Pirates and Prejudice by Kara Louise

I’ve got a few reads lined up that I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of reading time for so I’ve been putting off starting them, meaning I’ve not read much the last few days. So, I thought I’d share with you my thoughts on something I read last summer, Pirates and Prejudice by Kara Louise.

This was such a fun variation on Pride and Prejudice! We pick up with Darcy after his failed proposal at Hunsford. He has let himself go and is wallowing in his misery; he's rented a room near the docks so nobody of his acquaintance sees him in this state because his hair is a mess, he hasn't shaved in ages, and he spends his days boozing to forget. He is almost unrecognisable, and he gets mistaken for the pirate Lockerly. 

Luckily, due to the fact that Lockerly has a scar that Darcy doesn't, Darcy doesn't get hung as a pirate but due to his uncanny resemblance to the pirate he is asked to pose as him in hopes that the real Lockerly will be tempted out of hiding. Although disguise of every sort is his abhorrence, Darcy is persuaded to comply, dressing as Lockerly and learning some less gentlemanly lingo. He hopes that having this deception to focus on will take his mind off the lovely Miss Bennet that found him so lacking as a gentleman.

Unbeknown to him, the same Miss Elizabeth Bennet is accompanying her father to visit his sister on the Isles of Scilly. On their return trip their vessel gets into difficulties and the ladies get taken ashore to an island but when the sailors try to get the men to shore they run into the real pirates. Luckily, there is a fake Lockerly nearby who is on hand to help....

What follows involves mistaken identity, sword fighting, swashbuckling, rope swinging, pirate treasure, changed viewpoints and some lovely, lovely romance. There are no sex scenes, which will please those people who prefer to avoid them, and don’t think sex scenes would have added anything, it’s wonderfully romantic as it is.

If you are looking for something that Jane Austen herself may have written, then this probably isn't it; but if you are willing to have a bit of fun with your Austenesque variations then I'd certainly recommend this one! I thoroughly enjoyed it.