2.5★s

Quite obviously I’m not the right audience for The Clergyman’s Wife as I found it a passionless and bland story. I’m sorry to those who’ve loved it – and there are a lot of you – but as someone else has said, Probably loving Pride and Prejudice is a prerequisite to enjoying this book. (Thanks Kim) And as I don’t, I guess that’s why this didn’t fit me.

Charlotte Lucas married William Collins, clergyman, for security not love. He had previously asked for the hand of two others before Charlotte and she was content in her decision. Her patience with William’s frenetic pace in his role as Hunsford’s vicar; the subservience he practiced with their patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh; then motherhood for Charlotte with her delightful daughter, Louise – all were a part of her life as a clergyman’s wife. She enjoyed her visits with the local parishioners and when she met Mr Travis, who was caring for their roses, Charlotte felt she had found a friend. But the whole of everything was threatening to overwhelm her…

The Clergyman’s Wife by Molly Greeley was not for me, but those who’ve enjoyed Pride and Prejudice, I’m sure you’ll be delighted.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a light read, great for a day when it was lashing with rain outside and I could just curl up in a chair to read it from cover to cover. We follow Charlotte Lucas as she marries the odious Reverand Collins. there are flashbacks to her youth and learn a bit more about her family and background, why she made her pragmatic choice of marriage, how she copes having sex with Mr Collins and her realisation that she is becoming attracted to one of the parishioners a "common" farmer, Not a huge amount happens, but the narrative rolls along nicely and Charlotte's inner conservations and feelings are spot on.

This is a debut novel written by Molly Greeley inspired by the characters from Jane Austen's much loved Pride & Prejudice. I have to admit I haven't read Pride and Prejudice but I do love a historical romance. The author's writing style felt very apt for the era, I could sense the atmosphere and the social etiquette. I believe Miss Austen would be pleased with this Pride & Prejudice spin-off.

Life was lived in a different pace in the 1800's so this romance has a slow, meandering, gentle ambiance. It simmers at a steady flow with emotions afraid to reach boiling point.

Charlotte Collins (nee Lucas) is married to William, the local clergyman. Charlotte knew she wasn't William's first choice of bride and she was also aware that her beauty wasn't at the same level of others. In the 1800's marriage was more like a business partnership, matters of the heart were not de rigueur and were quite frankly frowned upon, so marrying William was one of necessity for securing her future. This marriage of convenience suited both partners as William knew he was to get a nice genteel wife in Charlotte and she too knew she would be honoured by a gentleman in William.

As the years went by and their daughter Louisa was born Charlotte found herself a little restless. Meeting local farmer Mr Travis was to become a point in Charlotte's life that would become very memorable. A friendship soon blossoms and Charlotte starts to feel emotions she's never experienced before.

This friendship between Charlotte and Mr Travis felt very true, pure, beautiful but so tragic. My heart ached for another time and another place when this friendship could blossom and for a time when love will be the only option for marriage.

A gentle historical romance that was touchingly poignant.

An easy read. Such an original idea to take a minor character from Pride and Prejudice and create a novel around them. The author has done a very good job of recreating the times of Jane Austin. One certainly does not need to have read Pride and Prjude to enjoy this book

An enjoyable story that keeps the reader interested until the last page. I would recommend this book to those readers who enjoy reading this type of book.

This is a romantic curl up book in the style of Jane Austen.
Charlotte is married to the vicar of Hunsford. Its not a perfect marriage but she has a daughter and it gives her the standing and security she needs but she doesn't love her husband.
She meets Mr Travis, a local Farmer doing some gardening work for her husband and has feelings for him.
Which path will she take and will it bring her happiness?

I'm always a bit wary of Jane Austen spin-offs but this novel came on my radar just as I finished a very long and somewhat harrowing book and I thought that a lighter and quicker read would be just what I needed. It didn't disappoint.
Charlotte Lucas has always been something of an enigma to me, a character we had to ponder over when we studied "Pride and Prejudice" at school. Molly Greeley writes a very credible story with Charlotte as narrator and with very few modern expressions (eg, "go out the door" rather than "go out of the door") to spoil the period feel. Charlotte's emotions and her concerns for her daughter are timeless and these are sympathetically drawn out by the author.
With many thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for giving me a copy of the book in exchange for this honest review.

