Definitely a YA novel. It would be great for middle schoolers and early high schoolers. I made it a quarter of the way through, but it just wasn't for me.

3-4 stars for the target audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the ARC.

Marnie Barnes finds after a few disasters in her life that there is no fighting it, she is a real life incarceration of Mary Bennet. After realizing this, she decides to make some changes and hopefully change her life.

This is going to be a very brief review, because I guess expected something else from this book. I had a lot of difficulty even getting into it and honestly, I am so over everyone making the Mary archetype of character a bad thing. She wasn't her sisters and that is actually perfectly okay. Maybe if I had finished the book I would have seen her coming to that realization, but it just rubbed me the wrong way right from the beginning.

Mary Bennet deserves better.

Thanks for the ARC.

This book was fun to read knowing the characters of Pride and Prejudice. I would recommend! Looking forward to have my daughters read it so we can discuss the pros and cons or what happened and the reality of owning one’s choices.

I "listened to the audiobook" but that's not a fair statement because it's a synthetic voice and it was horrible. I couldn't get through it and switched to the print book asap and then the book was much better. Great author's voice, nice character development. Vastly different from Pride and Prejudice, so make sure you separate the two from your mind before reading and you'll enjoy the book a lot more.

I do think of the YW romance/contemporaries I have read lately this one had a more unique premise than most. And I always like a boarding school setting. Unfortunately the characters and plot seemed a little caricature-ish to me. I definitely think it had potential, just parts of the execution left me wanting. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review

Marnie Barnes is a high school student, youngest child in her family, ever in the shadow of her older siblings. She sees herself as the prim, boring, and self-righteous, a bit of a prig. And she wants to change that.
With the help of her roommate and friends, she comes to see her life from a different perspective and to appreciate her own gifts--and to see that others appreciate her as well.

This one hurts me.
I am admitting defeat early on, and for that I will take some portion of the blame. But at the 12% mark, only Four chapters in, I have to walk away from this.
Marnie Barnes is an anti-social bookworm. She's also judgmental, self important, and all around kind of an asshole. I'm almost certain this is a story of growth, where she learns to look past her own self obsessed world view and learn that maybe other people also have important things to contribute to society. However, I couldn't make myself like her enough to want her to change or care about her growth in any way. She was insufferable! By the time I gave up on the novel all together, I was fully okay with letting her sit in her own misery forever.
Usually I can work with an unlikeable narrator and a redemption arc, but in this instance I simply couldn't handle her.

I received both the audiobook and e-book ARC from Netgalley. The audiobook ARC is read by a bot and it really took me out of the story. S0, I requested the e-book to actually be able to read the story. I think if the publisher is going to offer audiobooks, they should offer the audiobook with the hired narrator. It is the only way to get a fair review and rating on audiobooks.

Marnie Barnes prefers her books to people. Or to some people. Definitely more than her family, since they make her feel like she is Mary Bennet, the boring younger sister to the most clever Lizzie and the beautiful Jane. While she wants to be the popular heroine of Pride and Prejudice, she finds herself feeling more like the overlooked, surly, forgotten Mary.

Now she’s a senior at Pacific Crest Academy, living on campus, but still in her sister’s shadow. When her sister Lindy had gone there, she had competed for the prestigious Hunt Prize, and Lindy had won. Now Marnie wants to win too, so that her family will take her seriously and give her the respect she deserves.

And maybe Hays will finally see her and fall in love with her, like she’s been waiting for years. Hayworth Wellsley has been a family friend for ages, but it was when Hays rescued her from drowning that Marnie fell for him. And even though he’s engaged to someone else, Marnie knows that one day he will finally be hers, just like in all her favorite novels.

Marnie has an idea for her Hunt Prize project, but she’ll need some help. Her idea is to use the library’s bookmobile to work with a local animal shelter to give kids the chance to rea to dogs. It gives the kids a chance to practice reading out loud for a sympathetic audience, and it would be good for the animal shelter, getting more attention to the adoptable pets. And after a bumpy start with her contact at the shelter, Whit gives her project a chance and helps set up some reading events.

It’s at one of those early events that Marnie falls into a love she’s not sure she can recover from. His name is Sir Pat (for Patrick Stewart), and those puppy dog eyes are mesmerizing. Sir Pat is too young to be adopted at first, but he does steal Marnie’s heart, as well as her sister’s, who keeps begging for photos. And she has to admit, she feels a spark around Whit as well. But she knows he won’t notice her as Mary Bennet. So she makes a contract with herself, to try to be less surly and more open to life.

Her decision to not hiding behind her Mary Bennet attitude anymore lets her open up to new ideas and new experiences. She finds herself making friends and spending more time with her family, laughing more and easing up her need to control everything. But will her new attitude get her what she really wants, or will she find that her new perspective means that she doesn’t want all those things she thought she did?

Being Mary Bennet is a sweet ya romance with enough puppies and cupcakes and literary references to warm the heart of any bookworm. Author J.C. Peterson’s debut novel is a charming story of a young woman trying to figure out who she is in a family full of strong personalities, and it is her willingness to see her own shortcomings and try to be a better person that drives the heart and soul of this book.

