This was an odd one. I think I'm part of the group that would've rather this have been a separate world from Pride & Prejudice. I can understand why the writing style was so different from the original: the need to not simply copy for copy sake another author's work, the understanding that, most likely, the copy would've just fallen short of that original standard and the book would've suffered for it, and lastly, the very lives of the main characters in this book do not lend themselves to the witty satirical voice that was the original. But, at the same time, it was all so very different and the original P & P characters so completely removed from the main story line that I couldn't help wondering, why bother? Why make it a P & P-related novel if it was going to add no insight into the characters of the original? I would've rather, as many others have said, it not have taken place in Longbourn at all. 
 That said, when you consider it apart from P & P, I thought the writing lovely and the plot generally engaging. I didn't take offense to all the mentions of the grimier side of living, either. I thought the "big reveal," though very predictable, to be rather realistic as well. I just felt as if the P & P characters were so flat and under-developed that it took away from the story. I know the author was relying on the fact that if we were reading her book, we already had witnessed the growth and development in the characters' own novel. However, the glimpses we did see of those characters were so unlike those which we saw in the original book, that I rather think, in order to justify that big of a difference, Baker should've expanded upon those characters. I think that, had they not been P & P characters at all, she could have felt freer to develop them as she liked and produced a better-rounded novel. 
 But, with all that said, I still liked the book well enough to want to finish it rather quickly and see the resolution.