One of the better P+P sequels I've read; this focuses on Mary Bennet rather than Elizabeth. Mary was given short shrift in canon, but this is a sympathetic take on her, without rewriting her so's to be unrecognisable. As it's a sequel, Ward has allowed herself a maturer Mary, who, like Fanny Price, has been affected by the evangelical revival that was becoming stronger towards the end of Austen's life. In fact Mary B's earnestness and anxiety to be good reminded me of Charlotte Yonge's heroines, written in the following generation.

As it's from Mary's pov, the reader gets a sense of her unawareness of Lizzie's private life, and also of why Mary might behave the way she does. Ward clearly has a soft spot for her heroine, offering her a buffet of 3 rival suitors of varying dispositions, one of whom she chooses at the end. Marrying single P+P characters off is the preoccupation of the book, along with the usual machinations from Wickham and a family crisis for Col Fitzwilliam.

The last pages hastily tie off what loose ends there are in somewhat bullet-point style - a bit too hastily. ( )