In this story Beth Ann Bennet is a 26 year
old single mum who is training to be a social worker. She signs up to a dating
website to try and find a man to study for her sociology module, which is
focusing on gender stereotypes. To make
her dating profile more attractive she tells some lies on it, changing her job,
her age and omitting to mention her child.
She isn’t ashamed of who she is, although she modestly underrates her
attractiveness, but she isn’t actually pursuing a relationship here, just
trying to get some research done. She
even uses a pseudonym to sign up with. Will Darcy, gorgeous doctor, is trying
to get some funding for a new clinic to provide treatment for single mothers
and their children, who wouldn’t be able to afford treatment otherwise. His rich cousin, Bingley has agreed to make a
large donation, in return for workaholic Darcy having 5 dates with somebody and
bringing them to Bingley’s birthday party. This is why Darcy signs up for
online dating. He is pretty truthful on
his application, the only lie he tells is his reason for signing up.
Beth notices Darcy’s profile online and they exchange
emails. She didn’t intend to meet her
case study subject, but she is enticed enough to meet with him for coffee and
finds she is much more attracted to him than she had anticipated. The attraction is mutual, and they have a few
more dates. In the course of this she
finds out that he hates social workers and would actively avoid dating a single
mum. This is due to his own childhood
bad experiences of step-families and bad social workers, plus the perception he
has of social workers who deal with his single mum patients. So Darcy is
massively prejudiced, but Beth not so much. They both have their share of
pride, but I wouldn’t especially call either of them proud. Both of them keep
people at an emotional distance, but for him it’s more self-preservation, and
she has been focused on raising her child, who is just coming up to school age.
Once Beth realises the views Will holds she can’t see any future for the
relationship, built as it is on deceit, but both of them are already in deeper
than they had intended...
The story wasn’t was what I was expecting. From the title I expected a modern update of
Pride and Prejudice with a recognisable story arc, but this doesn’t follow the
lines of Pride and Prejudice at all. There are recognisable names and characters,
but the dynamics between them are different, particularly between Beth and Will,
and the events are pretty different.
This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the story, I liked it very much,
but it wasn’t what I expected. The main
similarity to me was the theme of realising what prejudices are held and
overcoming them.
Both Beth and Will were really admirable characters, if you
could overlook the initial lying! He was
so focussed on improving life for people who were struggling financially both
for their benefit and for the greater good of society, and is also a caring
son. Beth had been left by her husband
around the time their baby was born and had been raising her son on her own
since then while trying to train in a job that was more fulfilling emotionally
than financially. I very much enjoyed seeing Beth and Will’s story, and there
were many occasions when I doubted that it would be possible to provide them
with a happy ending. In fact, I had real
trouble putting the kindle down and I read it pretty much in one sitting!
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you're not logged in to Google please leave your name in your comment or it will post as anonymous. Thanks! - Ceri