The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennett by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick

Publisher: Touchstone

Publication Date: July 1, 2014

Number of Pages: 400

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Source: eARC via NetGalley

Summary {via GoodReads}:

Based on the Emmy Award winning YouTube series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Twenty-four year old grad student Lizzie Bennet is saddled with student loan debt and still living at home along with her two sisters, beautiful Jane and reckless Lydia. When she records her reflections on life for her thesis project and posts them on YouTube, she has no idea The Lizzie Bennet Diaries will soon take on a life of their own, turning the Bennet Sisters into Internet celebrities seemingly overnight.

When rich and handsome Bing Lee comes to town, along with his stuck up friend William Darcy, things really start ito get interesting for the Bennets and for Lizzie's viewers. But not everything happens on screen. Lucky for us, Lizzie has a secret diary.

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet takes readers deep inside Lizzie's world and beyond the confines of her camera, from the wedding where she first meets William Darcy to the local hangout of Carter's, and much more. Lizzie's private musings are filled with revealing details about the Bennet household, including her growing suspicions about her parents' unstable financial situation, her sister's budding relationship with Bing Lee, the perils of her unexpected fame, and her uncertainty over her future, and whom she wants to share it with.

Featuring plenty of fresh twists to delight fans and new readers alike, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet expands on the web series phenomenon that captivated a generation and reimagines the Pride and Prejudice story like never before.

She thinks: Okay, I admit that at first I was a little skeptical about reading this book when I first discovered it. So, I passed on by it and didn't think twice about it until I started seeing all these tweets pop up in my feed about The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube. Naturally, curiosity {and a weekend without my husband} got the best of me, and I decided to check it out. I'm not proud to admit this {okay, maybe I'm a little proud}, but I watched the whole YouTube series in less than 24 hours. It was just so addicting! It gave the classic Pride and Prejudice tale a face and a voice to relate to. That's what I love the most about the video series - how relatable {did I just make up a word?} it feels. And, the book is no different!

{via thestate.ae}

It comes complete with the trappings of the quintessential novel it's based on with exciting twists and turns along that way to make all the necessary plot elements fit. Now, before you get defensive and nervous that your precious Austen novel has been manhandled, let me allay your fears. It is done tastefully and quite wittily, if I do say so myself.

{via giphy.com}

I will caution you though - if you have already watched the YouTube videos, the book will seem repetitive at times. But once I got past that, I found myself wanting to watch the videos that corresponded with the diary entries. And, who knows, maybe one day I will! For now though, it was wonderful to get to know the inner workings of Lizzie's mind. I like having a vivid picture of how it all played out both on and off screen thanks to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and her secret diary.

{via thegrownupya.com}

If you have not had a chance to watch the YouTube series, I highly encourage you to do so, and maybe you can match up the diary entries with the webisodes! Let me know how it goes if you do choose to do that. It'd be a double dose of Austen - in film and print! =]

See what others are saying about The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet:

• Gillian @ Writer of Wrongs
• Quinn @ Quinn's Book Nook
• Melanie @ Finding Bliss in Books
• Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit
• Jesse @ Pretty in Fiction

Also - BuzzFeed gives you 15 reasons you should love The Lizzie Bennet Diaries!

{via rebloggy.com}

Pride, Prejudice, & Cheese Grits by Mary Jane Hathaway

Pride, Prejudice, and Cheese Grits {book one} by Mary Jane Hathaway
Publisher: Howard Books
Publication Date: June 10, 2014
Number of Pages: 352
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: eARC {via NetGalley}

Summary {via GoodReads}:
This hilarious Southern retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice tells the story of two hard-headed Civil War historians who find that first impressions can be deceiving.

Shelby Roswell, a Civil War historian and professor, is on the fast track to tenure - that is, until her new book is roasted by the famous historian Ransom Fielding in a national review. With her career stalled by a man she's never met, Shelby struggles to maintain her composure when she discovers that Fielding has taken a visiting professorship at her small Southern college.

Ransom Fielding is still struggling with his role in wife's accidental death six years ago and is hoping that a year at Shelby's small college near his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, will be respite from the pressures of Ivy League academia. He never bargained for falling in love with the one woman whose career - and pride - he injured, and who would do anything to make him leave.

When these two hot-headed Southerners find themselves fighting over the centuries-old history of local battles and antebellum mansions, their small college is about to become a battlefield of Civil War proportions.

She thinks: So, I wouldn't really call this a retelling but more of an adaptation. It follows the general plot line of the classic Jane Austen novel, but I don't consider it an actual retelling. There were too many differences. I liked trying to figure out which characters were which, since they all have different names, and I liked the extra depth Ransom has. It makes his actions much more understandable.

{via youtube}

However, there were some moments that I thought were just too far fetched in order to make the story echo the original Pride and Prejudice. And, while I get why it needed to be done, I wish it could have been done another way. There either needed to be more lead up to those particular parts of the plot, or it should have been left out all together. I felt as if towards the end of the book random bits and pieces were just thrown in to the story.

All that being said, I enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to Elizabeth & Darcy fans! In fact, I already have.

See what others are saying about Pride, Prejudice, and Cheese Grits by Mary Jane Hathaway:

• Chelsea @ Magical Musings
• Rissi @ Dreaming Under the Same Moon
• Vi @ She Read Until the Lights Had Long Sing Gone Out