Winner - Mr Darcy's Pride and Joy by Monica Fairview

I am sorry to be late with this post, it's been a very busy week. Recently I was joined by Monica Fairview for a wonderful guest post from the third novel in the 'Darcy Novels' series. Monica was kindly offering an ebook giveaway of the winner's choice of novel from the series. The winner, chosen at random is...

Mr Darcy's Pride and Joy by Monica Fairview - Guest Post, Excerpt and Giveaway

I am happy to be welcoming Monica Fairview to Babblings of a Bookworm today. Monica has written numerous Austen-inspired books (here they are on Goodreads), and her latest book is the third book in 'The Darcy Novels' series. I read and reviewed the first two books when they came out. The story began in Book 1, 'Mr Darcy's Pledge', continued in Book 2, 'Mr Darcy's Challenge' and I believe will conclude with this book, 'Mr Darcy's Pride and Joy'.

Monica has brought us a guest post and excerpt from 'Mr Darcy's Pride and Joy' to enjoy today, and she's also offering to give away an e-book copy of the book to a commenter here (or a copy of another of the books in the series, in case you need to catch up). Read on for more details!

* * *

Mr Darcy’s Challenge by Monica Fairview

Earlier this year I read ‘Mr Darcy’s Pledge’ by Monica Fairview, which is book 1 of this story. If you haven’t read that book, then don’t start ‘Mr Darcy’s Challenge’, as it follows on directly from book 1, and don’t read on, as there are spoilers for ‘Mr Darcy’s Pledge’!

This book picks right up from where book 1 finished. Darcy had given up writing lists of what he wanted from a wife and was reaching the point where he was ready to propose again to Elizabeth Bennet, when unfortunately all his plans are derailed by tiresome Lydia eloping. Mr Darcy’s Pledge was to locate Lydia for the sake of her sister and then do some wooing.  He tears up his list of suitable qualities in a wife and romantically tosses them to the wind as he rides away, and then.... he realises that strewing the rare commodity of fine paper across the countryside his lady love is in the habit of walking through is by no means a good idea. He turns back, but it’s too late, Elizabeth is already in possession of some interesting bits of paper:

“I am afraid I am guilty of being wickedly inquisitive. However, I cannot repent because I am too excessively diverted,” she said. “This person has itemized his requirements for a wife. Can you conceive of such a thing? Quite as if he meant to prepare a plum pudding or a blancmange!” She laughed. “I cannot conceive what kind of person would do such a thing!” 

Any moment now, she would put two and two together and produce Fitzwilliam Darcy. If she did, all would be lost.

Things then go from bad to worse, and I could happily have given Darcy a good shake to hopefully get some sense into him! He sets off for London, having insulted Elizabeth again, discarding his pledge and potentially getting into an entanglement with a young widow. Mr Darcy’s Challenge will be to overcome his despair, act the part of an honourable gentleman and fulfil his pledge.

In the first book, one of the things I particularly enjoyed was the development of the character of Georgiana, who was struggling to overcome the damage to her self-esteem that the mistakes in judgement she made at Ramsgate had inflicted. Georgiana was really blossoming into adulthood and this continues here in book 2. We are privy to some of her thoughts, which I particularly enjoyed, as she is just as amusing as Darcy was in the first book:

 ‘If she did not hold herself in check, she mused, she would soon be in danger of becoming very much like her aunt Catherine.  

It was a sobering thought.’

Darcy wasn't quite what I expected. In ‘Mr Darcy’s Pledge’ I was very fond of him. Although to me he didn’t quite seem like Austen’s Darcy he was very amusing, sometimes bordering on the eccentric, but here I liked him less, he was often overly despondent and sometimes petulant. He was also so impatient, and he would decide one thing and then immediately change his mind. We didn’t see much of Elizabeth in book 1 but I think she would have learned caution with her knowledge that she was so misled in her initial judgements of both Darcy and Wickham, however she doesn’t seem to have learned anything, and I was a little surprised at her family’s behaviour when they to look for Lydia in Brighton, as you would have expected them to be extremely worried and keep a low profile but instead it seemed like they were just looking for her while on holiday.

There were other characters I particularly enjoyed; Mrs Bennet showed some depth of character in her search for her daughter. Mr Bennet refused to take things seriously, which I found very tiresome. I felt the dynamic between the Bingleys and the Darcys was slightly different to ‘Pride & Prejudice’. Here, the families have been close for many years and seem on a familiar footing so you see Bingley and Darcy as more equal friends than in some variations. I very much enjoyed Mr Bingley’s character, he’s often very amusing:

“Did anyone ever tell you that your jovial pig-headedness is really quite annoying?” 

“Yes,” said Bingley, cheerfully. “Many times. I take it you want to go home and sulk.” 

“Something like that,” said Darcy. 

“Then you will not mind if I join you. A good long sulk will do me a world of good. You do not have a monopoly on sulking, you know. I have plenty to sulk about as well.”

