Mr. Darcy's Daughters

My review of Mr. Darcy's Daughters:

I. Hated. This. Book.

I don't normally go in for book burning but I think I would make an exception for this book--if the copy of the book had been mine it would have been burned by now but since it is a library book I thought better of having to spend my own money to replace it thereby giving the author the false impression that sales are up because someone liked reading her book. I actually finished this book on Saturday but decided to put off reviewing the book until after my book club meeting in case any one from the club had anything redeeming to say about the book. They didn't.

If you think that you might want to read this book you may not want to read what I say below because I give away the entire story. Of course if you are planning on reading this book and my just have to ask you to leave my blog.

First complaint: I wanted it done in the style of Jane Austen and while I admit there probably are very few authors that could do this it is still what I wanted. What I got was a woman who wrote more as though the characters were real and experiencing real life 20+ years post Pride and Prejudice. The result is one of Elizabeth's and Darcy's daughters ended up engaged to a gay man, another ran off and eloped with a man thought to be married when in actuality the woman everyone thought was his wife was really just his mistress--also he had to leave the country because he killed a man in a duel. This same daughter refused to get an anullment because she was "breeding"--as in while she was living at home she was having an affair with this man and got herself pregnant. Another daughter also ran off to elope (but that fell through). Another daughter dressed up as a boy to join a music group that performed at balls. And another daughter was constantly imagining the worse thing that might befall a person and then worrying herself into such a state of aggitation that you wanted the other characters to slap her (they did once.)

Second complaint: As briefed above none of these daughters are the daughters I would expect Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy to have.

Third complaint: There was absolutely no affection or love expressed by the daughters for their parents.

Fourth complaint: I like Fitzwilliam in P&P (he was pleasant and charming) and disliked him immensly in this book. Same goes for Mrs. Gardiner.

Fifth complaint: As noted above with the "breeding" comment, there were a lot of situations and phrases used that I think would have horrified Jane Austen.

I could go one but I think you get the idea of how I feel about this book and why.