#janicehadlow

Wednesday, May 6th:

(exclusive): Citadel (APrime, spy thriller, season 2 available, all 7 eps), Love Is Blind: Poland (netflix, dating reality spinoff, all 5 eps), Worst Ex Ever (netflix, reality, season 2 available, all 4 eps)

(streaming shows): Criminal Record (appleTV), Margo's Got Money Troubles (appleTV), Widow's Bay (appleTV), The Boys (APrime), The House of the Spirits (APrime, next 2 eps), The Testaments (hulu), Gold Land (hulu|dsn+, next 2 eps), Divorced Sistas (Para+), Sold Out on You (netflix), Love Island: Beyond the Villa (peacock, next 2 eps, season 2 finale), The Other Bennet Sister (BritBox, Jane Austen spinoff, first 3 eps)

(hour 1): Chicago Med (NBC, penultimate), MasterChef (FOX), Survivor (CBS, 90mins), "Police 24/7" (theCW)

(hour 2): Chicago Fire (NBC, penultimate), The Floor (FOX), Survivor (CBS, contd) / . / America's Culinary Cup (CBS), Divorced Sistas (BET), "The Nancy Guthrie Mystery" (theCW, a NewsNation special)

(hour 3): Chicago P.D. (NBC, penultimate), America's Culinary Cup (CBS, contd, penultimate) / . / Hollywood Squares (CBS), Shared Planet (PBS, part 2 of four), Carl Weber's "The Family Business" (BET)

Pub date - 1/20/26

When I first started this, I felt completely hooked. Rooted in reality, the writing is rich and spans years of Lady Harriet’s past affair with the man she could never have. Never fear though, because society scorned Lady Harriet while her affair partner moved on without a stain to his name.

At almost 500 pages, this is long and sloooow going in parts, it’s less a romance than a character study. I liked it, but I can definitely how understand haven’t.

I’ve enjoyed reading Halow’s work before, and I look forward to future reads. Recommended, but with the caveat that this title wasn’t a personal favorite.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the DRC

by Fionuala Ronan

Given that ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of wife’, the matrimonial prospects of Mary Bennett, the ‘ugly duckling’ of the Bennett family, throughout Pride and Prejudice were considered hopeless.  Jane Austen pays scant attention to Mary, but in The Other Bennett Sister author Janice Hadlow is dedicated to giving her a second chance, at securing happiness away from the glare of her more dazzling sisters.

Hadlow takes time to trace Mary’s early life and looks at how she first began to feel different from her sisters.  She examines Mary’s attempts to educate herself with books and to become proficient at the piano. She wished to be considered accomplished and thereby gain the approval of her family and society.  This whole project is a dismal failure as nobody notices or cares. Mary, though dejected, is prompted by Charlotte Lucas, to look at her life anew and try again.  

After her sisters’ marriages Mary first lives at home with her indifferent father and her nervy disapproving mother.  Mrs Bennett is personally affronted by Mary’s plainness and because she cannot be married off easily, she becomes the object of her mother’s disdain and this ultimately makes life unbearable.  Mary stays with both of her sisters but is not happy in either house and then visits Charlottes’ and Mr Collins’ home which starts out promising but when her friendship with Mr Collins provokes Charlotte’s ire,  Mary has to move home again.  At this stage, the reader begins to think that Mary is a lost cause but when she accepts her Aunt Gardiner’s kind invitation to stay with her in London, Mary’s fortunes begin to slowly, but surely change for the better.  Mary begins her journey, albeit with some bumps along the way, towards happiness, and at last the reader begins to hope that all will work out for her.

The Other Bennett Sister is an absorbing, thoughtful and uplifting read and truly deserves a place in the Austen canon.