This was a whole other level of yikes. Just not for me. Which I hate. Was hoping it'd give me the same feel as GREEK.

I am not a fan of this book. I didn't like how the characters were put together and I had a hard time getting into the the book. I couldn't tell which character was which. With the exception of Wil and Lizbeth.
Once I got further into the book however I did start liking it, and it made it easier to go back to it when I had to stop reading.
The characters did grow on me and as the end came I found that I was enjoying it.

Not sure if I would recommend this book as it took a long time to get into.

I had high hoped for this one...perhaps too high? I don't often read this genre, so it might be just me but I didn't really ever connect with this book.

I love Pride & Prejudice, so this fun modern-day version was a blast to read!

On a college campus with Lizbeth and her Sorority “Sister” and Wil and Charlie as Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley. And all the other fun character that pop up included. It was a super cute read, just slightly stiff with the writing as it is supposed to take place in college. But other than that it’s a great take on P&P :D

While it was a modern Austen novel, it moved slowly and sometimes painstakingly. It may have been a better novel if it had be original in its plotline and not based off an Austen novel.

Thank you Illuminated Myth Publishing and Netgalley for providing a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, this is a quick read and cute retelling.

I was very excited for this retelling of Pride and Prejudice, especially since it was set in a sorority setting. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books and I love the characters. I thought that Phi Alpha Pi did a great job at retelling the story, however, the characters were a bit too on the nose and the writing structure was at times stiff and drawn out. I also felt as though some of the settings/interactions were not modern and were too outdated for this retelling.

As soon as I saw the words 21st Century Austen, I knew I had to read this as anything Austen inspired - I love. Phi Alpha Pi is a sorority where Lizbeth is the President - newly appointed as it seems she has been brought in to keep the girls antics under wrap. Lizbeth's friends and house sisters include Charlotte, Jane, Kitty and Lydia and Marie (notice the familiar names). Lizbeth is studying Women’s Studies under the Professor Dr. Bennett and seems she is one of the smartest females in the class. Newcomers Charlie, Catherine and Wil have arrived on the campus and set all the hearts a flutter. Especially Jane's who has fallen for Charlie. Lizbeth on the other hand can't stand Wil and finds him being a pompous jerk who judges her. Also in this book is Colin Collins who is in her class and wants to marry her , Lizbeth has no such desire to do so and eventually we can guess who Colin will have as his bride. I loved how Sara Marks brought in all our favourite aspects of Pride and Prejudice even including Jorge who is the embodiment of Mr. Wickham. The twist that I did love was that Lizbeth like Wil Darcy came from money also, but unlike Mr. Darcy, she kept it close to her chest and never flounced it which made people believe she was poor. I especially loved the part over summer where Mr. Darcy's aunt talked about buying the horse next door; not realizing that as Lizbeth was standing there it was in fact her horse. If you are a fan of Pride and Prejudice and love renditions and also understand the fact that renditions are variants of the story, not exact replicas then you will enjoy Phi Alpha Pi by Sara Marks.

I like what this version does with the characters. Marie/Mary is not a complete social outcast and Lydia has many good qualities which are highlighted. In the original Austen, the marriage between Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas is very much a product of that time period. Marks changes it and makes it something the reader can get behind, and even root for. That said, I found the romance between Lizbeth and Wil lacked that spark.

Lizbeth is a gender studies major and a feminist. I really enjoyed the conversations about women's role in society, particularly gaming. 

I question how mental illness is represented on a couple of occasions. 

Like the original, this book is also a study about the dangers of making assumptions. It's true that people often make decisions about a person's character based on their socio-economic situation. Lizbeth actively hides her family's affluence in an effort to avoid this. 

Overall, this was alright. Not my favourite Pride and Prejudice retelling or my favourite contemporary romance.

This was a book that surprised me on its basis in reality. The Sorority life detailed was very accurate in todays world. The characters were doing things that we see on college campuses everywhere. Some parts were disturbing but true and lead the story in a detailed direction to its conclusion. I really liked the book!

It was a fun read. I always enjoy reading about college life and sororities. It was fun and interesting.

