boooo tomato tomato.

i'm sorry that was mean but as a love of pride and prejudice i could not make myself love or care about this book. and i love a retelling or continuation don't get me wrong but i did not care about any of the characters or plot throughout this entire book. i felt like i was dragging myself through each page

Sapphic Jane Austen? Say no more! I gobbled this up. The yearning, people... the yearning. I definitely highly recommend this for Jane Austen/historical romance fans.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, honestly more than I expected! I recently read another queer Pride and Prejudice re-imagining, so this slotted right in nicely, and I liked this one a lot more. For fans of historical romance, especially of this era, Austen is pretty much the gold standard, and for queer fans of the genre this absolutely meets all expectations.

Charlotte Lucas and Mary Bennet are both underutilized characters in the original novel, which leaves you with a lot of space to play with when reimagining their personalities a few years down the line. None of the other Pride and Prejudice characters really feature outside of letters that are used as scene-setting for most chapters, making this read more as a wholly-original novel rather than a reimagining or spiritual sequel.

I felt like both women were very well developed throughout the story and their worries and personalities were very vivid and realistic, but the reliance on miscommunication throughout was a bit frustrating. However, as that is also a function of Pride and Prejudice’s plot, it’s easily forgivable.

Looking for a cozy, sapphic period piece that’s full of banter, raw and relatable emotions, and a lil bit of spice? This book is it! Some of the characters will be familiar, but will surprise you. I absolutely loved this book, I couldn’t put it down. It provided a wonderful escape from the stress of the world and gave me that warm, comforting, and hopeful feeling that there are still kind and accepting people out there. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advance copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is an imaging of a post Pride and Prejudice story where a recently widowed Charlotte spendimg time with and falling in love with Mary Bennet. It was fine.

The overall story is a nice period romance that takes it sweet time in getting on with the story. One of my biggest issues is that i had to restart this book 4 times because the begining is so slow. My other issue with this book comes towards the end.

During the 3rd act breakup one of the major causes of the breakup is Charlotte having reasonable fears of homophobia from her peers, and Mary acting as if Charlotte should not have those fears. This is something that often irks me in historicals. Mary often feels childish in how she acts when Charlotte is more cautious.

But overall it was a fine book, would not read again probably but will recomend to people looking for sapphic historicals.

This book was extremely well written and perfectly emulated Jane Austen’s prose. I adored the plot between Mary and Charlotte. The author did a wonderful job of flushing out their characters. However, I felt as though the first 50% of the book could have been significantly shorter while the latter half moved very quickly.

The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennett is a slow, methodic love story. It feels a lot like I was transported into a moment in the regency era, just watching two individuals circle one another, paint, harvest flowers, and learn more about the world around them. It’s a very soft environment, despite having clear deadlines and conflict. It was strange that though there was a significant amount of stressors, this did feel like curling up in the corner of a gorgeous greenhouse.

I think that queer fans of Pride and Prejudice should absolutely pick this book up. It’s kind of the ideal– it feels very faithful to Austenian prose, historicism, and yearning. And yearning is the best part of a romance novel, don’t you agree?

Queer fans of Regency romance and Jane Austen will be overjoyed by Lindz McLeod’s quiet, romantic tour de force. McLeod recreates the typical Austenian courting and yearning while feeling entirely original and unique.

Such a beautiful take on two of the most overlooked characters in Pride and Prejudice. The characterization was spot on and expanded in such a way that it felt faithful to the original text. As a Jane Austen superfan, I would highly recommend!

I'm a big fan of Jane Austen and know (or at least feel I know) her works intimately, backwards and forwards, over and under, so when I heard of this sapphic "what happens after" novel, I knew I just had to give it a read.

What I loved about this read the most was the writing. The author does an amazing job of finding the tone of Austen while still engaging with a contemporary style that keeps the reader of today engaged and pursuing the story. The way she captures Charlotte's inner most thoughts and actions, the push and pull of angst at such tumultuous feelings and experiences is admirable.

