Corrie Garrett

Not gonna lie, I love Pride and Prej, and I'll read pretty much any Jane Austen retelling. In the latest one, Pride & Prejudice and Passports, the Benitez family are semi-documented immigrants. Noa, the oldest daughter, was brought to the US as a baby, so she works under-the-table and waits for legalization. Elisa and the other girls were born in the US, so Elisa has a shot at college and upperclass work, but of course that can't be investigated too closely without revealing her family's show more status. When Noa helps out her parents by cleaning their rental cabins, she meets the handsome republican politician, Bingley, and they fall almost immediately in love. It's just the sort of meet-cute and effortless romance that perfectly modernized Jane and Bingley. Naturally, Caroline Bingley is not impressed by her brother dating the housekeeper, which also modernizes the original very well.

This worked on one level, because you could actually see class differences between the Benitez family and the Darcy/ Bingley contingent. But it was hard to sympathize with the republicans or really care very much about the entitled, wealthy class. As republicans veer more and more from being people who'd quite like lower taxes, to being people who want lower taxes for themselves, at literally any cost to other humans, and are willing to ally themselves with the lowest of the low in hope of saving a couple bucks... It's harder and harder to have a sympathetic republican character, let alone a republican politician who inherited his position from his dad. Sure, it's pretty realistic to have a young man who's a republican because his dad told him that democrats are lazy takers or bleeding hearts or whatever, but it still made Darcy completely unappealing. It takes a LOT to make Mr. Darcy unattractive, but hey, this book managed it.

Clever retelling of the Benitez sisters' stories, but attempts at political messaging just made Darcy and Bingly into unsympathetic, entitled bros and killed the romance. show less

In this Pride and Prejudice variarion the story continues. To appease Lady Catherine de Bourgh, because of the engagement between Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Georgiana Darcy agrees to visit her. There she meets James Sutherland who Lady Catherine believes would be a good match for her, and the painter John Turner who is doing a portrait of Anne de Bourgh.
An entertaining and well-written story.

In this P&P variation, while staying at the Hunsford Parsonage Elizabeth Bennet agrees to become Anne de Bourgh's companion while Mrs Jenkinson visits family. Then Lady Catherine decides they will visit Tunbridge Wells. These actions result in Darcy and the Colonel accompanying them. Will this make Darcy and Elizabeth come closer together, or does her status result in an absolute breach.
An enjoyable well-written variation

This is the first book by Corrie Garrett that I have read and I enjoyed it overall as a quick and easy read.