Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

CW: Misogyny, murder, kidnapping

Rating

Review

Let’s be honest; I don’t really know what to think of that book. It was an easy and fast read, but I could say that it won’t stay with me even if I had a good time reading it.

I wasn’t a big fan of Lizzie; I was a little fed up with her as she is sometimes difficult to follow and so naive. Even if, in the end, she realises her mistakes, she is insufferable. The other characters feel like they are here to create doubt for the reader, but there are not, like at all. However, they are for Lizzie. The only ones I liked were Lizzie’s sisters, especially Jane.

The book leans toward the youngest audience of YA. It was hard initially, but I finished getting used to it, but I had some other struggles.
First, the atmosphere is so strange. The story is set in the same era as the original work, Regency, but it feels a lot more modern when you’re reading it. If I didn’t have some reminders, I would totally forget about it and think it was in our era.
Second, the plot wasn’t the most complex one. It can be predictable for some and not for others. Still, even if you don’t find it, you have a sentence that reveals the villain a page or two before the big surprise.
Also, the thing that I wanted the most was the romance between Lizzie and Darcy. I was so disappointed by it like you have it, but it comes from nowhere and at the end, but nothing through the most significant part of the book.

Some of the other thing that bothered me was the inconsistency of some elements.
For example, the book has a more feminist tone as all the characters, especially Lizzie, repeat that the society she is living in isn’t for women. However, when you arrive at the end now, she can defend someone without it being questioned. Like it’s a big nope for her to do a thing as she is a woman during the whole book, but that it’s okay.
Also, the pace was a little off for me as you start the book at a fast pace and a little disjointed as you have a change of environment in every chapter. Then the pace slows a lot in the middle to accelerate at the end, but it’s a lot more harmonious this time.

It’s strange as I never was interested in reading or watching Pride & Prejudice. Still, as it’s a classic, I know some aspects of it. I desperately wanted to see how the author reimagines them and include the murder mystery in it. Unfortunately, I was looking for them but was deceived, and I’m not even a fan of the original work. The worse was the no romance even for Jane.

To tell the truth, my attention wasn’t the same throughout my reading, and if it had been a longer or slower-paced book, I would have probably DNFed it.

Liz.