Today
I’m happy to be welcoming Joana Starnes back to the blog with her new
book, a Pride & Prejudice variation called A Timely Elopement.
I’m going to share my review of the book with you, and Joana is kindly offering
an ebook giveaway. Let’s look at the blurb, and then I’ll tell you what I
thought of this book.
Book
Description
What
if Mr Darcy’s first proposal was interrupted by a bearer of ill tidings? The
worst tidings: an elopement!
Ah,
but whose elopement would allow Elizabeth and Mr Darcy to spend quite so much
time together and overcome their prejudices and his stubborn pride?
The
blurb of this book doesn’t give much away, does it!
A
Timely Elopement – My Review
Many
Pride & Prejudice variations start us off at Hunsford, at Darcy’s
disastrous proposal. This one takes off there too, but sends us in a new
direction for me. Just at the point where Darcy is about to kindly inform
Elizabeth that he is proposing against his own better judgement, they get
interrupted. Colonel Fitzwilliam arrives with news of an elopement, and
although it involves George Wickham, this time he’s left the Bennet girls
alone. He has run off with Darcy’s cousin, Miss Anne de Bourgh!
As
it would be dishonourable to ask a lady to marry him when a family scandal is
unfolding in front of his eyes, Darcy reassures his lady love that once it’s
all sorted he will follow her, post-haste, to Hertfordshire, as he takes it for
granted that she will jump at the chance to accept his most flattering
proposal. Only here’s the thing; she doesn’t want to marry him.
Elizabeth
is shocked to hear that George Wickham has behaved in such a fashion and
realises that her judgement has been seriously at fault when considering his
character and his relationship to Darcy. However, Darcy still interfered in
Jane and Bingley’s relationship, was rude in Hertfordshire, is prideful and
arrogant and she has never, until now, considered that he might even like her,
let alone admire her. She feels bad at piling more bad news on top of the news
of his cousin’s elopement but in fairness to him, Elizabeth knows that she has
to tell Mr Darcy that she will not accept his proposal:
With
a quiet sigh, Elizabeth drew her hand away, uncomfortably aware that she must
tell him that. It would be cruel to let him labour under a misconception.
But
she doesn’t get the chance, the Collinses have arrived home and Darcy leaves.
Elizabeth must find a way to clear up the mistake. If Darcy arrives in
Hertfordshire it would be hugely embarrassing for him and potentially could set
off a disastrous possible chain of events for her if word gets out and she
finds herself with no option but to marry him. Being offered an opportunity to
accompany Lady Catherine to town, Elizabeth decides to go in order that she
might have the opportunity to tell Mr Darcy that she won’t be accepting his
very surprising offer.
Having
the opportunity to see more of Mr Darcy, Elizabeth begins to see that he is a
very different person to what she had thought, and has a much more attractive
side to his personality.
She
had seen him in his home. No ceremony. No reserve. No trace of the despot she
expected. Not his sister’s keeper, but her whole world; her protector and
succour.
Spending
more time together also gives Mr Darcy the opportunity to get to know Elizabeth
better. More specifically, once he realises that she has fault to find in his
manners and behaviour, he starts to question his attitude somewhat:
If
she had not seen his offer of marriage for the tribute that it was – a
heartfelt homage to her delightful person – then she might have also failed to
find due proof of his devotion in his honest recitation of the impediments he
had brought himself to overlook in order to have her beside him.
I
really enjoyed this story; there were some lovely sparks of humour, and I
enjoyed Darcy’s character in particular and his slow steps in realising his mistakes and blunders. I thought his relationship with his cousin,
Colonel Fitzwilliam, was delightful. I also liked the fact that the story didn’t follow the
lines I expected; due to the nature of this genre, the fact that it’s based on Pride
& Prejudice I have often seen scenarios played out in other works, and you can
feel like you’re travelling down the same road. However, this story took me in
directions that I didn’t anticipate, which was refreshing.
The
only thing I would have liked would have been for the story to be set over a
longer time-frame as I felt opinions and feelings changed quite quickly. There
was also one character that I felt was let off too lightly, I wanted to see
them suffer just a little!
Overall,
this is a romantic, amusing, low-angst read, which I would recommend. There’s
some passion too, but nothing graphic. I’d rate it as a 4½ star read.
Buy
Links
A Timely Elopement is available
to buy now in Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. Joana's other books are also available in paperback and audio so let's hope these will be too!
Joana
is very kindly offering to give away an ebook copy of A Timely Elopement to two
lucky visitors to Babblings of a Bookworm! To enter, just leave a comment on
this blog post by the end of the day worldwide on Sunday 21 June. If you have
any difficulty commenting, please contact me and I will add your comment for you :)
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Next, Laura Hile joined us with her Charlotte Lucas story So This Is Love. Again we had a fantastic excerpt and an ebook giveaway.
Our next visitor was Joana Starnes who has brought out A Timely Elopement, which I read and reviewed.
