around her and a series of events that help her to know herself and others better, Lizzie might find that life has some surprises for her yet.
Whenever I pick up a modern retelling, I am both looking for the connection to the familiar, but more so, a chance to get a new take and perspective. I found the setting a good choice to showcase this and I did indeed get that new take and perspective. I liked how the social class issue from the past is translated easily to the class issues in the publishing industry of the present. I felt she had a good grasp of her setting. This may or may not be a source of more or less interest to the reader depending on interest in that facet of the book world.
The author took the time to develop interesting and authentic backstories for each character whether it was Collins' quirky dual personality writer of dog hero mysteries or Caroline being Lizzie's Cruella de Vil boss. Lizzie's prejudice and quick assumptions and William's haughty arrogance work in their roles of small-time author and big name publisher. The cast was large, but made up of flawed, but lovable people. Even the ones that are meant to be detested were explained and their motives understandable.
I also felt the author captured another thing well when it came to her modern retelling. She captured the balance and style that Jane Austen achieved with her own books. While I have no argument to the romantic presence- it's definitely there and I love it- in Austen's novels, there is also the fact that they are more than romances. The same is true of this book. This actually feels more like women's fiction to me than romance.
This is Lizzie's life and that of those connected to her. Her connection with William Pemberley is one of those. There is chemistry and sizzle, but because of her prejudice and his bumbling arrogance, they don't act on all that until near the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, but that said, I wouldn't recommend it for the romance aspect. No, this is about a middle-aged woman finally finding what she has been looking for and coming to terms with all aspects of her life.
So in summary, this was humorous and engaging, introspective and a fantastic homage to Pride & Prejudice. I think fans of modern retellings who don't mind a low-key romance and a flawed, but likable heroine narrator should give this a try.
October 16, 2016
I reviewed this last year (see below) and really have nothing to add to my praises then. Just reread it for my Jane Austen reading group, and loved it as much this time as last! Really the perfect modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
This book is very meta: a prominent theme is the dismal state of book publishing, and yet it is self-published (exposing it to all the knee-jerk disdain that comes with the self-published label). What are publishers thinking?? Pen and Prejudice is marvelous, and they should have been fighting over it. It is the gold standard for contemporary Austenesque fiction—and a darned good novel, even without that hook.
But enough foaming at the mouth. Pen and Prejudice sets the familiar tale in the subculture of mystery-novel writers and publishers. I adored the view into this world as the heroine, Lizzie Mansfield (weird thing going on with characters’ surnames changed to place-names from Austen’s novels), goes to book conventions, participates in a writers group, competes for writing awards, and struggles to compose her second novel. As the previously published author of two mysteries, Claire M. Johnson should know this world, and she portrays it believably. Almost all of the original characters appear in one form or another, their personalities intact; the changes in their relationships and circumstances are amply justified by the requirements of the plot. For instance, because Lizzie is a divorced mother of two in her forties, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet hardly need to be her parents; instead they have taken on the pseudo-parental role of her publishers. Darcy—here called William Pemberley, whyever not?—is the proprietor of another, and superior, publishing house, a role that gives him more power in her life than Lizzie would like. (This device was also used effectively in the Mormon Pride and Prejudice film—2003, starring Kam Heskin.)
The first-person voice of the protagonist-narrator and the voices of the other characters are vivid and natural. I loved the e-mail exchanges (each character’s messages set in a different font that expressed his or her personality), and the blogs in which the main characters can hint at their motivations or accidentally reveal them. I adored the humor—especially Mac the stuffed dog, both his ridiculousness and the kindness with which his function is understood. I kept laughing aloud and sharing bits with my sweetie; as you might imagine, he especially enjoyed the following extended riff when Lizzie, going to an awards ceremony, has chosen to wear a dress that shows off her cleavage and then wishes she hadn’t:
“Granted, I did have some pretty rocking cleavage action going on, but I was thirty minutes away from losing an award that I desperately wanted even though I didn’t deserve it. As such, I wasn’t in the mood to bask in male attention. . . . So here I was, outraged—Pemberley was clearly a breast man, every surreptitious glance my cleavage’s way confirmed that—even while wearing a dress that was nothing more than a neon sign complete with search lights and carnival barkers advertising for breast men to ‘Come on down!’ Oh, he was polite about it—I doubt anyone else noticed—and when he caught my eye catching his eye, he blushed. There was at least that; leering with a conscience was about all I could reasonably ask for.”
