Pride & Prejudice Book Club Podcast

When Kitty Wren decided to publish one of the Pride and Prejudice variations she'd been secretly writing, she hadn't even told her husband the stories existed. A few months later, she's writing full-time, releasing books at an astonishing pace, and having an absolute blast doing it!

This week, Emilie welcomes Kitty to the podcast to talk about her unexpected journey from devoted JAFF reader to published author, and the romantic comedies that inspire her writing. From trapping Darcy and Elizabeth in wine cellars to giving Caroline Bingley a surprisingly sympathetic love story, Kitty has a talent for finding the funny, sweet, and occasionally ridiculous possibilities in Austen's world.

We also talk about our shared love of low-angst romance, the joy of seeing Darcy and Elizabeth actually happy together, favorite variations we return to, and why Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle really ought to reunite for another Pride and Prejudice adaptation.

If you love stories that make you laugh, swoon, and kick your feet, Kitty might just be a new favorite author.

Emilie doesn't believe in soulmates. Which makes it a little strange that she is such a sucker for soul mark stories! Give Darcy and Elizabeth matching tattoos, matching magical melodies, or some other cosmic indication that they are absolutely, unequivocally meant to be together, and she will eat. it. up!

Which makes this week's story a great fit. Sharon and Emilie are discussing Sarah Courtney's Mark of Character, a Pride and Prejudice variation where people with a close tie to the land are born with soul marks that identify the person they're destined to be with. Elizabeth has one. Darcy has one. There's just one small problem: Darcy is already engaged to Caroline Bingley, who supposedly has a matching soul mark of her own.

So Darcy and Elizabeth are drawn to each other almost against their will, Caroline is working overtime to keep them apart, and even in a world where Darcy and Elizabeth are literally destined to be together, the path to happily ever after refuses to be smooth.

We have so much to talk about!

We love the streamlined world building, the devious Caroline, and the utilization of side characters in the story. If Sarah Courtney is reading this: more, please!

Episode Credits:

🎙️ Hosted by Emilie Davis and Sharon Cortez

🎵 Music Credit: Pride & Prejudice Book Club Theme composed, performed, and arranged by Megan Mason.

📚 See a list of books we've read at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com!

➡️ Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, and sign up for our newsletter at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/newsletter!

What if Darcy marrying Caroline Bingley...actually wouldn’t be that bad?

We know. We KNOW.

But somehow that’s where we ended up while discussing Darcy’s Marriage Pact by Cat Gardiner, a modern Pride and Prejudice variation in which Darcy, heartbroken after losing Elizabeth, enters into a legally binding marriage pact with his best friend’s sister, Beanz (aka this story’s Caroline Bingley). There are rules, there are clauses, and there are subsections that include a $1.5 million wedding budget. And absolutely *no one* is allowed to mention Elizabeth Bennet.

Of course, this being a Pride and Prejudice variation, Elizabeth comes back, and all of Darcy's plans fly out the window. But if she hadn't...

We're just saying, maybe we would have read that book, too.

But if you're like us and want more Darcy and Elizabeth, there's still plenty in this story to talk about: how much influence should the people we love have over our romantic choices? (Feeling some serious Persuasion vibes!) When a relationship falls apart, who is responsible for fighting for it? And how much healing does Elizabeth need to do before she’s really ready to build a life with Darcy?

And perhaps most shocking of all: Sharon, our resident modern-variation skeptic, liked this one enough that she may actually be coming around to moderns.

Emilie is rubbing off on her. It was bound to happen eventually!

Episode Credits:

🎙️ Hosted by Emilie Davis and Sharon Cortez

🎵 Music Credit: Pride & Prejudice Book Club Theme composed, performed, and arranged by Megan Mason.

📚 See a list of books we've read at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com!

➡️ Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, and sign up for our newsletter at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/newsletter!

✏️ Apply To Be a Co-Host Here: https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/nerd

Is surviving together the same thing as falling in love?

In Alix James’s Homeless, Elizabeth is stranded in Spain after Mr. Gardiner has been kidnapped, Darcy is in Spain trying to save Pemberley, and a marriage of convenience may be the only way for them to survive.

