Being Mary Bennet

A high school senior at an elite boarding school, Marnie realizes she's living the life of Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Determined to break out of that mold, she lets her fashion designer roommate make her over. Then, she meets cute-boy Whit at the animal shelter where she's conducting her senior project. Will he help her see she's worthy of being the protagonist in her own life?

This is a cute coming-of-age story with lots of family drama. It's a must-read for P&P fans, but you don't have to be a P&P fan to enjoy it. It's heartwarming, romantic, and funny.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Marnie is not the easiest character, she frequently gets in her own way, she says some fairly cringe-inducing things and it’s a toss up as to which was more frustrating, how she mishandled her only friendship or how she mishandled a sweet burgeoning romance, the girl self-sabotages all over the place to a sometimes maddening degree. But I really did like Marnie. I found her endearing with her bookishness, her awkwardness, her cat-centric taste in clothes and her fragile self-esteem that has taken far too many hits courtesy of her mother, so even in Marnie’s moments that tested my patience, that hurt characters I love (Adhira and Whit), I still had a real soft spot for her and an eagerness to see her turn things around. With five girls in Marnie’s family, there wasn’t really room to delve as deep into all of the sisters and their bonds (or lack thereof) as I might have preferred, still the family dynamics were well-crafted, playing an important emotional role in the story, in how Marnie sees herself and in the arc of her relationship with her sister Lindy.If you like character growth at a gradual two steps forward one step back pace, then Marnie’s your girl, she’s plenty flawed but that just makes her progress all the more rewarding in this strong debut novel.