Yes, gentlemen, when a smart woman wears a sexy dress, this is what she’s thinking. Pay attention and tread lightly.
Claire M. Johnson’s writing has that elusive quality, flow—once you start reading you don’t want to stop, you just have to keep going to find out where the story goes next. Like J. K. Rowling has flow; I’m not kidding. She also, and I am hideously jealous here but justice compels me to say it, has a gift for believable dialogue. Between these two gifts I was hauled into the middle of the action and held there throughout. I recognized the characters as real people; the events grew organically out of their personalities, so nothing jumped out at me as an improbable stretch.
In a modern-day setting, the main characters, as their antagonism turns to romance, have to communicate more with each other than Jane Austen’s characters did. Johnson manages to navigate this requirement without sacrificing conflict or suspense. It is also necessary (unless you put your plot through insane contortions or head for Amish country) to have a more hot-and-sweaty Darcy than the original. Johnson treads the line carefully: the book is frank about the characters’ lust while drawing the curtain before the real sex begins. It is hotter than Pride and Prejudice without being downright rude. I also found William Pemberley’s bumbling forays into romanticism adorable. Little is more disarming than a man incompetently trying to be romantic! (And the Wickham corollary: nothing more off-putting than a man who does it smoothly.)
I liked that the protagonists were not in their twenties, and were real grownups with real lives. Yes, kids, older folks still obsess about relationships. The one element I could have done without—it seems like a facile cliché in contemporary novels told from an adult woman’s point of view—was the too-frequent drinking.
If you’ve read this far, I hope I’ve convinced you to go out and buy this book—yes, actually pay the author for it—read it, and put it on your “keeper” shelf as I have done. Publishers, it’s not too late: you can pick it up and release it with a splash of publicity!
This book is very meta: a prominent theme is the dismal state of book publishing, and yet it is self-published (exposing it to all the knee-jerk disdain that comes with the self-published label). What are publishers thinking?? Pen and Prejudice is marvelous, and they should have been fighting over it. It is the gold standard for contemporary Austenesque fiction—and a darned good novel, even without that hook.
But enough foaming at the mouth. Pen and Prejudice sets the familiar tale in the subculture of mystery-novel writers and publishers. I adored the view into this world as the heroine, Lizzie Mansfield (weird thing going on with characters’ surnames changed to place-names from Austen’s novels), goes to book conventions, participates in a writers group, competes for writing awards, and struggles to compose her second novel. As the previously published author of two mysteries, Claire M. Johnson should know this world, and she portrays it believably. Almost all of the original characters appear in one form or another, their personalities intact; the changes in their relationships and circumstances are amply justified by the requirements of the plot. For instance, because Lizzie is a divorced mother of two in her forties, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet hardly need to be her parents; instead they have taken on the pseudo-parental role of her publishers. Darcy—here called William Pemberley, whyever not?—is the proprietor of another, and superior, publishing house, a role that gives him more power in her life than Lizzie would like. (This device was also used effectively in the Mormon Pride and Prejudice film—2003, starring Kam Heskin.)
The first-person voice of the protagonist-narrator and the voices of the other characters are vivid and natural. I loved the e-mail exchanges (each character’s messages set in a different font that expressed his or her personality), and the blogs in which the main characters can hint at their motivations or accidentally reveal them. I adored the humor—especially Mac the stuffed dog, both his ridiculousness and the kindness with which his function is understood. I kept laughing aloud and sharing bits with my sweetie; as you might imagine, he especially enjoyed the following extended riff when Lizzie, going to an awards ceremony, has chosen to wear a dress that shows off her cleavage and then wishes she hadn’t:
“Granted, I did have some pretty rocking cleavage action going on, but I was thirty minutes away from losing an award that I desperately wanted even though I didn’t deserve it. As such, I wasn’t in the mood to bask in male attention. . . . So here I was, outraged—Pemberley was clearly a breast man, every surreptitious glance my cleavage’s way confirmed that—even while wearing a dress that was nothing more than a neon sign complete with search lights and carnival barkers advertising for breast men to ‘Come on down!’ Oh, he was polite about it—I doubt anyone else noticed—and when he caught my eye catching his eye, he blushed. There was at least that; leering with a conscience was about all I could reasonably ask for.”
