This book was very exciting and magical. I very much enjoyed the older aspect to the world, along with the newer fantasy scope. The relationships followed a lot of hard driven passion that I found enthralling. The book ended in a way that keeps the readers guessing and hoping for the next book to come as soon as possible.
Thank you White Soup Press for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!
This was such a fun variation of P&P, it was a bit slow to start with but after that the pacing is good. Reynolds does such a good job at capturing Mr Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s personality.
Overall a great regency fantasy read for P&P lovers!

What a wonderful story. This is a tale full of romance and discovery, intrigue and adventure!

I would say that it’s probably best if you’ve read the original Pride and Prejudice before reading this fantastical tale only because of the references made to towns, families, hierarchies, etc. Although, there are some major differences between the original and this one (least of all are the dragons!) it would be easy to pick up the gist of things without having read it, there is just greater clarity with the knowledge imparted from the original.

Reynolds does a superb job of writing these characters so precisely that one cannot help but feel that one knows them well. Though the story starts slowly and there’s a bit of jumping around at first, the story unfolds at an increasing pace as we read through this sublime account of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy trying their best to balance the demands of the War Office, personal interests, newly acquired spouses, feelings and prejudices held by themselves and those surrounding them and so many other things.

As we get to know these characters more deeply and move with them through the web that Reynolds spins, we can’t help but cheer for their victories and worry for them in their illnesses and defeats. I am reluctant to give too much detail for fear of ruining the story and all the discoveries within, but this is a wonderful piece that is so worth the read.

I cannot wait for the next instalment in this series!

I really struggled between giving this book 3 or 4 stars. This was an interesting but flawed book. Although it claims to be a variation on Pride and Prejudice, I would call that a pretty big stretch. However, if you look at it as its own book, there was a lot to like, although there were some other issues as well.

Let's first discuss the idea that it's a "variation." I really do love it when authors take Jane Austen's concepts and ideas and take them and make them their own. However, there is a point (not a clear one!) when you've run so far that you don't really share anything in common with P&P anymore other than some character names. This book was definitely treading that line and, in the latter half, had pretty clearly crossed it. Gone are Wickham and Mr. Collins (and the entailment!), any slice of life/cheeky commentary on local English personalities. Other characters received a brief mention (Lady Catherine, Col. Fitzwilliam, the Bingley sisters) or a short, mysterious cameo (Georgiana). The entire theme of women in this time period facing precarity because they must marry or face the horrors of being a spinster was even absent, as it's clear in this alternate version women do have power and more social standing than in this reality. There's a slew of new characters introduced, including Mr. Darcy's mother, who is very much alive, and a grandmother on Elizabeth's side. While the book does feature a love story between Elizabeth and Darcy, it's a pretty different one than in P&P - there is a little bit of misunderstanding in the very beginning, they quickly move past it and instead tension is brought from Darcy's mission in thwarting Napoleon. The problem with all of this is that when you call yourself a variation on P&P, it creates expectations, so when you don't meet many of those expectations, it feels like a let down. Normally I feel like authors who do this are just trading on Jane Austen's work to bring in more readers, which is definitely annoying. But I noticed this author has written a lot of Jane adaptations, so I wonder if instead it's just become a crutch. A lot of this could be solved by the author just creating whole new characters and calling it a Regency fantasy.

The book is not completely absent of any of P&P's traits - she does a fairly good job with the personalities of Darcy and Elizabeth, and I actually liked how she teased out Mr. Bennett's character a bit. But even Mrs. Bennet and the sisters are given short shrift and are barely there (although I suspect we'll see more of them in future books).

Despite all of this, I did think the book was pretty good as a general Regency fantasy - the world building was interesting, several of the new characters were well developed and had good agency (although I wasn't in love with Mr. Roderick - he felt too much like he was there purely as an info dump as needed). I was interested in the whole idea of Land Talent and how the privilege of being able to own land over generations gave a new benefit of having a magical bond with it as well - although I would have liked to see some of the social consequences of that explored (maybe later books will?) It did start to feel like there was almost too much magic going on, though - magic with the land, general magic of mages, faeries, dragons, familiars, on and on. I think the world building needed some editing.

