The Pursuit of Mary Bennet: A Pride and Prejudice Novel by Pamela Mingle

Good morning, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for Pamela Mingle's The Pursuit of Mary Bennet: A Pride and Prejudice Novel. If you missed last week's excerpt and giveaway post, go ahead and check it out - I'll wait :)

Mary, the overlooked Bennet sister, finally gets her day in the spotlight! With beautiful and witty Jane and Elizabeth ahead of her and loud and boisterous Kitty and Lydia behind her, Mary has always been just Mary: somewhat irksome, somewhat stoic, always essentially overlooked. Certain she'll end up a spinster, Mary gets the surprise of her life when one Henry Walsh begins to pay attention to her. Surely he can't actually be interested, though. After all, no one expects Mary to catch a man's eye. 

You know, I can't think of a more perfect Bennet sister to get her own spin off. Mary is such a side role in P&P and the attention she does get doesn't paint her in a very good light.

Mingle's Mary is incredibly likable (in my opinion - she's quite feisty and a bit snarky, which I find pretty appropriate for the Mary I imagine a few years post P&P action) and easy to sympathize with. I liked that she gets emotional about her treatment, that she does take the reigns and decide to start making her own decisions in spite of her supposed lot in life. As the story is told from her point of view, Mingle allows the reader to really get to know this new version of Mary all the while staying true to the part she plays in the earlier Bennet timeline (this is post P&P in case I hadn't mentioned).

I was quite pleased with Pamela Mingle's version of the Bennets here. I thought it was a very honest and heartfelt homage to Austen's original. The Pursuit of Mary Bennet was still very much in the spirit of the original - nothing too crazy or out there in comparison to the original. And I rather liked being able to see Mary grow beyond her small parts in P&P.

Considering this was my post Book Thief read and my post Turkey day meal read as well, The Pursuit of Mary Bennet was just what the doctor ordered - a warm and fuzzy feel good read to relax with!

Rating: 4/5

To see more stops on the tour, check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Pamela Mingle and her work visit her website here. You can also like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.