READ AROUND THE RAINBOW :: Retellings #RAtR
It’s the last Friday of the month and you know what that means! It’s ᖇEᗩᗪ ᗩᖇOᑌᑎᗪ TᕼE ᖇᗩIᑎᗷOᗯ time!
٩(θ ‿ θ)۶
This month’s topic is…
Retellings!!!
I was drawing a blank on LGBT retellings that I’ve read so I visited a handy Goodreads list to jog my memory. That didn’t work because out of the 229 books listed, not a single one looked familiar as something I’ve read already. So, I went through again looking for a couple to add to my TBR and came up with these two.
This first one I picked because it’s all Jane Austen retellings and that’s right up my alley. Also, it’s an anthology of short stories so I’ll get a taste from a lot of different authors, and…one of my all-time favorite authors (JL Merrow) is included in this anthology, so that makes it a no-brainer.
And this second one I’ve chosen because (1) cover love, and (2) Eule Grey is an amazing author, and (3) a quick look at the blurb told me this would be an adorable Pinocchio retelling.
While I can’t think of any full-on retellings to talk about, I’ve spent a lot of time recently with its cousin…variations. I have recently subscribed to KU and have fallen down the very deep rabbit hole of Pride and Prejudice variations. All the same characters, some fairly true to each character’s original personality/character, others with a range of differences ranging from subtle to stark. Many seem to like to make poor Mr. Collins downright evil.
Lizzy and Darcy, of course, always end up together, but you never know what’ll happen with any of the others. I love the wildly varied situations the authors come up with, and I’m nowhere near done exploring this rabbit hole.
The one I just finished (A Perfect Stranger by Annamarie Wallace) veers from the original storyline by having Darcy be too late (rather than just in time) to save his poor sister, Georgiana, from eloping with Wickham, who turns out to be much more dastardly and abusive than I think the original character would have been. So how does this change everything else about the story? You’ll have to read for yourself to find out. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 😁
WEBRING ~ Read Around the Rainbow!
Be sure to flip through the webring to read your favorite authors’ takes on this topic! For your convenience, here are direct links to the other WebRing participants’ posts for this month’s prompt:
[…] L Lester :: Holly Day :: Amy Spector :: Ofelia Grand :: Ellie Thomas :: Addison Albright :: Nell Iris :: K L Noone :: Lillian […]
[…] Grand : Nell Iris : Fiona Glass : K.L. Noone : Lillian Francis : Addison Albright […]
[…] Addison Albright […]
I read lots of P&P variations, too. Do you have another favorite other than the one you wrote about? 🙂
A few recents that I loved include: The Propriety Failure by Wade H. Mann (opens with Lizzy in Ramsgate saving Georgianna from a rape attempt Wickham, but killing him in the process and covering it all up); and Twins for Mr. Darcy by J. Dawn King (which begins with Jane dying in childbirth of twins and Bingly dying shortly thereafter in a riding accident. Darcy and Lizzy marry early in the story to be able to become the twins guardians then their relationship develops from there). Currently reading Her Whole Heart by Melanie Rachel (Lizzy and Jane get a season in London sponsored by a Countess. There’s a backstory for that involves Lizzy bravely saving some girls from a burning building at a girls’ school. So far so good.
What are your faves?