First, the good: the prose is easy to read and clear,, and the relationships between the characters are enjoyable. The two tiered magic system is a very interesting one and I particularly liked the introduction of the repulsion as an element. I particularly liked Elizabeth’s dragon companion. 

The not so good: it was just trying to do too much in too few pages. There’s the whole Pride & Prejudice plot which honestly? I could have done without. It feels sillly to say that given the whole reason I picked this up was because of the P&P aspect but truly, it diverges from the plot so much that I would have rather just renamed everything and had it be its own original world. The book starts off throwing you in the deep end and continues to randomly drop totally new elements with big info dumps throughout, which breaks up the flow and enjoyment of the story. So many elements, characters, and conflicts are introduced for a story where plot wise, very little happens. I feel like the pacing was quite inconsistent and a near death experience is treated about the same as a rumor that Lizzy is cheating on her husband. 

Very fun concept, lots of great elements, but not quite there for me on the execution.