This book was fantastic! I've read quite a few books written in the style of Austen, but this sapphic followup to "Pride and Prejudice" was one of the best. The love story was well plotted, and the writing style really made me feel like I was reading something out of the 1800s. I also enjoyed the queer touches all throughout the book via side characters and an apparently robust queer scene in Canterbury! Mary's character didn't appeal to me much, but Charlotte was such a dear. That said, they really are a lovely match. I hope the author will continue writing about their world, even if the stories feature all new characters unrelated to P&P or other Austen works.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for the opportunity to read this ARC and provide an unbiased review!

“God, Mr Collins had always claimed, did not have a sense of humour. Charlotte had privately thought if that were so, perhaps God had not yet seen her husband without clothes on.”

Rating: 3.5 starts
This was ok. I really liked the premise which is that Mr Collins passes away a few years after his marriage and Charlotte is left to fend for herself and redefine how she wants her life to look like. She asks her friend Lissie Bennet to visit but she can’t and instead send her sister Mary to keep Charlotte company. With the arrival of Mary, Charlotte starts questioning her sexual orientation and it turns finds out her feeling might be reciprocated!
I really enjoyed the first half but felt the second half dragged and it was just taking tea or reading. The ending also felt rushed and there were secondary plots that were not explored at all.

I thought Charlotte gave off Sapphic vibes in the original story, so I was really pleased to read this imagining of Charlotte falling for Elizabeth's younger sister Mary. This was pretty much exactly what I expected, a lovely historical Sapphic romance with the surprise of being a little spicy. Fans of queer historical fiction will enjoy this, especially those who enjoy flowers.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet
by Lindz McLeod
Pub Date: April 29, 2025

✨ Sapphic Romance
🥹 Friends to Lovers
🏳️‍🌈 Secret Dating
🌸 Bridgerton

A sapphic, slow-burn romance set in the Pride and Prejudice universe. You don’t need anything else about this book besides the fact that it is perfect!

After being married for four years, Mr. Collins dies and leaves his wife Charlotte in a predicament. She’ll be forced to leave the parsonage soon and has to portray a grieving widow in mourning even though she’s not heartbroken. She writes to her beloved friend Lizzie for help, who then sends her sister Mary Bennet to keep Charlotte company.  Either way, only Charlotte can determine her future.

Overall, this was a great read that I would recommend to any reader who enjoys reading retellings, especially historical fiction with some romance (sapphic anyone lol)! I have to say this might be one of the best retellings I have ever read…do yourself a favor and read it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Carina Adores, and Lindz McLeod for the ARC and for allowing me this opportunity to read and share my thoughts!

#historicalfiction #lgbtgia #romance #retelling #netgalley

I love queer Pride & Prejudice fan fiction! This book set up realistic queer characters, fantastically played off the original story. and provided something that felt aimed at me, a queer reader. One minor issue, which is probably just personal preference, is that the MC overthinks, rabbit holing to an EXTREMELY annoying extent. I loved this book!

When Lindz McLeod takes readers into the world of Jane Austen four years after the conclusion of Pride and Prejudice, they will never think of Regency England in the same way again! The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet follows the budding relationship between the quiet, forgotten Bennett sister and the practical Charlotte Lucas, Lizzie Bennett’s best friend. The novel opens with the death of Charlotte’s husband Mr. Collins, and while she isn’t heartbroken by his death, she finds herself alone and in need of a home once again. Since Lizzie is unable to leave Pemberly, it is Mary Bennett who arrives to comfort the grieving widow.

Mary brings Charlotte to her Aunt Cecily’s house where Charlotte discovers a whole new world. Mary has blossomed into an intelligent flirtatious woman who knows exactly what she wants from life, and as Charlotte’s intimate feelings for Mary grow, she has to navigate a lifetime of gender, sexual, and social conditioning to accept the possibility of a new life with the woman she loves.

The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennett is a sapphic love story that explores queer love during the Regency Era. Mary and Charlotte are not alone in their sexual identity; Charlotte discovers that her own Aunt Ethel had a female lover, and everyone who works in Mary’s home pursues a “more secret kind of love.” Although Charlotte wrestles with internalized expectations of societal rules, she ultimately finds acceptance in the arms of her family and passion in the arms of the woman she loves. The relationship between Mary and Charlotte is a slow burn, and readers looking to enjoy a Jane Austen aesthetic with a contemporary twist are sure to be delighted with the plot and characters. Mary and Charlotte converse through a language of flowers, secretly confessing their attraction to each other before finding the courage and space to talk to each other openly. McLeod gives two of Jane Austen’s most sober side characters their own happily-ever-after, and it is a joy to watch their love story unfold. If you have ever dreamed of reimagining the romantic possibilities in Pride and Prejudice, add this book to your list today!

Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

A queer post-P&P featuring a Bennet sister and Charlotte? Yes please!!! What an amazing concept. I was so pleased do get this eARC—thanks NetGalley and Lindz McLeod!

The last 25% of this book was really, really great. I enjoyed both Mary and Charlotte, and really loved the leaning into flower meanings.

The start was a real slog though, I struggled with the pacing and it nearly put me off the book all together.

I read a lot of JAFF, and I was looking forward to this one. The Mary Bennet as a blue stocking trope is one of my favorites, not least because it’s so easy to see Austen’s Mary maturing that way. McLeod’s
Charlotte was also quite clearly recognizable as Austen’s Charlotte a few years down the road. I liked the believable glimpse into gay life in Regency times and I very much liked the central love story which seemed organic and not forced. It was a little angsty for my personal taste and, more seriously, the book dragged a bit. If it had been more tightly edited this would have been a 5 star review.

Thank you Harlequin Romance and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this one. All thoughts are my own.

I did enjoy this read, but not nearly as much as I had anticipated.

It was soft and sweet and I really enjoyed the exploration of being queer during the regency period and what it meant for people like Charlotte Lucas. I also loved the in-depth inclusion of flowers and their meanings.

But I found this book quite slow. Not just a slow burn (which I usually love) but full of meandering and very little in the way of plot.

I wanted to get to know both Charlotte and Mary far more intimately than I felt I did. Outside of Charlotte’s love of gardening and Mary having an interest in science, I feel as though I barely know anything about them. I certainly didn’t connect with them on an emotional level.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Books for this copy of "The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet."

I'm always enthralled when reading Jane Austen re-imaginings by the creativity and inventiveness of the authors in making the stories fresh and exciting.

Charlotte Lucas Collins is a widow after four years of marriage and her future security is unsure, having to vacate the parsonage. She asks her dear friend Elizabeth Darcy to visit but Elizabeth has a sick child and suggests that Mary visit instead.

Mary Bennet has undergone a wonderful transformation after living with her aunt in Canterbury and flourishes while she's out of her sisters' shadows.

Will Charlotte find the courage to follow her dreams or will she remain bound by strict Regency society and family expectations?

I especially enjoyed the language of flowers that was used to portray feelings and emotions. Like a secret code so people could exchange messages without words.

I DNFed this one.

Partly this book was not quite for me and partly I'm not sure the author has a handle on the source material. Mary comes across as very whimsical, rather than very serious and studious (she even criticizes her teenage self) while Charlotte feels very stilted and uncomfortable all the time - even in her own brain.

The attempt to sound like Jane Austen leaves this book wanting something else. Instead of handling the time period and style with grace, I think it hindered the author.

As an AVID Jane Austen super fan, this was everything I wanted it to be. Lindz McLeod truly captured the perfect Jane Austen tone and humor, but with a twist. McLeod included lots of figurative language and metaphors and things not often found in current romances so I loved that it had that literary skill that Austen brought to her writing. It also felt so true to the story and the personalities of the characters. I could truly believe this is cannon. 😂 Mary and Charlotte were so likable, fun, and relatable. Even as someone not a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, I felt like I could relate to and understand Charlotte’s journey of first experiences and finding herself on her own terms. I have always loved Charlotte’s character and I have read a few “spin-off” books about her that I did not feel like truly captured who she is like this story did. It left me feeling happy and giddy just like Pride and Prejudice does. LOVE!

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A slooooow burn as Charlotte slowly learns that gay people exist, that she's one of them, and that she has feelings (that she believes are unrequited) for her bestie's little sister. The slow burn is lovely and delicate, and Charlotte's awakening is beautifully done. I think it's easy to read canon Charlotte as queer, and even canon Mary to some extent, but this Mary doesn't really feel like canon Mary who was pedantic and desperate for attention. Mary here is smart and carefree and uninhibited by social mores in the open society she frequents in Canterbury. I do think she's a wonderful character--and I would have liked to have had her POV as well--but she could've been anyone, and didn't have to be Mary Bennet.

