Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel by Amanda Quain ~ 320 pages ~ to be published July 26, 2022 by Wednesday Books
Goodreads Synopsis:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Georgiana Darcy should have been expelled after The Incident with Wickham Foster last year – at least if you ask any of her Pemberley Academy classmates. She may have escaped expulsion because of her family name, but she didn’t escape the disappointment of her big brother Fitz, the scorn of the entire school, or, it turns out, Wickham’s influence.
But she’s back for her junior year, and she needs to prove to everyone—Fitz, Wickham, her former friends, and maybe even herself—that she’s more than just an embarrassment to the family name. How hard can it be to become the Perfect Darcy? All she has to do is:
– Rebuild her reputation with the marching band (even if it kills her)
– Forget about Wickham and his lies (no matter how tempting they still are), and
– Distract Fitz Darcy—helicopter-sibling extraordinaire—by getting him to fall in love with his classmate, Lizzie Bennet (this one might be difficult…)
Sure, it’s a complicated plan, but so is being a Darcy. With the help of her fellow bandmate, Avery, matchmaking ideas lifted straight from her favorite fanfics, and a whole lot of pancakes, Georgie is going to see every one of her plans through. But when the weight of being the Perfect Darcy comes crashing down, Georgie will have to find her own way before she loses everything permanently—including the one guy who sees her for who she really is.
What I Thought:
*I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC!*
I have read a great many Jane Austen retellings, but never one from Georgiana Darcy’s perspective. Upon hearing about this book, I was immediately intrigued. Georgiana is a thoroughly unexplored side character, and this was a modern retelling on top of that. All in all, I was definitely not disappointed!
Key to any great retelling is whether the author stays true to the original character and their personalities/motivations. I thought that this was very well done. I enjoyed the fact that Georgie was actually less ‘accomplished’ than Mr. Darcy lets on to his friends (at least in the original Pride and Prejudice). She struggles with school and got into very public trouble with Wickham. She wants so badly to live up to the image of the perfect Darcy that she has in her mind. I loved seeing her efforts to improve herself, with the help of her friend Avery. It was a sweet version of P&P, where Georgie just wants her brother to be happy.
I liked how this book dealt with scandal. Rather than a proposed elopement, there was a drug ring scandal. Rather than Pemberley being a great estate owned by the Darcys, it was a private school that the Darcys donate heavily toward. It almost makes it more salacious that Georgie gets to continue going there after what went down with Wickham the year before.
I loved seeing the brother-sister relationship in this book. It is quite different than what is portrayed in the original P&P, but I feel like it is much more honest. Seeing how Fitz’s disappointment affects Georgie was heartbreaking.
The additional characters in the story, namely Avery and all of Georgie’s bandmates, were well done and felt like they belonged there. It didn’t bother me that they strayed from the original plot because Georgiana’s plot was so underdeveloped in the first place. There was a lot of room for interpretation, and I felt it was done very well.
Overall, I thought this was a creative and well-written Pride and Prejudice retelling. It was different than other retellings in that it was from a perspective that I have never seen done before. I would whole-heartedly recommend this to any Pride and Prejudice fan!
My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I gave Accomplished 4 Stars!
Are you interested in learning more about this book? Check out the links below!
Are you a Pride and Prejudice fan? Do you enjoy P&P retellings? What are some of your favorites? Have you read anything from Georgiana’s perspective before? Let’s chat in the comments!
Love and happy reading,
Whitney
P.S. – If you are interested in other Austen retellings, check out my reviews for Sense and Second-Degree Murder, Mary B, Unmarriageable, The Wrong Mr. Darcy, and The Murder of Mr. Wickham!
Whit Reads Lit 