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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
Actual rating: 3.5
I really enjoyed The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and the novelization, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, because of course they were based on Pride & Prejudice. With this book, however, we have left the retelling behind and it is basically a YA contemporary. Which is fine, but that is definitely not my favorite genre, so I didn't like this as much as I was expecting to. I enjoyed hearing about what happens to Lydia and for the most part the story was pretty realistic (the scene where Lydia realizes she forgot to do something really important felt so real; the anxiety and dread were tangible). So kudos to the writers for following up with the "wild" Bennet sister and giving her an opportunity to change, grow, and learn from her mistakes. I think fans of YA contemporary would really enjoy this one.
I really enjoyed The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and the novelization, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, because of course they were based on Pride & Prejudice. With this book, however, we have left the retelling behind and it is basically a YA contemporary. Which is fine, but that is definitely not my favorite genre, so I didn't like this as much as I was expecting to. I enjoyed hearing about what happens to Lydia and for the most part the story was pretty realistic (the scene where Lydia realizes she forgot to do something really important felt so real; the anxiety and dread were tangible). So kudos to the writers for following up with the "wild" Bennet sister and giving her an opportunity to change, grow, and learn from her mistakes. I think fans of YA contemporary would really enjoy this one.
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was fun being back with these characters. Lydia has always been my least favorite character in just about every rendition of P&P, but I grew to love her in the LBD and loved what they did with her storyline in the series. In this book, we get to see more of her growth and I like seeing her lead her own path in the end.
This was a good story and at times very moving, but I also felt like it wasn't really in Lydia's voice. I felt like I couldn't picture her saying most of the things she said. But, I enjoyed it.
I'm so happy I finally got the this book! I think I added this to my TBR back in 2015, was SUPER excited, and then proceeded to never pick it up. I don't know what was wrong with me.
I recently re-watched all of LBD along with reading [b:The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet|18775255|The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet|Bernie Su|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394475850l/18775255._SY75_.jpg|26680388], so I thought it would be a good time to finally read this. And it was phenominal. While I detest Lydia in the book and the film adaptations, she's probably my favorite character in LBD. While her story doesn't end on a sad note, it doesn't end on a happy note either. This book may have been a cash-grab, but I kind of feel like it's necessary because it finishes Lydia's story.
The book really stayed true to the character. I loved how they showed Lydia's progression and character-growth. She starts the book understandably upset and a bit broken. She's different than the Lydia we were introduced to in episode 1. And she's still not perfect. She makes dumb decisions, trusts the wrong people, and makes some mistakes - just like anyone who's in her situation would do. But she learns. gets better, and eventually finds her way.
Another thing that's great about this book is that they don't shy away from how much this incident would have affected Lydia. She loved George Wickam, and I'm glad that the authors spent time exploring how Lydia would deal with what he did to her.
I pretty much loved everything about this book. It was nice to see some of the old characters, but I loved the new ones as well. And I am so happy that Mary got a lot of pages. She was great in the show and it's amazing how well they translated her personality to book form. (As a sidenote, it was super funny that they lampshaded how Lizzie literally always forgot about Mary.) I wish there were more books about Lydia, but I think this completed her story perfectly.
Pre-Read Review
I AM SO EXITED FOR THIS BOOK! I MEAN, EVERYONE IS!!!!

But I have to wait 'till September?
I can't wait to get more Lydia.
I recently re-watched all of LBD along with reading [b:The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet|18775255|The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet|Bernie Su|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394475850l/18775255._SY75_.jpg|26680388], so I thought it would be a good time to finally read this. And it was phenominal. While I detest Lydia in the book and the film adaptations, she's probably my favorite character in LBD. While her story doesn't end on a sad note, it doesn't end on a happy note either. This book may have been a cash-grab, but I kind of feel like it's necessary because it finishes Lydia's story.
The book really stayed true to the character. I loved how they showed Lydia's progression and character-growth. She starts the book understandably upset and a bit broken. She's different than the Lydia we were introduced to in episode 1. And she's still not perfect. She makes dumb decisions, trusts the wrong people, and makes some mistakes - just like anyone who's in her situation would do. But she learns. gets better, and eventually finds her way.
Another thing that's great about this book is that they don't shy away from how much this incident would have affected Lydia. She loved George Wickam, and I'm glad that the authors spent time exploring how Lydia would deal with what he did to her.
