Fun and quick read. Made me want to go back to New York City as I followed the characters around town. Great retelling of a classic.

This was super cute! A great retelling of a Jane Austen classic. I finished and immediately wanted to watch Emma! The main character here, Emma, really grew on me throughout the book. This is just a fun read and one I will really be recommending for spring vacations, I wish I had read this while traveling! Perfect easy read for a long travel day or a beautiful day in the sun.

This is most intelligent, entertaining, absolutely sexiest version of Emma! The high chemistry between Knightley and Emma leaves you breathless! Enemies to lovers and friends to lovers tropes blended in modern Manhattan elites’ lives where Emma is trying to find her life purpose, dealing with Knightley’s criticism to learn to be more mature: a grown up as her sister Margo and Knightley’s hot chef brother Ben start their own family.

Clueless meets Gossip Girl meets modern-day re-imagining of Jane Austen's Emma in this adorable book from Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding.

This book was cute! Despite taking me a hot minute to get through, I really enjoyed the authors' diction and how they shaped a classic tale into something applicable to the 21st century. There were some moments -particularly at the book's beginning- that felt particularly juvenile reading, but once you get into the heart of the story, the prose becomes beautifully inescapable.

I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to any of my friends yearning for another Jane Austen adaptation!

Super cute story that will take you on an adventure. I loved the main character in this one. She was relatable and funny.

I love a good modern Jane Austen adaptation, and Emma is one of my favorite Austen novels, so I knew I was going to enjoy this one! Emma Woodhouse is a current graduate student at NYU, studying Art History and trying to figure out her post-grad plan. After Emma's friends move abroad and her top-notch matchmaking skills result in her sister getting married—and moving out of the family's Upper East Side apartment—she decides to take on a new "project." Enter Nadine, a new classmate (and maybe even a new friend). Of course, Emma's childhood best friend George Knightley always seems to be around, trying to foil Emma's plans. He could never see Emma as anyone other than the girl next door who needs to grow up...right?

This was a really fun, entertaining read with plenty of exciting romance and drama!.Emma is such a likable heroine, and there's a great cast of side characters, too. Additionally, I loved how NYC itself was almost its own "character" in the book! If you love "Clueless" with a dash of "Gossip Girl," you will definitely enjoy this book. I hope the authors write more modern-day Austen adaptations in the future—I look forward to reading them! Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advance read in exchange for this review.

Emma is rich, beautiful, and Clever. She has lived her whole life in this Upper East Side terrace. Her sister is now married, and Emma is bored. She latches on to a new kid in her grad school class. She's on Ohio born and raised girl with bad boxed highlights. Emma thinks of her as a project, but she is also distracted because of her neighbor George. George is annoying and he has known Emma her entire life. Could what she need be right under her nose?

This book is supposed to be a modern day retelling of Emma, and it has Austen vibes for sure! At first I wanted to stop reading because I thought Emma was annoying and superficial. However, she has a lot of depth! I grew to like her in the end. Her relationship with George was playful and fun, and I hope this author duo writes more!

This book was so cute ! I loved the friends to lovers feel of the book and loved how it was an easy contemporary romance read . I could not put down this book it kept me intrigued the whole time . If you want to read a retelling of Emma by Jane Austen , a contemporary romance with some friends to lovers . This is the book for you I highly recommend ! 5/5 stars for sure ! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to review and read this arc !

Such a cutie little book!!! I thoroughly enjoyed this retelling of Jane Austin’s Emma- it was beautifully done and left me smiling and wanting more!

This was an ARC read thanks to Netgalley and the publisher. I had high hopes for this novel going into it, and it lived up! I absolutely loved this store and the authors modern telling of Emma by Jane Austen. I highly recommend this to fans of modern retellings, and romance fans! Such a cute and quick read!

Emma was never my favorite Jane Austen novel. In fact, it was one of my least favorites. I just didn't like the character of Emma very much, and something about the Emma-Knightley romance felt a bit skeezy. However, I love me a Jane Austen retelling and read pretty much every one I can find. So I decided to give Emma of 83rd Street a chance... and I'm glad I did!

