The Heiress puts a modern twist on the story of a side character from Pride and Prejudice - Anne de Bourgh, who is Lady Catherine’s daughter. In this story she has been ill from the time she was a baby and becomes addicted to laudanum as prescribed by her overbearing mother and her personal doctor. I found the pace of the story to be a bit slow, but it is true to this period in history. The pace picks up after the first third of the book when Anne starts to realize she is not really sick, and overcomes her laudanum addiction and her mother's plans for the rest of her life. The last third of the book was the most interesting as Anne starts to discover who she really is and what she wants to do with her life and considerable estate, I really enjoyed reading about her journey of self-discovery.

There is some beautiful prose here, especially the last chapter. The story is a clever idea, to create a life for Anne de Bourge, Lady Catherine’s daughter from Pride and Prejudice. I like that she was a strong woman and overcame her laudanum addiction and made a life for herself, despite her controlling mother. She does many things she wants to do by not marrying and keeping control over her estate. She is able to create a school for her tenant’s children and make Mr. Darcy’s son George her successor.

The Heiress is an interesting look at the life of a minor character from Pride and Prejudice- Anne de Borugh. I liked seeing Anne’s development as a person through the novel. As she overcomes her dependence on laudanum her world blossoms and she is able to become the master of herself.

Her cousin John was my favorite supporting character.
It was also nice to see a little of Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship from an outsider’s perspective.
Though Anne never had a name for her relationship with and feelings for Eliza it was a nice glimpse into the LGBTQ of the time period.

Overall enjoyable though the beginning third was rather slow.

The Heiress revolves around Anne de Bourgh who is Darcy's fiancée in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. All we know of her from that novel is that she's Darcy's cousin, has a "sickly constitution" and is the heir to the Rosings Park Estate. In this novel. Greeley tells her story and Darcy's mysterious and jilted betrothed (to whom Austen gave not a single line of dialogue) turns out to be quite a remarkable woman.

Born a fussy baby, Anne was prescribed laudanum to quiet her and continued to take the opiate every day, leaving her in a perpetual stupor. Anne's domineering mother kept her sheltered, worried over her delicate condition, and didn't allow her daughter much education for fear it would be too taxing. The one constant in Anne's life was the fact that she would marry her cousin Darcy, uniting their two considerable estates. But when Darcy chooses to marry Elizabeth Bennett and Anne's father passes, the heiress to Rosings Park starts to question everything she thought she knew about herself and looks to take charge of her own life and happiness.

I don't want to reveal too much more of the plot but I thoroughly enjoyed Anne's journey. Part one of the book was a bit slow but it picks up considerably in part two and heads in a direction I never expected. I appreciated that Greeley didn't try to mimic Austen's style but rather paid homage to it by embracing the spirit of her books. You don't need to have read Pride and Prejudice to enjoy The Heiress but those who are fans should find this novel a great companion to Austen's classic.

Thanks to NetGalley and William morrow Custom House for an advanced copy to review.

The Heiress follows Anne de Bourgh, cousin to Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy, as she ages in early 1800 England. As an infant, Anne was very fussy and given laudanum to calm her, and was continuously dosed with the opium-heavy tincture throughout her childhood and young adulthood because of her "frailty". This dulled her senses and caused her to sleep through much her early life. When she is in her late 20s, Anne runs away to her cousins where she goes through withdraw, and begins to live her life to it's fullest potential, falling in love and learning how to run her estate independently.
The book is told by Anne in first person narrative, which suits the story well. Anne is a very likable character whose growth and progress captivated me throughout the whole story. The setting is the early 1800s England, and there are mentions of several of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice characters, but the ideas of Austen don't monopolize the story. There is a very beautiful queer romance, and a strong emphasis on early feminism.
My only qualm I think is that I at times had a hard time understanding how old Anne was throughout the book. There are several large time jumps, and I often found myself trying to find out how many years had passed since we last learned of Anne's age. Overall, not really that important, but I found it a little frustrating.
Despite that, I really enjoyed this book! I don't read much historical fiction, but found The Heiress to be an engaging read and I became fully invested in Anne de Bourgh's life and was strongly rooting for her to find peace and happiness throughout the story!