But Elizabeth really, really doesn’t like Darcy.

When two people face kidnappings, bureaucrats, financial ruin, malaria, and a seemingly endless journey across Spain together, does surviving all of that bring them closer...or just give them a really good trauma bond?

Janette Colon returns to the podcast to talk about the second book in Alix James’s latest series, and after absolutely loving Faceless, we couldn’t help comparing the two. Both throw Darcy and Elizabeth into unusual circumstances and an unexpected marriage, but where Faceless gave them the chance to become friends before Elizabeth knew who Darcy really was, Homeless begins with all of her prejudice against him firmly intact, and repeatedly on display.

Emilie found herself struggling with this version of Elizabeth. How much can you change Lizzy and still have her feel like the character we love? Is a stressful situation alone enough to explain her difference in character? And when Elizabeth herself keeps changing her mind about what she wants, how do we know if she’s really fallen in love?

For those of you who enjoy a quibbly Emilie, this may be the episode for you. Because even though we both enjoyed Homeless, this version of Elizabeth had us asking more than once: But...why, Lizzy? Why?

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🎙️ Hosted by Emilie Davis and Janette Colon

🎵 Music Credit: Pride & Prejudice Book Club Theme composed, performed, and arranged by Megan Mason.

📚 See a list of books we've read at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com!

➡️ Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, and sign up for our newsletter at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/newsletter!

✏️ Apply To Be a Co-Host Here: https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/nerd

Welcome to the Pride & Prejudice Book Club Podcast! I'm glad you're here. But...why are you here?

As the podcast creeps closer to its 200th episode, Emilie (me) is taking a moment to ask some bigger questions about the show: Why did I start this podcast in the first place? What has made it worth doing for nearly four years? And where do we go from here?

To help me think it through, I invited my husband Logan to turn the tables and ask me the questions for a change. We talk about why the books I love most don't always make the best podcast episodes, how my reading tastes have changed over the years, what I've learned from talking with authors and readers, and why this community has become so important to me.

But the biggest question isn't really for me. It's for YOU.

Why do you keep coming back? What makes a good episode? Are you here for book recommendations? Plot discussions? Author interviews? Deeper conversations about the ideas hiding inside these stories? Or is it simply nice to know there are other people out there who love Pride and Prejudice as much as you do?

I know the podcast is ready for its next chapter. I just don't know exactly what that chapter looks like yet.

So tell me: Why are you here?

If you have two minutes, please take the audience survey: https://forms.gle/jJoQhWQdFh87fsNU6

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🎙️ Episode Hosted by Emilie Davis and Logan Davis

🎵 Pride and Prejudice Book Club Theme Song composed and performed by Megan Mason

➡️ Follow us on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram @pandpbookclub

👀 Check out what we've been reading at prideandprejudicebookclub.com!

A book so nice (and full of spice), we read it TWICE!

Emilie is joined this week by special guest Elizabeth Adams to discuss "one of the O.G. modern variations," (Elizabeth's words) also known as The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy by Sara Angelini. 

This story has been read by the fandom in some form or another for almost twenty years, and it's pretty clear that there are a lot of fans. While we have done a previous episode on this story, we heard listeners loud and clear: they wanted MORE! So we're back with a second look at this fan-favorite gem that honestly lives rent-free in our heads, anyway.

If you enjoy modern romance books and crave a LOT of Elizabeth and Darcy time, we think you'll love this book, too!

And a quick bonus for our listeners: Elizabeth Adams makes some exciting announcements about what she's been working on this summer...

🎙️ Hosted by Emilie Davis and Elizabeth Adams

🎵 Pride & Prejudice Book Club Theme composed, performed, and arranged by Megan Mason.

📚 Curious what we will be reading next? See a list of upcoming books at prideandprejudicebookclub.com!

➡️ Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or sign up for our newsletter at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/newsletter!

🌟 Check out Elizabeth's books at https://www.foxpinepress.com/

We’re taking a slight detour this week to watch something Emilie has had her eye on for quite a while: a musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice! As a musical theatre kid, she could only resist a singing Darcy for so long.

