This is a really fun way to take a classic for inspiration, but then build your own original story. Margaret Dashwood is only a child in <i>Sense and Sensibility</i>, so Quain is completely free to draw her as a teenager. But Marianne and Elinor are still very much recognizable, just brought to a modern setting. The extended cruise setting works very well as a place for Margaret to find herself and start to figure out who she is in this summer before starting college. The romance is also an effective way to force Margaret to confront her walls and decide how she wants to approach the future.

I love Amanda Quain's Jane Austen retellings! They are all sweet YA romances, with simple plots but charming life lessons! This story focuses on Margaret Dashwood, and how she decides to live her life after watching the relationships of her older sisters, The fake dating romance was sweet, and the setting of a cruise created great summer vibes! I have enjoyed all of these retellings and I can't wait to see what Amanda Quain writes next!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Cute, and started off strong. About halfway through I started to get bored, and found myself skimming quite a bit. Margaret felt unrealistic as a character, and got progressively more annoying. I know she was eighteen; but she came across as extremely childlike.
I did like the evolution in the relationship between the sisters, though. Their love for each other was much more interesting than their relationships with their “love interests.”

Thank you St Martin's for Dashed, an unexpectedly delightful YA book.... not unexpected that the author nails the modern Austen (she's good at that) but that she did this while taking a less know, and less developed, Austen character and making her the star while still making her feel like she's an Austen character fully formed. I love the sister relationships, they always standout in Austen work, and since Sense and Sensibility is my favorite Austen, I really loved how the cruise became the setting for Bath and "the season". Quain writes with a clear voice, a frothy joyful approach to Austen's work, and invites younger readers into Austen with easy entry into her social commentary themes and focus on strong, smart women who know themselves, even if they don't realize it.

Amanda Quain's Dashed is a charming mix of clever humor, lively conversation, and a gradual love story that captures the timeless appeal of Austen-esque connections. This warm read presents a refreshingly contemporary take on a traditional story.

I was not in love with this book. I truly feel bad for Margret as a character. To feel like you must hide yourself within one of your sisters’ personalities and not figure out who you are as a person makes me incredibly sad. As a reader I did enjoy the growth all the sisters have by the end of the book, but the getting there was a bit bumpy, and I personally didn’t love the journey.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

Cute, but a little shallow. It reminded me of teen Disney TV shows. Margaret's outright refusal to be happy and be her own person felt forced, bizarre, and entirely frustrating. That coupled with the shallow nature of hers and her sisters' concerns and us not really knowing anything about the characters except for their love of Mamma Mia made the book repetitive—there's only so many ways with the letters of the alphabet you can say Margaret is afraid of love and of being her own person. 5/5 for setting and 1/5 for characterization, so I landed in the middle at 3/5.

Three sisters on a cruise ship for the summer makes for a sweet read.

I had a bit of a hard time connecting with the characters, and finding the premise believable. I wasn’t the most fond of the main character, and her sisters didn’t give me any more reason to become invested.

Overall, I think this could be a better, lighthearted read for someone else. But for me, it was lacking.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ARC

Margaret Dashwood has always found herself pulled between her two sisters. Sensible Elinor and romantic Marianne seem pretty black-and-white to her. When Marianne unexpectedly crashes the cruise that Elinor and Margaret had planned, Margaret worries that she will find herself copying the wrong sister. Margaret hatches a plan with a friendly crew member named Gabe to find her sister a date. Sister chaos and cruise ship dating shenanigans ensue!

Amanda Quain has a gift for modernizing Jane Austen stories. I enjoyed this contemporary take on Sense & Sensibility. Margaret finds herself haunted by past mistakes and wants to try and take care of her big sisters for once. Margaret and Gabe have a very sweet romance, but my favorite part was definitely the relationships between the sisters. Readers who enjoy Jane Austen retellings, complex sister relationships, and a sweet YA romance should check out Dashed. I’m looking forward to seeing what Amanda Quain writes next!

Thank you to Amanda Quain, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Cute and creative Austen retelling. Not particularly memorable but a pretty good time.

Review: Dashed by Amanda Quain

A sweet, coming-of-age modern retelling of Sense & Sensibility.

Do you ever wonder about Margaret’s experience in Sense & Sensibility? Look no further. This YA contemporary romance and coming-of-age story follows Margaret Dashwood 5 years after the tragic passing of their father and the fateful events of Marianne’s whirlwind romance.

I thoroughly enjoyed following Margaret as she learned how to find her own unique voice and identity in this sweet story. Highly recommend for a summer read.

Thank you to Wednesday Books, St Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This book is touted as a contemporary update of Sense and Sensibility. I'm not familiar with the plot of that novel, so I can't speak to it's connection to this book.

