Title: Pride and Premeditation
Author: Tirzah Price
Publication: March 1, 2022
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: YA Fiction, Teen, Historical Romance
Pages: 384
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman who desires a law career must be in want of a case. So when sixteen year old Lizzie Bennet hears about a scandalous society murder, she sees an opportunity to prove herself as a solicitor by solving the case and ensuring justice is served.
Except the man accused of the crime already has a lawyer on his side: Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, the stern young heir to the prestigious Pemberley Associates law firm. Lizzie is determined to solve the murder before Darcy can so that she can show the world that a woman can be just as good as a man. (The fact that Darcy is an infuriating snob doesn’t help.) But there’s still a killer on the loose, and as the case gets more complicated, Lizzie and Darcy may have to start working together to avoid becoming the next victims themselves.
REVIEW:
I honestly have no clue where I found this book. I am not sure if I saw it on one of my bookish platforms or if I found it while scrolling Amazon in the books you may like if section. Either way, I wanted to read it. I love the book Pride and Prejudice, so when I saw this book was a retelling and a YA retelling at that I purchased the book right away. While I admit I have never actually read the book I have attempted to, in high school, but it was too much for me at the time. I should retry now that I am much older.
Lizzie Bennet is a budding solicitor. Or at least she wants to be. The problem is she is a woman in the Regency Era. Women are supposed to spend their time doing needlepoint, learning the pianoforte, and getting married. She would rather spend time learning law and assisting her father with cases and that is exactly what happens when Mr. Bingley gets wrongfully accused of murder. I absolutely adored this book. It was so good and I loved how the story was retold and reimagined to a point. The different touches that kept the book how it was but then tweaked others to fit the author’s needs were good but didn’t change it to the point where you no longer recognized it for those familiar with the original work.
Lizzie was my favorite character by far. She was even spunkier than she normally was. She was intelligent and knew what she wanted in her educational dreams and she was willing to do almost literally anything to make her dreams come true. There was a slight undertone of romance but it wasn’t till the end and if you blink you may miss it. It was a mystery that honestly for me kept me guessing the entire time, I would have never really guessed who the bad guy really was. The secondary characters were fabulous. She kept Jane the voice of reason and maintained Mrs. Bennet’s nerve issues that she had. Mr. Bennet still loves his girls and favors Jane and Lizzie. I loved the authors writing style. It flowed well and is written in such a way that hopefully our younger generation will become Austen fans and read her works. I know that there are two more books in this series of Jane Austen mystery retellings. I have added them to my wish list and will probably pick them up sooner rather than later.
