I adore Austen's work, so I'm always excited to read an adaptation. I enjoyed some of the modern twists made, such as the Churchill - Fairfax dynamic, and the way the story incorporated the Bates' family. I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed, and most of that came from the characterization of Emma. She is meant to be an unlikable protagonist - meddling, high on her own importance and spoiled, but this story takes that to the extreme, with her being bitchy and mean. Everything is about looks and appearance, with a lot of girl-hate as well. None of the other females that isn't a close friend is described fairly, and I would much rather have seen that a character like Brooke was a lovely girl, and he had to make a decision based on feelings, rather than her being controlling and jealous - just so Emma can milk it. I rarely saw any descriptions about personality and behaviour, even when she was talking about Knightley in the end it wasn't HIM that was making her heart swell, it was the fact that he was gorgeous (which may be writing more than intention). With her having a strained relationship with her father it also takes away one of the few redeeming factors in the original story, which is how Emma treats her overbearing and worried father with kindness and patience. This goes along with how the Bates' incident happens - rather than joking and unintentionally being insensitive, this 'joke' was consciously mean and harsh in language. She is also so much more manipulative with Hailey, which could have been so much more subtle.
The other thing I could have done without was the multiple POV, especially Knightley. He's supposed to be a bit of an enigma, we're not supposed to know what's going on in his head and how he feels about Emma. We're supposed to worry about whether or not he's with Hailey, or in love with Emma, if there will be a happy ending. However in this story we get his POV right before his confession happens! You're not worried in the slightest, as it's been made perfectly clear from POVs before that he is in love with her. Again, it's all about looks here as well, as I can't remember him ever saying anything that he loves about Emma that's not related to her appearance.

Maybe if I didn't know the original I would have felt differently, and it may appeal more to people unfamiliar with the Austen tale! I also can't believe they missed out on including the best line - "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more" - but I can forgive that!

Thank you for the opportunity to preview this book! I know it will find its audience (much of it built-in), but it wasn't grabbing me. To be fair, I also couldn't get into the two other chick-lit books I was trying, so the problem could definitely be my mood. :)

Here are more characters and more characters to meet the minimum.

A pity that this book is a retelling of such a legendary book because honestly it just does not cut it. I am an avid reader and hardly leave any book midway through but this one just could not hold me. The protagonist of this book, unlike the original, is full of fluff and nonsense who doesn’t even come across as an interesting fictional character. The portrayal lacked depth of perception or even language. It is very sad to have to write a review like this because books are my religion but I was given this as an ARC by #Netgalley (@netgalley) for an honest review.

Emma wished she could freeze this moment. Her neighbor Adam came up to her - most of the time she sees him in sweaty running clothes or jeans and a tee shirt when he works at home. He does clean up nice. Then Adam said she did a wonderful job on the wedding but was it really Annalise? Annalise- the bride was her best friend and her partner in crime since forever. She had even talked to her father so they could have the wedding in her childhood home. Emma :had been the matchmaker, best friend, wedding planner, hostess, and maid of honor. Emma thought about Worth Papers and Stationary. She was never going to be good enough for the family business was she? Annalisa was moving across the country to be with her new husband. Her life would be different with Annalisa with her as a roommate and close by. At four years old Emma’s mother packed up all her gowns, furs and jewelry that was when Emma knew her mother wasn’t coming back leaving her husband and daughter. Emma was trying to do some work on her computer but the moving guys had started getting Annalisa’s stuff early in the am even though most of the furniture was Emma’s. Then Belinda came by - she was that neighbor - the one always poking her nose in everyone’s business. Emma has a blog called Worth it- an online guide to the best places in New York to eat, shop, see, and be seen. The Blog had started as something to keep Emma busy after she quit her job at the fashion e-commerce site- Luxe. After one year in her blog Emma had an ever-growing stream of readers Emma had experience conceptualizing, launching, and running, and running a blog. But now Emma was bored with the blog. She wanted to feel the thrill of a challenge and the satisfaction of a job well done again. ;As a favor to her old nanny Cynthia Emma had agreed to keep an eye on Cynthia’s niece Hailey who had just moved to NYC. Right now Hailey said she only wanted a server’s job to pay the bills until she figured out what she wants to do with her life. At Hailey’s age Emma thought she would go in the family business then her father rhden her father said he wouldn’t condone her working ai Worth Paper and Stationary . How that had killed Emma.
I really couldn’t get into this book. Emma got too into into Hailey’s life. Hailey should not have wanted Emma to make dating decisions for her . She isn't a little girl she is a college graduate and she should have had some idea what she wanted to do and it should have something to do with what she had majored in college. Also Emma should not have stretched the truth about Zac’s interest in Hailey just on what Emma thought Zac felt for Hailey. I was very disappointed in this. But I am sure there are others who will really like this but it’s not for me.

