Eligible (The Austen Project #4) by Curtis Sittenfeld

Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Bought
Hardback: 528 pages
Publisher:  The Borough Press
Publication date: 21 April 2016
ISBN: 978-0743291361

First Line - "Well before his arrival in Cincinnati, everyone knew that Chip Bingley was looking for a wife"

This version of the Bennet family—and Mr. Darcy—is one that you have and haven’t met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help—and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray.

Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master’s degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won’t discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane’s fortieth birthday fast approaches.

Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip’s friend neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . .

And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.

I'd been seeing this book everywhere, both online and in real life and had no idea it was a JAFF book.  I thought it was some historical story about a waitress in the 1920's, bahahahaha!  No lie!
Turns out it's a modern retelling and as soon as I found that out I
was all over it and bought it on the spot.



I wasn't sure how I'd get on with a modern setting but I had no problem with it at all and it's just as I thought, if it's got anything to do with Pride & Prejudice, I'm in.


I just loved this one!  Hilarious in all the right places and despite being a whopper at over 500 pages I just raced through it.  Could barely put it down, actually.  Lydia and Mrs Bennet, and Mary too as it turns out, were so funny and I actually had tears I laughed so hard at a few parts.  That very, very rarely happens with me and books!  

Jane and Bingley were obviously the main focus (kind of) but it was Darcy and Elizabeth I wanted to read about.  Although it has a modern setting it's still got similarities to the original and the characters were instantly recognisable and I loved watching them fall in love (again).  I'm getting pretty confident that I'll try pretty much anything with D&E at this point. 

Again, I pictured Colin Firth as my Darcy but Elizabeth was an unknown face.  I guess I'm not fussy who my Lizzie is...

Super story and although it's number four in the Austen Project series it's a stand alone (as are all the others in the series),  They are retellings of four of Austen's most popular books, not just P&P.  I haven't read any of the others and I probably won't until such time as I exhaust the P&P stories and become obsessed by her other masterpieces.  That'll be a looong time from now then.

All the way through reading this I thought that Curtis Sittenfeld was a guy.  Curtis is a guy name where I'm from.  Wasn't until afterwards I found out that the author is a lady.  A very talented lady!