Member Reviews
Lydia Bennet, a character whose actions are pivotal in Pride & Prejudice & yet we learn relatively little about her character beyond what other characters tell us. This reimaging of P&P sees Lydia relate the events from her point of view through the medium of writing her thoughts down in a book. In this world, Lydia is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter (three older sisters having died as children) & therefore a witch, whilst Kitty is revealed to be her feline familiar bewitched to appear human in front of others. Lydia's quest to improve & use her magic leads her into all kinds of mischief & dangerous situations.
The narrative is all from Lydia's point of view apart from a few letters at the end which are from another character who appears in the book. It seems like it should be a light retelling with the focus on magic, but the author manages to cover some weightier subjects: racism, sexism/misogyny in society, the confining of women to the domestic sphere & marriage, & a society where a fifteen year old girl would be married off to an older man for the sake of her (& her female relatives') reputation whilst his would eventually carry on as before. Jane & Elizabeth are mentioned but sadly do not appear on the page, although just about every one else does & Georgiana has a bigger role here. Overall it was a nice enough read but it didn't really grab & hold my attention as I thought it would. 3.5 stars (rounded up)
TWs: blood magic, brief sentence about animal sacrifice, mild sexual content but mostly it happens off page.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Quercus Books/Jo Fletcher Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
Melinda Taub delivers a book based on the youngest Bennet sister, Lydia, and takes the story off in a direction that is both fun and amusing. This is an entertaining romp of a story centred around witchcraft in Recency England.
It is very much a book that does not take itself too seriously. Austen purists may not care for the liberties taken with the characters. However, read as a book that is intended to be read as a lively, witty and enjoyable retelling of a familiar story, it cannot fail to please.
The author has taken a familiar tale and spun a whole new perspective of the story from it. The characters are all recognizable from the original story, but seen through Lydia's eyes we observe a very different perspective.
A wonderful book for any fan of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This tells the story of Lydia Bennet and her witchy ways. This is a fun book to read and and a change from the wonderful classic novel we all know and love. And I think that is what makes this book such a hit.
Love Lydia in this story, the writing is wonderful, the book is fun and entertaining to read and I really didn't want to put it down. I loved it. A great read and one which I highly recommend.
Thank you NetGalley and Quercus Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
I love Pride and Prejudice and I love witches so when I saw this appear on Netgalley I absolutely needed to read it.
I read P&P at the beginning of the year whilst on holiday and while it was a bit of a slog to get through I loved it. The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch, did such an amazing job of interjecting itself into the original story in a way that just made sense.
Kitty and Lydia, the two youngest Bennet sisters are easily forgettable and so it fits that their family and friends and indeed everyone in Meryton don't realise that Kitty is actually a cat and Lydia's familiar.
Wickham is revealed to be a demon having taken the real Wickham's soul after he tried to seduce Georgiana Darcy. I loved Wickham in this read, hated him in P&P and I'm not afraid to admit that I wanted him and Lydia to be together.
For anyone who loves P&P and witches, get this book. I hope you love it just as much as I did.
I was quite apprehensive going into this. I love books about witches and I love Pride and Prejudice. Could it be a good mix? The short answer - yes.
The format of the story - two stories interwoven playing out in real time - was a bit strange to wrap my head around at first. Once I'd settled into it, I thought it worked very well for the story and it reflected that side of Lydia that is so flippant and changeable.
I really enjoyed how Melissa Taub wove the story we thought we knew with 'reality' for Lydia. I enjoyed seeing Lydia's growth and her relationships with the characters. Maria Lambe was a particular favourite. This portrayal of Wickham was interesting and charming in his own way.
For me the scenes were magic battles were playing out were a bit of a jumble. It was just all quite fast-paced and therefore difficult to imagine.
I was really looking forward to this read, and I was so gutted that it didn’t quite live up to expectations!
