Conceit & Concealment by Abigail Reynolds - My Review

Recently author Abigail Reynolds visited my blog with a guest post and giveaway of 'Conceit & Concealment', her latest 'Pride & Prejudice' variation. I was provided with copy to read and review, so read on to see what I think of the book and whether I'd recommend adding it to your 'To Be Read' list.

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Mr Darcy's Christmas Calendar by Jane Odiwe

I read a lot of books inspired by Jane Austen’s works but this is something quite different; rather than a variation on her works, this involves time-travel, a visit into a Jane Austen novel and features Austen as a character too. Lizzy Benson has gone to visit Chawton (Jane Austen’s home towards the end of her life, which is now open to the public as a museum). Here, Lizzy meets a pretty rude Museum employee, Mr Williams, but before she leaves in a huff, the situation is saved by another employee, a lady in period costume, who is doing a very good rendition of Mrs Bennet.

‘She reminded Lizzy of Mrs Bennet especially when she laughed like a young girl, her curls trembling as she disappeared through a door at the end. Lizzy suppressed a desire to giggle, and wondered how the lady managed to keep up her way of talking, as if she’d just stepped out of a Jane Austen novel.’

This lady convinces Lizzy to take an advent calendar, which she can pay for at the end of her tour, and she sends Lizzy off to change into period costume and meet with her daughters (more employees in character, Lizzy presumes). Trapped in Chawton by the snow, somehow, Lizzy finds herself as part of this world. The characters she is trapped with seem very real. She gets to know the Bennet family, and Mr Williams and even takes a trip to Derbyshire. The advent calendar appears to be very unusual, with the doors glowing before they are opened, and each picture has a resonance to what is happening that day.

Lizzy assumes that she is in Pride and Prejudice but some things are quite different. Elizabeth Bennet is very taken with a rich, charming gentleman from Derbyshire, a Mr Wickham(!), and when Lizzy mentions Mr Darcy nobody has ever heard of him!

“Is Mr Darcy here?” Lizzy asked tentatively 

Elizabeth shook her head. “I do not recall that name. Darcy, did you say? Is he a friend of yours?”

When Lizzy finally gets to meet Miss Austen she discovers that she has found herself in a draft of ‘First Impressions’ (this is the original title of ‘Pride & Prejudice’, a book that was worked and re-worked to give us the story that so many of us love). However, Miss Austen feels that something isn’t quite right with the story, and she requests that Lizzy help inspire her to improve the story. Lizzy can’t just tell Jane how to fix the storyline, all she can do is hint, as Jane needs to think up the details herself, and she tweaks at the characters, so they don’t always behave the same way from one day to the next. Mr Williams is included in this, so Lizzy isn’t even sure if he is real.

This was a very readable story, and I enjoyed seeing Austen’s characters interacting with their visitor Lizzy in this ‘book world’. I particularly enjoyed seeing Mr Darcy, when the character was introduced, as rather than the proud and somewhat haughty man we would be expecting, instead he is instantly besotted with Elizabeth, and so rather than be offended by him expressing an adverse opinion on her, she instead is put off by how much he likes her! However, Austen’s characters are very much secondary in this story, the main protagonist is Lizzy Benson, who is very likeable, although sometimes I was a bit surprised at her reactions to events. She accepts the time travel/book world issue almost without a blink and doesn’t seem at all worried that the fate of one of the most famous books in the English language may lie in her hands, though I accept that ‘First Impressions’ was an earlier version of it, so she may have felt that it was safe as long as the main issue of the hero of the story was resolved. She also integrates seamlessly into the earlier time when I thought there may have been some stumbling blocks, though since this is a book world rather than the real world there is some crossover of knowledge to the earlier time, such as knowledge of telephones etc, though none of them work of course.

The only thing I would have changed in this story is the main romance storyline. I didn’t feel the relationship was developed enough for me to buy into it and I didn’t find the ending really believable in modern times, though it was an enjoyable ending and full of Christmas feelgood. However, I very much enjoyed the part set in the world of ‘First Impressions’ and the way that Jane Austen was tweaking and developing the characters. This is an enjoyable read and I’d recommend it. It would be suitable for most people as there are no sex scenes or bad language in this book but you’d need to be willing to buy in to the fact that the action takes place in an alternate reality! This was no issue for me, so I’d rate it as a 4 star read.

*I was provided with an e-book of this by the author for my honest review

Steampunk Darcy by Monica Fairview

This was my first foray into reading Steampunk so I’m not entirely sure what is typical for the genre.  In this world, there has been some kind of environmental crisis, with corrosive slime rain and poisonous rivers.  Poor people live in neighbourhoods in the open air with homes built from whatever could be scavenged, whereas richer people live in flying cities or eco-domes.  The man who invented these eco-domes, William Darcy, is the descendent of Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy, who were real people.  The book of Pride and Prejudice exists as the chronicle of their romance.  Darcy is extremely proud of his ancestors, and he contacts Seraphine to enlist her help with a project.  Seraphine understands that the project is to recreate Pemberley, which was destroyed due to the environmental disasters, as a theme hotel, but this isn’t entirely the case. Darcy has a deeply awful half-brother, Richard, who he is trying to keep his inventions secret from so they are not misused.  They also have a 15 year old half-sister, Gianna, who is very spoiled and tiresome.

Seraphine has had a very hard life.  When she was 10 her father was taken by the authorities and erased from all records.  Five years later her mother, who was previously a gifted scientist, was taken by the authorities and given mind-altering drugs – although she was returned to the family she isn’t really aware of much of what is happening.  Seraphine’s brother ran away from the family leaving Seraphine, then a teenager, to look after her mother and her much younger sister, Briar-Rose.  Seraphine did what she had to, not always on the right side of the law, to ensure her family’s safety and survival.  Now, Briar-Rose is 15 years old and a selfish and self-absorbed teenager.  Seraphine works as a scientific investigator and earns extra money from delivering cargo. Being the sole breadwinner, and being aware of the damage the authorities can wreak on a person, Seraphine fears being taken in by the authorities.

Although Sera doesn’t want to work for Darcy, her hand is forced, and they end up working together.  Darcy needs her, but is afraid of trusting anybody and won’t let her in; he doesn’t actually let her work on the project he has employed her to help him with!  The lack of trust definitely goes both ways.  They have chemistry from the off, but they are both conscious of the class divide – he feels like he should make a society marriage and she feels that he couldn’t possibly be interested in her for more than a quick fling.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more interaction between the characters; although Sera and Darcy talked most of their relationship seemed based on chemistry, and they both frustrated me by telling each other very little.  For example, at one point Sera has a listening device planted on her.  She discovers how it was planted, and Darcy works out who arranged it but they never tell each other. I could understand their reluctance to trust each other but Darcy in particular was annoying about it, refusing to explain his motivations on many occasions which lead Sera to misinterpret his actions when a partial explanation would often have sufficed. These two also have major sibling issues which are largely left unaddressed, and in some cases this seems unlikely, such as a time when Sera’s sister crashes her ship and it’s barely spoken about.

Although this isn’t the type of thing I usually read I enjoyed this book. It might have been helpful to have a bit more detail on the uprising, as I was a bit sketchy on what they were fighting against, I imagined a kind of ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ type of society but less restrictive. There was a lot of action, and if you have quite a visual imagination it’ll be working overtime on this book because there was description of the outfits, machinery and fights which really helped set the scenes. The world the author created was very interesting, and I hope she writes a follow-up, as I am interested to know what happens with the invention, and what happens in the relationship of Sera and Darcy with their respective siblings.