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars

This is a cute modern premise based on Pride and Prejudice. I like the idea of Elizabeth Bennet (Lizbeth) and Fitzwilliam Darcy (Wil) as seniors on a college campus where they are members of, respectively, Phi Alpha Pi sorority and Alpha Pi fraternity. Lizbeth is actually the president of PAP, which is facing some challenges this year, including the idiosyncratic Mrs. C., their new housemother. Instead of having Bennet sisters, Lizbeth has unrelated sorority sisters who need help to get through the school year. Wil is a recent transfer from another college, along with his best friend Charlie. Charlie's sister Caroline transferred, as well. It's an interesting framework on which to base a story. However, some plot developments work better than others.

Most of the characterizations are done well and more or less synch up with their Jane Austen counterparts... with a few exceptions. Lizbeth's sorority sisters (Jane, Marie, Kitty and Lydia) hold up well. Love how Marie and Kitty shine when given the opportunity. Lydia's character also matures, which is well done. It's nicely pointed out that there are similarities between Lizbeth and Darcy, who both hide parts of themselves from most of the world, although in different ways.

Others characters don't work as well for me. Colin Collins seems to have mild Asperger's or another form of autism in the first half of the book- he's beyond peculiar and not that believable, especially when he improves so dramatically in the second half of the book despite being closer to his domineering mentor, Katherine de Bourgh (although credit for his change is given to his wife and distance from his mother). Mrs. C. is another strange one. The explanation of her situation at the story's end makes her seem slightly more credible. Charlotte's character feels anachronistic to me, but I went to an all-women's college; I suppose some women still have her attitude today, but I never knew anyone in school who thought like her, and that was 40 years ago.

While I do understand that Wil, as a shy new student uncomfortable in large groups, would hang on the fringes during activities, I really have trouble believing a guy as smart as this wouldn't realize that Elizabeth is going to be completely unprepared for his declaration of love. It's apparent why Fitzwilliam Darcy might think Elizabeth Bennet is expecting his proposal, but that's not at all true in this particular context. These two just don't have enough direct interaction in the first part of the book, even though they're often in the same room. The few conversations they do have don't come close to the amount of lively banter that goes back and forth between those characters in the original story. The latter half of the book, starting when Lizbeth starts to figure him out, is much better.

The Mr. Wickham character, Jorge, is guilty of prior illegal activity. The police are already looking for him. Once he and Wil see each other, how does he stick around the area without getting arrested? And why WOULD he stick around when he knows Wil knows he's there? And why doesn't Wil get the word to the sorority not to trust the guy? It's not Regency times, and Wil's sister's reputation isn't at risk if he exposes the creep. He sees a couple of the girls (including Lizbeth) talking with Jorge. They may not be rich, but it would be easy for the scumbag to get introduced to a sorority sister with a whole bunch of money.

I don't normally care a whit about this, but the name choices do give me pause. Wil Darcy, Professor Bennett, Colin Collins, Katherine de Bourgh and her daughter are the only ones given last names. Some characters retain the exact names from P&P. We have Jane, Charlotte, Kitty, Lydia, Caroline, and Anne deBourgh in that category. Then there are those with small tweaks to the original names: Lizbeth (not Elizabeth), Wil (okay, William, but his nickname is always spelled with one "L" for some reason), Katherine (with a "K" instead of a "C"), Marie (rather than Mary), Colin (not William) Collins, and Professor Bennett (with the added "t"). Last, there are characters with completely new names, like Jorge (Wickham), Chris (Colonel Fitzwilliam), and Ginny (Georgiana). Since there are some brand new characters added to the mix in this story (Becca, Josh, Layla, Jack, Abe), I would have appreciated consistency. It's an unnecessary distraction. When Chris reappears late in the story after being introduced in only one brief segment much earlier, I couldn't remember who he was without looking back to find his name so I understood how he fit in the story.

There are various editing-type errors sprinkled here and there, which will hopefully be corrected before final publication. The writing style, however, is uneven, and I don't know that this can be altered. Specifically, too many sentences throughout are written in simple sentence structure, making paragraphs very choppy. This prose just doesn't flow. I also noted incidents where 4 and 5 sentences in a row all begin with the word "She." If it's intended for a juvenile reader, characters (which include Lizbeth) should not be having casual overnighters with boyfriends/girlfriends or behaving provocatively while drunk at frat and sorority parties.