This is a new and interesting retelling of the beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice. This story tells the trials and tribulations of Anne de Bourgh as she is the heiress of a great estate. However, she has a severe illness and necessary precautions must be taken. The story is told in a wonderful way with great plot development and is very well written. However, this one definitely wasn’t for me. I have learned recently that I am not a fan of retellings. I just couldn’t really get into this one. However, if you are a fan of retellings and Pride and Prejudice, this is a very well done novel that I am sure you will enjoy!

The Heiress by Molly Greeley is a well written book about the life of Anne de Bourgh, the side character in the Austen books.
It was very interesting to read about Anne's character, was she really as ill as we read in Austen book or was she actually kept drugged with Laudanum, from newborn until almost thirty years old, by her mother the formidable Lady Catherine?

We read about Anne's childhood, her addiction, recovery, her sexual orientation and her personality development after overcoming her addiction.

I don't feel like I got to know that well the rest of the characters in the book, and only a sporadic glimpse of Anne's relationship with the rest of the characters in her family. Was this a literary choice by the author to focus the reader only on Anne or a lack of characters development? In not really sure.

All in all I feel this book is a good book to read.

I received this book as an advanced free copy in exchange of an honest review.

The Heiress: The Revelation of Anne de Bourgh by Molly Greeley is a touching story about how the good intentions of a worried mother can become the very thing that holds her child back from growing and surviving. Our main character, Anne, has been tragically introduced to laudanum at a young age (infancy) by the good intentions of a family doctor that thought he was treating an overly fussy child. What has truly happened to Anne is that moment by moment year by year she is consumed by an ever increasing addiction to laudanum. Unfortunately for Anne, her mother is completely sold on the fact that her daughter will never be able to function as a regular adult in society and cannot live without her "drops", which are administered several time a day at a constant increase in dosage. Anne is completely and utterly dependent upon her drops and her family for care.

The story itself is loosely based on characters from the Pride and Prejudice novel written by Emily Bronte and mirrors her writing style. Anne is to be an heiress of a large estate but her addiction to laudanum makes her completely unable to pay attention to a conversation much less handle a large estate. Her parents decide at an early age that she must be married of to a competent gentleman that will help secure and not squander their family fortune, so they look inside the family to a cousin. At the young age of four, Anne is promised to be married to her first cousin Fitzwilliam, ensuring a competent heir to diligently watch out for the estate and Anne.

In Anne's laudanum induced haze she could care less about her future. Her days consist of sleeping, hallucinating and generally lazing about the family estate, Rosings. Her mother is convinced that she must be kept calm at all times because over stimulation could send Anne into a complete nervous breakdown. Sadly, this means Anne has no opportunities outside of the home. Fortunately, Anne's father is keen on trying to push Anne out of her comfort zones in order to try to stimulate her in hopes of reversing her sickness. To Anne's mother's disapproval he hires a governess for Anne that plants the seed that awakens the person Anne should be and completely changes her life for the better.

I greatly enjoyed The Heiress. I felt terrible for Anne in her desperation to be out from under the claws of laudanum addiction and cheered for her accomplishments throughout the story. I felt that Molly Greeley's description of the feeling associated with addiction and withdrawal were spot on. A reader can feel the physical and mental pain and need Anne had for her "drops". I was also very happy with the ending. I felt Molly gave Anne what she rightfully deserved, her life began with so much turmoil and as she gets older she finally knows what it is to be at peace in your on body and mind. This was an amazingly touching, well written story.

Thanks so very much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced copy for an honest review. This was an amazingly touching well written story.

Another take on Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice and I love it! Anne de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s intended is brought out from the shadows. Her mother fears for her health and keeps Anne drowsy with laudanum. Catherine, Anne’s mother is domineering yet one day Anne manages to forgo the laudanum and travel to London, as near to normal life as she can get. It is well written, does a good job with Austen’s voice in writing and provides some backstory.

