She’s just Mary. Middle Sister. Not the scandalous one, not the flighty one, not the strikingly beautiful one, and not the iconic one.

Through the eyes of Charlotte Lucas, the reader learns more of the piano playing, science minded feminist lady of the ton. Their interaction results from the death of Charlotte’s husband and unfolds slowly with forced proximity at the parsonage, a jaunt to the countryside with an impromptu stay at an inn and eventually, a stay at Mary’s aunt’s home where the occupants lead a life apart from society.

As the title suggests, it’s more Charlotte Lucas’ story more than anything. I like that parts of the original P & P are referenced here, the use of letters at the start of chapters to give voices to characters off page and the use of flowers as a love language. I didn’t like the fact that the buildup to their romance wasn’t so much as a ‘finally’ as much as ‘an ok, now what?’

#TheUnlikelyPursuitofMaryBennet #NetGalley.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, Harlequin Romance, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really fun one for people who are obsessed with anything Austen like I am. Faced with unexpected personal tragedy that causes her to reevaluate her life decisions, Charlotte Lucas finds an unexpected companion in Mary Bennet -- a more mature, self-assured, and alluring person than who she remembers from her youth.

I felt that this book did a pretty good job of replicating a good sense of Austen's world, while also adding a different depth through the point of view of new characters. I really thought the the way we saw Charlotte work through her inner emotions was well done.

My one qualm with the book is that there was a storyline that at this point I'm starting to see as a cliche in historical sapphic romance, which is a sexual awakening in which one character is so sheltered she never even knew of same-sex love as a possibility before. It's okay if I see it done once or twice, but I keep seeing it in books with women way more that I see it in books with same-sex male pairings. It's not like that wasn't a historical possibility, but I think there were a lot of different ways historical queer people led their lives and thought about themselves and it can be tiring to read the same sexual awakening story again and again. It understand how it made sense for Charlotte's character, but I did wonder if her sheltered mindset needed to be pushed so far.

3.5 rounded to 4

A love match between Charlotte Lucas Collins and Mary Bennet? Sign. Me. Up!

There was a lot to like here. I really enjoyed the author's take on Charlotte, and also her stately attempt at period language. I enjoyed the very ending, once we got there. I loved the meeting between the two and the gradual development of awareness, though there were some bumps along the way.

First of all, the author's apparent total lack of knowledge about the customs and culture of the ecclesiastical world. Beginnig with the fact that Charlotte, after several years of marriage, would have known exactly what to expect if Mr. Collins were to die suddenly: the position has to be filled, for there must be a clergyman conducting the vital affairs of the church. Charlotte's profound ignorance is that of a contemporary of ours with zero knowledge of that aspect of history, not a woman of the period.

Then, the customs of mourning would be even more rigid for a clergyman's widow, and it would be extremely unlikely that Lady Charlotte de Bourgh would not post back from Timbuktu or even Mars once she heard of Mr. Collins's death, in order to oversee the proper disposition of this living in her gift. Still less would her daughter be introducing Charlotte to eligible men during those early months of morning!

So the reader who knows anything of the period has to dodge around these sizable boulders plonked in the path of the story in order to get to the evolution of the romance. For the most part, it was worth it. This Mary Bennett has utterly nothing to do with the Mary Bennet of Austen's novel, who reads very much like a person on the spectrum, but that aside, Mary is a delightful character in her own right. A self-possessed bluestocking scientist (or as they would have said then, a natural philosopher) who reminded me in fact of what Mary Shelley might have been, if she'd not run off with Shelley and had to compound with constant pregnancy, losing her children, poverty while racking about war-torn Europe, and Shelley's love affairs.

For the most part, I really enjoyed Mary and Charlotte. The best part of the novel was the evolution of their relationship as two intelligent women negotiate the changes in their lives, and explore their evolving identities. There was a small bump toward the end when the author succumbed to the lamentable requisite "Dark Moment" that too many romances these days seem to require, but once we're past that, it's clear sailing to a happy ending.

