Accomplished by Amanda Quain is a contemporary retelling of Pride and Prejudice with Georgiana Darcy taking center stage. Georgiana is a great secondary character who could definitely get her own story. The question is whether Amanda Quain’s Accomplished is the story Georgiana deserves. And the answer to that is … absolutely not.

In Quain’s story, Georgie Darcy, of the wealthy Darcy family from Rochester, New York, is a student at Pemberley, a private high school that has educated all the ancestral Darcys. She’s troubled, a poor student, seemingly friendless, and socially inept. Her guardian and brother, Fitzwilliam, is emotionally distant, unkind, even physically distant, as he attends college in California until Georgie’s Wickham troubles compel him to return to New York.

Everything about this story is wrong, as though Quain is vaguely familiar with the names of the characters from Pride and Prejudice but has no clear knowledge of the plot of one of the most important novels of the 19th century.

Accomplished feels very much like a dollar store version of your favorite cereal. It’s similar enough in appearance to get your hopes up but when you pour some into a bowl, you discover that it has a weird hint of cardboard box flavor with an artificial sugar after taste.

The Georgiana that Austen created is a gentle and shy young woman. She deserves a chance to shine. Instead, Quain has turned her into a whiny rich girl who throws her money around like it’s the solution to everything.

She uses her only friend, lies to and manipulates everyone she encounters, steals from her brother, and then is astonished that people don’t seem to like her and self-pitying when things go awry. Georgie is also presumptuous in the extreme – even more presumptuous than Quain’s attempt to write a retelling of Pride and Prejudice without, apparently, first reading the book.

Quain could (and should) have written this story without leaning on Austen’s characters. Accomplished would still be mediocre but at least readers wouldn’t have expectations that Quain was unable to fulfill.

I received a digital arc through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Neat book, but seemed to wind up too quickly just as a lot of action was beginning. I did enjoy getting Georgiana's point of view and how she did some matchmaking on various couples.

I enjoyed reading this YA fiction. I am fan of pride and prejudice and this book is a nice interpretation of the classic to suit the current times. I would recommend adding this book to your TBR!

It's hard to take on such an iconic classic as Pride and Prejudice, but Amanda Quain's Accomplished tries it with tenacity.

After the entire disaster that happened with Wickham, Georgiana Darcy has to return to high school — as both a failure and a delinquent. Nobody, not even her big brother Fitz, has any trust in her anymore. But she's a Darcy, like it or not, and she will pull herself out of the mess and prove herself to everyone.

This was an interesting take on Georgie, watching the events unfold from her perspective. Quain's understanding of the original characters was usually spot-on — they translated very well into this modern, high school/college setting. Fitz and Georgie's relationship was rockier than I expected, but the way that both of the characters were built up felt honest and touching — both to the original and to sibling relationships in general.

I was invested throughout. There was some repetition, but it all worked out okay. It was comfortingly familiar and yet it brought its own newness.

Truly, I could see this adapted into a She's the Man or Clueless style movie — with its own liveliness but a loving hold on the original.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in return for an honest review.

~Accomplished Review~
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3.5/5
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I’ve honestly never read or watched Pride and Prejudice but this one seemed too fun to turn down when it was sent to me on Netgalley! I’m super excited to get into the shenanigans!!
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Pros:
+starts off with a bang
+we love a girly that writes fanfiction
+the drama already with wickham i can’t. recovering from a toxic relationship is always hard
+the writing is so good
+she’s such a little schemer i love it
+band kid foolery
+aw avery<3
+aw the banter. friends to lovers!
+omg siblings!!! we love
+love the talk about privilege and generational wealth!
+lizzie!
+yay female friendship i live to see it
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Cons:
-probably should have read pride and prejudice before reading this but i don’t think it’s that big of a deal. might have added a little more context for some of the characters
-they’re so mean to her for literally no reason
-also fuck wickham what a horrible man
-awkward miscommunication trope
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admittedly i was super busy with college when i started this one so it took me a little bit to finish. i thought it was a fun read tho! i think georgie is a fun character and this is the first friends to lovers i’ve read in a long time!

I really liked the premise. I’ve always thought it would be cool to learn more about Darcy’s sister, and the modern day spin is super fun too. It was fun seeing Stacy and Elizabeth from her eyes. However I couldn’t quite connect with the characters and I got frustrated with the MC decision making. I would give it another try bc maybe I was just in the wrong move to read it.

I really love Pride & Prejudice, so I was really excited to read this one! It’s a fun, enjoyable take on that story that I think lots of YA fans and Austen fans will like. I found Georgie to be a touch bratty, but maybe high schoolers are just like that. For this reason, I had some trouble getting into this book at the start. Maybe someone who is a high schooler would like this more and be able to relate to the angst that Georgie feels.

