Although possibly others will relate, her lack of drive was tough for me to understand. Despite the fact that I wasn't looking for a straight retelling, I think Devon ended up being too little like Elizabeth - in that I never fell in love with her as a character. It slowly eroded my feelings about this story and just left me annoyed. The part of First & Then that stressed me out lasted from about 70% - 90%. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong for me here, but as usual it involved the Big Break between the characters in the last quarter when the drama, miscommunication and angst kicks up. I do think the book did this well overall. Especially with a story as known as Pride & Prejudice. I find retellings that don't try to mirror everything about the original to feel the most authentic to me. In fact, I'd already started mentally writing a review where I'd talk about how the story did a good job at taking the flavor of Jane Austen but never went straight into a retelling by trying to capture all the elements of a particular book. Actually, I enjoyed this book a lot until about 70% when it all started to fall apart for me. I have mixed feelings about First & Then.
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