26th Feb
Listen up Janeites, Sophia Rose is her with a review of Georgiana’s Friend by C.P. Odom, which ponders the question; What if Elizabeth Bennet is the first to love? Come check out her thoughts on this Pride & Prejudice variation.
Georgiana’s Friend
by C.P. Odom
Source: Publisher
Purchase*: Amazon *affiliate
Rating: 
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What if Elizabeth Bennet is the first to love?
Those who love Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice are aware of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s long-concealed attraction for Miss Elizabeth Bennet, his inner turmoil, and the angst that results from how he forces down his attraction. Yet different events in C. P. Odom’s Georgiana’s Friend turn that central issue on its head as it is Darcy who is unaware of the suppressed suffering of another.Elizabeth Bennet develops a friendship with Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, and also forms an intense affection for the owner of Pemberley. Despite his admitted shortcomings, she cannot deny her love for the haughty Darcy. Her days are filled with agonized despair, since she knows that any attachment between them is impossible due to her lack of fortune or connections.
What will Elizabeth do? Can she remain friends with Georgiana and fight her feelings for Darcy? Will she have to sever the friendship, cutting all ties with the Darcy family and thus ending any possibility of a future with the man who dominates her every thought?
Sophia Rose’s Review
When a young lady crushes on her friend’s older, oblivious brother, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice heads down a different path to Happily Ever After. I’ve enjoyed a few of CP Odom’s previous Pride & Prejudice variations and was delighted to try his latest.
Georgiana’s Friend begins with a prequel that deviates from the original story from the beginning because Fitzwilliam Darcy and his two much younger siblings become a small, but tightly-knitted family when their one remaining parent passes and Darcy determines he’s not sending the two young ones off to school and they are going to be his priority until they come of age. Because of his focus, he doesn’t participate in London Society and he is not in the market for a wife whether they are a social climbing scheming Caroline Bingley or a sweet, attractive Elizabeth Bennet who is a good friend to his sister and a charming person he enjoys being around.
But the other big twist from the original is that Darcy is less arrogant and so more attractive to Elizabeth from nearly the beginning. She knows he’s a fine man and falls for him, but also knows he doesn’t see her as more than a friend to his sister.
Never fear, all their friends and extended families as well as enemies have worked it out and plot accordingly.
Georgiana’s Friend has a high page count and yes, it probably could have been trimmed at the waist a bit. However, I never got impatient or distracted from it. There are actually multiple plot threads involving family relationships, secondary romances, and conflicts that rose around the central story. It all meshed well like a family saga with a romance so I was eager to see how things played out for all the cast and not just Darcy and Lizzy. I also really loved seeing that the friendship that started it all was a major thread and not just an excuse for the romance. Darcy and Elizabeth became friends and even found family before the romance was reciprocal.
All in all it had a sweet and quiet charm, gentle pacing and relied heavily on character development and relationship building. Recommend to historical romance fans who like to see a large cast of characters involved around the main romance.
About C.P. Odom
C.P. Odom is a retired engineer, who was born in Texas, raised in Oklahoma, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. Sandwiched in there was a stint in the Marines, and time in Arizona, working first for Motorola and then General Dynamics. He raised two sons with his first wife, Margaret, before her untimely death from cancer, and his second wife, Jeanine, and he adopted two girls from China. The older of his daughters recently graduated with an engineering degree and is working in Phoenix, and the younger girl is heading toward a nursing degree. He has always been a voracious reader and collector of books, and his favorite genres are science fiction, historical fiction, histories, and, in recent years, reading (and later writing) Jane Austen romantic fiction.
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About Sophia Rose
Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, and gardening. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.
About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat.