Now the downsides: I really didn't like the way Mary was portrayed. There was little to no remnant of the Mary that Austen wrote, and while I understand that people do grow and change, it felt like very little time was given to why or how these changes came about. Mary felt like a completely different character and without the roadmap to see how she got from Point A to Point B, it was as if the author just sort of gave her the name. It was addressed in one or two conversations between Mary and Charlotte, but it was brief at best and truly didn't explain away much. Had I seen more of that, I think the story would have felt much more well-rounded and enjoyable.

➤Plot

May Interest you if you like:
- Sapphic Romance
- Friends to Lovers
- Secret Dating
- Flowers/Flower Language
- Bridgerton

The story starts off with death, Charlotte's husband's death, to be exact. Only being married for four years, Charlotte did everything she could to be the perfect wife and hold up her appearance around everyone. Yet, she is now faced with the impossible choice of remarrying to another man after her mourning period is over or moving back with her parents to forever be a widow. She was ready to decide between the two options until Mary Bennet, sister of her best friend, shows up and shows her a new world.

A story about learning to bloom into your happiest self, because it's never too late to turn into your prettiest flower and learn to love with your whole heart.

➤Characters

The characters were absolutely amazing. You follow Charlotte, so you don't really get the thoughts of other characters. However, you understand Charlotte so well and can't help but feel bad. Many times I have been in Charlotte's shoes, especially when figuring out who I am and how scary it can be to say you love someone.

This story strives from how strong Charlotte is as a main character and how absolutely lovely Mary is as a love interest. Honestly, I understand Charlotte. Mary is amazing and knows her ways to sweep someone off their feet. Mary knows who she is, what she wants, and has such a playful aura about her. But she isn't without her faults and fears, which makes her so realistic.

There are many side characters that don't get much page time and one of them is very much an antagonist, only without any redeeming qualities that we see. This story focuses so much on Charlotte and Mary that there didn't need to be a bad guy that was fully fleshed out - they needed someone to sprinkle in some drama here and there to add tension only. It works!

Even if there isn't a lot of time explored with some of the side characters, they have a presence that makes them feel alive in this world. How they interact with the main characters is so great. Yes, we don't see their whole life and know everything about them, but McLeod makes them feel like they have experienced the world and doesn't need to tell you everything about them to feel like they are alive. This whole world feels so alive and realistic.

➤Enjoyment

I adore this book! I kept gushing about it to all my friends, stating: "I can't wait until this release, so everyone can experience this story!"

There aren't any risks. It's a love story of two people who desperately want love in a society that wants to keep them in the shadows. In that aspect, it can be hard to read at times, because it can really reflect both history and the current society for some.

I will warn anyone who picks this up, it's very slow at the start! Even though it starts with death, it's more so warming the reader up to who Charlotte is as a character at the beginning, what the current society and expectations are like, and a lot of rules that may be a bit difficult to understand if you haven't read something similar to this time period. Everything really picks up when Mary comes in and every little detail you can do the dog meme reaction of "I know what you are."

It's heartwarming and I see myself picking this up many more times in the future! Highly recommend.

It was better than I had expected. I was pleasant wrapped up in the growing romance between the two main characters and even found myself invested in the outcome of their pairing (which says a lot when you know going in that they will be getting together, then there will be a falling out followed by a reconciliation).

Jane Austen, but make it gay!

One of the things McLeod did so well with this adaptation was she managed to emulate Austen’s witty voice in a way that made it comprehensible to modern readers. It truly feels like you are reading an Austen novel at points.

Mary Bennet and Charlotte Lucas make an undeniably appealing couple. They’re both relatively overlooked in the original work, each of them getting a far less happy ending than Lizzie or Jane. But them being overlooked is what made them excellent subjects for an adaptation, particularly a queer adaptation. Charlotte, who definitely read as queer-coded when I read Pride and Prejudice, being closeted and completely unaware of what else is possible in life worked so well. And because she was unaware, it allowed for lots of stolen glances and moments of unexplainable heart racing and instantly being able to sniff out Mary in a crowded room, all of which made my gay ass SWOON. Don’t even get me started on the use of flower symbology — an excellent through-line for the whole novel.