Surprised about my delight in this spin off. I think the Author did a great job.

Look forward to more of her works.

The backstory about the life of Anne de Bourgh of Pride and Prejudice. An interesting take on a minor character from that novel. Until this book came along, I didn’t have any thoughts regarding Anne. This book held my interest throughout.

One of my favorite tropes in fiction is when an author takes a background character of a famous novel and writes the story from their perspective. Greeley does this with one of the biggest classic reads (and one of my favorites)- Pride & Prejudice.

Anne de Bourgh takes center stage in this adaptation. Darcy's sickly cousin that he is supposed to marry isn't the dullard we all thought she was in Greeley's hands. She's just the victim of her overbearing mother (who probably would have been diagnosed with Munchausen by Proxy if they were real and lived today).

Anne de Bourgh gets out from under her mother and steals away to London where she gets to experience the season for the first time. Because she is a single, rich woman, she becomes the talk of the town, while enjoying parties and events that she never got to do before.

I don't want to spoil how it ends, but there ends up being a beautiful love story that I didn't see coming. You root for Anne because she was kept from experiencing her life and want to see life treat her well.

I am a huge Jane Austen fan. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read Pride & Prejudice so I love to seek out Pride & Prejudice-inspired books. Usually they focus on Lizzie and Darcy (which is fine) but I was pleasantly surprised by this beautiful and haunting take on Anne de Bourgh.

Anne had my sympathy from the start, with the early scenes reminiscent of the Secret Garden with the ill cousin. The book does not shy away from the misuse of laudanum by doctors of that era and how it adversely affected Anne as a baby and negatively impacted her childhood.

I loved the LGBTQ perspective of the story as well. Anne doesn’t have a name for how she feels but I loved witnessing her queer awakening.

The WLW romance in this book is elegant and emotional all at once. By the end, I had bittersweet (but mostly happy) tears in my eyes.

I highly recommend this book to all the Jane Austen devotees, anyone who cheers for the underdog, and readers who always root for the less appreciated side characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC.

I’ll be honest. This book confused the hell out of me. I didn’t understand half of what was going on. Wha to did understand, I just felt bad for her. If my parents just medicated me to shut me up, I would be so sad. The mother in me found some serious rage and sadness.

I tried reading it in print, I tried reading in on my phone, on my kindle, I read it out loud to hear it, I even asked Alexa to read it, nothing stuck. I read words on pages, but nothing really struck me as interesting or wonderful. Tragic, yes, forgettable, 100%?

This dragged for the a good 40-50% of the book. My ADD was not okay. I did enjoy once we got to Anne as an adult and how she kind of figured out who she was and had some self actualization later on. That writing was the only thing truly redeeming.

Overall, this was book just fell flat across the board. I was expecting high hopes but just felt like it was a chore to finish this book. A positive is how stunning the cover is.

Thank you William Morrow & NetGalley for the gifted copy.

The Heiress
The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh
by Molly Greeley
William Morrow and Custom House
You Are Auto-Approved
William Morrow
Historical Fiction | LGBTQIA | Women's Fiction
Pub Date 05 Jan 2021 | Archive Date 02 Mar 2021

I liked this book more than I thought I would. It has an interesting storyline and I liked how the character found out she could be a strong woman. Thanks to William Morrow and Custom House for the ARC through NetGalley.
I enjoy reading books like this one. The writing was lyrical. I will recommend it to others.
4 stars

To start off, I did not read Pride & Prejudice so I knew nothing of Anne De Bourgh. But it didn't matter. This book with it's lyrical prose is beautifully written. The storyline itself is disturbing in the beginning of the book. What parent in their right mind would want an imbecile like daughter. That is what Anne's mom did to Anne by giving her Laudanum drops from the time she wan an infant to keep her from "screaming". She just sort of existed from infancy until her early 20's when she finally took hold of her life and got rid of the drops. That was not an easy thing to do since the opioid is so addicting. Anne is a very smart ambitious young woman when she regains her life and the story takes off from there. I really liked the book with the beautiful countryside of Rosings, outside of London, London itself, the characters and Anne's family of cousins. I would recommend buying this book when it comes out on January 5th 2021.

