Ladies of the House by Lauren Edmondson (Review by Caitlin Winkler)

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors, if not my favorite author, of all time. I say this with 100% confidence because she was brilliant, and her books are absolutely wonderful. If you have not yet read any of her works, I highly recommend making 2021 your year to read at least one. Due to the popularity of Jane Austen, there have been many retellings that I have read over the years, and many more I am sure that I have not yet read. These tend to be retellings of Pride and Prejudice, which I have no complaints about as this happens to be my favorite Jane Austen novel. What I have not seen as many of is retellings of Austen’s work Sense and Sensibility. Ladies of the House by Lauren Edmondson fills in that gap and gives the reader an amazing story filled with incredible characters while keeping to a very good retelling of Sense and Sensibility.

Daisy Richardson is a woman who likes her days planned and her life organized. When her Senator father dies and a huge scandal is revealed, her quiet and orderly life becomes very chaotic, very quickly. Daisy, her mother Cricket, and her sister Wallis now have to navigate this new life-starting with the selling of their family home. Along the way, they will learn what it means to own your own life and have the courage to speak up. With Daisy’s reliable best friend Atlas as a perfect Austen love interest, could this become another complication?

I really enjoyed this novel as, while it is based on a classic that has romance at its core, it also heavily focuses on a fantastic bond between sisters and their mother. The relationship between Daisy and Wallis was great. The scandal, relationships, politics, and setting all come together to make an engaging read that had me interested and entertained. Lauren Edmondson’s first novel was truly wonderful, and I look forward to her future books.