Nobody turned my head with compliments. Nobody asked me to dance.

An elegant accompaniment to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Jennifer Paynter’s The Forgotten Sister plucks the neglected Mary from obscurity and reveals her hopes and fears.

Mary Bennet spends much of her time apart from her family, closeted in her room reading or playing her music, studying hard for accomplishments.

As her four sisters become absorbed in their own romantic dramas, Mary stands apart, believing herself not pretty enough to dance with. She watches while Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley-and Mr. Wickham-waltz into her sisters’ lives, judging all three gentlemen quite dispassionately (and as it turns out, accurately). But Mary may not be quite so clear-sighted when she finally falls in love herself. She will first have to overcome her own brand of pride and prejudice.