Without Pride and Prejudice

De: Jennifer Peel

Narrado por: Stephanie Rose, Will Watt

Can their love conquer pride and prejudice?

Ever since I first read Pride and Prejudice at twelve years old, I’ve dreamed of being Elizabeth Bennet. That dream is now about to come true. I, Monroe Wilde, the woman some could argue isn’t exactly Elizabeth Bennet material, have been chosen to play the beloved heroine for one week at Pride and Prejudice Park, a destination experience for Jane Austen devotees. To make this dream even more amazing and surreal, my best friend, the Duke of Blackthorne, Alastair Fitzroy, has volunteered to play my Mr. Darcy.

If this wasn’t fantastic enough, it appears my broody and ridiculously attractive best friend, who I’ve done my best not to fall in love with, wants to be my real-life Mr. Darcy as well. But there are some gigantic obstacles standing in our way. For starters—I’m not exactly duchess material, and we run in very different circles. Dating me would most certainly make him a social pariah. But the biggest problem of all is that, well . . . I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but somehow after a horrible mishap at the park, I find myself more than just pretending to be Elizabeth Bennet—I land smack dab in the middle of the actual Pride and Prejudice story.

So since I’m here and unsure whether it’s a dream or if Pride and Prejudice really is heaven, I figure I’ll just help move things along and make sure everyone gets a happy ending, even Mr. Collins. But leave it to me to mess up the quintessential love story of all time. What happens if I can’t get Mr. Darcy to fall in love with Elizabeth? Will I ever get back to Alastair? Will I ever become the Elizabeth I so wish to be? And I have to wonder: can my world exist without Pride and Prejudice?

USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Peel presents an enchanting friends-to-lovers story with a Pride and Prejudice twist.

©2025 Jennifer Peel (P)2025 Jennifer Peel

BINGE WORTHY

First off, just make sure you have a whole day of nothing so that you can binge listening to this book while doing house work. Absolutley amazing! The dual narrator aspect made this book COME TO LIFE. I loved the was each. narrator took the character and made the story feel like you were right there with them.

This book has everything. The perfect meet up. The perfect setting. The perfect banter. The perfect opposites. Everything made me want to keep listening but also left me wanting SO much more. This book is for everyone. Take a day, grab your headphones, take a drink, and sit in the sun and read this book. You will NOT regret it.

Fantastically Delicious

Reading a book and loving it is one thing. A big thing!! Listening to it, narrated by two of the best, is a next level experience. This dual narration, complete with British accents, was so deliciously scrumptious. I loved listening to this book from start to finish. Swoon levels were high with this one!

Pride and Prejudice has never been so swoony!

I absolutely loved this story and the audiobook version was a true delight! We are talking yummy yummy romance. I loved both Monroe and Fitz; the dual POV just gave so much depth and added to the romance for me. I loved Peel’s twist on Pride and Prejudice and how original everything felt. It was a super cute and fun story. Will Watt knocked it out of the park with Fitz’s accent and honestly, he can narrate Fitz taking Duke to me any day. Stephanie Rose continues to shine in her performance of Peel’s heroines and I couldn’t have asked for a better combo to bring to life this story. It’s a beautifully done audiobook and I fully recommend it!

SWOONWORTHY

Wow what a incredible ride! This has to be one of the best Pride and Predjudice retelling I have heard!
The narrators were simply Fantastic at bringing the characters to life, and Stephanie nailed it on her Fitz voice!

Fitz, wow I just can't say enough about how swoonworthy he truly was! Monroe is such a fun and sassy character, I absolutely loved her! She truly was the best Elizabeth!
The story and plot was truly a romance reader's dream come true! It had me feeling all the feels, and left me smiling ear to ear.

Well done Jennifer and narrators, you truly left me speechless and absolutely in love with this story! Please listen and read this book, you won't be sorry!

Swoony!!

I loved this book! The characters are so well written and the romance is just perfect! The narration was amazing!!!

Be Still My Heart!!! I Love These Two Narrators!!!

Calling all Pride & Prejudice fans, and those who haven't yet discovered its goodness!!! Monroe and Fitz are well versed in the amazingness of P&P and can help bring your education up to par. And you won't be disappointed! You'll be a fan before you even know it happened and you'll be wanting to join Monroe in living out her P&P daydreams by running away to Pride & Prejudice Park. A fabulous cast of characters round out this amazing book!!!

I've read the book and listened to the audiobook. I loved listening to Stephanie Rose and Will Watt. They're amazing! I could listen to them all day, everyday! They did a fabulous job bringing these characters to life. Their acting and voice inflections just added such a great depth to this amazing book! Especially when Fitz was talking Darcy! *Swoon*

I loved how Jennifer Peel wrote this book! I couldn't stop grinning right from page one when we met the spunky Monroe and see her first interaction with the Duke. I honestly laughed out loud...so hard! I knew from that initial scene that I was going to fall head over heels for Monroe and Fitz. And I did! They captured my heart and I spent the rest of the book cheering them on.

I loved seeing their history through several scenes and coming to understand more about their love and friendship. It's complicated! But it made me cheer even harder for Fitz to get his act together and just tell Monroe! And y'all are going to be fist pumping the air and cheering for him from the moment you know he's all in! *Holy Swoon* All of the heart eyes and clapping and cheering for Monroe's boy Fitz!!!

He's really good at writing letters and talking. You might need to remind yourself multiple times that he is not the man for you, he belongs wholly and unequivocally to Monroe. I don't think there's anyone who sees them that doubts that. *Heart eyes* I'm soooo beyond excited for the audiobook and the narrator that the author was able to get for Fitz. I've heard a sample of him reading one of the letters and let's just say that y'all are going to be in Heaven!!!