Yes, gentlemen, when a smart woman wears a sexy dress, this is what she’s thinking. Pay attention and tread lightly.
Claire M. Johnson’s writing has that elusive quality, flow—once you start reading you don’t want to stop, you just have to keep going to find out where the story goes next. Like J. K. Rowling has flow; I’m not kidding. She also, and I am hideously jealous here but justice compels me to say it, has a gift for believable dialogue. Between these two gifts I was hauled into the middle of the action and held there throughout. I recognized the characters as real people; the events grew organically out of their personalities, so nothing jumped out at me as an improbable stretch.
In a modern-day setting, the main characters, as their antagonism turns to romance, have to communicate more with each other than Jane Austen’s characters did. Johnson manages to navigate this requirement without sacrificing conflict or suspense. It is also necessary (unless you put your plot through insane contortions or head for Amish country) to have a more hot-and-sweaty Darcy than the original. Johnson treads the line carefully: the book is frank about the characters’ lust while drawing the curtain before the real sex begins. It is hotter than Pride and Prejudice without being downright rude. I also found William Pemberley’s bumbling forays into romanticism adorable. Little is more disarming than a man incompetently trying to be romantic! (And the Wickham corollary: nothing more off-putting than a man who does it smoothly.)
I liked that the protagonists were not in their twenties, and were real grownups with real lives. Yes, kids, older folks still obsess about relationships. The one element I could have done without—it seems like a facile cliché in contemporary novels told from an adult woman’s point of view—was the too-frequent drinking.
If you’ve read this far, I hope I’ve convinced you to go out and buy this book—yes, actually pay the author for it—read it, and put it on your “keeper” shelf as I have done. Publishers, it’s not too late: you can pick it up and release it with a splash of publicity!
November 22, 2016
3.5 stars
This modern story with vague echoes from P&P was not one which grabbed and held my attention. In fact, I put it down and in coming back had to start from the beginning as it left no impressions on my memory. There is really little romance between the two main protagonists. The story struck me as one which rehashed probable experiences of the author in her own world of writing. The author uses e-mails and blogs as a device to communicate many of the goings-on in Lizzie’s personal, professional and writing lives. (There is a need for an editor as I came upon errata in this book.)
As others tell us, Lizzie is a middle-aged, divorced mother of two who works as a paralegal during the day and writes cooking mysteries at night….well, she has only written one and it is nominated for an award. She reads on his blog and overhears in a restaurant William Pemberley of Pemberley Books insult both the cover and the content of a book and it sounds exactly like her book he is referencing.
We read a lot about writing, writer's block, editing, group input, publishing, the various ways to appeal to the readership, awards in various categories and some of the conventions for publishers and their authors. We learn about the love life of Lizzie’s babysitter, her brother, Janie, Lotty, her parents and her publishers, etc.
The author does a creative job with using a mixture of the names with which we are familiar from Jane Austen's works: Jim and Missy Longbourne of Longbourne Books, William Pemberley, Charles/Charlie Netherfield, Edward Musgrove, Charlotte/Lotty Gardiner, Lizzie Mansfield, etc. Lizzie’s boss, Caroline M. Elliot of Smith, Knightley, Bates, and Churchill is a mother in name only and gets-off giving Lizzy a hard time when leave requests are submitted.
Elton Collins and his stuffed facsimile of a Scottish terrier, MacGregor, were interesting as Elton used “Mac” to voice his opinions everywhere and even has Mac acting out some through his moves.
Lizzie’s family history, her ex-husband, Chef Jack and his new “love”, Sarah, along with the children, Luke and Val, take up a lot of page space and we read much about the juggling divorced and employed parents must do to balance the demands of the worlds they inhabit.
