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.

Unlike many Pride and Prejudice retellings, this one focuses on Darcy's younger sister, Georgiana. Georgiana messed up last school year and made some bad choices. Bad choices mainly related to an old family friend, Wickham. But this year she is determined to prove she can be a model Darcy just like her older brother.

I haven’t read too many (or really any) Jane Austen retellings because, despite being an English major, I’ve never been a big fan of the romantic classics like hers. So other than the character names, I can’t speak to how well the author paid homage to Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.

That being said, this book starts off rather slowly with what feels like an overwhelming amount of info-dumping. The reader gets way too much backstory heaped on them between Georgie and Fitz’s complicated relationship, the death of their father and subsequent abandonment of their mother, and then the whole Wickham situation. It was a lot, and it really dragged out the beginning.

Yet, because this is a character-driven story, I decided to stick it out and see what happened with the romance between Georgie and Avery. And while I liked them together and they shared some decent banter, it wasn’t anything off-the-charts. Plus, Georgie’s development over the course of the novel didn’t flow well for me. I didn’t feel like I could see her improving; it more seemed like one chapter she was still making the same mistakes and then the next, she had course-corrected without any reason as to why or how.

Overall, I found this book to be rather average. Did that stop me from reading it in about a day? No. But would I read it again? Also no.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pride & Prejudice is one of my favorite classics of all time. So I was really excited to read this P&P retelling focused on Georgiana Darcy and it did not disappoint.

Georgie Darcy knows that she messed up. After an incident with Wickham, the school body seems to agree that she should be expelled. Facing her older brother's disappointment, the disapproval of her peers, and the temptation of Wickham, Georgie just wants to prove to everyone that she can be a perfect Darcy. So she makes a foolproof plan: regain her reputation (beginning with the marching band), ignore Wickham (who happens to be back in town), and ensure her brother's happiness (by not getting him involve in her messes and setting him up with a Lizzie Bennett).

This book was great! I really loved the P&P references (it was really cool to see familiar faces pop up minus Wickham) and I also liked how Accomplished also had its own plot & heart. Georgie's struggles to be the perfect Darcy as she owns up to her past mistakes were really heart wrenching at times. Also I found her fandom involvement to be a welcome surprise!

But to me, the standout elements in this book are the character relationships. Georgie has to reconnect with her older brother, who seems more distant than ever before. I actually really liked how the Darcy sibling bond was written and the ups and downs that it went through. While the downs sometimes made me cry, it was kind of nice seeing a well-written sibling relationship. She also has to repair friendships that got harmed the year before when she got a little to caught up in Wickham. I liked seeing how she deals with rebuilding these relationships. I also really liked how we did not get the Wickham could be good phase - we got the "I know Wickham is toxic and not good for me" phase. And you don't often see the aftermath of a not-so-good relationship in YA. So I am really grateful that this book addressed it. Also the comparison of Wickham to a Taylor Swift lyric (in the ARC at least) made me think of quite a few Taylor Swift songs & lyrics to describe him.

All in all, I really liked this one, and I cannot wait to see what Amanda Quain comes up with next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this eARC! I really appreciate the opportunity to read this novel!

The immediate draw of this one was of course the fact that it was a Pride and Prejudice retelling. One of my favorite novels, of course I had to give this one a shot. Or rather it's adjacent to a retelling. While I loved the characters, they were messy and real, the plot itself was a little blah. It got better after a few chapters. Also the ending felt rather predictable, not that I thought it affected the story. I quite liked it.

One aspect that I thought was really well done were the elements of Georgie wanting to be the 'Ideal Darcy' to get back into the good graces of the school and her brother. Instead of focusing on what she wanted and liked, she fell into the all to common, this is what I should be like or how I should be. And wanting to please others even at the detreminte of her own happiness.

All in all, a solid novel for older YA readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for th eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review Okay, you had me at contemporary Pride & Prejudice retelling.

This book did such a good job paying homage to the classic while also being uniquely original and fun. Our title character, Georgie, is Darcy’s sister and the main character for this tale of love, lessons, and redemption set at Pemberley High.

With all your favorite P & P characters adapted to high school/college versions of themselves, this book was super cute! Definitely geared to more of an YA audience but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I'm of two minds about Accomplished by Amanda Quain. On the one hand, did I like it? ...eh, it was all right. On the other hand, did I read most of it in one sitting? Yes.