Emma of 83rd St switches rural Regency England for the Upper East Side. Emma is in her last semester of graduate school, working on her Masters in Art History with an eye to work at the Met (which all her family looks upon with a fond isn't-she-cute expression). Knightley, instead of being just the older brother of her brother-in-law and father's BFF, is her childhood friend. When Emma's friends all move to Europe, she finds herself lonely and decides to befriend the hot mess of a new classmate, Nadine. The rest of the story is familiar to all who have read Jane Austen, or seen any of the dozen adaptations and remakes.

What I liked about this remake is that Emma is likeable. Yes, she screws up (it wouldn't be Emma without some screw ups), but her heart is always in the right place and her internal struggles are very relatable. The other thing I liked, which really pushed this novel into great territory, was that we get Knightley's POV. His POV is almost half of the novel, which makes the romance much more palatable. In all, this is probably the best Emma remake I've ever read, and a great read for even those unfamiliar with Austen's novel.

I loooove this version of Emma! (It's one of my favorite Jane Austen stories, a young, wealthy, beautiful girl who is essentially wrapped up in romantic misunderstandings).

So with that in mind, Emma on 83rd Street is pretty close to the original Emma plot. In this book, Emma is a young, rich socialite living in New York City. She's an art history graduate student at NYU, someone who has lots of friends who are abroad and two friends at home - classmate Nadine, who she took under her wing, not only dressing her and doing her hair, etc., but by trying to find her a romantic match, and her lifelong best friend and neighbor George Knightley, a gorgeous, successful guy who has no problem scolding and humbling Emma and telling her she needs to grow up.

There's also Knlightley's brother Ben, and Emma's sister Margot, who are also scheming on their own to find Emma a man. So while Emma is working overtime to find a man for her friend Nadine, Emma is being set up with friend of Ben's, Montgomery Knox. And all the while, Knightley is there every Sunday at dinner or just stopping in the home for a cup of coffee. But as all of this is going on, are there feelings developing for Emma and Knightley? Why are they bickering so much, and why does the sight of them both take each other's breath away?

First, I have to love this book because I'm a New Yorker and I always love to read about the city - this felt very accurate. You read some books and think, NYC isn't like this at all! But not this one. I'm also a Gossip Girl fan, and so Emma and her fashion-forward ways had me sometimes thinking of that show. She can be spoiled, but she's still likeable as heck and clearly a good friend. Knightley was brooding and dreamy as heck, Nadine is a adorable small-town girl who falls in love with NYC just the way I did years ago - and the chemistry between Knightley and Woodhouse (what he calls Emma) is out of this world.

I couldn't put this one down. So romantic, youthful, and fun!
Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars Emma of 83rd Street was a delightful modern take on Jane Austen’s classic romance novel, Emma. 23-year-old Emma Woodhouse loves her life in her tight-knit Upper East Side neighborhood and fancies herself a matchmaker after she sets up her sister Margo with one of their next-door-neighbors, Ben Knightley. Emma and Margo have been close friends with Ben and his older brother, George, since they were children, playing in their shared backyard. Although somewhat busy with her MFA in art history program, Emma feels bored after her sister marries and moves out, so she sets her sights on a new project—her new friend and classmate Nadine. Emma’s determined to make over Nadine and set her up with her “forever” romance. George Knightley is frustrated with Emma’s plans for Nadine and is happy to lecture Emma on how she’s failing at the finer points of adulthood. Suddenly, Knightley isn’t able to get Emma out of his head; she’s no longer the little girl from next door, but a vivacious and independent woman.

The plot of this story mostly followed the same structure as the original Austen story, but with some modern updates, plus scene and name changes. Overall, it was a really sweet story. Emma is adorable and Knightley is frustrating, but ultimately they make a great couple. I loved that this had a dual POV so we saw how Knightley’s feelings towards Emma changed and how he realized he was in love with her. A fun and sweet read!

I love a good Jane Austen retelling and this is one of the best that I've read in a long time! With modern vibes, amazing characters, and a storyline that just hooks you, readers won't want to miss Emma of 83rd Street!

I LOVED this book! Such a fun, entertaining and addictive modern retelling of Jane Austen's Emma. I read this book in a day, I couldn't put it down!

