Blog Tour and Giveaway - Thaw by Anniina Sjöblom - Review

Today I'm happy to be featuring an author who has made the jump from the forums to publishing as the blog tour for Anniina Sjöblom's debut Pride & Prejudice-inspired novella, Thaw stops at Babblings of a Bookworm for my review of the story. Let's take a look at the blurb and then we will move on to my review. There's also an ebook giveaway :)

Book Description

It is a truth universally acknowledged that one false step can involve a lady in endless ruin. On a rainy November day in 1811, Miss Elizabeth Bennet finds herself wondering why no one ever bothered to tell her about this.

A few blithe steps on a morning walk, taken after a succession of rain, lead to unexpected events that irrevocably change the course of Elizabeth’s life, placing her fate in the hands of the haughty and conceited Mr. Darcy – the last man in the world she had ever thought to marry.

As long winter days slowly pass, she writes letters to her loved ones, trying to come to terms with her new role as a wife and the Mistress of Pemberley. But can she ever learn to love her husband? Will he overcome his arrogant notions of rank and circumstance?

And most importantly – will the shades of Pemberley ever recover from being thus polluted?

My Review of Thaw by Anniina Sjöblom

When I first discovered the Austenesque genre I could read stories at a faster pace than my book budget would allow so I soon afterwards discovered stories published online on forums. Obviously you can find stories of varying quality on there, but one of my favourites that I discovered was Thaw. This was a story that I would recommend to others so I was thrilled when I heard that it was being published, as it meant that the story would be available to a wider audience than forum members. I also had a little bit of trepidation, as sometimes stories you love on a forum don't necessarily make the jump to a published work, as your expectations can be different.

Thaw is an epistolary novel, solely from Elizabeth Bennet's point of view, in the form of letters that she writes to her sister Jane and Aunt Gardiner. The story begins towards the beginning of the events of Pride & Prejudice, picking up when Mr Bingley and his party come to Netherfield. The story diverts off to another tangent before the Netherfield Ball with poor Elizabeth having an accident and managing to fall into a neighbour's pond and being rescued by a certain gentleman from Derbyshire. Gossip tears through the neighbourhood and owing to this, Mr Bennet and Mr Darcy agree that a marriage must take place. Elizabeth agrees to it for the sake of her sister Jane. 

Initially, she is pretty much devastated by the idea of a marriage:

Let other pens dwell on joy and happiness. I fear mine has quite lost the ability.

She has very low expectations of happiness. She heartily dislikes Mr Darcy (although at this point in canon her feelings are based on his initial slight of her, Wickham's report of Darcy's behaviour towards him, and what she perceives as his disdain for all of the neighbourhood but haven't yet reached the peak of her dislike, as no intervention had been made between Bingley and Jane) so it is no wonder that she doesn't foresee the possibility of any happiness in marriage: 

It is true, as you say, that my future husband cuts a fine figure when regarded from a distance (and if I am lucky, and his estate as grand as Miss Bingley describes it, that is how I most often hope to view him).

She doesn't even have the consolation of thinking that her husband will find her attractive:

If the man did not find me handsome enough to tempt him in a ballroom, I daresay finding me soaking wet and covered in mud did little to improve his opinion!

After a disastrous wedding night, where the groom began by telling his wife his poor opinion of her pedigree, family and friends and ends by hearing exactly how ungentlemanly his bride finds his behaviour there is a bit of an icy distance between the new Mr & Mrs Darcy. As we go through the winter and into the spring, will there be any chance of a Thaw?

For this type of story to be successful the author needs to capture the 'voice' of Elizabeth - as this story is entirely in her words and from her point of view, this is absolutely essential. It needs to sound like Elizabeth in order for the reader to believe that it could be her story, and I think the author has done this really well. There are arch comments, humour, and prosaic observations that I could believe were coming directly from Elizabeth. 

Although canon Elizabeth often keeps her own counsel and isn't always forthcoming with her innermost thoughts, I can believe that Elizabeth would write these letters to the two people she trusted most in the world. Much of what she kept secret in canon was to protect Jane's feelings in relation to Bingley, which isn't an issue in this story.

I enjoyed the day to day events that Elizabeth recounts and touches of teasing in the letters. I also liked the small mysteries in Elizabeth's letters, concerning such wide-ranging issues as gingerbread traps, dragonfly thieves, the true origin of a Parisian shawl and the mischief that can be caused by giving servants cast-off dresses that are too fetching.  This added both humour and charm to the story.

As time goes on Elizabeth gets better acquainted with her husband, his family and his household and begins to wonder whether she might have been mistaken in her initial assessment of his character.

I would say that, in common with many Pride & Prejudice variations, you would need to be at least a little familiar with the original story. Elizabeth in canon is blind to Darcy's true feelings for a very long time and she is just as blind here. At an early point in their acquaintance, when she dislikes him and is convinced that he dislikes her just as much, in actual fact, Austen tells us:

Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. - Pride & Prejudice

But here there is no narrator giving another point of view, just Elizabeth's perspective. There are clues that he likes her, but she clearly misses them. If you hadn't read P&P I think there is a danger that the reader might miss them too, despite the fact that her aunt and sister are clearly both of the opinion that Elizabeth's husband might be partial to her. The clues are there but they are subtle.

When I read Thaw on the forum I also read the story discussion thread, which had excerpts from Darcy's diary in it. These were hilarious, and shed light on the fact that the man was head over heels in love with his wife, but felt unable to tell her so. I couldn't see how these could be incorporated into the published story and they aren't, but I found that I missed them a little, just because they were so funny!

In summary, I would say that Thaw is a sweetly romantic and charming read, which does an excellent job of capturing the voice of my favourite romantic heroine. I'd recommend it as suitable for all Austenesque readers and I'd rate it as a 5 star read.

Author Biography

Anniina Sjöblom lives in the beautiful but cold Finland and works in university administration. She has an MA in History and enjoys a long-standing love affair with the works of Jane Austen.

Her previous works include titles such as Thirteen Days, Fix You and When He Comes Back, published in various online Austenesque forums under the pen name boogima. The new novella Thaw, expanded from the original version of the story first published online in 2011, is her first commercially published work.

When not writing, Anniina spends her time hanging out with friends, binge-watching TV dramas and re-reading her favourite books while the stack of new ones still waiting to be read piles higher on her nightstand. She can ride a unicycle, and once, after losing an unfortunate bet, ate a bowl of ice cream with green dish soap as dressing. She does not recommend attempting it to anyone.

Buy Links

Thaw is available to buy now in both paperback and kindle!

Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon CA / Add to Goodreads shelf

Giveaway Time!

Quills & Quartos Publishing is giving away one ebook of THAW per blog tour stop. All you need to do to enter the giveaway is comment on this blog post, and Quills & Quartos will randomly choose winners for the entire blog tour on January 22. So, make sure you join in the conversation!

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