I’m a sucker for bringing Jane Austen’s character into present day, so this book was right up my alley. I may have accidentally finished it in one night. 🙈 Great characterization and setting. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

While reading, I felt it was similar in tone and mood to “A Study in Charlotte.” I enjoyed it but didn’t love it. I didn’t love the plot of this book and wanted to know more about the main “Mr. Darcy” and Lizzie. I found the main character a bit annoying & narcissistic.

I love any Pride and Prejudice retelling but this was one of the more unique ones I’ve come across because of the focus on Georgiana / Georgie. This book is firmly in the YA category but the themes of redemption, self realization, family, community, etc. we’re strong and we’ll written. I enjoyed the modern setting with all the beloved characters firmly in place. Her involvement in band brings the entire book up a level and the inclusion of her fandom love, with Tumblr references included, are extremely well done, which is hard to do well.

Thank you to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for allowing me to read an ARC of this novel.

Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Story by Amanda Quain is a fun modern day tale of Georgiana Darcy, the sister of Fitzwiliam Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Bringing the story into the present day, it's like a Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead story where Georgie becomes the main character and the other characters in Pride and Prejudice are the secondary ones.

Georgie is a high school student who has to follow in the large steps of her brother, Fitzwilliam Darcy, at Pemberley Academy. Not used to being on her own, she comes back for her next year in high school after a big scandal involving her childhood friend, Wickham. Will she be able to overcome the prejudices of her classmates and redeem herself?

It was an interesting take on a story that I know well, spun to be in the modern age.

I loved this twist on Georgiana from Pride and Prejudice. Such a sweet YA story and I loved all the Austen easter eggs. Recommend!

Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel by Amanda Quain is a YA modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice focusing on Georgianna Darcy. I love P&P and have always been fascinated by the Georgianna character because she is much discussed by other characters and her entanglement with Wickham is a major plot point, but her story happens primarily off the page. So I was very interested to read this retelling of P&P focusing on her.

Georgie Darcy is 16 years old and attends the prestigious Pemberely Academy. She is extremely privileged, has an overbearing and protective older brother Fitzwilliam “Fitz” Darcy, and a desire to redeem herself. The book begins with her return to Pemberely after a removal the previous year due to her toxic relationship with Wickham and some reckless decisions. He is attractive to Georgie because he pays attention to her and emotionally manipulates her throughout the story.

It is a P&P retelling, but Fitz Darcy and Lizzie Bennet’s relationship happens mostly off the page and through observations by Georgie. It was sweet to see Georgie’s desire to bring Fitz and Lizzie together, but I thought her attempts to bring Fitz and Lizzie together was a bit unrealistic.

I ultimately enjoyed this book because Georgie has agency and develops over the course of the book. Georgie is well written as a teenager making impulsive and questionable decisions but she matures over the course of the book and learns to check her privilege and motivations. She also has a nice moment when she stands up to Wickham. Wickham, is, as ever, truly terrible. In the original P&P, Wickham's actions always read to me as the actions of a petulant teenager, so it works so well in this book. Georgie’s mending of her friendship with Avery was well written and I enjoyed every scene between them. Georgie’s obsession with a Bridgerton-esque show ‘Sage Hall’ and her fanfic was a nice subplot and I wish this had been developed more. It percolates on the periphery of the narrative but I would have enjoyed more of it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review

Contemporary Austen set at a prestigious boarding school in upstate New York – what could go wrong? This book, apparently.

Accomplished is a modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of Mr. Darcy’s sister, Georgiana. In the original 1813 novel, she’s only a side character who is praised for her many feminine talents and pitied for her sour dalliance with Mr. Wickham. The Georgiana of the regency era is graceful and elegant, if somewhat naive as all girls her age are.

But the Georgie of 2021? A ridiculous, blazing mess.

When we meet Georgie, she’s entering her junior year at Pemberley Academy, returning for the first time after a scandal that has left her regarded in sour spirits by the rest of the student body. After having disappointed her brother and blemishing the Darcy family name, she devises a plan to prove herself both to Pemberley and her family and soon realized she’s bitten off more than she can chew.

I understand what this book meant to do by making its main character as blundering as it did, truly. It’s the whole “no one is perfect when you peel back their layers!” shtick. I can get past that, but I can not get past the atrocious amount of secondhand embarrassment this character put me through. There’s only so many times that a character has to be humiliated in order to be relatable. After that, it’s just hard to stomach.