I chose to read this because I'm a cruise lover and obviously I have to read everything I find that is set on a cruise ship. So I had really high hopes for this one going in.

Unfortunately, my high hopes dropped fast. While I really enjoyed the beginning of this novel and was excited to read - I quickly realized that the characters did nothing for me. I wasn't a fan of any of them, except maybe Brandon, poor guy! And it's hard to get into a story when the characters are just so unlikeable.

I also felt like a lot of what was happening in regards to life on board the cruise ship seemed a bit unrealistic and was a stretch to believe.

Margaret is going on a cruise with her sisters the summer before she starts college. She learns a lot about her sisters and their personalities she didn’t really understand before. Now she’s trying to find out who she is by herself. Cruise ship, beach settings, a little romance. It wasn’t my favorite, but it doesn’t mean it won’t be someone else’s and it was a cute read overall.

📖 The Details:
Dashed by Amanda Quain

⏱️ Quick Summary
Margaret and her sisters, Marianne and Elinor, embark on a summer cruise for Elinor's husband's job. As they board, Marianne announces she broke up with her long-term boyfriend, so Margaret makes it her mission to find a new guy for her on the ship, enlisting the help of a new friend, Gabe, who also works on the cruise.

💁‍♀️ My Take
Not a huge fan of this one. Maybe I was in a mood, maybe it's because I had never read Sense and Sensibility, which this is based off of, but I just didn't vibe with it at all. The writing was ok, the characters were meh, the storyline just didn't interest me. I had a lot of questions for the characters, mostly, why?? I think it's probably a great read for someone who enjoys super cheesy, easy YA and has probably read some Jane Austen. 2 stars, sorry! ⭐️⭐️

This was a cute summer read, and I especially loved that it took place in a cruise ship. However, I found Margaret to be annoying at times, which is why this rating is only three stars. The role that her family played in the book was an interesting one to see, since in so many young adult books, the MC’s family are just minor characters. In this book, I’d definitely say the family element is the main theme of this book, with the romance as more of a side story, which was nice to see.

Thank you to St. Martin’s press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dashed is a modern reimagining of Sense and Sensibility. I feel like the author did an outstanding job of capturing the essence of the original characters and putting them in a contemporary setting. Margaret has one more summer before she heads to college. She will be spending the summer on a cruise ship with Elinor and Edward and it seems idyllic. That is until sister Marianne unexpectedly turns up freshly out of a relationship with Brandon to throw the summer into chaos. Margaret vacillates between being like her controlled and in charge sister Elinor and trying to be like free spirited romantic Marianne. With the help of Gabe a member of the crew, Margaret tries to find a new romance for her sister Marianne. Of course, she wants no part of her growing feelings for Gabe, because love is messy and hurts people.

There were many parts of the book that I really liked. I think the ending had potential but didn't quite make the mark for me. I appreciate the sentiment that was being reached for but I needed it to feel more authentic. I still recommend this delightful YA romance as it is a enjoyable read.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

It seems like ages since I started and completed my project of reading the 5 Austen novels I never had. P&P is my favorite, but I thought Northanger Abbey was fun, so I reviewed and enjoyed Ghosted. That led me to try this newest novel in Quain’s set of retellings.

I had a long break in the middle of reading S&S, so I’m not as familiar with that one. I couldn’t even remember that there was a younger Dashwood sister! Because of that, I can’t say whether Margaret’s characterization felt accurate. I appreciated Quain’s strategy of using her to highlight the differences between Elinor’s sensibility and Marianne’s passion. It was definitely a more modern approach than following the elder sisters’ quests to land husbands.

This might be intended as a retelling, but it’s also a story of summer love and finding yourself. This was more clearly a romance novel than Ghosted, and I don’t read many romances, but there was enough character and plot to keep me going.

I really loved the overall idea behind this book. The story is about sisters Elinor and Margaret Dashwood who book a cruise specifically without their sister Marianne. Marianne has other plans and needs this cruise to get over a recent break up. I enjoyed seeing a cast of characters I loved and admired so much in Sense and Sensibility, but got sort of tired of the relationships and did not finish reading. This book would perfect for avid Austen fans and retelling fans! It just was not my typical genre and I would encourage anyone to read it to form their own opinion.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this!

Take Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and set it in modern day and on a cruise ship, and you’ll get this fun rom-com read!
In Amanda Quain’s Dashed, we follow Margaret as she has a summer filled with adventures, family drama, love, and finding out who she really is.
Highly recommended!

Emotions. That is the word that resounded throughout the book. Sisters feelings, love emotions, and even in-law emotions. I like the whole cruise setting. The story is a bit quirky and fun too. But when it comes down to it who can you count on to look for you in a storm? How we perceive other peoples lives isn't always the real story. An entertaining book