Pride and Paranormal by Adrienne Blake is a delightful fit for readers who adore witty, adventurous, and romantic tales with a dash of fantasy, particularly those who enjoy clever reimaginings of classic stories and are looking for a lighthearted, humorous, and enchanting enemies-to-lovers romance.

Austen's Pride & Prejudice meets modern day witches.

I have mixed feelings on this book. Austen's Pride & Prejudice worked with some ideas that don't fly in the modern era, but were perfect in the original because of its time setting and authenticity. This redo did a fantastic job upgrading the book, but some ideas and plot content followed too closely to the original - like the short time periods the couples spent going from falling in love to jumping to marriage. It's certainly not a major issue, but it's not what I'm used to either from books set in the modern era.

Lizzie is very analytically observant. She has an opinion on everyone she meets and on whatever they do. This made her job as a paralegal a perfect fit. She also got a few more modern upgrades, but overall, she remained true to her original character.

The rest of the Bennett family also found modern positions that matched their characters. I enjoyed reading modern interpretations on some of their family's quirks. It was easier to understand some points Austen tried bringing out when they were upgraded to modern standards. In some ways, it made me dislike certain characters more than I had in the original, but I also grew to appreciate others.

While this was a retelling, it also had its own subplots and other deviations, some of which I enjoyed, and others not so much.

I think it could've done better with, or entirely eliminated, the fantasy elements. The Bennett sisters and their winsome lads were all witches and warlocks. But I hardly saw any incidents of magic, and the few times they did do magic weren't momentous except for one or two instances. Basically, there were some pixie waiters, an old vampire, and the occasional warlock, but for the same price, those characters could've just been regular waiters, an elderly guy in the retirement home, and just ordinary other people respectively. Their inhuman or superhuman titles barely affected their actions or impacted the story in any major way. I'm not against converting the story into a fantasy with magic. I just think it could be improved upon.

I always have a hard time enjoying a retelling of an old favorite, but this was a nice modern do-over of Pride and Prejudice, and I'm glad to have gotten a different perspective on some characters, and some better alternate endings for some others.

Although this is an amusing retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, I felt the characters lacked depth and the paranormal parts were an add on to the story rather than being fully integrated.

Unfortunately this just does not measure up to the original which you just cannot help comparing it too.

Overall an easy read without straining the brain too much.

Thank you to NetGalley and City Owl Press for this ARC!

Pride and Paranormal is a witchy retelling of Pride & Prejudice set in the modern day. The story follows Izzy Bennet and her sisters, after the wealthy and overall unpleasant Fitz Darcy comes to town. I have to admit, I am not super familiar with the original Pride & Prejudice but this was a fun read, even though I felt like I was missing out on some of the references. I particularly liked Izzy and her no-nonsense attitude, and the paranormal aspects were just a great bonus!

3.25 stars
It is absolutely no secret that my main book love lies squarely in the paranormal realm. So when I saw this was a paranormal take of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, I was extremely intrigued. Pride and Paranormal takes us on a wild ride through the paranormal world where vampires and witches and dragons, Oh my! (wait sorry, twisting in another story, my bad!)

**Having some first-hand knowledge (through book or movie) would help to better understand references and plays on P&P would be recommended, but not entirely necessary. **

The Bennet family is a magical witch family in a relatively small town. Jane and Izzy are bearing the brunt of their mother's less than subtle meddling and matchmaking. On a night out, Izzy and her BFF run across some new faces to town, including the scowling and judgemental Fitz Darcy. Izzy, not being a wilting flower, takes quite the exception to the less than cordial reception the group gives their local hangout. As fate and meddling her mother keep throwing the group together, Izzy finds she has a great distaste for that Fitz Darcy that she cannot quite stop herself from obsessing over.

I will say Ms. Blake does a wonderful job of weaving a very intriguing and enchanting paranormal world. We get a somewhat different take on vampires, hags, dragons, and all sorts of fae folk weaved into this cross-over historical/paranormal/modern world. That being said, I feel like the era that the story was being told in should have been left in the historical timeframe. I think, as a modern woman, it's easier to go "oh yeah, they were like that back then", as to not get your back up like you would comparing the happening with more modern standards. The matchmaking mama's and the marrying a cousin told in a more modern standard is a bit... much.

Lydia, oh Lydia! Boy, oh boy was that girl like the awkward lynchpin here. She was vapid, selfish, and scantly clad so much so that it helped inadvertently created this weird dichotomy in the story where she added this hyper-sexual tone that is not there. This is a clean book. While Lydia does provide some very not-needed T&A, there are not saucy times at all. A kiss. That is it. A kiss is as far as this story goes, BUT because of Lydia and her antics, I wouldn't necessarily let my pre-teen, early teenager read this.

Needless to say, this was a bit of a miss for me. I really had some high hopes for this book, there were, I felt, some missed opportunities to create a really badass story using the paranormal realm to fix, to what I saw, were issues with P&P. I am not one of those romantic readers that pinned for a Mr. Darcy. He was an ass and I just didn't get the draw to him... ever. So, let that yardstick be your guide. I had a difficult time with the very innocent and then oddly hypersexual parts that also detracted for me, but again, I am probably a minority.

Overall, I did enjoy the book, I look forward to the author creating more paranormal takes on historical romances (if that is the ultimate goal of the Souls and Shadows series, I don't actually know. But, it's a hope).

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Many thanks to NetGalley and City Owl Press for providing me with a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you’ve read Pride and Prejudice, then you know how this book goes. It’s fairly true to the original but contains paranormal elements. The magical elements at times felt a bit wedged in, and it wasn’t made clear how the magic world worked within the non magic world - it appears they live in some form of harmony but it’s never explained. The story itself, however, flowed well and I wanted to keep reading to see how it would resolve (even though I know how it’s going to end!). I also really liked Izzy, the main character, who was a sassy, no nonsense, take no prisoners kind of person but who was also kind hearted and generous.