There are plenty of things to like. The Pride and Prejudice characters and plot are used in an entertaining way, with lots of fun twists on the story we know and love. Georgiana Darcy has a much bigger role, which is always a win in my eyes! And I liked how British folklore, as well as folklore from other cultures, were brought into the magical elements.
As for the plot, I think there was just too much of it. There were so many different storylines going on, in different timelines, and then all of it was stuck on top of the already layered P&P plot. The story felt quite cluttered, and when we found out why we’d gone through so much backstory, it wasn’t even necessary in-world.
Combined with the writing style, the story became a bit of a chore to follow. The book was written from Lydia’s perspective, and although we’re told she’s writing a letter to someone, it reads more like a constant stream of consciousness. We flit from one timeline to another, bouncing around the story, often getting quite muddled. It was also written in a sort of quasi-period style, and while this did improve as the book went on, at the start it was sometimes nonsensical.
There were some really enjoyable aspects to this book, but ultimately I left disappointed.
I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.
What a fascinating read this was! Lydia's story is deftly woven around the holes in Pride and Prejudice, with such skill that although it's a delightful read in its own right (I don't think you need to know the source material to enjoy the story), it also offers a lot of little treats for those who love their Austen. The world Taub has created in the shadows of Austen's is dark, dangerous, and powerful, while maintaining the perfect Regency aura. It's a slow coming-of-age with genuinely dark magic, but an undercurrent of Lydia's acerbic humour keeping things interesting. A very, very good book.
Do you ever read a book and stop mid-sentence and just think "I am having the best time right now"?! Because that's how I felt reading The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch.
This is EVERYTHING I want in a novel: witchy, funny, witty and romantic. The characters are hilarious and the plot is the perfect mix between fast-paced and easy-going world-building.
The story follows Lydia Bennet (youngest of the Bennet sisters from Austen's Pride and Prejudice) and her dramatic decline into ruin. But this time, Lydia is telling us the TRUE story in her own words and it all begins when she realises she is a witch. Lydia is absolutely hilarious and her POV is so chaotic that you feel excited just to be along for the ride. She is flawed but loveable in equal measure and her observations of her family (especially Mr Collins) and aquaintences are exactly my kind of humor.
If you need a cosy novel to read this Autumn, this is the one for you! I literally can't rate it high enough!
Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review!
I haven’t read Jane Austen, but I applied to ARC read this for netgalley as I’m on a bit of a feel good book kick. I thought this witty regency fantasy book, charming in its telling, full of magic that was easily understood and present throughout!
I liked the book, but perhaps was not quite what I was looking for! I will be recommending this to my friends!
Pride and Prejudice retellings, prequels and sequels are my absolute favourite and I am always on the lookout for new stories about my favourite Bennett sisters.
This one adds some witchcraft to the mix and offers a slightly different take on what happened in Brighton with Wickham.
As much as I enjoyed the alternate story there were aspects which didn't quite work for me.
Lydia is an unreliable narrator in many aspects and litters her narrative with self-denigration that often does get on your nerves. She calls herself wicked and lazy and all sorts of unkind things despite there being actual good in her. I hated to see her low self-esteem come across in the way she allowed herself to be treated by other witches.
I did like her relationship with Georgiana Darcy and later on with Mr Darcy but her dismissiveness towards her older sisters was more than a little incongruous, especially since she had initially seemed to look up to them so much.
Lydia's adventures were entertaining enough to continue reading but, like most long letters, I found she did meander from the subject quite a lot.
Enjoyable read but not the best adaptation I've ever read.
At school, Pride and Prejudice was one of my favourite books and a copy actually resides in my Dresser.
Taub's book is a reimagination of Pride and Prejudice but from Lydia Bennet's perspective.
Of course there are events that if you have read Pride and Prejudice then you will be fully aware of, however this book delves into these events from the perspective of Lydia who also happens to be a witch. We see her struggles as she trains and how the events impact Lydia and how she grows with it.
