Arc Review: Accomplished by Amanda Quain

Georgiana Darcy gets the Pride & Prejudice retelling she deserves in Accomplished, a sparkling contemporary YA featuring a healthy dose of marching band romance, endless banter, and Charles Bingley as a ripped frat boy.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Georgiana Darcy should have been expelled after The Incident with Wickham Foster last year – at least if you ask any of her Pemberley Academy classmates. She may have escaped expulsion because of her family name, but she didn’t escape the disappointment of her big brother Fitz, the scorn of the entire school, or, it turns out, Wickham’s influence.

But she’s back for her junior year, and she needs to prove to everyone—Fitz, Wickham, her former friends, and maybe even herself—that she’s more than just an embarrassment to the family name. How hard can it be to become the Perfect Darcy? All she has to do is:

– Rebuild her reputation with the marching band (even if it kills her)

– Forget about Wickham and his lies (no matter how tempting they still are), and

– Distract Fitz Darcy—helicopter-sibling extraordinaire—by getting him to fall in love with his classmate, Lizzie Bennet (this one might be difficult…)

Sure, it’s a complicated plan, but so is being a Darcy. With the help of her fellow bandmate, Avery, matchmaking ideas lifted straight from her favorite fanfics, and a whole lot of pancakes, Georgie is going to see every one of her plans through. But when the weight of being the Perfect Darcy comes crashing down, Georgie will have to find her own way before she loses everything permanently—including the one guy who sees her for who she really is.

• Title: Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel
• Author:  Amanda Quain
• Publisher: Wednesday Books
• Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
• Genre: Contemporary, Retellings 
• Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
• Targeted Age Range: YA
• Content Warnings: Mentions of drugs and drug dealing, mentioned past death of a parent, parental abandonment, emotional and mental manipulation, blackmail, bullying, underage drinking, grief
• Rating: ★★★★☆

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I love anything and everything related to Pride and Prejudice. As of late, I have been obsessively thinking about Pride and Prejudice. I just finished my millionth rewatch of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and a reread of Pride and Prejudice. Because of my deep love for P&P/Jane Austen in general, I usually check out every retelling that I can get my hands on. I’ve always been interested in Georgiana as a character and while I understand why we didn’t learn too much about her in the original novel, I’ve always wanted to know more about her. When I heard that Accomplished was a story focused on Georgie, I just knew that I needed to add it to my TBR!

I absolutely loved seeing this imperfect and real version of Georgiana. I loved her narration; she was witty and charming, but also really honest and open about what she was going through and how she was struggling. That internal honesty didn’t always translate to vocally expressing it, but that’s understandable, especially for a young girl. Being completely honest and truthful with your feelings is hard at any age, but it can be especially difficult when you’re a teenager and you feel like people don’t understand you.

Georgie goes through a lot of growth throughout the book. I would call this Georgie’s Elle Woods era. She knows how badly she screwed up last year — though not all of it is her fault — and she desperately wants to make things right. She wants to prove that she’s not a total screw up and that she is worthy of the Darcy name (sweet girl you have nothing to prove). While she definitely does not always go about things the right way, I appreciated that she continued to try. There were many times where she easily could’ve given up, in fact, there were times where I thought that she was going to give up, but she didn’t. I think it takes an incredible amount of strength to keep trying even when you’re being consistently shut down and told that nothing you do is going to change how others perceive you. Georgie was fierce, determined and tenacious, and I really respected her.

Something that definitely surprised me was the change in Georgie and Darcy’s relationship from the original novel. I’m so used to seeing Darcy be such a doting brother, that seeing him in a more emotionally distant relationship with her took some time to get used to. Although, this version of Georgie and Darcy have had different experiences than their original versions. In this story, their father died before Fitz (in this story Darcy goes by Fitz) was even sixteen, their mother abandoned them shortly after, and then Fitz emancipated himself once he turned sixteen to take care of himself and Georgie, so I see why Fitz was the way that he was. Both he and Georgie were holding onto so much pain and grief but didn’t know how to share it with each other, and ultimately, that’s what caused their rift. It was great to see the two grow past that and get back to the relationship that they had before their father’s death, but the journey really was difficult.

While they certainly were not the focus, I loved every moment we got to see Fitz and Lizzie together — and every moment we saw Georgie playing matchmaker. I think that Amanda Quain did a really great job of capturing the essence of Lizzie and Darcy’s original love story from the small tidbits that we see of them, both from actual on-page interactions and through Georgie’s view of them. There was one instance in particular that I won’t discuss in detail because of spoilers, but the way that Lizzie was able to reach him and sooth him was really incredible and I could absolutely see it happening in the original P&P universe. Additionally, I loved the bond Georgie and Lizzie developed.

