A sparkling contemporary retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in the tantalizing world of New York City burlesque, perfect for fans of The Kiss Quotient and The Roommate.
After a betrayal derailed her interior design career, Liz Bennet found a fresh start in New York. Now an executive assistant by day and stage kitten by night, she’s discovered a second home with the performers at Meryton, Manhattan’s top-tier burlesque venue. Love’s the last thing on her mind when she locks eyes with Will Darcy across the crowded club, yet the spark between them is undeniable—that is, until she overhears the uptight wealth manager call her merely “tolerable.”

Bennet is determined to write Darcy off, but once their besties fall head-over-heels, they’re thrown into each other’s orbit again and again. Each encounter begins to feel more heated than the last, but is their chemistry enough to topple that...

A well-imagined and well written, modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, with the addition of burlesque! ( )

A lovely saucy read. Fun romance. A nod to Jane Austin ( )

A good way to get me interested in reading a book is to make it known that it's a Pride & Prejudice retelling. Really a Jane Austen retelling of any sort always piques my interest. It's no different this time around with A Certain Appeal.

I like having that known foundation of the story, and I like even more seeing what author's do with it, how they make it their own.

I have to say that Vanessa Kind has created a Pride & Prejudice that I haven't really seen before.

First off, I really liked the idea that it revolves around burlesque. It certainly brings out a more sensual side to the story. I also loved how Vanessa King played with the characters. Instead of dealing with the Bennett sisters, it's more of a found family situation for Elizabeth Bennet who moved to New York after she was betrayed at her former dream job in LA. Jane is a singer at said club, Meryton, Ming a performed and the "twins" Ginn and Tonic are the aerialists. They've formed this close group like family. Bennet is happy with her day job as an office admin and spending her nights and weekends being a stage kitten. She's not looking for anything more. Of course, that's when she meets Will Darcy who is accompanying his friend Charles Bingley to the club one evening.

The story progresses from there as many would expect. I appreciated the fact that Vanessa King didn't create just carbon copies of each character within the story. Instead, she either did away with some characters altogether, switch genders for some, or made an amalgam of a few characters together which brought a fresh perspective to the story.

I will say as much as I enjoyed the book, as I almost feel is a guarantee if you're a fan of the original and like retellings, I found it not to be a propulsive read. It kind of meandered along a bit at times and often when I had to put it down for the night, I didn't find myself with that overwhelming desire to pick it up right away again. It just might be that I've read an iteration of this story so many times that it's starting to wear? Regardless, though, I enjoyed the spins that Vanessa King put on a story so known and beloved. Maybe I just wanted a bit more of those spins to really set it apart. ( )