The first three-quarters of the book are excellent; I will admit that the last quarter was a bit contrived in terms of the plot. Charlotte had the exact path forward, but she backs away on account of not wanting to shame her parents. This would have felt more of a difficult decision if the Lucases had been remotely important to the rest of the story. And, of course, they’re completely supportive of Charlotte taking a job, so the angst in the 11th hour was relatively unnecessary overall.

Despite the bizarre pacing and decisions that led to the ending, this book is truly a fun read. Austen addicts and romance readers alike will enjoy this story. There’s lot of good queer representation to be found here, as well as a well crafted love story.

I wanted to like this one but it all seemed too rushed for me. Everything came easy and I didn’t feel the conflict.

I was expecting a slow burn romance but the romance came quick and I feel it would have been better suited if it was slowed down and felt more earned.

Thanks to NetGallery and the publisher for this arc I. Exchange for my honest review.

Very enjoyable queer historical fiction novel, as an entry into a plausible Austen-verse it is a wondrous addition to it.

i love sapphic historical fiction. mary bennet was really a wild card, of all of the bennet sisters i felt she was the least likely to be a lesbian.

winners love winning fr.

i felt the characters were SO REAL and relatable. I loved charlottes story and the beautiful writing of this book.

I enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun but also heartwarming and had a found family element.

Mary and Charlotte were so connected, they had an instant spark and they got along very well. I really loved that Mary introduced her to a world of academia and knew she’d enjoy it if given the chance.

I LOVED Mr. Mellor, he was exactly what Charlotte needed, once again giving her a chance to live her life without a husband, which was difficult during the time period.

I wish there was more about her parents and family and how they see her settled with Mary and her new life but what we did see of her family, they were very loving.

Overall, it was a good book with amazing writing.

The unlikely pursuit of Mary Bennet oof this book was not a winner for me I had an incredibly hard time reading it and no matter how hard I tried to get into it and like it I couldn’t .

The book moved incredibly slow and I felt like I was trying to read a book in a foreign language because even when I got through half the book I was still so disinterested that I had no idea what was going on.

For those reasons and several more I had to dnf this book at 56%. I am sure a lot of people will love this book it just wasn’t for me .

Thank you Netgalley Harlequin - Romance | Carina Adores for the arc

Thank you to NetGalley, Lindz McLeod, and Harlequin for allowing me access to the e-Arc.

4.5 stars

I am a big fan of Pride and Prejudice so when I saw this was a sapphic romance between Charlotte Lucas and Mary Bennet. I knew I had to request it. I’m so glad I got to read it. I just loved their romance. It was beautifully written. The cast of characters were wonderful. I see myself re-reading this one.

I highly recommend it!

Oh my godzzzz
I was so intrigued by this book, first of all, the cover is just so pretty, and second, ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THIS IS A SAPPHIC, WHAT IF, BETWEEN MARY BENNET AND CHARLOTTE LUCAS? YES, Please and thank you.
I never thought that I needed a queer Charlotte until now, besides, I never liked Mr Collins, so i wasn't too sad to know that he's not in the picture in this book.

It was a really sweet and beautiful story and Lindz McLeod is now on my radar of authors to read. I loved this spin to a classic.
Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy

4.5⭐️ As a long time lover of pride and prejudice I was so excited to read this book and I was not disappointed. I always believed that Charlotte deserved better and with this story my dreams were fulfilled. Was the writing perfect? No, but I loved the story and to me that is the most important thing. If you are a fan of pride and prejudice and historical sapphic romance I really think you will enjoy this book. I highly recommend 😊

Thank you to Netgalley and Carina Adores/ Harlequin Romance for the ARC of this book.