Ladies of the House: A Modern Retelling of Sense and Sensibility
Author: Lauren Edmondson
Publisher: Graydon House
Released: February 9^th, 2021
Received: NetGalley

I received a copy of Ladies of the House in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Are you a fan of everything Jane Austen? Do you love seeing modern retellings of her works? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, you’re going to want to check out Ladies of the House, by Lauren Edmondson. It’s a modern-day retelling of Sense and Sensibility, and it’s guaranteed to move any Austen fan out there.

Daisy Richardson has had to deal with quite a lot of surprises, as of late. First, the sudden passing of her father. Then, the revelation of all his secrets – which hit the public before her family ever had a chance to cope.

Now she and the rest of the family are struggling to keep themselves together, while avoiding all of the mess and drama that these changes have wrought. In the times of internet and cell phones, that is a feat easier said than done.

“No longer caring about propriety, I held up the phone so they could see the latest Times news alert on my screen. Gasps, perhaps from them or from others, echoed in the room, one after the next.”

Ladies of the House is one of those retellings that will hit you right in the feels. At least, that is certainly what it did for me. It was impossible not to read about the Richardson ladies and not feel for their struggles.

The added context of the modern world both helped and hindered their case, in a delightfully complex turn of events. On the one hand, it’s easy to picture how technology would accelerate the drama and shame of the whole situation.

On the other hand, there’s this darker sense of politics and fortune that can’t be ignored, and it adds a whole new level of subtext to what this one family went through. For good and for ill, it does change the story quite a bit.

All things considered, this has got to be one of the better retellings that I’ve read, especially in regards to Jane Austen’s works. I strongly recommend Ladies of the House to anybody out there that struggled with the original (Sense and Sensibility), as this one should help to connect any of those missing pieces from your previous attempts.