There are some ups and downs but they make this journey and adventure worth every moment! It was so cleverly done! I'm not going to say anymore other than just read the book and enjoy this beautiful, witty, and delightfully charming story for yourself.

Thank you to Jennifer Peel for writing this story that I didn't know I needed. It's one of your best yet and is one of my favorite books ever!!! Monroe & Fitz will always have a place in my heart!

Content: Some kisses, some mild innuendos.

I received a copy from the author but have also purchased my own. All thoughts and opinions in the review are my own.

Happy Reading!!!

Best contemporary P&P re-telling!!😍🫠

Will Watt and Stephanie Rose bring this amazing story to life! I read the book before listening to it on audible and all my hopes and dreams of this book being narrated came true!! The American girl and the British Duke was done so well!! 🫠🫠

“Fitz was good—so good. Better than Mr. Darcy, in my estimation. Sorry, Jane Austen.”

If you love Pride and Prejudice and an amazing friends to more trope, this book is for you!!
Jennifer created such an incredible back story of Monroe and Fitz’s friendship that developed this story into an absolutely swoon worthy read!!! The dual first person point of view added so much to this story and I could not get enough of Fitz and Monroe’s relationship!!! Their story reminds us all of the theme of Pride and Prejudice: Redemption.

Loved this modern take on P&P

I read this based on a recommendation from the Pride and Prejudice Book Club Podcast. This ended up being a fresh enjoyable P&P variation.

In the story, you get an amazingly loving and caring Monroe, who is able to see the joy in life and desires to be a help to anyone she sees in need. At the beginning of the story, we meet two young teenagers who end up becoming lifelong friends because they can see each other for the true people they are not what the world sees them as. They navigate class, financial, society, and cultural differences. Then take them both on a fun experience of dropping them into a reenactment experience of Pride and Prejudice. The characters that are introduced are absolutely fun to see interacting with our main characters. I absolutely enjoyed the couple who played Mr. and Mrs. Bennet.

This is not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice but putting in characters in a similar circumstances and seeing how life changes.

I did get the audiobook to go with, and that was enjoyable especially with the double narrators.

I love it!!

I'm having a hard time finding the right words to describe how I feel about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end and don't feel my humble words can do it justice. I marked so many passages—the swoony ones, the ones that made me laugh, and the ones that touched my heart.

"I am not Elizabeth. And I do not want to be loved despite who I am. I want to be loved for who I am."

Oh. My. Word. Don't we all want to be loved for who we are, not DESPITE who we are? I'd never thought about that until Monroe said it!! We all have oddities and want the people in our lives to love us, oddities and all, not love us despite them. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

I loved the prologue! Getting to see Monroe and Fitz (aka Alastair Fitzroy, Duke of Blackthorne) from their first meeting as teenagers, through the years to the present time gives the reader a lot of backstory and we have a better understanding of the complications of their friendship, and why neither of them has made any moves to try to get out of the friendzone.

I loved how Monroe cared about others and wanted to help even though she wasn't very good at it. At times it drove me crazy, and I found myself telling her "stay in her lane", "mind your business" or "let it go", but the girl didn't listen, which led to several mumbled, "I told you!" Nevertheless, I loved Monroe and would love to have a friend like her. I found how Monroe treats Fitz's mother hilarious—she treated her a lot better than I would have.

Fitz, Fitz, Fitz! Can that man write a letter!! Holy swoon!! But then he goes and does something so Darcy-like I wanted to Gibbs slap him through my Kindle! And to do it after that kiss!! That made it even worse. Thankfully, he realized his mistake fairly quickly and proceeded to try and make up for it. I was rooting for him the entire time.

This novel is a love letter to Austen fans, filled with wit, charm, and an endearing heroine. Monroe’s journey is not just about romance but also about self-acceptance and finding where she truly belongs. The chemistry between Monroe and Fitz is swoon-worthy, and their friends-to-lovers journey adds to the plot.

This book deserves all the love and is a must-read for those who adore Jane Austen retellings with a fresh, whimsical twist. It’s heartfelt, romantic, and full of laugh-out-loud moments—perfect for anyone who has ever wished to step into the pages of their favorite book.

The narrators are fantastic!! Stephanie Rose is one of my favorite narrators and Will Watt was great as a British aristocrat. They really made the book come to life.

So delightfully adorable!

What you'll love:
best friends to lovers
dual pov
quirky FMC
aristocratic MMC
Pride and Prejudice park
opposites attract
Monroe's dream
Fitz...nuff said
THAT FIRST KISS!!!!
memorable side characters
the letter
Perfectly perfect ending

AHHH!!! Be still my heart because there is another Darcy in town who has most definitely gained my good opinion!! Jane Austen fans and lovers of romance everywhere are in very great danger of falling in love with Alistair Fitzroy and this adorably swoony romance that had me reaching for my smelling salts.

Fitz and Monroe are soooo perfect together! Monroe's quirkiness contrasted so well with Fitz's stoic behavior. Once they allowed the sparks between them to catch, it quickly turned into a bonfire! So much tension and chemistry and oh my, the way Fitz adored her!! (insert all the melty emojis here) Loved the unique and fresh take on a classic and the crazy plot twist that made my Pride and Prejudice loving heart sooo happy. The narrators did a fantastic job bringing the story to life and oh my, that accent!!!!

So much charm and heart and warmth in this unforgettable romance. It was a combination of two of my favorite worlds and I loved every minute of it! Undoubtedly a new favorite that I will be re-reading for years to come. Go read this and fall in love with Darcy and Elizabeth all over again along with new favorite characters.

CW: mild innuendo between married couple, makeouts with tongue mentioned, couple of mild Bible swears

I received a complimentary audiobook but a positive review was not required.