Oh and her favourite sister Kitty? Well she's a big orange barn cat that everyone has accepted as a sister!
This is quite an intense book which has been rammed solid, full of references to the original Austen timelines but also Lydia's own personal one. The amount of time Taub must have spent researching the period, area etc must have been phenomenal which she actually confirms in her acknowledgements at the end.
I initially found it difficult to get into this book but I think that this was mainly due to the fact that Taub has tried to mirror the language used by Austen in her books and as I hadn't read a Classic in a while, my brain had to adjust to the language change. There are times where the two merge seamlessly and you forget it isn't Austen you're actually reading!
I do love my classic literature and this book is a very good reimagination that respects the original story (which to me is paramount) while carving out a new path for Lydia, with Lydia being a witch an unique twist!
If you love Pride and Prejudice then this book is definitely worth a read!
Not even my own family knows what I sacrificed and went through in Brighton -- what I'm still sacrificing! It's not fair!
Bother! I'm crying. I will have to leave off writing for a while. I'm almost out of ink, and if this page splotches I can't afford to rewrite it. [loc. 311]
Lydia Bennet -- I beg your pardon, Lydia Wickham -- is living in a garret in Newcastle with her husband, the deplorable Mr Wickham, when she --
Except that most of that sentence is untrue. Lydia does live in Newcastle, in poverty, with Wickham. She is writing a long letter to a mysterious correspondent: an account of the previous summer's events in Brighton, which involved the Long Man, the Jewel of Propriety, a 'Creole' heiress, and punch made with seawater. Lydia has many regrets, and she's painfully lonely until she encounters Miss Georgiana Darcy, who's swathed with protective spells. Lydia (who is, as per the book's title, a witch) undertakes to help Georgiana (who is attempting to solve a difficult mathematical problem, while beset by magical attacks) and is invited to stay (sans Wickham) at Pemberley...
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch is darker and more complex than I'd expected, though there is plenty of fun and frothiness to balance the less pleasant aspects of the story. Lydia is very much the outspoken, flirtatious, impetuous younger sister from Pride and Prejudice, but there's more to her than that: loyalty, confidence and courage, and plenty of spirit. And Lydia does remind us, more than once, that she's not yet sixteen, which shows her 'elopement' and Wickham's behaviour -- not to mention her family's rejection -- in rather a different light.
But most of all, Lydia is a powerful witch, and has been since early childhood. ("It is a truth universally acknowledged that the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter must be a witch," is the novel's first line: within a few pages, we see how Lydia's power has affected the Bennets. Yes, the tally of sisters is also explained.) Her adventures with Great Powers, high society and aristocratic covens fit neatly into the familiar framework of Austen's novel, and the minor characters -- such as Mary King, Georgiana, Harriet Forster, and Mr Denny -- are fleshed out credibly and with respect for canon. There are original characters, too, including the splendid Miss Lambe, orphaned granddaughter of a South Seas planter.
Stylistically, I found Lydia's account well-paced and wholly in character: discursive, emotional, amusing. There were a couple of Americanisms ('last fall', 'bought on sale') but nothing that truly jarred. Overall, I liked this a great deal: there was so much more to it than I'd expected! It redeems Lydia, explains Kitty and even makes Wickham less objectionable. And it is tremendous fun.
Fulfils the ‘A Fashionable Character’ rubric of the 52 books in 2023 challenge.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this honest review: UK publication date is 03 OCT 2023.
This book was so much fun to read; it was completely out of my comfort zone. I so glad I took a chance on this book because it was such a good read.
Lydia Bennet is such a fun character to read about, it was a joy to watch her learn to navigate this magical world, and the concept of this magic always demanding a sacrifice is one of my favorite tropes. The characters and the magic system are, overall, my favorite parts.
Another thing I adored was the unique take on Kitty. The story of how she came to be and the magic surrounding her was an unexpected, but welcome take on something so deeply rooted in witch lore (I am not spoiling it, even if it's not really a spoiler, I want everyone to experience the backstory like I did, completely blind).
