Book Review: First Impressions by Debra Smith White

Title: First Impressions: A Contemporary Retelling of Pride and Prejudice
Written By: Debra Smith White
Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance
Recommended Ages: 15 and up (due to mention of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and drug use)

Introduction:

One of my favorite Jane Austen books is Pride and Prejudice, so when I had the opportunity to read this book, I took it to see how the author managed a contemporary retelling of the book. The way she wove in Pride and Prejudice was interesting, but I honestly had a hard time reading the book. For more specifics, keep reading.

Characters: .75/1

For the most part, the characters were well-written, interesting, and developed. There were times when I had a hard time understanding the reactions the characters had, but they were few and far between.

Dialogue: .75/1

I thought the dialogue was good. It was realistic for both the parts that were quoted from Pride and Prejudice as well as for the parts set in contemporary times. On occasion, I felt like the dialogue could have been written better, but overall it was good.

Plot/Storyline: .5/1

Since this is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice there were parts that were changed from the original and that was fine as it made things more realistic for modern times. However, there were also parts that I had issues with. I won’t get into them too much since the issues I had were parts that would spoil the book, but the way she handled Wickham and Georgianna’s retold characters was a little disappointing to me, especially since Georgianna is one of my favorite characters.

Overall Writing Quality: .75/1

I thought that overall, the writing quality was good. I found Debra’s writing style a little hard to follow sometimes, but not all the time. I did find a couple typos, but they were minor ones. My main issue with the writing is that there were times I found myself skimming a page and realizing I missed an important detail and had no idea what was going on after half a page.

Un-put-down-ability: .5/1

I actually found the book easy to put down for the first half. After that it started to pick up more and actually be interesting to read. Luckily I had plenty of time to read at that point, so I could finish it.

Conclusion: 3.25/5

 

If you like Pride and Prejudice, you would probably enjoy this fresh look at the story. I found it a little hard to read at times mostly due to the writing style, but otherwise I did enjoy the book.

Note: I received this book from the publisher and all thoughts in this review are my own.