I'm reviewing published Jane Austen fanfiction and I don't even care. Time to cash in on that Bridgeton period drama momentum. I was incredibly wary of The Other Bennet Sister [Janice Hadlow] for several reasons. Firstly, because a title that derivative doesn't give one a great deal of hope for the originality of the premise (and let's face it, 'what happened to Mary Bennet?' is already the most cliché premise in Jane Austen fandom.) Secondly, the cover was a carbon copy of Longbourn [Jo Baker] which isn't just the worst Jane Austen themed book I've read, but one of the worst books I've read overall. Still, an author can't help how their work is marketed, and when a BookTuber claimed this was one of their best reads of 2023, I was prepared to give it a chance. And, dammit , it's really good. The Other Bennet Sister is the story of Mary Bennet: the plain, annoyingly moral middle-child whose bad singing at the Netherfield Ball is one of
Book Blogging by Emma Samuel