Review: Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

I have to start by saying that the title of this book drives me a bit bonkers. What on earth is so wrong with proper grammar? Really? OK, now that that is off my chest, I can get to the substance of the review, because really, I did enjoy the book overall. It was cute and undemanding and fun.

Emily, who manages an old time independent bookstore in NYC, is almost 30 and she's giving up on men. Her last dates (yes, plural) have been hideous and she's had enough. So when she tries to explain why to her slightly eccentric assistant, she holds the chivalrous and moral Mr. Darcy up as the gold standard to which she compares all men. Obviously this won't get her very far with real men. When Stella tries to poo-poo Emily's explanations and convince her to go on a drink and man filled vacation to Mexico, Emily instead impulsively books a trip to England, visiting many of the places Jane Austen immortalized. Of course when she arrives for her tour, she finds that all the other tour members save one are women of a certain age. The one person who isn't? Well, Spike is a reporter trying to understand what it is about Mr. Darcy that so attracts women. He's also rather abrasive and obnoxious and he and Emily rub each other the wrong way right from the get go. However, Emily is no paragon of virtue either, being snippy and nasty to Spike simply because he calls her ordinary.

As the tour goes on, Emily gets herself into scrape after scrape, often being rescued by Spike. In her crazy adventures, she meets the real Mr. Darcy although whether he is a figment of her imagination or not remains to be seen. But she's desperately attracted to Mr. Darcy even though she starts to see cracks in his perfection. She's starting to realize that what's on the page of an Austen novel might not translate well to real life. And her relationship with Spike is parallelling Pride and Prejudice almost perfectly although Emily is blind enough that she cannot see this.

The secondary characters here are funny but fairly one dimensional although they do provide the plot with a much needed push here and there. Potter's Darcy is not half as appealing as Austen's and I'm still confused as to how he can possibly say he's fallen in love with Emily. But I appreciate that this is a necessary plot point so... Emily and Spike's relationship, on the other hand, is contentious and combative and seemingly out of the blue. And because they have spent so much time being enemies, the ending is rather abrupt and unearned. Even with these criticisms, because I am a sucker for a great premise and because I like P&P parallels, I did enjoy this one. It's probably not of great interest to anyone who isn't a bit of a silly P&P fan as well as forgiving of the myriad sequels. Sweet and an easy read, this is chick lit with the merest of morals at the end.

Review: A Little Bit Psychic by Aimee Avery

I can be counted on to pick up just about any Jane Austen prequel, sequel, or continuation that I can get my hands on and this book fell prey to my fascination for all things Austen and Austen-related. Unfortunately, it not only didn't live up to the marvelous book Austen created. Other than sharing character names, there was no resemblance at all to the Lizzy and Darcy that we all know and love.

The premise of the story is that Lizzy and Will are modern day characters but they still have internal obstacles to their love. Lizzy is a PhD candidate who is living in England while finishing her degree. Will runs his father's company and is a favorite of the tabloid papers. They've known each other since they were younger, when Lizzy had a huge crush on the older Will, but they haven't met at all in the time Lizzy's been in England. When they do finally cross paths, they step into the family relationship they once had before progressing to a full blown affair. But it's not happily ever after for them as their pigheadedness with each other causes a misunderstanding and jeopardizes their happily ever after even though modern Lizzy has seen psychic visions that seem to ensure their eventual togetherness.

The psychic bits of the novel are a little odd but would be fine if they weren't coupled with a ridiculously silly and stupid Lizzy. She has none of the sparkling wit and intelligence found in Austen. Both she and Will are very thinly defined as characters and the plot in which they hang is also merely an outline, underdeveloped and anemic. The dialogue between characters is incredibly stilted and the amount of exposition contained in the awkward dialogue is much greater than it should be. None of the secondary characters is recognizable, so changed and watered down they are. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, it is a little disturbing that the adult Will admits to highly prurient imaginings about the child Elizabeth, excusing himself by saying (as he reflects on the last time they met years ago) that her 12 year old body was really the body of a 20 year old. I had a lot of trouble getting past that ick factor. Darcy as Humbert Humbert is just not right. And the sexual scenes between the adult Lizzy and Will are a bit much given the very short length of the book. Really, they are about the only detailed thing in the book. Sad to say, but I was definitely disappointed in this one.

Review: Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston

As Pride and Prejudice fans the world over know, there is only one Jane Austen and she did not write a follow-up to her beloved novel. So we are left with modern authors trying to take pen in hand (keyboard in fingers just doesn't sound as good, does it?) and explore the world so many of us are loathe to leave once the last page is turned.

This isn't properly a sequel really as it takes on a whole raft of new characters in the persons of Darcy and Lizzie's five daughters but it does include some of the characters from the original. Wait, you say. You think you've read something before about five unmarried daughters, some of whom get into scandals or scrapes. Yes, Aston has tried to mimic the form of the original. However, she has done this to the detriment of the original Austen characters. Darcy and Lizzie have left for a diplomatic posting in Constantinople, leaving the chaperonage of their five daughters to Colonel Fitzwilliam and his wife. This diplomatic posting means that we don't get to see our favorite hero and heroine at all. And amazingly, the Darcy daughters are as silly or flighty or rigid as the Bennet sisters were. Colonel Fitzwilliam is nothing like his character in the original, nor are the other Austen creations.

