[AD // NETGALLEY ARC]

I was given the regency rom-com Sense and Suitability, written by Pepper Basham and narrated by Fiona Hardingham and Christopher Ashman as an audiobook ARC from Netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

It’s no secret that I am a huge Jane Austen fan, and that I’ve read a fair share of Jane Austen retellings, so when I saw Sense and Suitability on NetGalley on NetGalley, I knew I just had to request it. I was very happy to be approved, and was quite excited to dive into the audiobook.

This book is told from two points of view, alternating between our heroine, Emmeline Lockhart, and our hero Simon Reeves. At the beginning of the book we learn that Emmeline expects Simon to ask for her hand in marriage, but at the last minute something happens so that Simon changes his mind, and Emmeline is left with a broken heart. Not only is this a bit of a scandal in their society, but she also carries a big secret that she has to hide, even from not only Simon, but also most of her own family…

I must admit it took me a while to get into this book. Even though I loved the narrators, there was something that didn’t quite sit right with me. Mostly something I couldn’t quite put my finger on… Fortunately this changed after a bit, and I ended up really enjoying it.

I ended up really loving most of the characters, though there were a couple of annoying “villains” (mind you, they were not meant to be anything but). Though it’s clear that the book is in no way written back in the actual regency period (the language is naturally too modern for that), it’s also very much written in the spirit of Jane Austen. I even think that if Jane Austen had lived today, she’d enjoyed this book, and also would have been honoured by the homage paid to her own books in this novel.

For people who enjoy romance with little to no spice, I can reassure you that there’s not any in this book. The most spicy scenes are kisses, the rest is left up to your own imagination.

I found this book to be a fun and heartwarming read in the end, and would advice people not to give uo should you, like me, struggle a bit at the beginning.