Review: Lydia

Lydia: The Wild Girl of Pride & Prejudice
Rating: 3/5 
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

A spirited, witty and fresh reimagining of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'! Lydia is the youngest Bennet sister and she's sick of country life - instead of sewing and reading, she longs for adventure. When a red-coated garrison arrives in Merryton, Lydia's life turns upside down. As she falls for dashing Wickham, she's swept into a whirlwind social circle and deposited in a seaside town, Brighton. Sea-bathing, promenades and scandal await - and a pair of intriguing twins. Can Lydia find out what she really wants - and can she get it? 

This book was tricky for me, I admired how the author created Lydia, or rather gave her more of a voice and kept the essence of the original story. I liked that Wickham wasn't romanticised and wasn't redeemed, I still don't like his character, and I liked the way the author filled in Lydia's time in Brighton and brought it to life. It was authentic and intriguing and towards the end I really felt for Lydia. I mean....she and Wickham where kind of suited to each other in a strange way, he was there for her a lot, but I still couldn't bring myself to like him, or their romance all that much. Yes there was the odd cute moment, but at the same time...they where settling for each other because they had to, to make the best of things. Because of money. 

When I read Pride and Prejudice, I dubbed Wickham "Dickham". That's how much I didn't like him, and nothing in this book makes him redeemable at all. He finds money and he goes after it, but I can admit that at times he was a good friend to Lydia, in his own self serving kind of way. I mean at the end I was like "aw this is cute...maybe he's not such a douche" but then the other shoe dropped and it was like ah Dickham. Still alive and well I see. 

I also didn't much like Lydia when I read Pride and Prejudice, I thought she was selfish, among other things. Reading Lydia reminded me how childish she was, and how shallow. I loved the diary entries and I loved reading about the world Lydia inhabits. I understand and can relate to how she feels, I can see her logic and her reasoning but I still couldn't quite like her in this book. But then she'd have her moments and I'd start to like her but then she'd screw it all up by being selfish or shallow and she'd start to bug me all over again. That's what she does. She bugs me. But I still felt for her and her romantic situation, I didn't get the romance between her and Wickham like she kind of implied at the end that they where all happy and there was a spark there but both of them's attitude took away from the romance a bit! Lydia's story is smoothly inserted in to P&P and the gaps in P&P and it's a good read either way. I just really don't like Lydia evidently! This book has hardcore given me the urge to re-read Pride and Prejudice too!