As an entry into the "following in Austen's footsteps" canon, this is a disappointment. However, if you can read this without connecting it to Pride and Prejudice, this is rather an entertaining story. The Regency setting is well-researched and generally a favorite historical time of mine. The girls are perhaps a bit risque for genteel society but many other Regency-set stories use this same convention to point up the rigidity and hypocrisy of the age. There are some obvious deviations from the parallels to Pride and Prejudice, in the unravelings and outcomes of the scandals but they are generally acceptable and only a little far-fetched. Although I am certainly no Jane Austen purist, I still don't think this will satisfy fans unless they can read this purely as a novel set some 20 years after the setting of Pride and Prejudice and really unrelated in most every way from it.

Review: Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwyn Cready

As an Austen fan, you'd think I would be less than entertained by a book that messes with the original plot (I've already copped to enjoying the myriad of sequels out there). But this book alters the original Pride and Prejudice so absurdly and entertainingly, that it can't help but be fun.

Flip Allison is an ornithologist with a penchant for steamy romance novels (the steamier the better). She's also burdened with a professionally jealous, Peter Pan of an ex-husband with whom she has to work. And he's the closest she's come to having a relationship in who knows how long. Enter the gorgeous Magnus Knightley, a visiting Jane Austen scholar, who might come in handy at Flip's book club meeting since they are reading Pride and Prejudice. Too bad he's a cold fish.

But Magnus becomes necessary to Flip after she has a massage that allows her to imagine herself into a book. Instead of the romance novel she was hoping to imagine, she plants herself very firmly in Pride and Prejudice and procedes to have a torrid and public liason with Mr. Darcy. All this would mean nothing other than it was the best and most relaxing massage of Flip's life if she didn't discover that she hadn't imagined the scene. Instead, her foray into the pages has changed Austen's most well-known work. And only with Magnus' help can Flip change it back to the way it should be.

The characters' antagonism towards each other belies the sexual tension between them as they race to restore Lizzie and Mr. Darcy to each other. Because of their combined goal, they come to realize the specialness of what they have together far sooner than in a typical romance and it is satisfying to watch as they must decide if they can sacrifice their passion for the good of a much-loved classic.

I found the book to be great fun, entertaining, and surprising. It definitely has its share of explicit scenes but they drive the plot of this terribly appealing farce. Is it high literature? No. But it is about as fun as it gets. And who among us wouldn't jump at the chance to spend some time in our favorite novels? This havoc-wreaking entertainment will appeal to romance readers and to genre-bending Austen fans who don't take themselves too seriously alike.

Review: Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton

As a complete sucker for all things Jane Austen, need I say that the idea of reading the very first "sequel" to Pride and Prejudice was an appealing one to me? Even better than that was dicovering that this is more than just a Pride and Prejudice sequel. As its newly minted subtitle claims, it is a sequel to all the novels. Pulling many favorite characters from all of Austen's best-loved works, Brinton has created a fun romp through Regency England in the company of Austen's secondary characters.

This is not focused on the main characters of Aussten's books. After all, she wrapped their stories up fairly neatly. Instead, the focus is on Georgiana Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam, Kitty Bennett and Mary Crawford, Tom Bertram and William Price, and others. While some purists shudder at the thought of introducing these characters to each other, Regency society was fairly small and so people of the same social standing could be expected to have connections to each other, making this intermingling of Austen's creations feasible.

The plot, while not as witty and sharp as Austen's herself, is quite entertaining, opening with Georgiana and Colonel Fitzwilliam breaking their engagement to each other to the stern annoyance of Lady Catherine. Both will look for suitable partners throughout the rest of the book. Each will have to overcome societal obstacles as well as the difficulties of their own hearts and personalities in order to be happy.

As with most Austen sequels, a reader who is not familiar with the backstory and characters from the originals will be disappointed with the novel. But Austen fans who are willing to allow the mingling of their best-loved minor characters will likely enjoy this short and quick read.

The Everything Austen Challenge

I haven't officially signed up and posted about a reading challenge in a long time, not that I don't continue to sign-up and follow along with many in my own un-official sort of way. But I had to be good and do the official thing for this one since I adore Jane Austen and can almost always be guaranteed to buy a book if there's an Austen connection (I do draw the line at the Zombies book though--just can't do the undead no matter how many raves the book gets, sorry). I even toyed with the idea of designing my own Austen challenge earlier in the year but since nothing ever came of it, I was thrilled to see that Stephanie at Stephanie's Written Word stepped up and put one together. And here's me happily hopping on the bandwagon. The goal is to pick 6 Austen-themed things and enjoy. This can mean reading Austen's originals, Austen sequels or Austen-inspired books. It can also mean watching films based on Austen's work. The challenge runs 6 months (July 1-January 1) so there's loads of time to complete the challenge. I personally am grabbing 6 books from my own tbr for the challenge although I may re-watch Pride and Prejudice ::swoon:: again or rent Becoming Jane, which I had fully intended to see when it came out in theaters and never managed. But I want to definitely do 6 books as well, especially since my TBR mountain contains whole veins of appropriate books. So here's my tentative list:

1. Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwyn Cready
2. Mr. Darcy’s Daughters by Elizabeth Aston
3. Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton
4. Darcy’s Passions by Regina Jeffers
5. The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
6. Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

For more information on the challenge, to sign up, or to see other Austen-themed suggestions, click on The Everything Austen Challenge.