One of Lizzie’s best friends, Janie Eston (a paralegal who has discovered that she was related to the one child of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson) invokes interest not only as Charles is dumb struck upon meeting her but also as we read of various reactions to her heritage by historians and humanitarians.
Lizzie need to drink to get over her fear of flying leads to a drunken meet up between William, Charles, Janie and herself as they collect baggage and so first impressions are misleading. Following that is an episode in which an accidental grope occurs when William is “ordered” to help Lizzie clean away coffee cups before a meeting begins in a convention room. And, of course, we have a Wickham-type character in Edward Musgrove who seals Lizzie’s impressions about William.
We wade through the many “misunderstandings” between Lizzie and William and when they finally clear those away the plot moves quickly to a HEA. I would have enjoyed more reading about how they reconciled her life in San Francisco on the west coast with his on the east coast as well as how he and she became a family of “his, mine and ours”…at least he did hint he wanted more children.
This modern story with vague echoes from P&P was not one which grabbed and held my attention. In fact, I put it down and in coming back had to start from the beginning as it left no impressions on my memory. There is really little romance between the two main protagonists. The story struck me as one which rehashed probable experiences of the author in her own world of writing. The author uses e-mails and blogs as a device to communicate many of the goings-on in Lizzie’s personal, professional and writing lives. (There is a need for an editor as I came upon errata in this book.)
As others tell us, Lizzie is a middle-aged, divorced mother of two who works as a paralegal during the day and writes cooking mysteries at night….well, she has only written one and it is nominated for an award. She reads on his blog and overhears in a restaurant William Pemberley of Pemberley Books insult both the cover and the content of a book and it sounds exactly like her book he is referencing.
We read a lot about writing, writer's block, editing, group input, publishing, the various ways to appeal to the readership, awards in various categories and some of the conventions for publishers and their authors. We learn about the love life of Lizzie’s babysitter, her brother, Janie, Lotty, her parents and her publishers, etc.
The author does a creative job with using a mixture of the names with which we are familiar from Jane Austen's works: Jim and Missy Longbourne of Longbourne Books, William Pemberley, Charles/Charlie Netherfield, Edward Musgrove, Charlotte/Lotty Gardiner, Lizzie Mansfield, etc. Lizzie’s boss, Caroline M. Elliot of Smith, Knightley, Bates, and Churchill is a mother in name only and gets-off giving Lizzy a hard time when leave requests are submitted.
Elton Collins and his stuffed facsimile of a Scottish terrier, MacGregor, were interesting as Elton used “Mac” to voice his opinions everywhere and even has Mac acting out some through his moves.
Lizzie’s family history, her ex-husband, Chef Jack and his new “love”, Sarah, along with the children, Luke and Val, take up a lot of page space and we read much about the juggling divorced and employed parents must do to balance the demands of the worlds they inhabit.
One of Lizzie’s best friends, Janie Eston (a paralegal who has discovered that she was related to the one child of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson) invokes interest not only as Charles is dumb struck upon meeting her but also as we read of various reactions to her heritage by historians and humanitarians.
Lizzie need to drink to get over her fear of flying leads to a drunken meet up between William, Charles, Janie and herself as they collect baggage and so first impressions are misleading. Following that is an episode in which an accidental grope occurs when William is “ordered” to help Lizzie clean away coffee cups before a meeting begins in a convention room. And, of course, we have a Wickham-type character in Edward Musgrove who seals Lizzie’s impressions about William.
We wade through the many “misunderstandings” between Lizzie and William and when they finally clear those away the plot moves quickly to a HEA. I would have enjoyed more reading about how they reconciled her life in San Francisco on the west coast with his on the east coast as well as how he and she became a family of “his, mine and ours”…at least he did hint he wanted more children.