Leaving me thinking: Charlotte and Mary! Great idea!

When Mr. Collins passes away Charlotte Collins nee Charlotte Lucas is left adrift. Everyone in her life has ideas her parents want her to come home, Anne the heir to Rosings Park wants to help her find a new husband, her best friend Elizabeth wants to come to comfort her but circumstances prevents this and she instead send her sister Mary to help console Charlotte. Mary has found herself and away from her parents in the Bennet household and instead in the home of her aunt has many new friends, new ideas and a new confidence. Charlotte finds that she has new feelings within herself and while she should be in mourning. This is a sweet romance where Charlotte is a woman that has not had the feelings of love within her marriage, she married for her own financial safety but she finds it with another woman in a space where she knows nothing about relationships of this type. This is a story of figuring things out, falling in love and two women finding out how to be in love during this period.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of my ARC in return for my honest review

I was immediately interested in the cover and story of this book. A sapphic, slow burn romance set in the P&P universe? Sign me tf up

The plot: two lesbians pining after each other in the most obvious way ever until one of them dies (jk)

The story follows a recently widowed Charlotte. Elizabeth had plans to visit, but her child fell ill, so she sent Mary in her stead. Gay shit ensues.

Am I wrong to say I’m glad Mr. Collins died? Is that rude? I really liked how the story followed 2 of the lesser known characters from P&P, and I feel that the author really captured their essence. It was wistful, romantic, and a deliciously slow burn. It was mildly spicy

The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet was everything I wanted in a regency romance. I love that this book picks up four years after Pride and Prejudice. It was so sweet to be able to be swept into a world I already knew and see it expanded so beautifully.

We meet up with Charlotte just after Mr. Collins has died, because Lizzie can't visit her and she sends Mary in her place. With Mary's arrival Charlotte begins to examine long buried thoughts and feelings. Seeing Charlotte come out of her shell and discover her queerness felt like such a real and natural progression. I loved the pinning and desire and this book was everything I wanted and needed.

I absolutely recommend you pick this up if you love romance, regency, and sapphic stories. It left me feeling hopeful and cozy. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

4.5 Stars rounded up to 5

Sometimes, this style of romance is just a throwaway with recast/altered characters. The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet does not follow into that trap. Jane Austen's Mary was, let's face it, weird. McLeod captures that, but also creates a complexity that Austen didn't necessarily have time to grant Mary. Charlotte, likewise, is more than a good friend and a plot device. She has real feeling, real conflict about her emotions and her actions. The romance blossoms naturally, when it's ready, and doesn't pretend that it will be simple for two women to be together in a time when such a thing was incomprehensible to many. I really like this and I hope it secures many readers despite its somewhat generic cover.

Absolutely loved! The writing style was amazing, I don’t think I’ve read anything like it but I will be looking to read similar books. I loved the story and development, it was sweet, heart aching, and kept me glued to each word. Charlotte and Mary were so cute together and as individual characters they were great and also relatable. I enjoyed the discussions it had about class, familial duties, and women’s role in society at the time, I thought it was interesting. Overall, this was a great read and I recommend!!

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing the ARC!

I have long been convinced that Charlotte Lucas was a lesbian making the best of her situation. So as you can imagine, I am the prime target for this novel. Mary Bennet on the other hand? Never even crossed my mind, but now that it has: I am delighted.

This was such an enjoyable book. Charlotte is a deeply lonely character at the start of the story, isolated by her gender, class, and sudden widowhood. Charlotte had done everything her society asked of her, only to find herself back where she started from - a burden to her parents with no money and prospects. For all that Charlotte wasn't in love with Mr Collins, she appreciated him and was thankful for her marriage to him. Now that she's without it, her situation has become precarious and every option in front of her brings about an element of misery.

