The Other Bennet Sister (Hadlow) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Satisfyingly evocative of [Pride and Prejudice] and yet strikingly contemporary…. Hadlow grafts a contemporary coming-of-age story onto a literary masterpiece… building upon what Austen had achieved—writing boldly and honestly about women’s lives.
Christian Science Monitor


Gorgeous… a wonderfully, warm, comforting read—perfect on a winter’s night.
Sun (UK)


Impeccably researched, this lifts Mary from obscurity, as she breaks out of her mother's world and follows her own path.
Daily Mail (UK)


An immersive and engaging new version of a familiar world… at once true to the source material and to life…. Hadlow’s great achievement is to shift our sympathies so completely that… it’s difficult not to race through those final pages, desperate to know if [Mary] will, after all, be allowed―will allow herself―a happy ending.
Guardian (UK)


If you thought Mary, the nerdy, plain sibling in Pride & Prejudice, was too dull to warrant her own novel, think again: In Hadlow’s imaginative retelling, the sister with no prospects finally gets some respect―and perhaps even a guy.
Oprah Magazine


(Starred review) [S]pectacular…. Writing in prose with the crisp liveliness of Austen's own, Hadlow remains true to the characterizations in Pride and Prejudice without letting them limit her…. This will delight Janeites as well as lovers of nuanced female coming-of-age tales.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) Delightful…. This is a charming and enchanting story… [that readers of Pride and Prejudice] will love, as will historical fiction readers looking for intelligent heroines with agency and heart. —Marlene Harris, Reading Reality, LLC, Duluth, GA
Library Journal


(Starred review) Absolutely magical…. It is a marvel that The Other Bennet Sister is [Hadlow’s] first novel. Her writing is elegant and wry, the story wise and engrossing.
Booklist


(Starred review) A…smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary…. Hadlow traces [Mary's] progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism[ that] Austen would have relished. Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Kirkus Reviews