What kept me reading despite these distracting flaws was the subplot of Pride and Prejudice’s original romance. Georgie decides to set her older brother up with Lizzie, an outspoken, argumentative girl at his university he frequently clashes with. There’s also mention of Lizzie’s sister Jane being romantically involved with Darcy’s friend Bingley, but the most significant Austenian reference to Georgie’s narrative is the persistent presence of Wickham, reinvented as the ex who led Georgie on so he could sell drugs out of her room at their prestigious boarding school.

All in all: the characters are boring, the references are weak, and the plot is lacking. If a YA contemporary with a boarding school atmosphere releasing in 2022 with a spunky heroine who actually learns her lesson is what you’re looking for, I’d recommend This May End Badly by Samantha Markum.

I barely finished this book. I’m relieved to see that many people enjoyed it but personally I just couldn’t stand the main character and it ruined the whole book for me. I felt no connection with her and didn’t understand any of her motives. I still recommend reading this if your a pride and prejudice fan it just simply wasn’t for me. The plot itself was mostly well done in my opinion.

I absolutely loved this take on Pride and Prejudice! I snorted with genuine laughter, flared with indignation on part of Georgie, and cheered for her blossoming strength. I can't wait to purchase this book for my library and recommend it to my patrons!

I'm always game for books that pay tribute to Austen, and I appreciated that Accomplished gave us a new point of view with its play on Pride and Prejudice. Rather than focus on Lizzie and Darcy, we get to spend time with Darcy's younger sister, who plays a pivotal role in the source material while having little actual page time. Quain puts her front and center, with a witty and accessible narrative voice. I especially loved that being in the marching band was one of Georgiana's "accomplishments," a fun twist on her musical talents in the Austen.

I suspect reader interest on this one will somewhat depend on how tied readers are to the source material, since Accomplished deviates broadly from Austen's plot, characters, social satire, and narrative style. Georgiana isn't the sweet innocent, charmed by a handsome rogue who loves being loved. She's petulant and narcissistic and she makes a LOT of questionable choices that create most of the conflict in the novel. And Wickham lacks any redemptive qualities at all, piling on more villainy every time we meet him. Those looking to spend time with the characters they love from the Austen might be disappointed. But for those up for new characters in a new setting, with some unique Easter-eggy nods to the Austen, this could be a perfect fit. There's lots of banter, a fun thread about an Austen-esque fanfic, a complicated brother/sister relationship, and a female friendship I was cheering for when it finally blossomed.

This is an amazing book that I am so grateful to have had been able to read as well as have been reached out to read it. This isn't the usual type of books I read which is why I was exited to reach outside of my comfort zone, it was so worth it and I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did.

This was such a fun re-imagining of Georgianna Darcy's life (as a modern teen)! I am always wary of Austen adaptations that try to fully reinterpret a classic like Pride and Prejudice, but Quain here has taken the witty pithiness of Austen's free indirect discourse and given us a contemporary Georgie who goes through some of the same concerns as her classic counterpart but yet is a character all her own. No spoilers, but I also thought that the ending of the novel was particularly clever!

This is an incredible adaptation to pair with reading the original Pride and Prejudice in a classroom. It’s an opportunity to analyse the story by giving Darcy a more rounded character through the eyes of his sister who doesn’t get a fronting role in the main book. I was so thrilled with the premise that I devoured it. Georgie is such a heartbreakingly real character. I felt her pain of being bullied and ostracised and mistrusted by people she felt were close. So much that it brought me to tears. Her character arc was nuanced and age appropriate. Even Darcy’s reactions to Georgie were age appropriate. I also loved how aware this book was of the Darcy privilege and appreciated that there was some acknowledgment of financial and racial privilege that led to their status. Excellent book to start some stellar debate on Jane Austen’s works.

This would be a 3.5 star for me. While I loved some aspects of the book including the banter between Georgie and Avery I couldn't say I loved the book. Can't quite put my finger on it. Was it because the story seemed split between so many different stories and didn't really focus on just one? I think so. It would change directions so quickly it took away from the pleasure of reading.

I think I received a different book that the people who giving this one four or five stars. I would much rather have read their version then the one I ended up skipping 40% of.