Enter Mary Bennet, the middle Bennet sister reimagined as an adult who has matured under the care of a rather liberal aunt. Mary comes to stay at Charlotte's home when Elizabeth is unable to make it. It's meant to be a brief visit, a few days to keep a recent widow company, but this is a romance and the connection between these two women brings them back together again very quickly. There's much and care and attention paid to building up a friendship between Charlotte and Mary before any romantic overtures are made. Charlotte finds herself drawn to Mary, but she tries her best to stop any other feelings from sprouting for all the reasons you can imagine a regency woman would want to deny she's attracted to another woman. And even when she does accept that she's interested in Mary, there's still the fact that she's Charlotte Lucas, the spinster second choice to Elizabeth Bennet. On the off-chance that Mary is queer like her, why in the world would someone as brilliant as Mary want a dull woman like Charlotte?

Loneliness is the pervasive theme of the story. And despite the setup, Charlotte's loneliness isn't solved by Mary's presence in her life, but by a much larger opening of her world that Mary is responsible for introducing her to but isn't the (sole) person making it happen. And that world is very, very queer.

When approaching queer historical romance, I respect when authors go solely for positivity, but I don't always love it. Yet I don't come to the romance genre to read tragedy and suffering predicated on characters being queer. I won't even say there's a balance to strike because there isn't. There's simply choices to be made that serve the kind of story an author wants to tell. In the Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet, the author chose to highlight that queer people existed in the Regency period and surely sometimes found each other. The most suspension of belief this books asks for isn't in the existence of queer characters, but in their trust to share that queerness with others in a time period where that could be very dangerous (for men especially, of which there are several in this book). But we know it did happen (the infamous Molly houses) so why not imagine what kind of relationships queer people could build outside of romance? How they might look out for each other and build found families? Exploring these concepts allowed the author to create a happiness for Charlotte and Mary that didn't require them to be accepted by heterosexual society.

ANYWAY all this to say, if a sapphic regency romance with queer found family elements sounds appealing to you: read this book!!!

I devoured this book.

Pride and Prejudice was the first story who really captured my attention when I was a child and now, as an adult who very much loves women, I was very intrigued by this book.

I loved the characters, I loved who Mary had grown up to be and Charlotte's struggle to accept who she really was.

While I understand this book was meant to be lighthearted, I would've liked for Charlotte's homosexuality to not be accepted by everyone, nor Mary's as society back then was not as accepting as today, but it was a heartwarming story and it made me tear up a little.

I liked this novel a lot. I didn’t realize until about half way through that it was based on anything (I am apparently quite dense) which was funny, but I think that also points to some excellent writing by the author that it clearly stands on its own. This was an entertaining story which will certainly scratch your regency era romance itch. I liked the characters, the story, the setting, and basically every bit of this novel. if you like lengthy explanations of the meanings of different flowers, then this novel will deliver 110%. It was missing *something* for me that would have taken it to the next level, but I’m not entirely sure what. I enjoyed reading the novel and flowed through it, but didn’t feel particularly gripped by it or enthralled in the way some novels do. It’s a solid 4-stars for me, and I could see it being rated higher if someone specifically loves this genre. I would recommend this novel.

Highlights:
-Great writing!
-Most of the novel seemed very realistic and believable to me, which is not often the case with novels of this type and setting. Everything that happened in the novel was believable for the setting in which it took place.
-I have not read or seen Pride and Prejudice, but I didn’t have any issue following this novel. The “worldbuilding” was sufficiently clear and the characters were all introduced enough that everything made sense.
-There were a lot of characters in this novel that I liked. It wasn’t a huge cast but it was large and well-developed enough that the world felt lived in. The side/minor characters had personality!
-The slow burn, particularly the first 2/3 of the novel, was excellent. The author did a great job of dropping hints and foreshadowing in a way that was fun to read, and believable for the situation.
-I liked Mary a lot!

