Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride

Title: Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride
Author: Helen Halstead
Pages: 320
Published: 2007

“In Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen brought together one of the most beloved literary couples of all time—Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Now, Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride continues the story of these passion-filled newlyweds as they enter London’s glamorous high society.

This page-turning novel finds Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy entangled in the frivolity and ferocity of social intrigues. Although Elizabeth makes a powerful friend in the Marchioness of Englebury, the rivalry and jealousy among her ladyship’s prestigious clique threatens to destroy the success of her new marriage.

Written in the style of Jane Austen, full of humour and sardonic wit, Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride brings Regency society vividly to life and continues the romantic, sometimes tragic, stories of other popular Pride & Prejudice characters including Georgiana Darcy and Kitty Bennet.”

Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride awful. I chose this particular sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice because of the 3.5 stars rating on Amazon.com. While it did receive a review for one star and four votes for two stars, I figure that the eleven reviews for five stars would be a better inclination of the type of book it would be.

Boy, was I wrong.

Halstead felt the need to remind the reader of what happened in the “prequel” to her sequel, something I found annoying and unnecessary. I would assume that if you are reading Jane Austen FanFiction, you would already know who the characters are and how they came to know/love one another.

The fact that Charlotte did not “approve” of Elizabeth’s marriage to Darcy coupled with her and Elizabeth’s friendship dropping to the wayside quickly left me disenfranchised with the novel and struggling to complete it. And the other plot lines failed to captivate me and I rapidly lost interest even before the Charlotte/Elizabeth debacle.

I wish I could return this book to the bookstore because I never plan on reading it again. Except that would probably be a little too tacky.

Rating: 0
Balance of Opinion: Stray Talk