Emma Woodhouse, our protagonist, lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in a brownstone with her family (gossip girl vibes, anyone? Rich wealthy family living their best life with the Met on their doorstep). She has an undergraduate degree from FIT and is currently pursuing a Masters in Art History from NYU. Despite these academic accolades and very "nerdy" passion for Art, her family and friends make out she is a little dumb and flits from interest to interest (heaven forbid somebody actually make a career out of something they love instead of what just makes them money). Love that this is a mini role reversal on Austen's time when women spent their days with nothing more to do in wealthy families then pursue art, read and play music. What I liked most is that Emma was likable throughout this retelling, even in her worst moments. She was young, relatable and learning to grow up.

Knightley, Mr George Knightley, lives in his own brownstone whose garden backs onto the Woodhouse's. He grew up close with Emma and her sister Margo. They played together, had family sunday dinners etc. He now runs a successful PE shop and owns the family brownstone after his father died. He is Mr Grumpy and seems to be resisting what we all know: he secretly is in love with Emma! We see him realise throughout the story that Emma is not a child anymore but a flourishing young woman who he can't imagine not having in his life. I liked that the age gap wasn't too pronounced. 23 and 30 could be kinda cringe, if it was 27 and 34 we wouldn't think twice about and it allowed for periods of time where Knightley was away building his career and missed seeing that Emma had grown up at some point along the way.

We have a multitude of other characters along the way that fully flesh out the story. Margo, Emma's older sister who gets married and (heaven forbid) moves to the West Village. Nadine, the fresh transplant from Ohio, who Emma befriends in her graduate classes and helps live her best and biggest NYC life. Mr Woodhouse, a kinda out of touch dad who just loves and wants what is best for his daughters.

I live in New York so might be a little biased here, but I think NYC was the perfect setting for this story. She was her own character!

Can't wait to see possible modern retellings of Austen's work by this duo!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Do you like chic lit? Do you like a nice quick easy read? Are you looking for something nice and light? Perhaps you’re in need of something to being to the beach?

Look no further. This book certainly fits the bill.

I definitely got Clueless vibes from this book - which make sense since it’s based loosely off of Jane Austen’s Emma.

Again, if you’re looking for something cute and light - grab it!

Tell me about a book that kept you up waaaayyyyy past your bedtime.

Okay book friends, I normally cherish my bedtime and go to bed at the same time my youngest falls asleep😂😴

But last night, as my other half sat and watched TV, I was sucked into this modern day retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma. I was so completely oblivious to the world and the time in it because I was utterly captivated by this deliciously wonder of a book that by the time I finished the epilogue, a big smile on my face for what’s potentially coming after this book, I noticed the time at 2am.

I will definitely need a nap 😴 or more likely fall asleep after dinner 🤣

Needless to say, I enjoyed Emma of 83rd Street and here is a list of reason’s to pre-order this one:

Jane Austen Retelling (Emma)
- Grumpy + Sunshine
- Friends to Lovers
- The PROLOGUE!
- Contemporary Romance

So recap: I couldn’t stop reading.

Bellezza and Harding effortlessly make this contemporary retelling of the classic Austen novel Emma into a delightful romance filled with characters and a love story you’ll definitely want to revisit.

Happy Reading ~ Cece

4.5/5
Couldn't stop reading this book. As someone who loves emma and the retellings of this story (hello clueless) this book was perfect.
I loved seeing how emma grew as a person and tried to be a better version of herself and how george helped her do that. I also loved the community she had by her side.
However somethings kind of bothered me while reading: I wish we could get more of emma and nadine's friendship because sometimes it felt like emma forgot about her because she was always so wrapped around her little world, more of nadine's scenes in general honestly. I would also like to see more of Emma talking about art with other people, like her father and her sister, they didn't take her seriously enough it that really bothered me. On the topic of her father, I wish we could get to see his reaction when everybody found out about emma and george. And finally I really really wanted to see more of george and ben's relationship and learn more about their family.
But besides those little things I absolutely loved the book and the end was amazing can't wait to read their next book.

So cute! Super fast read. I loved this book. The characters were great and I loved that it was on the UES. Would definitely read another book by these authors.

What a lovely book! I fell in love with all the characters and their relationships. We follow Emma as she discovers she is in love with her lifelong friend, George. I appreciated that this book included the struggles of each character and tied up all loose ends nicely at the end. If you are a Jane Austen fan and loved Clueless, this book is for you! I highly recommend this sweet and remarkable book.