April 24, 2016
In the beginning, (the sample I checked out on my Kindle before I purchased it), I wasn't convinced this was actually a P&P variation. There was a Lizzie and a Janie and a Caroline, but Janie isn't Lizzie's sister (she's likened to Halle Barre and is a co-worker and author buddy of Lizzie's); Caroline is Lizzie's boss and has no interaction at all with Charles or William in this book. Darcy (William Pemberley) doesn't even appear for roughly the first quarter of the book, except as someone Lizzie has never met who is the head of a major publishing company. Also, we learn he has written a blog dissing the type of book Lizzie's written. Looking over other reviews, though, I thought it seemed to be worth the low Kindle price.
Wow. I mean, WOW!!!! Best $1.50 I have spent in a long, long time! It turns out that these early pages firmly establish Lizzy's character as a divorcee, a mother of 2, and a legal assistant who also happens to be an author with a modestly successful first book. The descriptions of the other mystery authors in Lizzie's weekly sharing sessions are laugh-out-loud funny. In fact, Claire Johnson's writing in general sparkles - The story starts with excerpts from the book Lizzie is trying to write, then goes on to tell her story in first person cleverly interspersed with emails and blogs.
It doesn't take that long to pick up who the contemporary counterparts are to the original P&P, and the story really swings into more familiar territory once Pemberley-call-me-William makes his first appearance at an airport - a wonderful scene with a very drunk Lizzie; she's terrified of flying and has too much to drink on her plane. Naturally, she makes a poor first impression, but she is also predisposed not to like William because of his blog.
However, by the time the storyline got into this semi-traditional Pride and Prejudice mode, I was so entranced by this story and its characters that it was standing very securely on its own merits rather than just another P&P fan fiction novel. Bravo, Ms. Johnson!
Wow. I mean, WOW!!!! Best $1.50 I have spent in a long, long time! It turns out that these early pages firmly establish Lizzy's character as a divorcee, a mother of 2, and a legal assistant who also happens to be an author with a modestly successful first book. The descriptions of the other mystery authors in Lizzie's weekly sharing sessions are laugh-out-loud funny. In fact, Claire Johnson's writing in general sparkles - The story starts with excerpts from the book Lizzie is trying to write, then goes on to tell her story in first person cleverly interspersed with emails and blogs.
It doesn't take that long to pick up who the contemporary counterparts are to the original P&P, and the story really swings into more familiar territory once Pemberley-call-me-William makes his first appearance at an airport - a wonderful scene with a very drunk Lizzie; she's terrified of flying and has too much to drink on her plane. Naturally, she makes a poor first impression, but she is also predisposed not to like William because of his blog.
However, by the time the storyline got into this semi-traditional Pride and Prejudice mode, I was so entranced by this story and its characters that it was standing very securely on its own merits rather than just another P&P fan fiction novel. Bravo, Ms. Johnson!
September 10, 2014
Our heroine, Lizzie Mansfield, single mother of two, former pastry chef, and ardent Janeite, spends her days earning a living as a legal secretary and her nights writing cooking mysteries about a pastry chef who solves crimes in San Francisco. Maintaining two jobs while shouldering the responsibilities of two children makes for a very stressful, eventful, and hectic life. To support her writing career, Lizzie attends several mystery conferences a year. Always in attendance with her at these conferences is her dear friend, Janie Eston, who also works as a legal secretary and writes brilliant historical mysteries for Longbourne Books.
Also attending the mystery conference circuit is William Pemberley, publisher and executive editor of Pemberley Publishing – who is well-known for being wealthy, intelligent, sought after, and of course, arrogant. Through his blog he has made it quite clear how much he despises cooking mysteries and neon orange covers (guess whose book he is insulting with this?) Joining William is his newly published star, Charles Netherfield, who as expected, is immediately interested and attracted to Janie Eston, bringing the four characters frequently together.
What a fun and inventive pastiche of Pride and Prejudice! I loved the integration of Jane Austen, crime novels, and the publishing world. I enjoyed exploring the many different facets of writing and the publishing world through this novel such as writer groups, conventions, and small publishing houses – I found it all very informative and interesting. As an avid reader, it was fun to be so immersed in the other side of the writing world!