Melinda Taub knows how to take a well-known fact or trope and make it feel new and for that I applaud her.
The reason it's 4.25/5 star review is because the first part of the book felt a bit slow, it felt like not much was happening, which is a shame because this is a very fun story. Having finished it, I realize some of those "dull" moments were necessary for the character development and for us to learn more about the magic of this world.
Due to the fact that it's a Pride and Prejudice remix, feels like a fun, well-written fanfiction (I genuinely mean this as a compliment) and I think that's one of the reasons I read it so quickly.
Pride and Prejudice made a huge impact on my in my teenage years, and the story holds a very special place in my heart. So obviously, I am always skeptical when it comes to books that take the source material and take it down a different avenue entirely.
Some books, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Mr Darcy, Vampire, do this in a great way. Sadly, this one didn't hit the mark for me. I just struggled to really connect with Lydia at all, and I found her just... boring. And there are some points in the book where she acknowledges this herself.
It was a great concept, I just wish it had pulled me in more.
This book was far more entertaining than it had any right to be.
Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite classic novels and I was a bit dubious that messing with the source material was going to produce a good story. But this book was meticulous in following the pride and prejudice storyline, while filling in the gaps with a good witchy romp that makes you look at some of the minor characters in a much different light. And I think where this really works is that all the characters are recognisable from P&P, they feel like the same people,
Perfect for people who like cosy fantasy and regency novels. A high 4 stars for me
This is a delightful rake on a well-known story, giving voice to a young Lydia Bennet who is a powerful witch. I love the voice of the writing, and Lydia is an immediately compelling character. I also really liked the portrayal of Kitty, who I never related to quite as well as I did in this retelling.
The book is written as though you're reading a letter written to you, which was an interesting twist on the more traditional omniscient narrator. The story feels fast-paced even when not much is happening, which made all 400 pages feel like a fairly quick read.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
How many ways can I say how excellent this book is? It's one of the best novels out this year and a must-read for anyone who wants to find out how Lydia Bennett, the vacuous wannabe it-girl of Austen's Pride Prejudice, in fact turns out to be a brave and heroic witch, hiding her magical abilities from society, and working to save the mysterious Miss Lambe from being eaten by a dragon. Oh and Wickham isn't quite who or what you think he is and as for Kitty - the clue to her real identity is in her name ... This is a brilliant spin on the well known characters and events in Pride and Prejudice - find out what really happened when Miss Lydia Bennett eloped with the evil Mr Wickham and what Mr Darcy did next!
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennett . Witch by Melinda Taub
In this exuberant reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story from her own perspective. Some facts are well known: Mrs. Bennet suffers from her nerves; Mr. Bennet suffers from Mrs. Bennet, and all five daughters suffer from an estate that is entailed only to male heirs.
Wasn't quite sure of what to expect with this one as I don't always enjoy books like this that take a well loved story to bits , chuck it in the air , add a few implausible extras and then put it all together again.
Result : A quirky , slightly odd read which was strangely enjoyable . Just what the author had hoped I should imagine !
Immensely fun witchy take on Pride and Prejudice. This is like walking into the back scenes of the famous novel into the parallel story of Lydia. If you know Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and the way it weaves its tale behind Hamlet, this is the type of thing you are getting here, without the surreal aspect.
And I must say this take on Lydia is fantastic. That last little sister is soooo very annoying and silly, and yet has such an impact on Pride and Prejudice that she does deserve a book of her own.
I wasn't sure I would like the novel at first, I was greatly intrigued by the ideas in it, but Lydia is not a very likable character and I was afraid it would be hard to stick with it... by Taub manages to turn things around drastically and make Lydia a very very likable spirited little witch.
Oh and the magic element works perfectly, without ever trying to change the original story, it's just that Lizzy never knew the truth.
Highly recommend to all fans of Jane Austen and cosy fantasy.