I didn't have much recollection of Anne de Bourgh from my limited knowledge of Jane Austen novels. This was a different perspective on a character thought to be an ailing youngster. As Anne matures and learns more about what she is capable of, she is set on a path of discovery quite atypical in many ways for her time. Parenting challenges, sexual exploration and identity, role constraints, privilege, addition - Greeley doesn't shy away from hard topics but ties them together in a way that supports a strong narrative.

Thank you to William Morrow and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a DNF for me. When I first heard that this book was a reimagining of Anne de Bourgh's life from Pride and Prejudice I knew I wanted to give it a chance. However, this one just didn't work for me. I think I would have liked it better if it had started with her as being older but starting with her infancy just didn't work for me. I liked how the author was trying to give a reason for why Anne was so sickly but I really didn't like how they did it. Anne was basically fed laudanum since her birth and became a drug addict and I just couldn't read about that. I also appreciated that the author wrote in a tone similar to Jane Austen but with some more modern themes that were not always talked or written about during that time. Thank you to William Marrow and Netgalley for my gifted copy for review.

The Heiress is subtitled “The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh.” The Heiress gives a long overdue story to poor Anne de Bourgh. Anne is a minor character in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and is Mr. Darcy’s cousin. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is overbearing and insists that Anne and Darcy were meant for each other. Anne barely speaks and seemingly has no personality. She is discussed as being too sick to participate in life. Why is she sick?

In The Heiress, Anne de Bourgh is given laudanum as a baby and grows up addicted. Whenever she goes off the medicine she is “too sick” to continue as she goes through withdrawal and is put back on the medication. Although her father and a governess try to help, Anne grows up in a haze. Her only happiness is driving her ponies in the morning before her first dose of the day. After her cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam visits with his new bride and invites her to London, Anne takes a chance and travels to London while her mother is out of town. Will Anne be able to break her addiction? Will she be able to become her own person?

I LOVED Anne’s journey. SPOILER ALERT: This explanation of laudanum addiction fit with the character from the original novel. I enjoyed Anne’s journey as she realized what she wanted out of life. I also greatly enjoyed when Anne was able to finally put Lady Catherine in her place and kick her out to the dower house. Anne gains a great love for another woman, Eliza, in this book and their romance is the focus of the last part of this novel. I thought this was fascinating. I thought it was interesting how Mr. Watters offered for Anne to have a marriage of convenience understanding that they would live their separate love lives. I wonder how many of those marriages existed during Regency times? I loved how Anne realized that she wanted to control her own fortune and future and that any marriage would take that away from her. SPOILER END.

I read this for the JASNA Northwoods Book Club that was in May. We had a great discussion about this book. I think everyone enjoyed Anne getting her own story and happy ending. The only negatives were that some felt the beginning was too slow and depressing. I didn’t have a problem with that as it set up the story well for Anne making a change.

This would make a great read for Pride month.

Favorite Quotes:

“Ladies are sometimes seen as idle creatures, are we not? But women do work, and our work is important – vital, even. It just happens to be quieter than the work done by men.”

“But . . . I have been made small – have allowed myself to made small – for the entirety of my life.”

Overall, The Heiress is a wonderful literary story that finally gives Anne de Bourgh her due. I highly recommend this for all lovers of Pride and Prejudice.

Book Source: Review Copy from William Morrow. Thank-you!

This book was not as exciting as I expected. I did finish it however it didn't fulfill my expectations.

Molly Greeley takes a very minor character from Pride and Prejudice, Anne de Bourgh, and gives Anne her own story. I did not even realize this was based on Pride & Prejudice until afterwards so I don’t feel you need to read that first to follow the book (maybe some of the side characters would come more alive to the reader if you had). The story begins sleepily & a bit slow which is just as someone addicted to laudanum lives. I was shocked & disappointed to find she was taking it into her 20’s without ever questioning why. The story builds up to a beautiful ending and Anne really found her voice and her true self. The final chapter was written beautifully.

The Heiress is a romantic Pride and Prejudice retelling/spin-off with such beautiful and romantic writing that it could be by Austen herself. It has such an interesting premise following Mr. Darcy's cousin, but it absolutely takes on a world of its own. The characters are very real and such an integral part of the story. It's slow paced and character driven, following Anne's entire life. I felt so sad at the ending that I almost feel in mourning. Also, the lesbian romance is handled so well and did not disappoint; it's a cornerstone of the story but doesn't come in for a while (but it is so worth it). I recommend this book to anyone who likes sapphic historical romance, strong character growth, and poetic stories.

This was an interesting take on Jane Austen era England. Anne de Bourgh is a cousin to the famous Darcy and Fitzwilliam families. This is her story of how life didn't go as planned, but turned out to be a wonderful life in the end.
I didn't know exactly what to expect with this book because I have not read Pride and Prejudice (shocking I know). The story captivated me from the beginning because I wanted to know what became of Anne.
The storyline was very rich and made it easy to be part of their lives. There was a twist I did not expect, but that was well thought out and made the plot more interesting.

4.5 stars. Although it has been many years since I read Pride & Prejudice, a quick refresh of the characters reminded me of the minor character, Anne de Bourgh, Lady Catherine's daughter & first cousin of Mr. Darcy. It had long been arranged between Lady Catherine & her sister that their children would marry and merge two significant estates. In Pride & Prejudice, Anne is described as sickly. and cross. The Heiress provides a background story to Anne's character and reason for her "illness" - she had been dosed with laudanum since infancy at least twice per day and was incapable of doing much but existing in the fog caused by this addictive drug. The story follows her eventual knowledge of the effects of the drug on her health and life, & her strength in suffering through with withdrawal in order to finally live a vibrant and independent life. Once free of the laudanum, she finally stands up to her domineering mother who allowed this dependency to continue either innocently or not. Anne is the heiress of her father's estate and faces her responsibilities once her life has been expanded by new relationships, music, knowledge and just general living. She eventually finds a happy and satisfying relationship but never marries.
I very much enjoyed this book and particularly the author's almost poetic use of language in attributing human characteristics and feelings to animals, insects & inanimate objects, and conversely describing people by comparing facial expressions, sounds, physical features to non-human beings and objects.
Fans of Pride & Prejudice will definitely love this book.

