The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet by Kate Rorick and Rachel Kiley

Hey guys! I'm back with another review! I know it's been a while since we've posted a review here so I decided to review this book I borrowed from the library a while back. This book is also based on the Lizzie Bennet Diaries webseries (check out my review to the companion book to that series, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, here) but it focuses more on the youngest Bennet sister, Lydia (who, coincidently, shares the same name as me so don't get confused haha).

The novel picks up after Lizzie's last vlog as Lydia tries to move on from her online scandal while preparing for college. She struggles to deal with the negative judgement and discrimination from her schoolmates as well as her own insecurities. As she tries to get her life back on track, she learns to trust others again and the importance of family.

I love how this book tells Lydia's side of the story and develops her character to become more mature. If you watched the Lizzie Bennet diaries series, Lydia was the ditzy, air-headed sister who loved clubbing, drinking and hooking up with boys. But now, she's really matured a lot and she's making a conscious effort to change the image others may have had of her before. The authors have said that they chose to focus on Lydia for this novel as they felt her story was the only one left incomplete by the end of the webseries. I'm glad they did, cos it gave me a lot of insight into her side of the story and how the scandal has affected her emotionally and mentally.

I haven't read Pride and Prejudice myself yet but from what I've gathered, Lydia Bennet wasn't a favourite character in the book for most people; she was just this frivolous wild child. So I'm glad that the webseries fleshed out Lydia's character a lot more and showed her more gullible, insecure nature. However, she still has that loud and sassy personality in her and it shows in the book as well, through her signature slang and way of speaking.

Plus, this book also features quite a bit of Mary Bennet, the Bennet sisters' cousin in this adaptation and a minor character in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries series but she's been in a lot of Lydia's personal videos on her YouTube channel. This book goes more in depth about her relationship with Lydia. Overall, it's a story about finding yourself again and becoming a better you and I highly recommend it if you enjoyed the webseries or the first book and you're curious about Lydia's development after the scandal.

Lydia