Claire M. Johnson is a new author for me, and one thing I loved most about her book is her style of writing. I loved her matter-of-fact, conversational tone; like our beloved Jane she doesn’t mince words and there is some stinging acerbity to her observations. I also took great pleasure in all the clever forms of media included in the novel – it’s always fun to observe emails, texts, and blog posts being exchanged between several characters. In addition, I loved being privy to our heroine’s thoughts – she was utterly adorable and likable. Definitely reminded me of Bridget Jones with her list of neuroses, tendency to make lists, ;) and talent for humiliating herself. However, she is not all Bridget, she is definitely more independent and happier with her single status than poor Bridge.
Besides our neurotic and flappable heroine, there are so many other well-crafted and wonderfully defined characters to enjoy in this tale. Every member of Lizzie’s family (including her kids) were given strong personalities and unique traits making them a very memorable, endearing, and delightful cast of characters! Loved the hilarious Elton Collins and his alter-ego, Mac (a stuffed Scottish terrier) and must mention the excitable Missy Longbourne (totally Mrs. Bennet) and her love of using exclamation points!!!!!!!!
My one main quibble for this book is that sometimes the pace felt too fast. I also thought the ending felt rushed and the conclusion a little incomplete. I’d love to know what happened between Musgrove and Theo, and I’m very curious about Fiona Barber and what her relationship was with William, she seemed to drop out of the book halfway through.
But despite that, I greatly enjoyed this original and entertaining modern-day tribute to Pride and Prejudice and I eagerly look forward to reading more by Claire M. Johnson!!
*WARNING: Some profanity is used in this novel.
**Also just wanted to make mention of the incredibly awesome chick-flick movie marathon playlist Lizzie and Janie established in college and, due to a horrible weekend, resurrected during this tale. Starting with To Catch a Thief and ending with It Happened One Night – a list of 18 movies full of adorable men, gorgeous women, and romance at its best! (Must try and watch all the ones I haven’t yet! Thanks for the recs, Claire!)
Austenesque Reviews
Also attending the mystery conference circuit is William Pemberley, publisher and executive editor of Pemberley Publishing – who is well-known for being wealthy, intelligent, sought after, and of course, arrogant. Through his blog he has made it quite clear how much he despises cooking mysteries and neon orange covers (guess whose book he is insulting with this?) Joining William is his newly published star, Charles Netherfield, who as expected, is immediately interested and attracted to Janie Eston, bringing the four characters frequently together.
What a fun and inventive pastiche of Pride and Prejudice! I loved the integration of Jane Austen, crime novels, and the publishing world. I enjoyed exploring the many different facets of writing and the publishing world through this novel such as writer groups, conventions, and small publishing houses – I found it all very informative and interesting. As an avid reader, it was fun to be so immersed in the other side of the writing world!
Claire M. Johnson is a new author for me, and one thing I loved most about her book is her style of writing. I loved her matter-of-fact, conversational tone; like our beloved Jane she doesn’t mince words and there is some stinging acerbity to her observations. I also took great pleasure in all the clever forms of media included in the novel – it’s always fun to observe emails, texts, and blog posts being exchanged between several characters. In addition, I loved being privy to our heroine’s thoughts – she was utterly adorable and likable. Definitely reminded me of Bridget Jones with her list of neuroses, tendency to make lists, ;) and talent for humiliating herself. However, she is not all Bridget, she is definitely more independent and happier with her single status than poor Bridge.
Besides our neurotic and flappable heroine, there are so many other well-crafted and wonderfully defined characters to enjoy in this tale. Every member of Lizzie’s family (including her kids) were given strong personalities and unique traits making them a very memorable, endearing, and delightful cast of characters! Loved the hilarious Elton Collins and his alter-ego, Mac (a stuffed Scottish terrier) and must mention the excitable Missy Longbourne (totally Mrs. Bennet) and her love of using exclamation points!!!!!!!!
My one main quibble for this book is that sometimes the pace felt too fast. I also thought the ending felt rushed and the conclusion a little incomplete. I’d love to know what happened between Musgrove and Theo, and I’m very curious about Fiona Barber and what her relationship was with William, she seemed to drop out of the book halfway through.