Nitpicks:
-The plotline was somewhat straightforward and obvious, and very convenient. The protagonist just so happened to obtain certain information over the course of the novel which was the exact information that she needed later on (and no one else had), and no one else could do the same. It was fun, but a little on the nose.
-The conflict in the third act seemed rather forced/unrealistic/pointless, and it was somewhat annoying to read. It was unnecessary, to put it simply, and rather formulaic.
-The protagonist was overly oblivious to a lot of very obvious signs, to the point where it was unrealistic or frustrating. I understand not picking up on subtle signals or believing it might be true in the beginning, but this continued much later into the novel when things should have been clear.
-I understand the protagonists internal struggles, but it got very repetitive after a point without very much progression. I also didn’t see sufficient reason for the protagonist to be as self-deprecating as they were (particularly while faced with evidence of the contrary). Somewhat telling-not-showing.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC, my review was left voluntarily.

Sometimes historical sticks too close to the language of the time. I miss the dirty talk. It made everything incredibly tame, including the bedroom moments. This book is written as an extension of the world from Pride and Prejudice. Charlotte is our only POV, and she’s going through a lot of self discovery. However, she’s very whiny, scared, and insecure in the extreme. Reading her negative self talk, not only about herself, but about everything little thing between her and Mary made me frustrated at times. It’s a trope/style that is not my preference. If you are looking for a tale of found family? This story has it in spades. The time in Canterbury was probably my favorite. The scene at the end when they talk about the ball they're planning for "people like them" literally made me tear up. Charlotte also experiences acceptance from the people in her life outside of Canterbury. She doesn't tell everyone her sexual preferences, but she makes out of the box life choices and is fully supported by friends and family. The sense of the community and acceptance was the juxtaposition I needed when listening to Charlotte’s constant questioning of her self worth. I think what she was going through was valid, but I wish I had a different POV to break it up.

For fans of Pride and Prejudice, you may enjoy jumping back into the Austen universe reading this book. In this expansion we see a recently widowed Charlotte start a new friendship and fall for Mary Bennett. Im always looking to get my hands on more sapphic historicals so I was very excited for this one! Unfortunately, the writing style just didn't work for me. It was slow going and I had a hard time getting into the story because of it. There's tension between Charlotte and Mary but I only felt it because the word tension is written into the moment. The surrounding text fell flat and it was more "tell vs show." I was having a hard time finding the motivation to pick this one up to continue so I DNF'd at 17%. Because i had to put the book down, I cant give it more than 2 stars (3 being standard "this was good and I enjoyed it"). It didnt work for me personally, but perhaps if you revisit Austens work frequently the writing style will feel more familiar to you and you'll enjoy watching the slow burn between Mary and Charlotte develop.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC.

The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet is a captivating friends-to-lovers romance set in the Regency Era. From the very first page, I was swept away to early 1800s England, complete with grand mansions, charming gardens, and the lively intrigues of high society. The rich descriptions and vibrant floral imagery add a compelling depth to the story.

Charlotte has always lived by others’ expectations, often at the expense of her own happiness. A dutiful daughter and wife, she’s dedicated herself to making her parents proud and her husband content. But after his passing, Charlotte feels lost, facing the prospect of moving back in with her parents. Then, her best friend’s sister, Mary, comes to visit, and Charlotte’s life takes an unexpected turn. The feelings she begins to develop for Mary are unlike anything she has ever known. Though daunting, her longing for Mary brings her a sense of fulfillment she never anticipated. Witnessing her journey of self-discovery was such a joy!

Mary is fiercely independent, confident, and worldly—she knows what she wants and takes steps to make it happen. She’s exactly the friend Charlotte needs during this period of change, expanding Charlotte’s horizons with scientific insights and introducing her to remarkable new people. It’s Mary’s steadfast support that finally gives Charlotte the courage to lower her defenses.

The romance between Charlotte and Mary is beautifully poignant, marked by heart-wrenching and heartwarming moments alike. As Charlotte’s feelings slowly came to light, I could feel the depth of her anxiety and yearning. The symbolism of flowers woven throughout their romance added a lovely layer of meaning that I truly enjoyed.

The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet is a beautiful romance featuring delightful main characters whose bond grows into a deep friendship that segues into the love of a lifetime. Their story is a compelling blend of trust, compassion, and loyalty, enhanced by supporting characters who bring richness and emotional depth to the tale. I found it hard to put down and highly recommend it to anyone looking for an immersive, heartwarming read!