Overall, this story needs more polish.

This book is an interesting take on Pride and Prejudice, but a little on the nose (I mean, "Lizbeth" makes a direct reference to Jane Austen in the first chapter). Also, it seemed as if the author felt as if she had to try to mimic Austen's writing, but it came across as stiff and halting. An admirable attempt, and it's clear that the author loves the source material, but overall it was not engaging read.

As a huge Pride and Prejudice fan I went into the novel with a little bit of trepidation. But I have to admit that I was pleasantly be surprised.

I loved the modern college setting for the novel - it made it feel so much more relate-able and I enjoyed one of my favourite novels even more than usual.

The characters were fun and it was a unique way of representing the Bennett sisters which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Overall I would definitely reccomend this is anyone who is a fan of Pride and Prejudice! Or if you are trying to get a friend interested in it i would definitely start off with Phi Alpha Pi.

Phi Alpha Pi by Sara Marks is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. It is set in a college, the protagonist, Lizbeth is a senior and she’s in a sorority. The story is about how she is in her last year of school, and as you can imagine how she will find the love of her life.
I think the story had potential but the author went on and on about unimportant things and didn’t even give enough page time for the major things in the story. Lizbeth is written as a feminist that wants everyone around her to know that she is THE feminist. She’s horrible to everyone around her, she doesn’t care about what anyone else thinks, she wants everyone to follow her and do whatever she wants, and she doesn’t understand her friends one bit. The book spends so much time on meaningless conversations that you don’t really know much about her even in the end of the book. Other than that she thinks she knows everything, but she doesn’t.
Let’s get to the love interest, wil Darcy. First he doesn’t show up in the story enough to be the love interest. One minute Lizbeth hates him the next their desperately in love.
Lizbeth judges him for thinking that every woman want him just because of his money. While she doesn’t tell anyone about how rich her family is because she doesn’t want people to be around her only for her money.
The other women characters in the book are rarely shown. When they are you don’t know who’s who, because all of them are similar and don’t have any unique qualities.
Their housekeeper, Mrs. C wants them marry rich men and live a happy life. She constantly encourages them to find rich husbands. I cannot understand how this kind of character was written in this time period.
I think some things could have been changed while retelling Pride and Prejudice to fit it in to the time period, but it wasn’t. The storyline was wasted in trying to fit it in at this time period.

Phi Alpha Pi is modern Pride and Prejudice retelling with a college setting.
First of all, the book is boring and, to be honest, very bland. The writing is very simple, ripetitive and the sentences are always very short: it was like reading a bad fanfiction written by a twelve year old without any writing experience whatsoever.
I really disliked the character who was supposed to stand in for Mrs. Bennet: it shows clearly that the author didn't understand the original character and her motivations at all, painting her instead as this greedy, slut-shaming, manipulative shrew who bears no resemblance to the original bubbly, silly and innocuous Mrs B. Blaming her actions entirely on mental illness? Despicable.
The author racebent Charlotte and the character standing in for Mr. Bennet, but it was clearly done to get brownie points, to appear "woke" (Charlotte coming from Flint, Michigan?? With nearly no building up to it? Thanks but nah thanks).

Let me start by saying I have never read Pride and prejudice and this book is said to be the "modern day version."
I was slightly disappointed as this book didn't feel modern to me. It felt unrealistic and "old school."
I did become more interested as the story went on and found this to be an okay read. Maybe if you are a huge fan of Pride and prejudice you would feel differently about this book? I will say I wish more guys in today's world were more like Wil, but again it just seems unrealistic, hence why the book felt old to me.

Writing style: The writing is by no means a masterpiece of any sort. It's accessible and to the point but sometimes the language can come across as "dumbed down" for the reader which was annoying to say the least. I read this quite fast considering the fact that it was over 500 pages, it felt like less when I was reading on my phone.

