Ana

http://www.resurrectingblackgoddess.wordpress.com

https://www.goodreads.com/blackgoddessreviews

Ana’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (2937)
currently-reading‎ (3)
read‎ (1994)
did-not-finish‎ (13)
asian-authored-books‎ (249)
black-authors‎ (96)
favourites‎ (64)

retellings‎ (63)
lgbt‎ (60)
retellings-reading-challenge-2019‎ (59)
antiracism‎ (42)
history‎ (35)
latinx‎ (28)
fat-rep‎ (23)

korea‎ (22)
mythology‎ (22)
japan‎ (19)
science‎ (18)
disappointing‎ (9)
mental-illness‎ (8)
middle-grade‎ (6)

muslim-authored-books‎ (6)
disability-representation‎ (5)
dnf‎ (5)
feminism‎ (2)

Stats | More…

Ana is Currently Reading

Ana is currently reading

The Other Bennet Sister

by Janice Hadlow

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in March 2020

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Ana said: " I always felt a bit sorry for Mary Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, so I was really excited when I received an ARC for this book via Netgalley. It is, I am pleased to say, pretty much everything I wanted from it. The Other Bennet Sister started off slo I always felt a bit sorry for Mary Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, so I was really excited when I received an ARC for this book via Netgalley. It is, I am pleased to say, pretty much everything I wanted from it. The Other Bennet Sister started off slow for me. My ARC had the unfortunate problem of removing the combination of the letters fi or fl from every word in which it appeared. Which was rather a lot more than one might think - five, figure, fine, fire, fish, flat, floor, confidence etc. Once I got used to it, I really got into the book. The first third of book covers Mary's childhood up to and including most of the events in Pride and Prejudice. For most part I enjoyed this, and Janice Hadlow did wonderful job of portraying Mary in a way that made sense. All those times she says or does something awkward in Pride and Prejudice were explained in a way that made me even more sympathetic toward Mary. I was very impressed with how nuanced and believable Mary's personal journey was. At the beginning she lacks self-confidence, but it grows over the course of the book. There was never a lightbulb moment where everything changed, but rather her confidence and identity grew organically with every situation that she faced. I was also impressed by the detailed world building, and it was clear that the author had taken great pains to research all of the different aspects of the setting, including, but not limited to the environment, the landscape, the society, the fashion, the customs, and the literature. The later part of The Other Bennet Sister read very much like most historical romances I've come across. So that could be taken as a positive or a negative depending on how much you like the sort of tropes you tend to find in them. I was a little underwhelmed by it because other aspects of the novel were so strong. My main critique was how long the book was. Sometimes scenes dragged a bit, slowing the pacing considerably. But then, I found the same true for Pride & Prejudice, so perhaps it was a stylistic choice. The only other tiny remark I have is that while almost the entire book was written in third-person limited from Mary's perspective, every so often there would be a random sentence relating Mrs Gardiner's thoughts, which always threw me off. ...more "

progress:

(78%)
— May 29, 2026 02:27PM

Mar 26, 2020 07:20PM · see review