B+

Heartstone

If I told you, “Pride and Prejudice BUT WITH DRAGONS” how fast should I throw the book and then run from the stampede?

I will confess that I didn’t really read the back or the synopsis when the ARC came to my door. I just thought the cover was pretty enough to put on the “ACTUAL TBR” pile (as opposed to the “Aspirational TBR” pile). I was a good part of the way through before I went, “…wait a second…”

The handy thing about using a known story in a high concept fantasy is that you can spend your time working on the world building. In this case, the Darcy-analongues, the Daireds, are dragon riders who defend the country against evil beasts- gryphons and the like- while the Bennet analogues, the Bentaines, are commoners who work for one of the landowners. They meet when Darcy and his BFF are hired to kill off a pack (pride? flock?) of gryphons, and the usual P&P stuff applies.

I’m still not all that clear on the world-building, or how people became paired up with sentient dragons, and I would have liked to have seen that.

HOWEVER, THERE ARE DRAGONS AND THEY ARE COOL. And it was neat to see how the dragons affected the expected plot points. It’s not totally a beat-for-beat retelling but it’s pretty close.

It was fun! I enjoyed it a lot! It did a good job of blending Austen with fantasy and explaining why the position of the Bentaines was so precarious within the rules of the world. And I can also promise that, as should be required for all P&P retellings from now until the end of time, the Lydia analogue isn’t paired off in the end with the Wickham analogue.

– Redheadedgirl

A debut historical fantasy that recasts Jane Austen’s beloved Pride & Prejudice in an imaginative world of wyverns, dragons, and the warriors who fight alongside them against the monsters that threaten the kingdom: gryphons, direwolves, lamias, banshees, and lindworms.

They say a Rider in possession of a good blade must be in want of a monster to slay—and Merybourne Manor has plenty of monsters.

Passionate, headstrong Aliza Bentaine knows this all too well; she’s already lost one sister to the invading gryphons. So when Lord Merybourne hires a band of Riders to hunt down the horde, Aliza is relieved her home will soon be safe again.

Her relief is short-lived. With the arrival of the haughty and handsome dragonrider, Alastair Daired, Aliza expects a battle; what she doesn’t expect is a romantic clash of wills, pitting words and wit against the pride of an ancient house. Nor does she anticipate the mystery that follows them from Merybourne Manor, its roots running deep as the foundations of the kingdom itself, where something old and dreadful slumbers . . . something far more sinister than gryphons.

It’s a war Aliza is ill-prepared to wage, on a battlefield she’s never known before: one spanning kingdoms, class lines, and the curious nature of her own heart.

Elle Katharine White infuses elements of Austen’s beloved novel with her own brand of magic, crafting a modern epic fantasy that conjures a familiar yet wondrously unique new world.