This book is a mess and not in a good way. Georgie is a completely unsympathetic character. She keeps saying that she's going to stop doing things, and then keeps on doing them anyhow. She doesn't want to be treated differently because she's rich, but she keeps doing things that only rich people can do. She magically transfers from non-AP classes to all AP classes, which as a teacher, I know doesn't happen without parental consent.

I was about 10% in, and I was already done with her shit. I just honestly didn't care. I think this book would have been better without the characters from Pride and Prejudice because then I wouldn't have gone in with high expectations. I would have expected another YA drama fest and, honestly, probably wouldn't have asked for the ARC.

I ended up skipping the middle of the book because I was tired of being whined at by a child, and it turns out, I missed nothing! The author provided a nice recap for the chunk of the book I skipped. Which, realistically, is not a good thing.

4.5 stars
Yes. This was delightful and heart wrenching at the same time. Such good lessons and I cried multiple times (in a good way). I’ve read so many Pride and Prejudice retellings but never from Georgie’s point of view and I loved it! Such a cool way to tell a story I thought I knew. It was thought provoking and a fun read.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press Publishing for this digital ARC.

I had a little trouble with this one. I LOVE Pride and Prejudice adaptations, and this one hit a lot of good points for me. Accomplished didn't fall into the trap that a lot of adaptations fall into where the author rides too close to the source material that some of the plot points are forced to hit all the references.

Georgie was ok. The problem I have with every adaptation that includes Georgianna is that they never get her right. They always make her this sarcastic, strong, matchmaker and I just don't think that fits her character, especially after the incident with Wickham. It always bothers me, too, that Darcy is always the one that barges in and discovers Georgianna and Wickham's relationship where Georgianna tells her brother in the novel and it makes a hell of a difference.

That said! I think the dialogue and writing is really strong here. I really felt that Georgianna and Avery are teenagers, with the right amount of that stubborn teenage belief that they know best. The talk about privilege was super fantastic, even if forced too late in the novel.

Sure, some plot points didn't make a lot of sense, and I feel like the fanfiction part could have been cut out or expanded on so I wasn't wondering why it was included to begin with. But this is a solid read and I want Amanda Quain to write more books in the future (if she wants to!)

3.5 stars.
I wanted to love this. I love the idea of it so much. And the story was good... I just didn’t love Georgie’s voice as a narrator. There were lots of thought processes that didn’t ring true for me, even though I do acknowledge that I’m an adult reading a teen’s voice, so maybe I’m just getting old. I think I’ve always had a problem with weird schemes and plans to accomplish goals, like being the Perfect Darcy in this case, or gaining “heart” in Abby’s artwork in Love, Life, and The List by Kasie West. It just makes me go... who does that?

“Did your family work for the CIA or something … or like, actively work against the CIA? This is a supervillain driveway”

Living under the shadow of last years mistakes Georgie Darcy vows to become the “Perfect Darcy”

This was a cute book with a cute cover. And sometimes that’s all you need.

As a girl who never had a Pride & Prejudice era I wasn’t sure if this was the right book for me, but I can tell you now I am so glad I gave it a chance.


Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel by Amanda Quain is a remarkable novel about the pressure of living up to greatness, the tenuous balance of familial love and the great risk that comes with believing in ones ability to make a change. Even though I’ve never really had any past experience with Pride & Prejudice content I did not feel left out of the novel in any way and I think that is brilliant for a younger audience who might not be interested in the classics, but will be interested in a story about a girl desperate to fix her life. The plot of Accomplished felt so real and relatable, leaving me rooting for Georgie every step of the way and my heart aching for her whenever something went wrong.

Georgie is a character who starts the novel clearly with some flaws, and it was rewarding to follow her as she looked for redemption. I really really felt for her and the way her and Fitz interacted left me sad on more than one occasion. Fitz on his own was an incredibly complex character that ended up jumping off the page with the depth of his grief and concern for his sister. Avery was such a cute love interest, and I would read a book about this version of Charles Bingley any day. Quain did an incredible job of fleshing out strong characters that independently are fantastic, but together create such powerful relationships that I teared up several times while reading, and full on crying when Georgie and Fitz finally have their big talk.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a meaningful YA romance, and I would eventually love to see a sequel or a book in the same universe.