Spoiler
Realistically, Lydia continued to love George in a way and she tried to justify his actions. She was in an abusive relationship and it's important that the long-lasting effects of that were mentioned. Someone who has gone through that is going to need therapy and a good support system, and it's important that that's shown in literature.I pretty much loved everything about this book. It was nice to see some of the old characters, but I loved the new ones as well. And I am so happy that Mary got a lot of pages. She was great in the show and it's amazing how well they translated her personality to book form. (As a sidenote, it was super funny that they lampshaded how Lizzie literally always forgot about Mary.) I wish there were more books about Lydia, but I think this completed her story perfectly.
Pre-Read Review
I AM SO EXITED FOR THIS BOOK! I MEAN, EVERYONE IS!!!!
But I have to wait 'till September?
I can't wait to get more Lydia.


#contemporaryathon book 6! I really liked this one! It was my 5 star prediction technically but I didn’t quite expect it to me. So I’m happy!! Let’s see if I can finish a few more before the readathon ends.
Didn't end up finishing this and never quite got into the mood to do so after half a year, so I'm just going to pass it to read to mark that I have this in my library but didn't finish listening.
Thanks to Eidelweiss for the ARC.
Like many people I fell in love with Mary-Kate Wiles's portrayal of Lydia Bennet in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and so I was very happy to get my hands on this book because while Austen's Lydia Bennet is terrible this Lydia Bennet is delightful. This book starts off with Lydia's last summer at community college. She is working to take the last two summer classes she needs and there is a boy. Lydia learns a lot about herself. For those Mary fans there is also a lot of Mary and she gets a great story. Of course there are appearances by both Lizzie and Jane but this is Lydia's story and Lydia grows up and comes into her own while still retaining the adorbs that makes her Lydia.
I have so much more to say but it would spoil it for the rest of you so I won't. Just read it.
Like many people I fell in love with Mary-Kate Wiles's portrayal of Lydia Bennet in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and so I was very happy to get my hands on this book because while Austen's Lydia Bennet is terrible this Lydia Bennet is delightful. This book starts off with Lydia's last summer at community college. She is working to take the last two summer classes she needs and there is a boy. Lydia learns a lot about herself. For those Mary fans there is also a lot of Mary and she gets a great story. Of course there are appearances by both Lizzie and Jane but this is Lydia's story and Lydia grows up and comes into her own while still retaining the adorbs that makes her Lydia.
I have so much more to say but it would spoil it for the rest of you so I won't. Just read it.
One of the things I loved the most about The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is that it managed to take a character who we're supposed to dislike (Lydia Bennet) and let us see her transform. Because it was a modern day retelling, the creators couldn't just have Lydia run off with Wickham in order to ruin her life. Regardless of whether you approve of Lydia's choices or not, it wouldn't be a scandal in 2015.
If you're not familiar with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (hereafter referred to as "the LBD"), I won't spoil particular plot points for you. In the LBD iteration, Lydia is the youngest of three sisters. She's in college, she parties a lot, she's super bubbly, outgoing and towards the beginning, she comes off as shallow and self-indulgent. Her time on-camera is a little grating, as it was meant to be, and due to the nature of the show, she fights a lot more with Lizzie (and also because Kitty is literally a kitty so those fights had to be shifted). During the course of the LBD, Lydia gets into some trouble with Wickham, realizes he's horrible, and like in the novel, Darcy saves the day just as Lizzie realizes she's in love with him after all. The episode where she finds out what Wickham did makes me cry EVERY FREAKING TIME I see it. But what the LBD did that was so majorly fantastic was that it was able to give Lydia a redemptive story arc. Lydia grows in maturity and strength, and we get to see her come to a better ending than in the original novel, which leaves the door open for this amazing sequel that I was SO excited to hear about!
What I particularly loved about The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet was that it was true to her story from the LBD and the consequences of her choices during that story arc, but it wasn't a depressing read. There are ripples from what happened in the LBD, and Lydia can't just erase them simply because they're unflattering. In fact, she chooses to leave all the videos up, because she knows more than anyone that the Internet is forever and simply erasing them won't change anything. Like many young women, she's really struggling with her self-worth and her direction in life. She's had to go to therapy because of the incident with Wickham, and she's constantly doubting herself. With Jane and Lizzie off doing great things, Lydia is still living at home and trying to graduate from community college. She stumbles. She berates herself. She tries to cheer herself up by buying awesome school supplies. She vows not to party and then breaks the vow. She makes new friends. In short, Lydia struggles with a lot of the classic twenty-something issues: her direction in life, making new friends, feeling like a failure because she's measuring herself against everyone else's triumphs. While her video blog circumstances aren't relatable to the audience, her internal struggle felt truly authentic.
