It’s been a few years since Charlotte got married to Mr Collins and moved out to his parsonage near Rosings. Now, she’s unexpectedly widowed and doesn’t know where her life is going to go next. She writes to friends and family about the news, and asks her best friend Lizzie (Bennet) Darcy to visit, but Lizzie’s young son is ill and she can’t leave him. She sends her sister Mary in her stead, and an unlikely love affair begins.

This was really, really cute!!! A sweet sapphic love story set over the background of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice. The author doesn’t shy away from the realities of what it meant to be queer in the time period, and it was fascinating to watch Charlotte become aware of things she’d never considered before because they weren’t talked about in society. As someone who, over the last few years, came to realize that being panromantic was not the same thing as being pansexual, and that comphet is a very, very real thing, Charlotte’s awakening was like watching myself from the outside and seeing a lot of the same touchstones along the way. I loved it.

There’s a second book in the series focused on Caroline Bingley, and I’m really looking forward to diving into that one as soon as the audio frees up from the library!

Performance: The book was read by Clare Corbett, and I have no complaints.