Quain's characters are very real--imperfect, messy, confessional, brazen, and real. I think that this is a strength of Accomplished--perhaps its largest. Georgiana Darcy pulls you into her world and she feels as though she's your friend retelling you her crisis. I very much liked her as a character and a part of me wished that I had had as imperfect--but trying to be better, of striving to do the right thing--character to read about as a teen.

However, as much as I liked Georgie, she isn't always served well by the plot, which is fairly flimsy, though gets better after the first few chapters. The setup is....well. I had to put the book down, I was so unimpressed. Once Georgie's motivation for why she's doing what she's doing is set up, it is quite a bit better. But I can't be too harsh on the plot if I think of the book less as a YA novel and more of as a character study. In that way, it's...more okay.

So would I put this on the shelves of my classroom library? Absolutely. Would I read it again? Maybe.

I received my ebook ARC from Netgalley and St. Martin's Press. All opinions are mine alone.

Why can’t real life be like “Sage Hall”, the regency era period drama that is Georgiana “Georgie” Darcy’s favorite show, and about which she writes fan fiction that has gained a following? There is plenty of drama in the show, but it makes more sense to her, and big problems are fixable. And Georgie has big problems. She has spent the summer in “lockdown” with her older brother and guardian, Fitzwilliam “Fitz” Darcy acting like a helicopter parent and constantly displaying his disappointment in her. Fitz is the perfect Darcy, and Georgie is definitely not, as amply displayed by the “Incident”. At the end of her sophomore year, Fitz discovered that Georgie’s boyfriend, Wickham, was dealing Adderall from her dorm room, and reported him to the school administrators. Wickham was expelled from Pemberley Academy, and Georgie only avoided that fate because there was no proof that she was involved (she knew nothing about it, not that anyone believes her) and because of the influence of Fitz and the Darcy legacy and wealth. Fitz should be at CalTech but has transferred to SUNY Meryton to be closer to Georgie. In addition to being a disappointment to her brother, Georgie believes that her fellow Pemberley students hate her because she got rid of their supplier (as they think she was the “narc”) and because her name and wealth protected her. She played trombone in the school band, but the band hates her because Wickham was the best trumpet player.

Wickham wants back in Georgie’s life, which is something she knows she needs to resist, but it is difficult because he is the only person who really pays attention to her. Georgie decides that to get rid of Wickham and to redeem herself in the eyes of Fitz and her classmates, she has to be the "Ideal" Darcy. However, that plan is not going to go as she hoped. She also decides that she needs Fitz to be happy and distracted to take the pressure off her, so she can achieve her goal. Therefore, she decides to play matchmaker for Fitz and Lizzie Bennett. Aiding her in her mission is Avery, one of her few former friends and the new drum major of the band. He has legitimate reasons to hate Georgie, but he does not hate her, instead choosing to be her friend (and maybe more?)

There are many humorous moments in the story, but my favorite is when Fitz and Georgie visit a Target store for the first time. There are also some heartfelt moments. The major theme is Georgie's effort to find herself. She has a very privileged life, and while she recognizes that her family name and wealth enable her to have opportunities and things that others don't or can't have, she does not really understand how privileged her life looks to others, and how her actions, while well-intended, reinforce that sense of privilege and only add to the distance between her and her fellow students, even those who also come from rich influential families. Growing up, she never really had friends, and so she struggles with friendships, especially the give and take involved. She also feels compelled to live up to the Darcy legacy, but her perception of what that means is not compatible with the person she is, and she has to realize that the "ideal" Georgie has to be true to herself, not what others expect of her. "Accomplished" is well worth reading.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I am a sucker for anything like Pride and Prejudice. This book brought me in and I was in love from the first moment. This book is not a Pride and Prejudice retelling, the story is it's own and it is wonderful.

The characters are lively and a breath of fresh air. Georgie Darcy was a strong lead character who had a lot to deal with. She finds out that her ex boyfriend is isn't as great as she thought when she met him and her relationship with her brother is hanging on by a thread. This book is funny, I found myself chuckling though out.

This is definitely one of the better YA novels I've read recently!

I did receive this book as an ARC!