You can ask pretty much any person in my life, regardless of how close or not we are, and they will be able to tell you that Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book. I own 12 different copies, multiple adaptations, have a tattoo, and various Jane Austen/Pride and Prejudice merchandise from puzzles to purses. My social media handle is a reference to Pride and Prejudice. My cats are named Darcy and Bingley. Few people are as prepared to judge "The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet" like I was.
I loved this book so, so much. From the very first line I was hooked, and I read the entirety of it in less than two days cumulatively. Lindz McLeod nailed the tone of the original novels while adding a new voice in the form of Charlotte Collins (formerly Lucas). The characterization of Charlotte felt appropriate to the source material while still breathing new life into a much beloved story. As a very loud and proud lesbian, I am not new by any stretch of the imagination to the lesbian!Charlotte theories that exist in Pride and Prejudice fandom spaces, but to see a (soon to be) published telling of that story made my gay little heart sing. This book felt like it was written for me, and maybe that means I'm biased, but I truly could not put it down.
I cannot wait to own a physical copy and shove it into the hands of all my friends.

Thanks for the opportunity to review this book.

As Pride and Prejudice fan fiction goes, this was done quite well. The writing was spot on Austen-esque; I was really impressed with her ability to mimic the writing style. I do find that Austen sequels or re-writes are over-done, but I hadn't read one about Mary and Charlotte before, so I was interested. It kept me reading and I found it to be an enjoyable read.

I found the change in Mary's character so abrupt that it was hard to reconcile the Mary from the book to this Mary. But that was simple enough to put aside to people growing up and changing. I would have liked to see a bit more continuity so that it was apparent this was the same individual, though. Charlotte I found to be meeker than she appeared in the book. Neither spoke to me strongly as being their title characters, and honestly could have been any two women in this era.

I liked the slow burn romance a lot, and it was well done. Charlotte's inner turmoil was believable. The shift away from that turmoil into full acceptance and a physical relationship seemed too abrupt, and funnily I found myself losing interest in the story once they became lovers, as there wasn't much else to the story.

There were lots of good moments, and overall this was a nice read.

This book was just what I was looking for. It was so sweet and wholesome and perfectly suited for historical romance. I don't think I would have liked this as much if it was contemporary romance, but historical it just worked! One thing that I didn't vibe with as much was even though I thought Charlotte's character was so spot on with how I imagined her in the original source material, Mary very much was not. I think if McLeod had created a brand new character completely (instead of Mary) it would have worked better in my opinion. I just didn't understand where the character of Mary came from and where this relative came from, I just had to suspend some disbelief in that regard (I think the closest comparison to this sort of trope working better is in Anne with an E where Aunt Jo was already a figure we sort of knew but was just expanded on more)

If you love historical sapphic romance, you will definitely love The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet. Somewhat of a slow burn, you don’t have to have read Pride and Prejudice(I haven’t read it—I know, scandalous) to enjoy it or understand it. I ate up all the symbolism and thought Charlotte and Mary were adorable. There was also found family in the story I loved how they created their own little safe space.

It would’ve been nice to Charlotte’s parents reaction to Mary and their relationship but other than that, it was magnificent! I will definitely read it again when it comes out!

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin for allowing me to read the ARC.

at this point, i think it is a me problem. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite novels and i love women, so i thought this book would be for me. it simply wasn’t the vibe for me. that is the only way i can explain it. my main gripe is that it felt too insta-lovey. i was only six chapters in and Charlotte was already waxing poetic about Mary. i thought there would be more of a slow burn. the piano scene was lit though, i’ll give it that!

This is a lovely historical romance for fans of Pride and Prejudice and Bridgerton, of course. The plot is wonderfully laid out, with conflicts relevant to the time period. The author did a great job laying out the tension between the two characters and landing on a love story for the ages. I loved both Mary and Charlotte, and this was a really unique way of telling a new story based on Jane Austen's world.