Thanks to #WilliamMorrow, #netgalley and #bookclubgirlsearlyread for an ARC of this book

Thanks to @netgalley @harpercollins and @bookclubgirl for this free digital copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be available 1/5/21!

The Heiress is the story of Anne de Bourgh, the character that is hardly noticed and mostly ignored in Pride and Prejudice. The novel follows Anne throughout her life, moving more quickly through the first 29 years or so. Anne’s childhood through early adulthood were hazy, stunted, and full of people telling her how sickly she was and all of the things she couldn’t do. until one day, she decides to find out who she might be and what she might be capable of when not constantly dosed with laudanum and under her mother’s thumb. With the help of her maid, other family members, and friends, Anne learns what it means to be strong.

Honestly, I thought this book was an effing triumph. Who knew what I needed was to read a book with Anne de Bourgh as the main character?! Molly Greeley, that’s who. The book reads quickly and is so...melodious. Yes, that’s the word I’m going with. The prose is stunning and you are rooting for her the entire way. Her self-discovery and love story are beautifully rendered and I love that once she realized who she was and what she wanted, she stuck with that all the way through. Also, it was enjoyable to experience certain aspects from Pride and Prejudice from such a unique point of view. My only complaint is that I wanted more—some aspects felt like they were passed over a bit quickly.

TW: sex stuff, drug usage and dependency (laudanum prescribed for her illness)

Other reviewers call this another retelling of Pride and Prejudice but I don’t agree, while they share the same characters this is a unique story that stands alone. I found it very hard to get through the first few chapters, the story just seemed to drag, but after that I couldn’t stop reading. The writing is lyrical and when Anne describes how it feels to be dosed with laudanum you could almost see and feel what she was describing. I enjoyed the incorporation of the characters from Pride and Prejudice and that the author continued their stories as they intersected with Anne. But the real surprise was Anne’s relationship with Eliza and the impact it has on her life. Also her tortured relationship with her mother is something many woman can relate to, even if their mother was not guilty of keeping them “stupefied” with laudanum. But the best writing in a book with exquisite writing is the final chapter as Eliza “floats down the river”. This was so touching and descriptive that it made me hope it could actually happen that way (can’t say more without spoiling it!). I highly recommend this book, whether you are a Jane Austen fan or not!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher William Morrow in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about a spin off of a great classic of literature but I liked this. I enjoyed that the author gave voice to a character who wasn’t given her own in the story she was a part of. That being said a lot of this book was hard to read as it was difficult to sit so long with such grossly abusive behavior, even if those doing it had no idea. Anne is a sickly baby prone to screaming and nothing can soothe her tears until her doctor prescribes laudanum. As dangerous as that would be in itself it doesn’t stop with a dose or two but becomes a necessary “medicine” that Anne takes daily sinking into the easy stupefied dream of being drugged. I wished she had gotten there faster but the story was told realistically, I just wanted her to find her life. The writing was excellent and I would definitely read more by this author.

As a fan of Jane Austen, I am always a little leery of novels that are a spin off of one of her books. And the Heiress is just that, a novel of Anne de Bourgh, who as a minor character in Pride & Prejudice, was the cousin Mr. Darcy would have married if Elizabeth Bennett hadn't shown up.

But the author did a nice job of creating an interesting life story for Anne. Unusual for her time, Anne didn't need to be a male or to marry in order to inherit Rosings Park, though her mother, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, worked very hard to keep Anne under her thumb. As the story evolves, Anne beats her laudanum habit, begins to discover who she really is, and gets out from under Lady Catherine.

Special thanks to NetGalley for the an advanced e-galley copy of this title.