Thank you to St Martin's Press & Netgally for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was so cute, really enjoyed this one. I would love a sequel!

You might think this is a cozy mystery or mystery based on that cover, but it's actually a modern contemporary! It's not exactly a Pride & Prejudice retelling, though it has that going on in the background. Instead, Accomplished is the story of Georgie Darcy. After finding out her ex-boyfriend, Wickham, was dealing drugs out of her dorm room, Georgie has enemies all around and she doesn't know how to fix her reputation. She's on the last string of her tense relationship with her brother Fitz too.

What she definitely doesn't need is Wickham coming back again. But when he does, the two come to an agreement: Georgie gets her brother to admit he's proud of her and Wickham will disappear from her life forever. Georgie has a plan to win over the school and her brother, though she's going to need help making that happen.

This book really brought it with the feels. Georgie's relationship with Wickham was one where she had none of the power. Really this whole relationship had intense All Too Well Red Taylor's version vibes. Some of the scenes between these two really made me want to hug Georgie. She so deserved better and the trauma from this abusive relationship affected her other relationships.

Georgie was so adorable, a bit of a doofus and extremely relatable. She is not perfect by any means, but she spends so much of this book trying to make herself perfect to others. The Darcy's are ridiculously wealthy and Georgie really never thinks about this. But throughout the book multiple characters point out her privilege and how she definitely should NOT use it. Fitz also gives her some good advice about using her privilege for good which I really liked.

Then there's Georgie's relationship with Avery. Oh my god, these two were so cute. I loved how easy these two fell into each other's orbits. Their scenes together were so much fun and almost always left a smile on my face. I also really loved seeing Georgie develop a friendship with Emily again. More female friendship always please!!

Overall, this book was a ton of fun and had some really great messages in it.

Rep: wealthy white cishet female MC with anxiety, side WLW relationship.

CWs: Abandonment, underage alcohol consumption, bullying, past mentions of emotional abuse and gaslighting, toxic relationship, panic attacks, mental illness (anxiety). Moderate: past death of parent and grief.

I love pride and prejudice so I was excited to read a similar story in the YA version. The main character was enjoyable and I loved the idea of having her in band. Many students will be able to connect to this story in some way. My only advice would be that this story due to some content and language I feel is better suited for older YA readers. Overall a great story and I would read this again. 4 out of 5 stars.

Accomplished is a YA novel about a young woman in high school, trying to prove to herself and everyone around her that she is better than her reputation makes her out to be. Overall, it's an interesting plot, but the content and swearing make this novel better suited to an older YA audience.
💙
As someone who hasn't read Pride and Prejudice since high school, I think I may have missed most of the fun references made in this novel to the original text. It might also be why I simply did not like Georgie. I found her whiny and had a hard time accepting her bad decisions. I did however really like some of the secondary characters in the book! I think I would have liked it more if I understood more of the references.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books, so I jumped at the chance to read Accomplished by Amanda Quain. What a fun, charming, and satisfying read! Before I gush some more, I'll tell you about the book.

Accomplished is a contemporary young adult novel that follows the trials and tribulations of Georgie Darcy as she tries to win the respect and maybe even friendship of her fellow classmates and her brother-turned-overprotective-parental-type after The Incident.

Georgie's older brother, Fitzwilliam Darcy, who goes by Fitz, has parental custody of her, and wants to protect her from the negative influence of Wickham, the chief instigator of The Incident. But Fitz is a bit heavy-handed, and it's a source of irritation and frustration for Georgie. As if that weren't enough, one of her favorite activities is not as fun as it used to be because she's been ostracized for being so privileged that the school let her back in even though she should have been expelled after The Incident.

But there's a light of hope, and it comes in the fanfic that Georgie writes and in her budding friendship with someone who she thought wouldn't want to be her friend after all that's transpired, Avery. Together, Avery and Georgie work to distract Fitz from his overbearing ways by orchestrating a romance between him and one of his fellow students, Lizzie Bennet. Does it work out? You'll have to read and see.

I thought the author did a great job of putting a fresh twist on the characters and plot of Pride and Prejudice. Fitz comes off as dour at first, but you gradually see that there's a softness to him. Georgie, who really doesn't get enough page-time in the original novel, IMHO, is a young woman who is owning her mistakes and wants to improve for the sake of her brother and her family's reputation. It was so much fun to meet Accomplished's version of Lizzie, Charlie Bingley, and Pemberley.