This book was also really funny. The writing was very clever and there were moments that had me laughing out loud. I thought it was great that Quain threw in some fun pop culture references (like Georgie writing fanfiction, and having her own AO3 and Tumblr accounts), Georgie’s favorite TV show Sage Hall that had some big Downton Abbey vibes, and Camp Sanditon to reference Austen’s last novel. I loved all those little details, and they brought me a lot of joy. Plus, I never thought I would hear any version of Fitzwilliam Darcy use the phrase “slide into your DMs” and it was one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while because of the sheer ridiculousness of it all. I love books that can make me laugh hysterically in one chapter, and completely break my heart in the next. It’s the duality of it all.

Georgie’s relationship with Wickham truly broke my heart. It was giving a lot of All Too Well (Ten Minute Version) Taylor’s Version vibes, as well as some Illicit Affairs vibes — specifically the line “don’t call me kid” as Wickham loved to call Georgie “kid” every chance he got.. At the start of the book, although Georgie has said that she wants absolutely nothing to do with Wickham anymore, he still has some sort of hold on her, and as the story goes on, you see that hold loosen and go away completely. I was so proud of her for standing up to him, and really realizing just how horrible he was.

Obviously, in this house we hate George Wickham with every fiber of our beings, and we hate him in every adaptation. The version of Wickham that is in Accomplished is easily one of my most hated versions of him. Which is 100% the point! He is truly vile. I would say that 99% of my notes about Wickham while reading were along the lines of “he’s a garbage human, I hate him”. He was running a drug selling business from Georgie’s dorm room without her knowing, and yet she got all the blame instead of him. It was insane! Because of his good looks and charm everyone gave him the benefit of the doubt instead of making him take the blame for his actions and getting expelled, I cannot remember the last time I was so angry with a fictional character. I think that Quain did such a fantastic job of showing his toxicity, arrogance, manipulation, and condescension. He was gaslighting her at every opportunity — and I don’t use that term lightly — and treated her like some thing he could use and then discard when she was no longer useful to him. His characterization is absolutely spot on, and it’s so clear that he was an older, more experienced guy preying on a girl who was desperate to feel seen, and loved, and heard. 

On the flip side, we have Avery. Avery was Georgie’s friend before the entire situation with Wickham went down, and he’s the first person to welcome her back to Pemberley. Avery definitely has reasons to be upset with Georgie, considering she spent a lot of the year before ditching him and marching band practice to hang out with Wickham, but he doesn’t hold it against her. They were honestly just the CUTEST friends to lovers, and I loved how he really listened to her. Of course, they go through a big argument (who doesn’t love some drama) but what I really appreciated was how both of them actually took time to think and process what the other person had said and realize that they weren’t completely wrong. Also, y’all, he brought her a burrito. If that isn’t true love, I don’t know what is (can you tell I love burritos?). It was just really great to see Georgie in a caring and supportive relationship after being completely manipulated by Wickham.

My only real complaint is that I wish there was more diversity within the characters. With the exception of brief mentions of one of Georgie’s female classmates being in a relationship with another girl, the characters were very white (unless I missed something) and heteronormative. However, I never want bad diversity just for diversity’s sake, so I do appreciate that Quian didn’t just throw in characters of color and then not develop them in any way. I was glad that there were discussions of wealth and privilege, as the Darcy’s are an insanely wealthy family — we’re talking homes in multiple countries with full time staff always ready in case one of the kids decides to unexpectedly show up, and I think it was important that Georgie processed just how privileged she was. It’s not like she was trying to throw that privilege in anyone’s faces, in fact, any time she used her privilege I think she was trying to help and hoping that it would bring people joy. But privilege is privilege, and even if you’re not doing it intentionally, it can come off insincere or like you’re showing off. She and Fitz actually have a great conversation about privilege and how their lives are different because of it which I felt was an important lesson.  

Oh, and I must take a moment to discuss Charlie Bingley. I never knew that I needed Frat Boy!Charles Bingley in my life, but apparently I did because he was my FAVORITE. He was like an adorable golden retriever who was just so happy to be around his friends. I loved that right away he was like “Georgie is Fitz’ sister, therefore she is my friend as well” he was just really sweet and supportive, and it was so adorable how the second he met her, he took Georgie under his wing. I would read a million stories about this version of Charles Bingley.

Overall, I think that Accomplished is an incredibly strong debut novel and I am so excited to see what Amanda Quian writes next!

Links for Accomplished: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop | IndieBound