Plot wise, the book never felt like a drag - there was always something going on. It was of course enjoyable to see Darcy and Elizabeth fall in love, and then the general plot of how will Darcy defeat Napolean was intriguing as well.

However, that brings us to my other main problem with this book - it was missing a main plot that actually developed through the whole book and then resolved. There were smaller plots that resolved over short sections, like Elizabeth coming to accept marrying Mr. Darcy. But those all resolved well before the end of the book. And many of the bigger plots the book built up toward are left unaddressed, I'm assuming for later books. This became especially problematic in the final third of the book, when several new plot points were introduced but never went beyond a "well how will they handle this?" The final third really felt like an intro for the second book, which made for an underwhelming end. So while the book never dragged, I still felt a bit let down.

I'd say this is a better fit for fantasy fans than P&P fans, except the book oddly starts when Elizabeth visits Netherfield because Jane fell ill and definitely expects readers to have some familiarity with P&P. I think if P&P fans can accept this is really a "variation" in name only, then they could enjoy it too, although obviously having an interest in fantasy will help.

Spellbound at Pemberley is a Pride and Prejudice variation by Abigail Reynolds. I like to call it JAFF (Jane Austen fan fiction). And if you’ve never read any this is the perfect book to start with. This was a delightful pride and prejudice romance with magic. The world building was excellent and the clean romance was heartfelt. I loved Darcy and Elizabeth. The growing relationship held me captive and I just couldn’t get enough. This was a promising start to a wonderful series.
If you love dragons and magic I highly recommend it.
Thanks White Soup Press via NetGalley.

This was probably a 2.5 star read for me. The first half was clunky and awkward. The entire book took me 3 days to get through which is not common for me at all. The second half was a little better with more plot and story, but I still found the writing difficult to connect to, and over all, the characters lacked depth. I would most likely not continue with this series.

I just finished it and now I have to wait until October for the next one!

The story was so cleverly written, with witty dialogue and banter, especially between Elizabeth and Darcy.

But the endearing new characters (including dragons!) are wonderful and I'm so excited to read more about them!

This book was amazing. I absolutely love pride and prejudice and I was so happy to find this pride and prejudice historical fantasy retelling. The writing and world building was fantastic!

A Pride and Prejudice variation? Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy? …and dragons?

I will admit to wondering just what I was getting myself into when I started reading this but that quickly faded into the happiness of reading a purely fun read; I cannot stress that enough - this one turned out to be exactly what I didn’t know I needed and I’m so glad I gave this one a try!

This was my first book by Ms Reynolds and I can’t wait to read more 😊 (I’m especially looking forward to the next title in this series). I just checked amazon and the author has 63 titles, including this one, available on Kindle Unlimited 😍

If you’re a fan of Pride and Prejudice variations and romantasy - this one’s for you.



Thank you to White Soup Press and NetGalley for the DRC

Rate 4/5
Spice 1

Honestly this book was beautifully written the plot was solid and the character development was amazing for their time.

This book i would recommend for anyone that wants a fantasy spin on an old classic, however this book was not for me!

I am more into the suspense and the back and forth, and especially major spice with a morally grey character.

Pride & Prejudice is the book that started my love of reading. I’ve read loads of variations including vampires and zombies.

So I couldn’t wait to start this one. It took to while to get used to the whole land talent thing. Plus the repulsion as well, that’s just a horrible thing to have to live with. Once I’d settled in I enjoyed it.

But then I am a sucker for all things Pemberley related.
One thing I have to mention is I didn’t realise it would end on a cliffhanger.

I voluntarily read a review copy kindly provided by NetGalley and the publisher.