This book imagines Anne de Bourgh from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE as suffering from a life-long addiction to laudanum. With a focus on beautiful language, the pace is leisurely. The book might appeal to readers of literary fiction.

I received an ARC from the publisher. This is my honest and voluntary review.

The Heiress is set in the world of Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice" and centered upon Anne de Bourgh. Anne was a fussy baby and was prescribed laudanum to keep her quiet and she has been given the syrup ever since on account of her ill health. Anne consequently grows up an outsider who cannot engage in society. When she takes the opportunity to escape her domineering mother and stop taking the drug that has kept her in a fog, she must find a place for herself in society, while discovering who she really is for the first time.

I was so excited to read this, since I love all things related to Pride & Prejudice, and it did not disappoint. The novel gives new depths to a character that was almost an afterthought in the original story, and I loved getting inside her head. I loved that Anne found her own way in society, including by exploring her own sexuality and ideas about romance and love.

Unlike other Austen spinoffs I've read, this one doesn't try to rewrite any events of the original, but it adds new depths to side characters that I think may actually increase my enjoyment of the original. I am so glad I read this book.

With so many Pride and Prejudice related novels on the market today, this was an unexpected breath of fresh air. The Heiress explores the life of Anne de Bourgh, a minor character in Austen’s novel who is only included as an unworthy rival to Elizabeth for Darcy’s hand. Molly Greely has created an interesting character, exploring the reason for her sickly condition and touching upon several issues facing women of the time, some of which are still relevant today. The writing style is of a Victorian novel, which lends a further note of authenticity to this companion to Austen’s work. A thoroughly enjoyable read!

So let me just preface this by saying I have never read Pride and Prejudice. I know very little of its characters and storyline. Considering this is well outside the genres I usually cover, I really enjoyed this story. So many interesting elements to the life of Anne De Bough. We aren’t really told when she lived, but it had to have been in the 17-18 hundreds just based on the descriptions in the book. Anne is definitely a woman born in the wrong century. Born as the only child to wealthy estate owners, a fragile Anne, spends all her young life held under the influence of Laudanum. It takes her 29 years to realize she really doesn’t need it, and she can have a life without it. It is then that she begins actually living. There are a lot progressive elements to this tale and it is well written, and I felt easy to read. Sometimes I have found that old timey tales can be difficult to understand because the words are so different at that time, but this flowed really well. A worthwhile historical tale of one woman’s attempt to find her own path. Review posted to Amazon, Facebook, Goodreads, Litsy, and LibraryThing

Although I found this to be a bit slow, it was an interesting take on an unknown character from Pride and Prejudice. I was surprised that there was a lesbian love story, but found it believable and well thought out.

This book was a bit of a DNF for me. I just don't think I was the right audience. I was hoping for something else.

The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne De Bourgh purports to be, well, a revelation - the life of Anne de Bourgh, a minor character in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, expanded upon - at great length. Tedious, dragging length. And revelatory it is not.

The Heiress may be based on Jane Austen, but it feels like it doesn't trust Austen at all. This book makes explicit what Austen brushes obliquely against; it overwrites and describes excessively where Austen drops delicate hints. Most, and perhaps worst, of all, it is dull - and Jane Austen was never that.

The Heiress is, I'm sorry to say, anything but sparkling and witty. It's slow. It’s flat. It’s insipid. The prose is bloated and the plot trudges. And it left me, a die-hard reader of the most absolutely out-there riffs on Austen's arguably most-loved book, wondering: does the world actually need Anne de Bourgh apologia? Do we need to reclaim and rectify a character whom Austen sketched in quick and satirical lines? Does the sickly Miss de Bourgh need to be justified and defended and explained at such length, and most of all, rendered palatable?

While I appreciate the inclusion of a f/f storyline that Austen herself would never have written, Anne de Bourgh was a more interesting character in a handful of lines in Pride and Prejudice than she is given an entire book to herself.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advance review copy.

The Heiress by Molly Greely is about Anne de Bourgh from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In this novel, we follow Anne's life, told in four parts. Molly Greely does a beautiful job writing a regency F/F love story. A good read for Recency and Jan Austen Fans.

I was intrigued by this book, since it's kind of an offshoot of Pride and Prejudice. It was really interesting, and I liked how it highlighted the strict gender norms of the time yet still showed the strength of women in trying to create a life for themselves. The writing was great, and I would definitely read more by this author. I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

It was great to slip back into the world of Pride and Prejudice with a story that doesn’t try to retell the same story in a different way. I enjoyed reading a story about one of the characters that didn’t get much of a story line in the original. Anne’s story was well told and provided a different look into the world of England during that time.

I liked this book and I thought it was a clever spin off from Pride and Prejudice. It was an interesting take on that time period - I liked seeing a strong female lead who didn’t want to find a husband.

"The Heiress" is a wonderful addition to the continuation of Pride & Prejudice genre, utilizing a character we learn very little about in the source material. The book is accessible even for those that aren't fans of Pride and Prejudice because it doesn't lean heavily on information supplied in the original novel. I enjoyed the WLW romance and representation. It's a beautifully written novel with an admirable and complex heroine.