Sinful Book Reviews

I received this book for free from Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

How cute is the book? I tricked myself again because I signed up for this blog tour months ago; between then and picking up the book, I forgot that it was New Adult. This is the kind of New Adult I’ve been looking for though. So many of those books are overdramatic romances about college kids who have way too many issues. A lot of people say New Adult books are just Young Adult with sex or Young Adult with older characters. More often, I find that New Adult is romance with younger characters. Attempting Elizabeth hit the spot, though. It’s just what I’ve been looking for. Plus, there are elements of Pride & Prejudice, and I can’t say no to that.

I thought this was going to be a retelling of Pride & Prejudice, but it was better. There’s a little magical realism going on here. Kelsey is obsessed with Pride & Prejudice. She is constantly comparing the men she meets to Darcy or Wickham (though she rarely meets a Darcy). Suffering from a recent breakup and embarrassing herself in front of hot, Australian Mark has led her to return to her favorite book time and time again. One night when she falls asleep reading Pride & Prejudice, she wakes up as a character. She’s stuck inside the story, but not as Elizabeth. After she finds her way back to reality, she uses the Pride & Prejudice world to escape from reality. She just can’t seem to get stuck in the right character. It’s a great premise. It reminds me a little of the movie Lost in Austen, except Kelsey is a character instead of herself. A difference I really enjoyed was that she would move between reality and the Pride & Prejudice world. It allowed her story with Mark to develop. I enjoyed both characters, even if Kelsey was a little too obsessed. I could relate to her dorky humor. Something else I really enjoyed were the switched roles. Kelsey likes to think of herself as Lizzie, but her actions are more like Darcy’s. That was nice take on the story. The only downside was that it obviously needed a little more editing. It wasn’t enough to turn me off, but I noticed a few things.

I definitely recommend this book to Austen lovers who want a little contemporary retelling with a twist. I recommend this to ages 16 and up, only because there’s a good bit of casual drinking.