Characters: None of them particularly stood out in any way. Lizbeth had moments where she was super fun to read about and then there were other scenes where you just tolerated her. Wil was so little in the story that it felt unnatural for Lizbeth to end up with him. And the few interactions they had throughout the book felt superficial and lazy. There was no real foundation for a relationship other than that week they spent together over Christmas Break (? I can't quite remember right now, but when they went ice skating and to the museum.)

Plot: I appreciate the fact that the plot had all the classic moments from Pride and Prejudice but it didn't feel new in any way. It had no other retelling factors other than the fact that it was set in present time. It didn't feel original in its own way, and the plot in general lacks Jane Austen's finesse. I had a problem with the fact that Pride and Prejudice was acknowledged in the book but the characters made no comments on how their life was literally the replica of the story. If you're going to break the fourth wall and introduce the actual work you're trying to rewrite, at least do it in a way where the characters are "aware" of it happening. Or I don't know, just don't mention the work at all. It just makes for unnecessary confusion. Other than that I can't really complain about the plot because it was almost the exact replica of the real deal.

I did enjoy this book a lot while reading it, but now as I'm sat reviewing it I can't exactly pin point why which is strange to me. I can say that it is a fast read and you'll probably find it much more entertaining if you aren't as familiar with the work it's based upon.

At first I wasn’t a fan of this book. I didn’t like the characters and the story didn’t really hook me. I couldn’t tell any of the characters apart except for Lizbeth and Wil.
As the story progressed I started to enjoy it more and didn’t need to force myself to read it.
The characters grew on me a little bit and I enjoyed it towards the end.

I wasn't a fan of this book. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite literary classics, but this book was practically a copy and paste of that one. When I read books that are inspired by the classics I expect there to be undertones of that book in the new one, but just done in a modern way. This book was not modern hardly at all.

The dialogue in this book was very prim and proper and very much outdated. Instead of sounding like a bunch of college 20-something sorority sisters and fraternity brothers all the characters sounded like rich 70 year old grandparents. Considering that a lot of the conversations were just "modern" copies of ones found in P & P, it's not surprising that they all sounded that way.

There wasn't anything surprising about this book because, again, it was a literal re-telling. Every single thing that happens in P & P to every single character also happens in this book. It was just boring. Pride and Prejudice was such a great book because it was believable to that era. People got married that fast because that's what you did back then. People looked for people to marry solely based on improving their station in life. This is not a story line that works now, but it's basically shoved down our throats in this book. Feminism was brought up quite a few times in this book and I honestly felt like it was just a bad attempt at trying to counter-balance the constant misogynistic undertones that were relevant for P & P but not for this book.

I can't even rate any of the characters because they are, again, exactly the same. Same mannerisms, same personality, same characteristics, etc.

Overall, I honestly don't recommend this book even a little bit. If you're looking for a direct re-telling of Pride and Prejudice and you are looking for a very minor modern spin then this is the book for you. If you're looking for something different and interesting this is definitely not one you'll want to pick up.

This is the first modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that I've read. I'm a huge P&P fan. I enjoyed the modernization of the classic tale, and the author did a great job aligning the storylines. Lizbeth is the main character and a sorority sister at Phi Alpha Phi, while Wil is a fraternity brother in Alpha Phi. After their first meeting, much like Jane Austen's classic tale, they seem to hate each other. Sorority sisters, house mothers, family members, and fraternity brothers fill in as new versions of Austen's classic characters. This is an easy read, and I really enjoyed the buildup for Lizbeth and Wil. However, in this modernization, the author stuck to the theme of needing to marry a rich man. I did not go to college in Atlanta but I'd be surprised if that was still a common goal here in 2016 (when this book is placed). So that plotline in itself seemed a little silly. Also, the writing style was a little grating. Nearly every sentence started with "Lizbeth ____" (insert any verb). "Lizbeth did this" or "Lizbeth thought this." I understand that this is from a third party point of view, but this style of writing seemed choppy to me. It's been awhile since I read Pride & Prejudice, so if this is how Austen wrote her novel, I've forgotten. But even if the style was meant to be similar to Austen's, it was too choppy for this modern version. Overall, it was a good, fun read, and I really enjoyed the parallels to the original story.