The book was amazing. As an eternal Austen fan, this sure did hit the spot. A definite recommend! (P.S. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE GEORGIANA)

I really enjoyed this book! While a little cheesy at times, I definitely found Georgie to be a good representation of how it feels to be an anxious high schooler, and I connected with her because of this. The pride and prejudice references were great (I especially enjoyed a scene where Georgie clenches and releases her fist after making contact with Georgie as an analogy to Darcy's hand clench in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation.) There were quite a few Gen Z pop culture references, which I think kids can find annoying. Overall, a very fun read.

I'm always here for a good to Pride & Prejudice reimagining. This book was an absolute delight. Georgie is a great character to follow, the banter and wit is hilarious. Making this book a pleasure to read with laugh out loud moments. The story is smart, enthralling and the drama! It's a beautiful YA contemporary worthy of the genre.

I have always loved retellings of Pride and Prejudice. This is the first Georgina Darcy-centered one I have encountered. If you know of any others, I would be more than interested in reading those as well. This is what attracted me to this book in the first place. There aren’t a lot of books that deal with Georgiana’s side of things after the fallout with Wickham. I do think this book encompassed the unspoken side of the Darcys, the tragedy that lead to Fitzwilliam Darcy becoming Georgiana’s guardian at a relatively young age. As well as the guilt of not being there for Georgiana when Wickham takes advantage of her. The Incredible Jane Austen doesn’t go into it, and neither do any of the retelling writers I have encountered.

To me, the best part of retellings is how an author makes the characters and circumstances of the original their own. I can confidently say that Amanda Quain made it an entertaining read. From Charlie Bingley, the frat party god with a heart of gold—making sure those kids drank responsibly—to rants about the adequate amount of cup holders a car should have. You think it was only at the beginning, but I promise you that it makes a comeback. Fitz Darcy has his moments as a parental figure who is just trying his best. When Fitz and Georgie have their heart-to-heart, it broke my heart. The part where Georgie thinks back to the last musical she and Fitz went to after their father died, was heartbreaking. I forgot this was supposed to be a cute book about a side character from Pride and Prejudice.

It’s not to say that I didn’t find Georgie infuriating. I did. I think personally, I need to move on from reading books about high schoolers. I find myself agreeing with the adults. There are many instances that I can’t wrap my head around why Georgie would do what she did. She is also obsessed with an in-universe Regency show, which I can connect with (this is a review for a book about a Modern/College/High School AU of a literary classic, that I enjoyed. I can’t throw stones), but if you are not someone who can or someone who gets cringe-flashbacks from when you were someone like Georgie Darcy, I would say that maybe this isn’t the book for you. Also if you can’t stand prose that includes a fine sprinkling of abbreviations (like AF, IRL) and general fandom lingo.

Was such a good book i enjoyed it. Thank you for letting me review it! it was clever, heartwarming and such a cute YA book .Georgie and Avery are characters that feel like it is a part of me and i couldn't stop thinking about them as I was reading this book. I never wanted it to end. I just love how it felt like pride and prejudice it was so good. I could not recommend this book more to my friends and family!

Accomplished

This is retelling of pride and prejudice I didn’t know I need it. A clever, funny and heartfelt spin on Austen’s story. I stayed up all night to finish this beauty because I just couldn’t put it down. I’m looking forward to Amanda’s books in the future. And I love the cover which means I’m definitely getting the hard copy.

Accomplished is a fun, modern take on Jane Austen’s world, featuring Fitz’s sister Georgiana. We get Wickham, Lizzie, Jane, and Charlie, along with Lydia and some mentions of the Darcy’s relatives.

Georgie is navigating high school and band in the aftermath of The Incident of the previous year. She’s starting from the bottom and having to work her way back up with attempting to prove herself to her brother, teachers, and classmates/ex-friends. I enjoyed Avery and Emily. I wasn’t fully sold on Avery and Georgiana but they were cute.

Accomplished has some darker elements which surprised me, but I was intrigued by the plot of it all. This Georgiana is not the same one from the book, but as we rarely see her story, it was interesting to glimpse this ‘could’ve been’ modern take. She makes a lot of mistakes, goes too far, and has dramatic thoughts, thanks to being a teenager and a Darcy. In the end she learns and grows and it’s a satisfying conclusion.