There were two elements that did lessen my enjoyment of the book. The first was Darcy’s sister who we are told has ASD. She is mentioned a couple of times in relation to her amazing piano playing, her “disability”, and how it’s amazing you wouldn’t even know she’s “disabled”, which came off as tone deaf - we never even meet her. The second is a pet peeve of mine back from HP days - non magical people are referred to as “numpies” and it’s used frequently throughout the book to refer to anything non magical.

Overall, this is a sassy retelling of a classic tale, the story itself is worth a read, and I’m actually looking forward to the next book so this is definitely more a 3.5/5.

This was my first book from this author and it won’t be my last, thoroughly enjoyed every second of this book, can’t wait for more!

I enjoyed the story and the love/hate relationship developments. It was a cute and funny story, light on the paranormal and romance, but enjoyable. I'm not *eagerly* awaiting the next book, but I am looking forward to seeing how things develop.

The problem with the enemies-to-lovers trope in this book is that the guy's reason for not liking the heroine is so dumb, annoyingly petty, and just plainly judgemental. I did not believe his feelings and intentions for the heroine because he's such a horrible person to her before and there is no legit reason, at least from what I have understood, for him to change his feelings for her. He also does not have any personality aside from being a horrible person, so why root for him in the first place? I just wished the author has written the main guy well and give him depth as a character. So that, we can understand him more and root for their romance.

OK, full disclosure - I've never read Pride & Prejudice. That being said, I don't think that is a pre-requisite for reading this book. If you enjoy paranormal romance with a bit of a historical feel to it - this is a book for you.

Izzy is a member of a bit of a manic family of witches. Her father is going through some financial trouble reconciling his early retirement with the non-paranormal demand for income. Her sisters are either getting into trouble, heartsick from romance, or reading a lot (and doing karaoke). Her mother is obsessed with marrying them off. Oh, and her distant relation is creeping on her and her sisters. All of this gets to a boil when Fitz and his friend/business partner move into an old house in town. Said friend and business partner ends up being part of the heartsick sister's story, but we generally care more about the annoyingly romantic Fitz.

Izzy and Fitz immediately do not hit it off. It's almost like hate at first sight, coupled with oodles of gossip, rumors, and general badness. It takes a lot of very random and seemingly unconnected interactions to get them to not hate one another (it even involves a dragon at one point!). There is a lot of build up to a romance that, I have to admit, I was a little put off by. Perhaps it is because this is supposed to be a paranormal retelling of a book I've never read, but it seemed to be a bit abrupt and... historical-feeling, the romance of this story. Assuming that is your preference for books, you should have no issue with the romantic elements in this book. As a book #1, we certainly meet enough characters (I didn't even touch on the vampire storyline!) to carry on a series for several installments. There is a lot of set up in this initial book that I can tell we will do a deeper dive into all the other characters in the future.

A modern day paranormal retelling of Austens' Pride and Prejudice! A great read and an interesting spin on a classic tale of love.

This was a fun paranormal twist on pride & prejudice! I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t connect with the characters or writing style. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good book, of course—everyone has different tastes so if the description appeals to you, give it a go.

Thank you to NetGalley and City Owl Press for providing a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.
A fun, witchy spin on a classic! This was an entertaining retelling of Pride and Prejudice with the fun family antics and romantic angst you would expect from the original. I thoroughly enjoyed this and absolutely recommend it for anyone wanting a witchy romance with relatable characters and well-developed plot!

Pride and Paranormal was a 3-star read for me. For fans of retellings, it captures Pride and Prejudice reasonably well, hitting all the key plot points while also including a few ideas of its own. Izzy came across well as a character; however, some of the other figures seemed a little too underdeveloped. There were plenty of fun moments I enjoyed, but some of the paranormal elements felt tacked on just for the sake of it, or because the author suddenly needed them for the plot. This made the book feel a bit overloaded with magic at times. Overall, this was a book I didn't hate. I read though and had fun at certain times, but it never fully captured my heart and I never invested in any of the characters' relationships.

Its been a long time since I was halfway through a book, and had NO idea what it was about, but was STILL intrigued enough to keep going. And I'm glad I kept with it, because I'm HOOKED! I WILL be following this author! THANK you!

I love Romance books (without an overload of steamy); I love Fantasy books; I love books about Witches, and I love Retellings...

Pride and Paranormal is not just all of this, it is specifically a retelling of my favourite Jane Austen book - Pride and Prejudice... where Izzy and Darcy are a witch and a warlock...

The author has done a fantastic job of reimagining Austen's story in a contemporary, fantasy setting... missing out on none of the intricacies of the original plot...

In addition, there's a dragon; and a sub plot that is about vampires, that makes this an even more peppy read.

Witches, Warlocks and vampires oh my. What happens when one headstrong witch butts heads with one handsome but haute warlock? Lots and lots of fireworks!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

I will read any Pride and Prejudice retelling! Especially with a paranormal twist!! This was a really fun read from a new-to-me author. I will definitely be checking out her other books!!

I normally read paranormal mysteries so I thought I would try a paranormal romance. Not quite as good as mysteries, there were a few slow parts, but generally an okay read. I probably will give the second book in this series a try and see where it goes. I received an e-book from NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.

A big thank you to NetGalley and City Owl Press for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is the first in a series. Ok I know that this is mimicking Pride and Prejudice-but if I am honest I haven't read it in 40 years. So besides the names I didn't get it. That's on me though. I did enjoy the story but did find it slow in parts. A couple of times I wanted to boink her sisters on the head but overall an okay read. 3.5 stars. I think most romance readers would enjoy.