Joining her is her husband, Logan, who has made a few guest appearances on the podcast but has never had the co-host’s chair all to himself. Logan loved the musical and wanted to sing along; Emilie was slightly more picky. But they both found plenty to enjoy! From finally getting to hear Darcy’s inner thoughts to reveling in the ridiculousness that is Lady Catherine, the musical is full of fun and expressive moments that easily remind you why you fell in love with the story in the first place.

Have you ever seen a musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice? Let us know what you think!

🎙️ Hosted by Emilie Davis and Logan Davis

🎥 Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical directed by Robert Kelley, found on Amazon Prime (affiliate link)

🎵 Pride & Prejudice Book Club Theme composed, performed, and arranged by Megan Mason.

📚 Curious what we will be reading next? See a list of upcoming books at prideandprejudicebookclub.com!

➡️ Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or sign up for our newsletter at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/newsletter!

How much does how we read change what we read? Is the book we hear actually the same book as the one we read? We like to think our opinion of a book is about the story itself. But what if the format matters more than we realize?

We discuss all this and more as Janette Colon returns to the podcast for a conversation about the many ways we experience our favorite Pride and Prejudice variations. We're talking about physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks; which books we liked more (or less!) after hearing them narrated; and how much a narrator's interpretation can shape the characters, humor, and even the tone of a story.

We also get into the little things that make each format different: the tactile memories attached to a beloved physical book, the convenience of carrying an entire library on your phone, or the details we catch (or miss) when we're listening while doing something else.

And, because apparently reading books in three different formats wasn't complicated enough, we also wade into AI narration, Kindle Unlimited, supporting the authors and narrators we love, and why we're simultaneously begging our favorite authors to write faster while acknowledging that maybe, just maybe, good books take time.

Whether you read it, listen to it, or own it in every available format, we want to know: How do you experience your favorite variations?

🎙️ Hosted by Emilie Davis and Janette Colon

🎵 Music Credit: Pride & Prejudice Book Club Theme composed, performed, and arranged by Megan Mason.

📚 See a list of books we've read at prideandprejudicebookclub.com!

➡️ Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, and sign up for our newsletter at https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/newsletter!

✍️ Apply To Be a Co-Host Here: https://www.prideandprejudicebookclub.com/nerd

Ok, let's make this clear up front: we *have* to talk about Faceless by Alix James!

*Spoiler alert* we loved it. And we do spend a decent amount of time gushing about the book. But if we can't rave about a book to you, wonderful book clubbers, then who can we rave to? You know how much we love Elizabeth and Darcy. You understand what it's like to connect with a variation, even if the premise sounds insane when you try to explain it to someone who hasn't read it. You get us! If we can't talk to you, then what are we even doing here?

We think you'll love this book too if you like:

If you haven't read Faceless by Alix James, we strongly recommend that you give it a try. And if you don't love it, you can have a lifetime subscription to the podcast for FREE! 😉

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🎙️ Hosted by Emilie Davis and Sharon Cortez

Two Austen heroines. Two very different temperaments. One surprisingly delightful friendship.

Last week, Ada Bright and Cass Grafton told us that friendship is the connective thread running through all their books. This week, we got to see that idea in action as Elizabeth Bennet and Anne Elliot meet in Mr. Darcy’s Persuasion and quickly discover just how much they enjoy one another.

Of course, friendship isn’t the only relationship at the heart of this story. Anne is reunited with an injured Captain Wentworth, and a case of amnesia gives them both permission to make some very different choices. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is realizing that Darcy is not who she thought he was. Add in a blackmail plot and enough twists to keep both couples thoroughly occupied, and this Austen mashup gave us plenty to talk about!

There was just one small complication: Sharon hasn’t actually read Persuasion yet! So while Emilie compared these versions of Anne and Wentworth to their canon counterparts, Sharon got to meet them almost entirely through the eyes of Elizabeth and Darcy.

And bonus: the audiobook is read by friend of the podcast Harry Frost, who does an amazing job bringing this wide cast of characters to life!

What’s not to love?

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🎙️ Hosted by Emilie Davis and Sharon Cortez