I'm a romantic at heart, and there's a slow burn romance in this book that I adored. No spoilers, but for that alone Accomplished is worth the read. The setting, in Upstate New York, hooked me immediately because I'm from there and it was so nice to return to a beautiful, and sometimes blustery, autumn setting. Something else that stood out in this book was the background of the Darcy family. It was unexpected and emotional, and totally molded in with where our characters are at the beginning of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed Accomplished. Come for the Pride and Prejudice remix, stay for the romance and the unexpectedly touching story of the Darcy family.

In Accomplished, Amanda Quain has used Georgiana Darcy, a minor character in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, as her protagonist in a story set in a contemporary private school. Georgiana, who is merely a background character for most of the classic story, is a main character with a fractured past. Her father is dead, her mother has abandoned her, and her older brother has become brother, only friend, parent, and taskmaster to her. And that relationship has soured since Georgiana was caught with a boyfriend, Wickham, who sold drugs out of her dorm room while she was in class. Only the Darcy name saved her from expulsion, but it couldn't save her social life, and when Wickham returns and tries to pressure Georgiana into helping him again, she finds herself trapped between his manipulative cruelty, her own needy dependence on any kindness she finds, and her brother's exhausted patience with her. She sets out to right herself and her life and bring her brother the happiness he deserves through his crush on Lizzie Bennet, but the odds are slim and she has few tools to support her. Her only friend, Avery, is solid and caring, but even he struggles to navigate the walls she has constructed to protect herself. When Wickham tries one final ploy to ruin her, she could lose everyone and everything she has been trying to save.

I love a retelling of a classic because I think retellings are one way to tempt modern readers back into the classics. If a retelling is done well, many readers may want more and dig into the classic for themselves. Amanda Quain has honored the original story and its characters in her retelling while bringing the conflict and climax into modern day. Readers who know Pride and Prejudice will be happy to see so many references woven in so smoothly: Lydia, Aunt Catherine, the careless and superficial Mrs. Bennet, the loving Mr. Bennet who is invested in his children, Fitzwilliam Darcy's big ego and bigger heart buried beneath the pride,... The list of reminders is long and accomplished smoothly and naturally. The plot has stakes that are clear and high, with Georgiana's life hanging in the balance. With the wrong choices, she could lose her place in school, the one friend who is true, and even her relationship with Fitz, but the right choices could make a place for her, where her talents and personality are valued and loved. The plot is paced well, never dragging or skipping over elements that needed more time. Similarly, the characters are well developed and complex. Georgiana is a mix of characteristics that are endearing and frustrating and confusing and completely understandable as Quain fills in her backstory. Even Fitz, probably Austen's most difficult character to humanize, is authentic and relatable, even as his Darcy pride frustrates and enrages. Wickham is just as oily and tricky as he is in the original, and when his cruelty and opportunism are revealed, he is just as detestable.

Young adult readers, and readers who enjoy YA themes, will be drawn into this story quickly and kept interested and reading. Some readers may be bothered by the frequent and heavy use of profanity. While the language is harsh and startling for some, it is realistic and credible for people like Georgiana and Wickham. It does not interrupt the story's flow or inetrest, but it does color the story in a way that makes it feel older, harsher, and heavier than it would without the profanity.

Amanda Quain has crafted a clever and important retelling from Pride and Prejudice. It is important because it shows Georgiana's courage and persistance to recreate herself and her life after her failure. She shows grit and compassion, resolve and bravery, confusion and emotional pain, but she perseveres, believing that her brother's love and her own happiness are worth the fight. That's a story of which even Jane Austen would be proud!

The novel Accomplished by Amanda Quain is an enjoyable read for fans of contemporary romance. It is filled with a wide variety of contemporary romance elements and features delightful characters.

5 stars for including a hand flex moment.

Seriously, though, this is such a delightfully charming contemporary YA with very solid Pride & Prejudice ties. It is loosely a modern retelling, as it focuses on Georgiana and includes original characters, but it has some delightful elements from the inspirational material. I have never enjoyed Charles Bingley more.

I honestly cannot think of any criticisms to make - I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. I could only complain of wanting more or the secondary characters/storylines.