By the end of the story, the major obstacles for Charlotte seem to be tacked on--she's worried about embarrassing her family by...going to live somewhere else rather than returning home? This was even before she was offered a job, which would be somewhat of a descent for her, but not in a scandalous way that she keeps comparing to Lydia Bennet running off with Wickham. The job offer and later the offer of becoming an heiress both seem sudden and a way to easily grant her money and therefore the ability to have more choice. She worries about what her sister and her parents will think of her loving Mary, but she doesn't end up telling them, at least not that we see on page. The convenient wrap-ups and some historical inaccuracies (e.g. forms of address) didn't really work for me.

4.5

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

I've read quite a few Jane Austen universe novels, and this is one of the better ones. I'd put this up there with The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow in terms of feeling true to the characters in the source material and maintaining an elegant writing style throughout that compliments Jane Austen's original writing while still being a bit more natural for a modern reader. Both books also explore the nuance of Mary Bennet and what a happy ending for her might look like, but in this case it is because her story tangles with the protagonist Charlotte Lucas/Collins.

None of the original characters from Pride and Prejudice felt overly villainized here, which I appreciated. It also felt like a fairly organic insertion of LGBTQ+ representation into the historic setting, although it did seem like there were an awful lot of lesbians in Mary's neighborhood.

The story is quite slow paced and focused on Charlotte's journey of opening her eyes to consider more than the most practical path and allow the layered petals of who she is as a person unfurl and bloom.

Overall, I would definitely recommend to fans of Jane Austen's characters and fans of queer historical romance.

Content Warnings:
Moderate: Death and Sexual content
Minor: Homophobia, Sexism, Alcohol, and Classism

Sapphic Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice fans, this one’s for you! This was such a lovely read. It started off a little slow for me, but once I got used to the writing style, I flew through it. So much yearning and longing, and I couldn’t get enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin - Romance for an ARC of this book

A must-read for anyone who loves Pride and Prejudice and always suspected Charlotte and Mary were sapphic. I absolutely loved their slowburn romance, the incorporation of flowers and their meanings, and seeing Charlotte truly come into her own. They really were the perfect partners for each other. And the whole queer found family was lovely, and something I haven’t seen enough of in regency romances.

You don’t need to have read Pride and Prejudice to follow the story—I haven’t (I know, I know)—but I’d recommend having at least a familiarity with one of the film adaptations (the 2005 adaptation is my personal favorite).

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

This was a lovely romance. Although it was predictable I loved the slow burn little hand touches and delicate flirting. I would've liked to get to know the side characters a little bit better.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5⭐️rounded up! If you ever wished for better for Charlotte Lucas than a life under the judgmental gaze of Rosings, you need to pick this book up! The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet is Charlotte Lucas’ journey of self discovery spurred on by the arrival of Mary Bennet (the Bennet sister done dirtiest by P&P) to the Parsonage. This book manages to be sweet, sexy, and thoughtful about the challenges faced by women, the LGBTQIA+ population and the working class in 1800s England. From the very first line it’s clear that this book is Charlotte’s awakening, but I loved all of the side characters (Mrs. Waites, Pipp and Mr. Mellor in particular!) who loved Charlotte and Mary as hard as they always deserved. This book does justice to Jane’s original while also bringing new life to the characters that served just as brief plot points in the previous Longbourn canon. I’m grateful I was able to read it as part of The Hive, thanks to Harlequin Romance/HTP books for the ARC! I can’t wait to get a physical copy on my shelf for my Austen-adjacent novels.

supperrrr good book!!! mary and charlotte are my favs !!! very nice romance and a good read! i just love love LOVE charlotte lucas!!! would for sure read again!

This book hooked me right away with it's first sentence. Reading like a Jane Austen novel itself, I was really excited to read how two women could fall in love with one another in regency England, how to make it work, how to reconcile with the fact that they are queer. The problem is this book falls apart around the halfway point. All the tension DIES when the two get together and slowly the plot, the characters, and the setting becomes ridiculous. Charlotte's parents are ok with her never marrying and taking a job instead? Charlotte is asked to be her employer's heir to inherit this great house? Mary's family knows she's queer and accept it?

My suspension of disbelief completely died and something that felt solidly set in the Regency era turned into ridiculous historical wallpaper, where it felt like modern characters were plucked into the past. I am genuinely surprised how a five star read turned into such a low rating so quickly. McLeod's understanding of the characters suddenly switched, where both Charlotte and Mary turned into uncharacteristically soppy. The second half of this desperately needs editing and rewriting. I'm super disappointed in a read that started so strongly.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC.