#Pride and Prejudice variation

[riverstories7]

Reverie & Rancour Now Available!

Thanks to all of you who have inquired about R&R becoming an ebook. I'm pleased to say that it's now available for pre-order on Amazon. The book will be released on 31 January, and at that time it will also be included in the Kindle Unlimited program.

[mrdarcysleftnut]

“Darcy,” Bingley called, “did you hear that? She called me a sensible man.”

“She has clearly gotten fatigued and delusional.”

Bingley puffed up dramatically. “An insult to Miss Elizabeth and myself? I’m affronted. A meeting at dawn.”

“You are more likely to oversleep than I.”

Bingley deflated, laughing.

-quote from "Starch and Strategy: A Variation on Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion (Sweet Regency Saga Book 1)" by Corrie Garrett

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/1kfjle1

[pennyngram]

Does anyone know where I could find a typical yearly schedule for Regency gentlemen in charge of an estate?

Basically, in which periods of the year were they "forced" to stay at the estate to supervise sowing or other Estate Important Tasks? I've been googling for 2 days without luck.

[stlgeekgirl]

Everything a Gentleman ought to be. #books #Bookreview #review #PrideandPrejudicevariation #JAFF

[ihatetbrlists]

Review #26: Love and Loathing

Love and Loathing, by Gigi Blume.

From my TBR? Nope.

A Pride and Prejudice modern retelling about musical actors? Hello??? Did you write this specifically for me?

Author, I salute you for your service and warmly shake you by the hand. This woman is a bigger theatre kid than I am. Guys, she chose Pirates of Penzance as the play the characters are playing in. If that's not dedication to the craft, I don't know what is.

And the puns. All those musical puns. I can't even tell you. THE WAITRESS REFERENCE. That was a stroke of genius. I should seriously check out the Emma-inspired second book in the series.

Verdict: Brilliant. Read this book if you like Pride and Prejudice or musicals or romance novels or are alive and breathing.

[listening-to-free-audiobooks]

Sir Walter Takes a Wife: A Sweet Regency Romance by Laura Hile

Faced with a lonely future and finding himself strapped for cash (as the young bucks say), Persuasion’s Sir Walter Elliot manfully decides that the time has come to marry again.

His choice is a young woman of breeding and distinction. But alas, Sir Walter’s vanity is his undoing. He refuses to use his spectacles and so sends a Valentine to the wrong Lady Catherine. What a disaster!

That is, until Sir Walter gets a look at the woman’s grand estate.

Will the man’s handsome appearance and powers of persuasion be enough to win Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s hand? Not if she has anything to say in the matter!

This lighthearted Valentine novella, splendidly brought to life by Ruth Redman, features two of Jane Austen’s worst snobs. Come enjoy the fun!

[firthbetterorfirthworse]

So... I had a late night thought and now I'm curious.

To some people she's very much Lizzie - to others she's firmly Elizabeth. The narrator refers to her as Elizabeth but her family calls her Lizzie, so I wonder if whether there's a narrator present changes how people think of her

(I count audiobooks as reading kthxbye)

[callonpeevesie]

Lizzie and Darcy are the type of couple to develop several different flavours of Eye Contacts To Make In Public. such as the "can you believe this bitch" eye contact and the "we need to leave now" eye contact

[bennetsbonnet]

Today, I finished reading The Darcys of Pemberley by Shannon Winslow and uhhh... I have many thoughts. I picked this up in a charity shop last week for £1.50, so it wasn't a big investment and my expectations going in were minimal, but even still, I'm disappointed because I really feel like it had potential!

I know that nothing will ever live up to the original. I'm not looking for perfection or even necessarily complete historical accuracy; if you tried your best, I can live with minor mistakes, we never lived in the Regency, after all. But, oh wow! this didn't even come close to leaving me with that same warm, fuzzy feeling that P&P always produces in me. It was quite the opposite.

Despite having low expectations, as I started reading, I had quite high hopes for this as one of the better continuations I've read, but the last 75 pages were absolutely baffling and I need to have a little rant because I just spent my precious time and energy reading that...

(Spoilers under the cut)

Content warning: character death, abortion, violence, sexual assault.

While I was enjoying some of the characterisation and I really felt like the author beautifully captured Elizabeth and Darcy's intimacy, in hindsight there were several warning signs that it was only going to end up a disappointment...

The goofiness started off when, fairly early on, Mr Collins choked on some mutton because he realised he was late visiting Lady Catherine??? Quite a funny demise for him, but I'm not sure he deserved that; Charlotte certainly didn't. I thought there would be some reason why he was killed to advance the plot, but as you'll see with where Charlotte ended up, that wasn't the case.

After the funeral the action shifted to Derbyshire where more characters were introduced, including the intriguingly named Mr Sanditon (huh??) and Mr Thornton (which may well have been a North and South reference). There was some sweetness with Bingley and Jane which was nice, but it eventually became apparent that Georgiana had an (unrequited) crush on Colonel Fitzwilliam after he became engaged to Anne de Bourgh.

Georgiana/Col. Fitzwilliam is quite a common trope, and I suppose it's because people like the thought of them together because of Georgiana's shyness, and marrying him would spare her from the ordeal of coming out, and obviously as the second son, he needs to marry well. But personally I am not a fan!! With him being her guardian and all, I just don't care for it and would prefer for Georgiana to end up with someone closer to her own age, who isn't her cousin.

Anywayyyy, Anne and Colonel Fitzwilliam didn't end up marrying because at the last moment, over dinner at Rosings, Anne stood up and declared she was going to marry a physician???? Like Lady Catherine would ever let that happen... but good for Anne, I guess.

The silliness continued when Caroline Bingley and the Hursts, at a dinner party, connived to force Darcy to invite them to Pemberley like a cast of villains. It was quite cheesy, but not as cheesy as Darcy continually sneaking off, and Elizabeth's psychic nightmares of an overturned carriage, which began on the journey back to Derbyshire!!!

Shortly after their return to Derbyshire, it was arranged for Wickham and Lydia to move into a farm cottage on the Pemberley estate and finally leave Jane and Bingley alone (they'd been staying with them for months, which is why Caroline and the Hursts were able to impose themselves upon Pemberley).

These plot points were all slightly questionable, but I was enjoying the writing style and some of the sweet moments between ODC (including Elizabeth revealing she was pregnant) so much that I was prepared to almost turn a blind eye.

That was, until I reached the last 75 pages, and all hell broke loose.

Darcy and Elizabeth had a disagreement as Elizabeth had been keeping Georgiana's feelings for Col. Fitzwilliam to herself as a promise to Georgiana. But Darcy thought she was hiding something else from him.

What, you may ask?

Well, that she had a relationship with Wickham(!!!), who had been blackmailing Darcy for months (hence him sneaking off) because he was still in love with Elizabeth. How did he convince Darcy? Why, by producing a love letter, addressed to him in Elizabeth's hand! And Darcy just... believed Wickham instead of... idk... asking his wife? Or trusting her?

The whole argument was resolved in, like, two pages. It transpired later that Lydia had been able to forge Elizabeth's handwriting because Lizzy taught her to write and she thought it would be a good joke to play on Darcy???? Wild.

Speaking of Lydia, she soon arrived at Pemberley and asked Elizabeth to give her 50 guineas for an abortion because she didn't want a child??? My jaw dropped. Lydia is silly and immature but that... is another level...

I thought it couldn't possibly get worse, but Darcy (who had told Elizabeth not to go out on her own after an incident where she fell asleep and woke up convinced someone was watching her??) went out early one morning, leaving Elizabeth alone. Wickham came to Pemberley and told her that Lydia had deliberately thrown herself down the stairs and was bleeding.

But it was all a ruse! Wickham was really abducting Elizabeth!! He drove the carriage down a random country lane, and attempted to force himself on her (luckily nothing more than kissing happened, but it was very uncomfortable). How did Elizabeth escape? Well, she stabbed him, the carriage overturned like in her dreams and he later died (I was a bit confused whether she directly killed him? But I can't be bothered to go back and check, I just wanted it to be over).

A few hours later, Darcy found a heavily pregnant Elizabeth injured in a bush and was obviously distraught. It was so pointlessly melodramatic and completely different to the tone of the rest of the book.

Luckily, Elizabeth was eventually fine and had the baby. It turned out that Colonel Fitzwilliam, despite staying in town with Georgiana as her guardian for months, did, in fact, have feelings for her!! They got married and everyone lived happily ever after, except Charlotte who was set to become Mrs Reynolds's replacement. Which makes no sense, just like Anne marrying a physician, given the rigid social hierarchy.

I had some other minor qualms, like Elizabeth still referring to Darcy by his surname rather than calling him Fitzwilliam... but those last 75 pages were just... utter madness and I'm still reeling from it??? I feel like, if you're marketing something as a sequel, you should stay within the same genre and not make characters act like they've been subjected to lobotomies. I also just hate to see Elizabeth and Darcy having bad things happen to them, they deserve their happily ever after. Some mild angst is to be expected, I guess, but please just let them have a nice life!! :(

Typing this out truly killed some of my braincells, but I needed to rant. I try not to publicly criticise other authors (or most things in general, I prefer to focus on things I love), and I certainly never would criticise someone who writes fanfic as a hobby. But this one was published and I'm genuinely disappointed with the ending.

Anyway, I'd probably advise you to give this one a miss. I've read some enjoyable continuations/variations, and I do think some of them can be done well, but this was almost comic in its absurdity towards the end.

[riverstories7]

Fixed Stars: A Pride & Prejudice Vagary

...is now available for pre-order!