Now some spoilers about the romance:
In the End:
The Lydia book is a fabulous companion to the original video blog series and LBD book. It gives Lydia's character a chance that the original Lydia Bennet never got: to have a better life and put her mistakes behind her. The Lydia that we see by the end is strong, she's got direction, and she's still got that same irrepressible, infectious spirit.This review was originally posted on ReadingByStarlight.com
If you're not familiar with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (hereafter referred to as "the LBD"), I won't spoil particular plot points for you. In the LBD iteration, Lydia is the youngest of three sisters. She's in college, she parties a lot, she's super bubbly, outgoing and towards the beginning, she comes off as shallow and self-indulgent. Her time on-camera is a little grating, as it was meant to be, and due to the nature of the show, she fights a lot more with Lizzie (and also because Kitty is literally a kitty so those fights had to be shifted). During the course of the LBD, Lydia gets into some trouble with Wickham, realizes he's horrible, and like in the novel, Darcy saves the day just as Lizzie realizes she's in love with him after all. The episode where she finds out what Wickham did makes me cry EVERY FREAKING TIME I see it. But what the LBD did that was so majorly fantastic was that it was able to give Lydia a redemptive story arc. Lydia grows in maturity and strength, and we get to see her come to a better ending than in the original novel, which leaves the door open for this amazing sequel that I was SO excited to hear about!
What I particularly loved about The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet was that it was true to her story from the LBD and the consequences of her choices during that story arc, but it wasn't a depressing read. There are ripples from what happened in the LBD, and Lydia can't just erase them simply because they're unflattering. In fact, she chooses to leave all the videos up, because she knows more than anyone that the Internet is forever and simply erasing them won't change anything. Like many young women, she's really struggling with her self-worth and her direction in life. She's had to go to therapy because of the incident with Wickham, and she's constantly doubting herself. With Jane and Lizzie off doing great things, Lydia is still living at home and trying to graduate from community college. She stumbles. She berates herself. She tries to cheer herself up by buying awesome school supplies. She vows not to party and then breaks the vow. She makes new friends. In short, Lydia struggles with a lot of the classic twenty-something issues: her direction in life, making new friends, feeling like a failure because she's measuring herself against everyone else's triumphs. While her video blog circumstances aren't relatable to the audience, her internal struggle felt truly authentic.
Now some spoilers about the romance:
Spoiler
I really appreciated the fact that they introduced a character who kept asking about the video diaries, who I kept feeling red flags about, and who absolutely did turn out to be sketchball. It is completely believable and inevitable that there would be some slimeball who only wants to get close to Lydia to know more about the sex tape story, or to see if she'd sleep with him, or to use her story in some way. While that obviously sucks as a scenario, I like that they didn't throw Lydia into a romance that turned out to be great right out of the scandal-gate. When Lydia goes to visit Jane in New York, she meets better people - albeit in a weird situation, which is a great story, and I am a fan of the meet-cute so I'll allow it.In the End:
The Lydia book is a fabulous companion to the original video blog series and LBD book. It gives Lydia's character a chance that the original Lydia Bennet never got: to have a better life and put her mistakes behind her. The Lydia that we see by the end is strong, she's got direction, and she's still got that same irrepressible, infectious spirit.This review was originally posted on ReadingByStarlight.com
I finished this and even though I think it's definitely worth the read if you, like me, is a fan of The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, I had some expectations that weren't met.
It was great to know a bit more of how everyone is doing, but at the same time, I was expecting more development from Lydia. I wanted to see that her experience with George had affected her more than how it was written. I just expected differently. And that frustrated me a little.
Also, Lydia was really annoying at some points of the story and I felt like the changes she goes through happened too fast. Suddenly she cries and realises the obvious. That got me mad, it seemed too much of a plot device. I didn't buy it.
But I liked it. It wasn't perfect, but it was good.
It was great to know a bit more of how everyone is doing, but at the same time, I was expecting more development from Lydia. I wanted to see that her experience with George had affected her more than how it was written. I just expected differently. And that frustrated me a little.
Also, Lydia was really annoying at some points of the story and I felt like the changes she goes through happened too fast. Suddenly she cries and realises the obvious. That got me mad, it seemed too much of a plot device. I didn't buy it.
But I liked it. It wasn't perfect, but it was good.