[Sidenote: This book is only $1.99 right now!] 
I always love it when a fun book falls on a cannonball milestone. Although, I have been having a pretty good reading year in terms of quality, so maybe not too surprising. I heard of this book when it first came out in 2017 and I was fairly sure I was going to love it, so I was saving it as a comfort read during a bad week. I should really do that more often because it really worked to lift my nihilistic mood.
Heartstone is a fantasy retelling of Pride and Prejudice, so you probably already know the plot. If you don’t because you’ve never read Jane Austen, this would actually be a really good introduction. It’s more fast-paced with less difficult language. Nothing will ever take the place of the original in my heart though, let’s be real. No one has Austen’s perfect combination of swoony romance, biting social commentary, and ruthless wit. But as far as retellings go…. this is one of the best. Not as witty or as insightful, but what it lacks in those departments, it makes up for in fun and adventure. All while managing to not ruin characters that have been beloved for a couple hundred years (looking at you Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe, looking at you).
Aliza Bentaine lives in a world where gryphons, direwolves, trolls, and banshees are all very real. Her family has already lost one daughter to the gryphon horde that has taken up residence near Merrybourne Manor (poor Kitty, she’s always the least important Bennet sister). To hopefully rid themselves of these tormentors, Lord Merrybourne hires a band of Riders to kill the horde. Enter one Alastair Daired, expert Rider, kind of a douche (at first). Heartstone hits most of the major plot points of the original, but adds its own flair along the way. There are some truly excellent characters here that weren’t in Austen’s original.
Highly recommend for: Fantasy lovers and Jane Austen freaks
OMG I had completely forgotten that I read this until I read your review, so A) thank you for the reminder and B) now I want to read it again. There is something so comforting about a P&P re-telling, I’ll read them all the time forever and ever, I don’t even care if they’re bad. (Well, yes, I do, but I’ll still read them.)
P&P retellings are definitely catnip, but I think I have to swear off the bad ones after that terrible P&P&Mistletoe earlier this year. *shudder*
I loved this, it was really fun.
And my god, I’ll never get over the pain that was P & P & Mistletoe. Sometimes in the middle of doing something I’ll just stop and wonder why the principal was working in an unlocked school on Christmas morning.
And then I get mad at the writer and the editor and the publisher and all of the goodreads 5 star idiots, and I go about my day.
“Sometimes in the middle of doing something I’ll just stop and wonder why the principal was working in an unlocked school on Christmas morning.”
Literally cackling rn. But you’re so right! What the everliving fuck were they thinking when they put that book out into the world?
You guys are just making me want to read this book…
Only do it if you’re prepared to hate read it LOL
Boughten!
How could I not? Between the price and the positive reviews from Malin, yesknopemaybe, baxlala, and Scootsa1000 I would be a fool not to buy it.
Yay! Happy reading!
Happy half Cannonball! Clever retellings of classic novels that I love are total catnip for me, and this was absolutely one of the better ones.
If only they were all this good! I am going to read that Much Ado retelling you posted about recently. Very excited about that one :)
Scootsa and Bunnybean gave me this for CBR book exchange last year and I’m super stoked to get to it. Happy half cannonball :)
Thanks! Looking forward to hearing what you think of it :)
This sounds great. I will add it to my ever growing to-read pile.