But despite that, I greatly enjoyed this original and entertaining modern-day tribute to Pride and Prejudice and I eagerly look forward to reading more by Claire M. Johnson!!
*WARNING: Some profanity is used in this novel.
**Also just wanted to make mention of the incredibly awesome chick-flick movie marathon playlist Lizzie and Janie established in college and, due to a horrible weekend, resurrected during this tale. Starting with To Catch a Thief and ending with It Happened One Night – a list of 18 movies full of adorable men, gorgeous women, and romance at its best! (Must try and watch all the ones I haven’t yet! Thanks for the recs, Claire!)
Austenesque Reviews
July 26, 2017
Pride and Prejudice retellings are hard to do well, but I enjoyed the humor of this one, and its metafictional qualities grew on me as I kept reading: the Elizabeth character is a struggling mystery writer, while Darcy is the haughty owner of a mystery publishing house (not the one that publishes hers), and the Mr. Collins, Charlotte, Jane, Bingley and Wickham characters are also writers of mysteries, as is the author of this book in real life.
June 28, 2017
**2.5 stars
I really really had high hopes for this book. However, i was sorely disappointed. This book was devoid of any romance and seems like an author's attempt to jump on the JAFF bandwagon while really trying to promote their other books. It felt forced, and i was left with reading mostly about the events in someone's life and lots of anger and frustration but almost no romance. in fact when you get to the part where you think there will finally be romance. The BOOK ABRUPTLY ENDS. Seriously, like the end if nothing but a wedding invitation (not giving away the ending her, we're talking about JAFF).
i was disappointed. It's not that i didn't like the context, or the characters or the world the author created. It was the delivery. Much of the book is reading emails, blog entries etc. It was awkward. Also, i never felt any connection between Will and Lizzie. Thus, i cannot recommend this book to others. There are just too many good ones out there.
I really really had high hopes for this book. However, i was sorely disappointed. This book was devoid of any romance and seems like an author's attempt to jump on the JAFF bandwagon while really trying to promote their other books. It felt forced, and i was left with reading mostly about the events in someone's life and lots of anger and frustration but almost no romance. in fact when you get to the part where you think there will finally be romance. The BOOK ABRUPTLY ENDS. Seriously, like the end if nothing but a wedding invitation (not giving away the ending her, we're talking about JAFF).
i was disappointed. It's not that i didn't like the context, or the characters or the world the author created. It was the delivery. Much of the book is reading emails, blog entries etc. It was awkward. Also, i never felt any connection between Will and Lizzie. Thus, i cannot recommend this book to others. There are just too many good ones out there.
March 23, 2015
It's a solid three. Clever concept. Some very funny moments. Something felt "unfinished" or "unedited" about it though. Small publishing errors aside, it seemed that the characters were not fully developed--very two-dimensional. Lizzie was pretty solid, but at the expense of all others. Edward and the brother getting together was a good change of pace, but it just went caput--nowheresville. Possibly a little less mention of the "genre" of mystery writers and their "cons," and more about the actual writers themselves would've been helpful. There was no real huge turning point moment. Felt like this author really knew her stuff about publishing--I wish she had gone back and rewritten some of the chapters--it was enjoyable and fun, but could've been so much more.
December 23, 2017
ab 2011 im Literaturbetrieb spielende Stolz-und-Vorurteil-Variante, die mich den Tag über gut unterhalten hat.
October 12, 2018
This is so bad. Absolutely terrible. She's supposed to be a "witty, playful heroine". NOPE. Not one ounce of Elizabeth Bennet is present here. This character is whiny, dumb, and completely unsympathetic. Johnson forces the P&P story into some ridiculous, self-fulfilling fantasy that I'm so angry I actually paid $0.99 to read it. (Yes, that's a zero.) And the level of writing is so poor. Do not waste your time on this.
October 7, 2017
An amusing, light read, with interesting insights to mystery genre publishing.
May 26, 2018
This is a clever variation on Pride and Prejudice. It kept me guessing about how it was going to follow the pattern.
May 28, 2020
It's really a 3.5, 3.8. It's fun, it's charming, it works well enough. Reads fast and happily.
December 8, 2016
Lizzie is a divorced single mom living in the Bay Area. A former chef, but now she works as a paralegal by day, and is a writer of food mystery novels in her spare time. She has one book published by a small company Longbourne books. In the midst of mystery conferences Lizzie, and her fellow author Janie keep running into William Pemberly, a big name in mystery publishing, and his star author Charles Netherfield.
First, I really don't like it when fiction author's use their books to spout their political agenda. Whether I agree with them or not if I wanted to read political opinion I would pick up the Op-Ed section of the newspaper. I read fiction to escape stuff like that, and really don't appreciate it being thrown in my face.
I was initially intrigued by the idea that the Lizzie and Darcy characters were both divorced single parents, hey it was something new I hadn't read before, in the end I felt like it took away from the story rather than adding to it. The change in character I did like was that the Lydia character was a gay little brother, and the Wickham character a chameleon con artist who would be whatever just to take advantage of people.
While those things were annoying I could've probably look past them. However, I can tell you the exact page and line where she lost me. It was page 147 and the quote, "After ascertaining that the Boston Red Sox were the best team ever, and that David Ortiz was a god..." I am sorry but the character lives in the Bay Area (the author does too), and claims to love baseball and the answer to the greatest team ever was not the San Francisco Giants we are done! You may think I am joking, I assure you I'm not. The only other acceptable answer might be the Oakland A's. If you couldn't figure it out I am a Giants fan.
First, I really don't like it when fiction author's use their books to spout their political agenda. Whether I agree with them or not if I wanted to read political opinion I would pick up the Op-Ed section of the newspaper. I read fiction to escape stuff like that, and really don't appreciate it being thrown in my face.
I was initially intrigued by the idea that the Lizzie and Darcy characters were both divorced single parents, hey it was something new I hadn't read before, in the end I felt like it took away from the story rather than adding to it. The change in character I did like was that the Lydia character was a gay little brother, and the Wickham character a chameleon con artist who would be whatever just to take advantage of people.
While those things were annoying I could've probably look past them. However, I can tell you the exact page and line where she lost me. It was page 147 and the quote, "After ascertaining that the Boston Red Sox were the best team ever, and that David Ortiz was a god..." I am sorry but the character lives in the Bay Area (the author does too), and claims to love baseball and the answer to the greatest team ever was not the San Francisco Giants we are done! You may think I am joking, I assure you I'm not. The only other acceptable answer might be the Oakland A's. If you couldn't figure it out I am a Giants fan.
September 14, 2016
Since this is so based on Pride and Prejudice, I don't think these are really spoilers. Lizzie is a divorced-with-two-children former chef now a legal secretary mystery writer up for an Agatha, her ex also a chef, Jane her best friend from college a legal secretary who writes historical mysteries that get awards but don't sell well, her brother Theo (= Lydia) a professor at a small third-rank college in NYC, Charles another mystery writer, William a major publisher of mysteries. Left Coast Crime, Bouchercon, the Agatha Awards all major things. LOVED it, 5 star, & I say that very seldom. I read it originally via Kindle Unlimited, and will actually BUY it. Necessary for rereads.
August 14, 2014
I read the ebook version. This was a delightful story, not really a mystery, more of a romance. It is set in the modern publishing world, and holds no punches there. The focus is on the mystery writing world, their tendencies and their conventions. Since I do attend mystery conventions, I can verify a lot of what is detailed. I have enjoyed Claire Johnson's mysteries, and I enjoyed this novel as well.
August 29, 2013
I really enjoyed this book. It's not like other adaptations of Pride and Prejudice in that while they had the names of the characters, they were not related in the same way. I really enjoyed the different twists that Claire put into a well known story.
February 26, 2014
I always enjoy the Jane Austen fan fiction genre but found this one a little hard to get into. A cute concept but a little too self conscious and I found it frustrating to have a book about publishing that is poorly edited.
Ms Johnson's mysteries are far more enjoyable.
Ms Johnson's mysteries are far more enjoyable.
March 15, 2017
A nice romance updating Austen for the 21st century.
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