Is there anyone more well-suited to writing a modern Pride and Prejudice update than Curtis Sittenfeld? Unsurprisingly, there is not. She takes the Bennet sisters and places them in Cincinnati circa 2013. Jane and Liz are summoned from their lives in New York City upon learning of their father's cardiac arrest. Mary, Kitty, and Lydia still live at home, but none of them are particularly well-equipped to deal with, well, problems in general. Mrs. Bennet remains the most unchanged, which means that she's more focused on the country club and her undiagnosed catalog shopping addiction. Mrs. Bennet finagles an invite to a friend's Fourth of July barbecue, where Chip Bingley, former star of the marriage reality show Eligible will be in attendance. His best friend and neurosurgeon, Fitzwilliam Darcy, is also there and he immediately offends Liz. You might be able to guess what happens next, but not all of the plot points are immediately predictable. It's absolutely thrilling. 
 I don't really want to say much more for fear of ruining the magical experience of finding out what's in store for the Bennet girls. Most characters stay the same, whereas some turn out even worse in modern times. (Jasper Wick, I'm looking at you.) And while I love The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Eligible is far more biting than LBD, which I believe is needed for a true P&P adaptation. Another obvious difference is the age of the characters--I love the young, twenty-something take in LBD, but in Eligible, Jane is nearing forty and that gives the book a greater sense of desperation, at least from Mrs. Bennet's view. 
 The book stays fairly close to the source material, but I mostly really enjoyed the places where it strayed. (I'm not totally sold on the last fourth of the book, but don't let that worry you.) Lots of humor, wry observations, and marvelous chemistry guarantee that everyone will be reading this book this summer. 
 {4.5 stars} 
 (I received an advance copy from NetGalley. Eligible comes out on April 19th.)