I enjoyed Being Mary Bennet. I loved all the literary references (not all Austen, if you were wondering), and I admired Marnie’s willingness to change. I did find the book a little slow in spots and repetitive in a few of the scenes, but the further you get in the book, the tighter the writing is. But overall, it’s an interesting story and a fun read, and I think fans of Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, and Anne of Green Gables will find a kindred spirit in author Peterson and the character of Marnie Barnes.

Voice galleys for Being Mary Bennet were provided by Harper Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I was expecting to read a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice…but told through Mary’s perspective. In truth, the heart of this story is more along the lines of, “I just discovered that I’m basically my least favourite character in my absolute favourite book, and I need to change that”.

Marnie Barnes is essentially Mary Bennet brought to life in the modern world. She is an incredibly insecure character who is so off putting at times that it’s hard to connect with her. Thankfully, she has a delightful roommate at her boarding school named Adhira who chooses to be Marnie’s friend (come hell or high water) and helps Marnie see her Mary-esque behaviour.

J.C. Peterson did a great job creating an unlikeable character who made the reader feel both exasperation and pity toward her. The only problem with creating such a character is that she wasn’t always fun to read about. Thankfully, the author also helped us see that growth was possible…not just for the Mary’s of the world, but for everyone.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
#BeingMaryBennet #NetGalley

This is a great story. I think a lot of people find that they are more of a Mary than a Lizzie so there is a lot to relate to. I didn't realize that this would be more of a talking book than a traditional audio book. But it was a great story and I do have a copy in my library!

I so enjoyed this! Marnie felt so relatable and that really made the book for me. I loved the details that were incorporated for plays on Pride and Prejudice. Would gladly live in Marnie's world as she explores other book characters she compares herself to in the future!

Marnie feels like a side character in her own life. She feels like her family will never notice her if she doesn't gather up achievements. Marnie soon comes to the realization that she is a Mary Bennett, a character that is often described as petulant and insufferable. Marnie vows to change her ways and to actively participate in her own life. This was a cute, relatable story.

I truly enjoyed this coming of age book. Lots of teen angst and dealing with real life teen issues. Characters were all very likeable and realistic. I must admit I didn't love Marnie at the start, but loved who she became!

THIS BOOK. I laughed so much and I’m fairly certain I might also be Mary Bennett. This was a fun and entertaining read, with such memorable and likable characters.

Read this and love it. Especially if you’re an Austen fan, there are a lot of Easter eggs.

A high school senior at an elite boarding school, Marnie realizes she's living the life of Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Determined to break out of that mold, she lets her fashion designer roommate make her over. Then, she meets cute-boy Whit at the animal shelter where she's conducting her senior project. Will he help her see she's worthy of being the protagonist in her own life?

This is a cute coming-of-age story with lots of family drama. It's a must-read for P&P fans, but you don't have to be a P&P fan to enjoy it. It's heartwarming, romantic, and funny.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

Being Mary Bennet by J.C. Peterson is a modern day sequel/retelling to the "Pride and Prejudice" story with one major difference...the "Mary Bennet" character is the main character.

Honestly, I did not enjoy my time with this story, which I'm sad about. Take my opinion with a grain of salt, however, as I couldn't bring myself to get past the halfway point of this book, and I'm sure it gets better with character growth and ends well.

I've always related the most to the Mary Bennet character in the original story, so I was looking forward to hearing from her point of view this time around. In this case, unfortunately, there's probably a reason she shouldn't be the main character. Marnie, the "Mary Bennet" of this story is an extremely unlikeable heroine. Now, I understand that that is generally how Mary is supposed to be...to a point, but I couldn't get over how just awfully she treated anyone and everyone who didn't have something she wanted. There are definitely moments when you feel for her, but then she does or says something that almost makes you feel she deserves it. Marnie is a college student acting like a middle schooler. The roommate character and the project idea were the only things I liked in what I read. I'm sure this book will work for someone, but this really wasn't for me.

It's really hard to get past the automated voice narrator. It's difficult to tell who is speaking, when the characters switch, and when it's dialogue instead of internal or exposition. I probably won't get any more advance audio copies because it's so hard to judge.
As for the book itself, an excellent and needed look at Mary Bennett, and a redeeming portrait of one of fictional history's more notorious fool.

A fun read, especially for the introverted, anxious, occasionally pedantic bookworms among us! The way the story acknowledges and plays with its status as an adaptation is fun and interesting without requiring any level of Austen expertise for enjoyment overall, and it's cool to see Mary getting the treatment that Lydia got in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries version (will Kitty ever get a turn? who's to say). The writing is solid and fairly humorous although not particularly extraordinary, although the scenes in the hospital were especially nicely done, and the narrative does offer appropriate time to the various .subplots (even if I wasn't 100% feeling the Marnie/Whit relationship) and allows Marnie to grow as a character and discover herself without completely leaving behind who she was at the outset. An easy rec for Austen/classic lit fans, but also for those who enjoy YA contemporaries like Amanda Sellet's By the Book.

A sweet, laugh-out-loud book that made me just want to hug Marnie. She was an utter delight, and the secondary characters popped off the page as much as she did. I can't wait for Lola's book!