I tried and tried, but I could never get behind Emma in this retelling of the classic Jane Austen novel. While the similarities between Hilliges' Emma and the original were certainly present, I found the modern-day heroine completely lacking in depth and likability. Stick with the original, or one of the many other renditions of this story that are so much better.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

when i saw this on netgalley i was so excited! i love Austen retellings. sure, normally i read P&P or Persuasion retellings, simply because they are more common. i think the reason they are more common is that they translate so well to a modern time, whereas emma or S&S just... don't. northanger really doesn't. that's not the fault of the people writing the retellings, it's just how it is.

i love the original Emma, of course. so i was excited for this one. unfortunately it fell flat for me and i hate that. i wanted to like it. i feel like i give retellings a head start that i wouldn't give other books - i already love them for the story i know and love. i try not to compare every little thing, i love spotting the similarities and discovering what things the author changes. i could never be that imaginative. unfortunately, in this one, i liked some of the differences but the others rubbed me the wrong way. emma, in the original, is meddling, sure, but she means well. she's spoiled and a daddy's girl but she's not nasty or malicious. this emma just did not work for me.

i hate when i don't like books. i don't want to pick apart every single thing i didn't like. i am sorry i didn't like this. i hope other people do. the writing was good and i will pick up another book by this author. i just didn't like this particular spin on an old favourite.

i have no idea how much blood sweat and tears go into writing a book.. but the simple fact is there is no one book that will please everyone and conversely, we can't like every single book we read.

Jane Austen's Emma is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, she even might be my favorite Austen heroine, despite all her flaws and imperfections.

Suffice it to say, I was excited about reading this retelling.

I'll just say this before anything else - Emma and the city doesn't even come close to living up to the original. And I didn't even expect it to. That's simply impossible. And no author should even aim for that. All I wanted was the author to give her own fresh twist to the old story. And she sorta did. But I couldn't bring myself to like it or even find it fresh.

I won't even bother comparing this retelling with the original. Even on its merit, Emma and the city felt weak to me. Okay, here goes my rant.

I'll start with what I found unbelievable. You can't just have a dynamic like Emma-Harriet in a modern age setting without bringing changes to it. For those who haven't read the original, there Emma takes Harriet - a girl from an unremarkable background - under her wings and guides her in navigating the high society.

In this retelling, Emma helps her old nanny's niece Haley settle down in New York after she moves there. And that's all fine and dandy. But Emma also takes dating decisions for Haley and feeds her a false narratives about her neighbor Zak's interest in him, based on her own assumptions. That, to me, felt like an overkill for me in this setting.

Hilliges's Emma comes across as a delusional and obnoxious busybody with no sense of boundaries and not a single apologetic bone in this book. At least Austen's Emma was written as an unassuming and well-intentioned lady but this Emma was too haughty for my liking.

Although I did like some of the modern twists - having Knightley divorced, Emma's issues with her father, inserting a celebrity spin to Churchill-Fairfax's story. But, most of it felt too mechanical to me, as if they were engineered just for the sake of following the trajectory of the original.

In other words? Execution left a lot to be desired.

I have to be honest here. Even disregarding any comparisons with the original, I couldn't but compare this with other retelling I've read this year and how much more I enjoyed them. Emma and the city falls far behind on that mark too.

Thanks to Red Envelope Press for the ARC.

DNF at 30%. I'm sorry, but it's too different from what I expected when I requested this title.

This is another retelling in the year of retellings. Emma and the City is a retelling of Emma by Jane Austen. I liked reading it. I was disappointed not to see descriptions of New York or Hartfield through Emma's point-of-view. There is barely any romance in the book so I would caution readers to not pick up the book expecting so.

Overall, I did not love the book as I had presumed. however,I would encourage readers to pick it up as it has potential to be a good women's fiction.