Heart Stone – Elle Katharine White

This story is Pride and Prejudice with dragons. So take the basic social story of P&P and insert it into a world where there are a variety of supernatural creatures, some that work with humans, and some against. Merybourne Manor is far enough out in the country that affording to hire dragon riders is a rather big deal. But when the youngest Bentaine sister is killed by a gryphon in broad daylight, Lord Merybourne is honor bound to put together the money for some dragon riders. They’re all shocked when the head of the party that arrives is a member of the Daired family, the foremost dragon bonded family in the kingdom. And you can pretty much tell where things go from here.

I did enjoy how the author played with the various characters – the Brysneys (Bingleys) are twins, and the sister is an equal to her brother. Daired’s family is also given some complexity, and the whole Rosings subplot is more interesting for it. The Wickham standin might actually be a little over the top on the bad side, but it works well within how the story turns at the end.

This is actually the first book of a series, but it is the complete story of P&P, so you could end here and not have to read the other books. I’m actually a little torn about going further – I’ve gotten to the end of the story I’m expecting, so I’m oddly leery of reading more.