Although I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as ‘Mr Darcy’s Pledge’, it was still very satisfying to see the story come to its conclusion and find out what happened with Lydia. I enjoyed the development of Georgiana’s character too. All in all, this is a fun, light-hearted read and I’d rate it as 3½ stars. I understand that there is another book in this series currently being written which is planned for release in the middle of next year, which I'll definitely plan to read. Although the story that began in 'Mr Darcy's Pledge' concluded in 'Mr Darcy's Challenge' I'd like to see what happens next.

* I received an e-ARC from the author for my honest review.

Mr Darcy's Pledge by Monica Fairview

Please excuse my lack of post this week, I have been so busy at work, and in addition to this, I helped out at an election this week, which was a 17 hour day! Hopefully my reading will get back on track now! 

Earlier this month I was lucky enough to review Mr Darcy's Pledge for Leatherbound Reviews, and here's my review... 

***

I’d only read one book by Monica Fairview before this, Steampunk Darcy, which I really enjoyed, so I was very grateful to Jakki for the opportunity to try something more traditional by this author. Mr Darcy’s Pledge is a Pride and Prejudice variation, from Darcy’s perspective, beginning just after the Hunsford Proposal. Darcy is returning to Georgiana at Pemberley to lick his wounds and he has made a momentous decision – he made a huge mistake in offering for Elizabeth Bennet, and now he needs to put it behind him, and marry somebody else.

He wants to do this partly to help him get over his unreciprocated infatuation for Elizabeth (which is obviously a very bad and risky idea!) and partly because he is beginning to think of launching Georgiana into society, and so he needs a woman to help him do this. In preference to his relatives, he considers enlisting the help of a neighbour, Lady Renwick, who was good friends with his mother. Lady Renwick has her niece staying with her, Miss Elinor Marshall, who is the most beautiful woman that Darcy has ever set eyes on. This makes Darcy wonder whether finding a bride might be easier than he’d first thought. However, there is a lot to distract him from his quest to find a bride, with a multitude of visitors to Pemberley, both expected and unexpected, and perhaps even a London tradesman and his wife and niece visiting the area of Lambton on a summer tour...

This could have been quite an angst-filled variation, firstly because Darcy is genuinely heartbroken and suffering and secondly, because he is planning to marry in haste and potentially repent at leisure. Deep down, he knows this, and while he is trying to convince himself that he has recovered from his infatuation for Miss Bennet and is ready to move on he really isn’t ready to do so:

“His heart protested, but he was having none of it. His heart had no say in the matter. Consulting his heart in the matter of marriage was a foolish indulgence, nothing more. Men fell in love and out of love all the time. It was a passion of the moment, forgotten soon enough. Marriage was about producing heirs and managing a household. It was the choice of a lifetime.

                He could not help feeling that a lifetime was a very long time.”

The other thing that saves this from being a sad read is the humour. There is so much humour, from wry asides here and there, to the awful comic creations of Lord and Lady Matlock.  Ms Fairview’s Darcy falls short of eccentric but he’s leaning towards it in a loveable and amusing way. He decides to determine what character traits he is looking for in a wife as a starting point to finding his bride:

“Choosing a wife would take more careful thought than he had imagined. Already the mental list was growing longer by the minute. He should write it all down.”

I loved the way the lists he made were contradictory, as he’d list what he thought were ‘proper’ qualities in a wife, and then he’d cross them out and replace them with the qualities he really wanted.  Darcy is uncharacteristically impulsive in his efforts to overcome his heartbreak and his behaviour really confuses poor Georgiana, who doesn’t know what has effected this change in her previously staid and dependable brother.

One of the things I liked best about this book was the development of Georgiana, who goes from a timid, shy girl, to a girl bewildered by the change she’s seeing in her brother, to a woman who is able to stand up for herself and is not afraid to show her claws when she’s under attack.  Darcy and Georgiana’s relationship develops too, from a father/daughter style relationship to a more equal footing.

Darcy gave her a disbelieving look then realized she was joking. “Since when have you turned into a jester?”

“Since I realized the sky will not fall down on me if I make a joke,” said Georgiana. “And since I discovered my brother is rather fond of laughter.” She threw him a significant glance.

I was a little unsure of the familiarity between people in the story. Both new characters and existing seemed to get on familiar terms very quickly. In some cases this was used as a device to highlight encroaching characters but in others it didn’t sit quite right with me, especially when some of the people were on less familiar terms in Pride and Prejudice than they are here, however, this was a minor issue and didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story.

Mr Darcy’s Pledge is volume one of ‘The Darcy Novels’, so be warned that it’s not a complete story although thankfully it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. We see some Elizabeth, but not as much as I’d like. There is the definite promise of more page time for Elizabeth in Volume 2. The only real shame is the wait I’ll have to have until I can read Volume 2, which is not yet available!

Mr Darcy's Pledge by Monica Fairview

The lovely Jakki of Leatherbound Reviews kindly gave me the opportunity to read Volume I of the Darcy Novels, 'Mr Darcy's Pledge' by Monica Fairview. You can read my review over at Leatherbound Reviews. Jakki will be sharing an excerpt with you on Friday and there will be a giveaway too, so make sure you don't miss it!