The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley is an impressive debut based on one of the secondary characters of Jane Austen's beloved Pride and Prejudice.
The Clergyman's Wife in question is Charlotte Collins, nee Lucas, who accepted the proposal of Mr Collins after Elizabeth Bennett turned him down, and once married , moved with him to the parsonage at Huntsford, under the eagle eye of the somewhat imposing Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Having chosen to marry for security rather than love, Charlotte is trying to make the best of her new situation by being a good and devoted husband to the rather annoying Mr Collins and a good mother to their young daughter Louisa , but is tempted by a blossoming friendship with a local farmer who comes to help with the garden. Unlike Mr Collins, he is interested in what she has to say, and soon she finds herself seeking out his company, despite feeling that she is betraying her husband.
I have to admit that I did not have very high expectations for this book, after all there are so many variations on Pride and Prejudice out there, and from the little we learned about Charlotte in that book, she did not seem like a very interesting character to pin a whole book on. However the author does a wonderful job of rounding out her character, and showing the circumstances that lead her into the decision to marry Mr Collins, and the dilemma that she faced is further highlighted by both her attraction to Mr Travis, the farmer and by her younger sister to marry for love, knowing that it will not benefit her circumstances. Familiar characters like the overbearing Lady Catherine and the pompous Mr Collins felt like the versions we are familiar with from Pride and Prejudice, and the overall setting and tone of the book felt like it matched the original. I would happily recommend this book to fans of Pride and Prejudice.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penquin Books UK for the ARC.

This is a nice-enough story - a spin-off of characters that will be well known to fans of Austen, Pride & Prejudice, the Pemberleys, Mr Darcy; however, it wasn't really for me, not being a fan of those works myself. Nevertheless, if you are a fan then you will probably like this story. The best description I can give is that given on the title page. Charlotte marries for security, not love, but she bites her tongue to keep the peace. She's attracted to Mr Travis, a tenant farmer, whom she finds easy to talk to unlike her husband William.

I really didn't warm to the characters nor, indeed, to their individual characteristics - Lady Catherine - Lady of the Manor - her opinions of her tenants and her own self-importance. The sycophantic words and actions accorded to her by her parson William Collins and wife Charlotte.

An OK story but found it a little confusing when the narrative is suddenly interrupted by Charlotte's thoughts of the past, and just as quickly we're back to her present again.

Rating 3.5 stars

It's an interesting novel set in England in the 1800s following Charlotte Collins, the wife of Hunsford's parson. It is a marriage of convenience , as she married for security rather than love.. She has to dutifully listen to Mr Collins' lectures and puts up with his bowing and scraping to the aristocracy, plus visits the parishioners and cares for their young daughter, Louisa.

During her visits to the parishioners, Charlotte meets the local farmer Mr Travis. She starts to feel a spark of something she has never felt before. Could it be desire or even be love?

i found the story often jumped from one setting to another (one moment you are at the big house with the lady of the manor, next thing she is getting ready for bed) which made it rather difficult to follow!. Plus being set in England I do wish authors would use UK English spellings to make it more authentic.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

I began this book with low expectations. I didn't think that a book following the life of Charlotte Lucas following her marriage to the Reverend Collins could be anything other than a poor soap opera follow up to Jane Austen. I was wrong. The book is nicely judged, true to the spirit of the time whilst also being modern in tone as it considers the life of a woman who does not have looks, money or youth to recommend her.

Greeley succeeds in conveying sensitively the relationship between Charlotte and her husband, and the way in which women have had to adapt their hopes and dreams to more pragmatic outcomes, perhaps regretting the lack of passion or romantic love in their lives but looking for some measure of independence alongside security. I enjoyed it a lot as well as finding it thought provoking.

Ultimate beautifully written fan fiction for Austen lovers, this novel explores the first years of Charlotte Lucas’ marriage to the sycophantic Mr Collins. Rather than accept a life of being a burden to her brothers and subservient to their wives, Charlotte embraces the security of a loveless but very respectable marriage and becomes a dutiful clergyman’s wife and soon enough mother to a lively, delightful daughter.
Charlotte thinks she knows the pathway her life will take. Ruled by the whims of their benefactor, Lady Catherine, and her husband’s subservience to whatever her views of the day are, they will muddle through until Mr Collins finally inherits Mr Bennett’s estate and she can return to her hometown again.
A twist occurs, when a Lady Catherine insists on a bed of roses being planted at the parsonage, and sends a local farmer to carry out the work. Charlotte finds out that she has more to offer to the local residents than she had thought, and that her heart isn’t as ruled by her head as she had believed.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of the novel in exchange for my honest review.