<i>ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

TW for this book: Drug mention, abusive relationship, death of a parent ("off-screen"), parental abandonment, bullying/social ostracization

<b>Summary</b>
After The Incident---a particularly nasty falling out with Wickham, her then-boyfriend---Georgiana Darcy finds herself a social outcast at her private boarding school (Pemberly Academy). In an attempt to bring honor back to her family name, and make her brother Fitz proud of her, Georgie embarks on a mission to become a "true" Darcy.

<b>Review</b>
(Mild spoilers in this section, but nothing major)

First off, as a grad student, I want to acknowledge that I am likely not the intended audience for this book---it definitely reads more along the lines of "younger" YA, and that's okay! Just something to keep in mind if you are a YA-reading adult looking at this book. It's still fun, don't get me wrong, just very much aimed towards a late-middle-school/early-high-school crowd.

I was VERY excited going into this book. I'm a huge sucker for Pride and Prejudice, and even more so for P&P retellings. The beginning 25-30% of the book dragged on a bit; the characters read more annoying and privileged than anything else, but once you hit a point where Georgie's overall character begins to develop, it becomes a lot better. As the book goes on, Avery and Georgie become more believable as friends, which is good as the beginnings of their relationship that we see were not quite solid. Additionally, Wickham is an AMAZING villain and his overall character reads as a modernized yet very similar version of OG Wickham from P&P.

I appreciate that they addressed Georgie's/Fitz's class privilege throughout the novel---especially when a retelling is modernized like this, it's important to acknowledge that the main characters are filthy rich and that other characters are going to look at them differently because of that.

I had some issues with this novel, but nothing absolutely major. I felt it was a bit trite, but that's most likely due to the fact that I am not the intended audience of younger YA novels and have already passed the window of relating to seemingly mundane high school conflicts that could be resolved with simple communication and a bit of therapy. Nevertheless, I could very much see an eighth grade or early high school me finding solace in Georgie's character, so I think it would be great for someone of that age.

That being said, the characterization of the main few characters can be confusing at times, and (at least for the ones present in the original P&P) doesn't follow very closely with the source text. This could easily be a book with the names replaced and would still work---it doesn't have to be a Pride and Prejudice retelling. Some people love that, but I personally like it when even "alternative universe" retellings maintain some of the source characterization.

Another thing this novel has that is a pet peeve of mine is specific pop culture references---I feel like they date novels, especially in this day and age when "in" pop culture references change on a weekly basis. There were a few times that Georgie referenced a TV show or a song or a movie that exists in the IRL world, but haven't been popular in several years, and it just felt odd.

Overall, I gave this book 3 stars---I think that it is a good book, but not anything groundbreaking or unique. Like I said, I would definitely recommend this for someone between the ages of 12 and 15---it's not even necessary to read P&P to understand this novel, as it stands on its own (though it does add a bit of depth to it if you do). Thank you again to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC to review!

The book is tasteful, It actually adds a twist to Georgina's character instead o being a spoiled brat she's relatable. She's trying to grow as a person while trying to set up her brother. Charlie though seems like a character that is well blank. Just the typical frat boy a party dude. However, I do think Wickham as a childhood friend shows why Georgina fell for him. In all honesty, this could actually be another novel without it being a retelling in my view, but there are hints of pride and prejudice. Maybe give different perspectives? Like Fritz's perspective, Lizzie's perspective, and Georgie's perspective as well as Avery's once in a while. Mostly Georgie's to give it more of a retelling feel.

I think we may have hit the super-saturation point with Pride and Prejudice adjacent novels. This one just did not quite hit for me. The main character was not particularly likable (which, for me, is really a dealbreaker). Unfortunately, I didn't finish this one.

This was a a fun Austen story! I liked the way the author used the original story to help create something new and exciting for the reader. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion

The story was golden. I always appreciate a fun reworking of an Austen novel. It has a lot of heart and the story unfolds well.

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

Very grateful to have received an ARC
Copy through Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for my honest opinion.

This was completely adorable! I’m a Pride and Prejudice addict, so seeing a modern day retelling, but with Georgiana as the main character, I knew I had to read it. And it was all I could have asked for.

We meet Georgina after the instance with Wickham, which here was selling drugs from her dorm room at the very fancy boarding school they attended, and she’s trying to get her life back together.

Georgiana is now an outcast, after getting Wickham expelled from school, apparently he was the best trumpet player in their band, and supplied all the drugs, obviously, see prior instance and she is feeling very overwhelmed. In an attempt to prove to her brother that she can handle it on her own, she changes all of her classes to AP and starts matchmaking him with the girl (Lizzie) he met in a study group at his local college.

It of course doesn’t go to plan, she starts struggling with school and her classmates and she feels like she is doing nothing but being a disappointment. When Wickham shows back up, everything is thrown for a loop.

This was a fun, quick, cute read!