REVIEW; When Mary Met The Colonel

Title: When Mary Met The Colonel
Author: Victoria Kincaid
Genre: Adult, regency romance, retelling
Type: E-book
Publisher: Victoria Kincaid

Without the beauty and wit of the older Bennet sisters or the liveliness of the younger, Mary is the Bennet sister most often overlooked. She has resigned herself to a life of loneliness, alleviated only by music and the occasional book of military history.

Colonel Fitzwilliam finds himself envying his friends who are marrying wonderful women while he only attracts empty-headed flirts. He longs for a caring, well-informed woman who will see the man beneath the uniform.

A chance meeting in Longbourn’s garden during Darcy and Elizabeth’s wedding breakfast kindles an attraction between Mary and the Colonel. However, the Colonel cannot act on these feelings since he must wed an heiress. He returns to war, although Mary finds she cannot easily forget him.

Is happily ever after possible after Mary meets the Colonel?

This came highly recommended by the Mary Bennet Discord, with general consensus being “not long enough” and I have to say that I agree! This was a nice continuation of the original novel, with the characters not far from their canon counterparts – neither main character is far from their physical descriptions, not made too pretty or too smart. Simply fleshed out for minor characters.

The Mary of this novel is well-written, a girl who has been told often enough that she is neither pretty nor intelligent and so has internalised it even though she is not ugly nor unintelligent. She hides behind people’s expectations because she feels invisible in her house, and for the first time in her life finds herself seen by someone and finds it too good to be true. What I like is that there are no misunderstandings there, however. She genuinely believes the Colonel is just being nice and friendly because he is a good man who wouldn’t mind their unlikely conversation.

Meanwhile the Colonel finds Mary refreshing and intelligent and everything the ladies that throw themselves at him are not. I can’t say how accurate a representation of war things are, but I do think the novella captures this particular soldier’s sense of duty pretty well, as well as makes it clear from the start that he does want someone to share his life with eventually.

Can I just say Mary being far more well read (and hiding it) is such a favourite trope of mine? As is a wounded person’s last thoughts being of their loved one before succumbing to unconsciousness (and having to deal with that realisation when they wake up)? And I got both in this novella!

I did enjoy the fact that there was a bit of Mary realising people could (and did) show interest in her though maybe a little more jealousy would have been fun. What can I say? I love it when the wallflower has people vying for her hand.

All in all, I absolutely adored this so much and will reread eventually.

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