Well written but not my type of book. If I had known that this book is linked to Pride and Prejudice I probably would not have requested it. I have a few friends who would really enjoy this book so I will recommend it to them.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

The Clergyman’s Wife is a first-person linear narrative from the perspective of Charlotte Collins. Charlotte is the best friend of Elizabeth Bennett (now Elizabeth Darcy) from Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice; and is married to Rev William Collins – who is not only the cousin of Mr Bennett, but also the rejected suitor of Elizabeth. The author’s writing style is like a modern version of the ninetenth-century novel; not only with regards to Austin in relation to plot and wit, but the vivid description of landscape bears similarities to later nineteenth-century realist novels, in particular Hardy.

No longer is Charlotte married than she realises her new husband is a complete bore who is more interested in his prize vegetables and pleasing the pompous Lady Catherine (not at the same time, I hasten to add!) than he is in his own wife and baby daughter. In context, William isn’t a bad man, he is just typical of his generation and the author has characterised him well. If this were a contemporary novel, he would be considered a misogynistic bully when he admits he ‘married a woman who was neither too lively nor too handsome to make a suitable clergyman’s wife’; however, this isn’t directed as an insult to Charlotte, but as a compliment to himself in selecting ‘the right woman for the job’ as The Clergyman’s Wife. In contrast, Robbie Travis, the local farmer is happy to give Charlotte (and her daughter) his time and intention. The pair share joint interests (books) and it isn’t long before the unlikely pair develop an intense friendship, where illicit sexual chemistry sizzles beneath the surface.

Although it felt like something was missing from a plot perspective, this is a well-written narrative that is not only true to its historical era with regards to characterisation and setting, it is also a delightful light read that fans of Austin and contemporary fiction alike will relish.

So, I didn’t realise until I started to read this that the main character features in another best-selling book, Pride & Prejudice, Charlotte is a friend of Elizabeth Bennett. There’s a lovely bit of intertextuality for you. I may have got more out of the book if I’d read Pride & Prejudice as I feel there is lot of assumption by the author that you’ll have read the source material so some details are left out I could have benefited from. This wasn’t a terrible book but it was a pretty straight-forward book about a genteel Regency marriage which isn’t my sort of thing. I felt there was too much obsession with wealth and class which got dull after a while. Like I said, not a terrible read but not particularly great either.

This book is about Charlotte Collins who was Elizabeth Bennett's friend in Pride and Prejudice. She marries a vicar and has a daughter to him. Unfortunately the writing was slow and pedestrian and was not as interesting as Jane Austen's.

I couldn't wait to read more about Charlotte who married to odious Mr Collins and spent his time in Pride and Prejudice raving about his benefactor and this tale did not disappoint. it starts a few years later when Charlotte is settled into the parsonage and her husband still pompous and obsequious hanging on every word of his benefactor Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her daughter Anne. Charlotte picked marriage to Collins instead of being a burden on her family and although she has a delightful daughter there is sadness in her life and she dreams of the elderly Mr Travis 's son. It is beautifully crafted and we feel her pain for the lack of a relationship but her joy in the happiness of others like her friend Elizabeth who is happily married to Darcy. I won't give away how the tale continues but it was a great read bringing to life the conditions that women had to accept in the society of the day.

A gentle story of a marriage in ? Regency
times. I would have liked to know the era it depicted but I assume it was early 1800’s.
A marriage to a country vicar with what entails for the Vicar’s wife in the parish and her relationships with family, friends and neighbours

A well written book although not really my genre or type. Based on Jane Austin characters the storyline is basically romantic although it struggles to fulfill this at times. Thanks Molly Greeley and NetGalley

This is a spin off from “Pride and Prejudice”, about Charlotte Lucas, who marries Mr Collins. Having read the novel and seen a couple of dramatisations I do not recall Charlotte but remember Mr Collins as being rather obnoxious and being rejected by Elizabeth Bennett.

The action takes place mainly in Kent, where the Rev Mr Collins has secured a living, which means that Charlotte is away from her family and friends and feeling rather isolated. Mr Collins is still objectionable but not violent so the couple muddle along by spending much of their time apart.

There is even less action in this novel than in Jane Austen’s stories so it is rather pedestrian. There is much thought given to class, wealth and the sexes but little in the way of actual romance.

A trifle tedious but quite well written.