Summary: In the autumn of 1811, Miss Bennet encounters Miss Darcy in Hyde Park, and the two swiftly strike up a friendship. Acute concern for his sister's happiness moves Fitzwilliam Darcy to propose marriage to the kind young lady. Only when he arrives in Hertfordshire does he discover that he is engaged to the wrong Bennet sister. Bound by honour to another, can Darcy ever confess his love for Elizabeth? And if he does, will scandal and ruin be the only result? Fixed Stars, the first book in the Primum Mobile duology, is a tale of thwarted longing and familial strife–but also of perseverance and triumphant love.

You can order your copy here, if you feel so inclined.

[mrdarcysleftnut]

"Cruel people those Cambridge folk, aren’t they?” here Bingley beamed a grin at Darcy. “Nobody ever behaved in such a brutish way at Oxford, I can tell you.”

“They are too busy learning to read and write over there,” Darcy kindly explained to Elizabeth and Jane.

-"The Unreformed Mr Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation" by Mei Wei Lin

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/8MiUCUZ

[pennyngram]

My reaction: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Has anyone else received this?

[stlgeekgirl]

Mouse found another one!

Mouse found another one! #BookReview #books #PrideandPrejudice #variations #LGBTQIA

You all know by now that I am here for a good Pride & Prejudice variation. If it mentions the novel, chances are I’m picking it up.After the queer YA version in Most Ardently, I found this one, Just as You Are. A lesbian-sapphic romance that touches on gender norms, expectations, transgender issues, homophobia and elder queers all while telling the story of Lizzie and Darcy. Or in this book, Liz…

[listening-to-free-audiobooks]

Dimensions of Darcy Series

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Traitor by Jennifer Joy

He is England's most wanted criminal… and she is stuck with him.

Besieged by highwaymen and left for dead in a snowstorm, Fitzwilliam Darcy seeks help only to get arrested for treason. A split-second decision forever attaches Elizabeth Bennet to his side, and now, they are on the run. When adversity reveals their true character, will Elizabeth regret her decision?

Together, they make a daring team, but their nail-biting adventure will be for naught if they cannot catch the real villain on time…

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Traitor is a sweet and clean romantic suspense variation of Jane Austen's timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice. It's the first book in the Dimensions of Darcy series of standalone novels.

Make sure to listen all the way to the end for an exclusive peek inside the writing and research that you'll only see here!

Happy Listening!

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Poet by Jennifer Joy

He's a famous poet… he just doesn't know it.

Fitzwilliam Darcy was burned once. Never again. Hiding his emotions, Darcy takes pride in his marble-like façade… until he meets a lady who threatens to expose his true character.

Elizabeth Bennet longs to meet the man whose poems touch her soul—the elusive Mr. Walter Wyndham. He is her ideal; her dream… and everything emotionless Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy could never be.

Stuck in each other’s company, Darcy’s carefully constructed barriers come crashing down when he discovers the secret identity of Elizabeth’s beloved poet. It’s him!

Will Darcy measure up to the man she’s been dreaming of for years? Will Elizabeth stubbornly pursue an illusion, or will she fall for an imperfect (and very real) man?

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Poet is a sweet and clean romance variation of Jane Austen's timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice. It's the second book in the Dimensions of Darcy series of standalone novels.

Make sure to listen all the way to the end for an exclusive peek inside the writing process that you'll only see here!

Happy Listening!

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Guardian—Sweet Regency Romance

Fitzwilliam Darcy will lie and break the law to keep his sister's newborn safe. When the only way to protect her is to have an heir of his own, his search for a trustworthy wife begins…

When Elizabeth Bennet's father falls gravely ill, she is willing to shoulder the responsibility of her family's care while maintaining her freedom — until she is forced to marry Mr. Darcy.

Through grief and betrayal, Darcy and Elizabeth learn to trust each other and work together to honor the promises they have made — including the vows they exchanged.

But a spiteful enemy from Darcy's past is determined to divide their family, and the law is on his side…

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Guardian is a sweet and clean romantic suspense variation of Jane Austen's timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice. It's the third book in the Dimensions of Darcy series of standalone novels.

Make sure to listen all the way to the end for an exclusive peek inside the writing process that you'll only see here!

🎧 Happy Listening!

[firthbetterorfirthworse]

I've read literally hundreds of variations and I don't think anything will ever top this

[linmeiwei]

A new Jane Austen variation… COMING SOON

I know it’s been a while but… my new book will be coming out soon!

In it, Darcy and Elizabeth are at Netherfield together: she’s on a mission to extract her ailing sister and he is on a mission to stop crushing on her already.

But here to spoil both their plans are the ghosts of Netherfield Park...

I’ll share more in the coming weeks but for now… a quick glimpse at my new cover, which I’m genuinely obsessed with.