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lifeand100books's review against another edition
4.0
Divided into two volumes, Karen Wasylowski’s debut novel, Darcy and Fitzwilliam: A Tale of a Gentleman and An Officer tells the story of our beloved characters after the marriage of Darcy to Ms. Elizabeth Bennet. Col. Fitzwilliam, just back from the Peninsular war, returns to rejoin his boyhood friend (and biological cousin) Darcy and his new bride. Although their reunion is lighthearted and filled with jokes from their past, some unfinished business lurks beneath the laughter as Darcy and Fitzwilliam grow apart over time. Enter volume two, where Col. Fitzwilliam enjoys pseudo-rock star status as a veteran of the war returning to his homeland. Enjoying his new-found celebrity, Fitzwilliam comes across Lady Amanda Sayles, with whom he falls head over heels in love. Sayles returns his affections, but worries that engaging in a relationship with Fitzwilliam would jeopardize her relationship with her son. What will become of Fitzwilliam in this matter? Will Fitzwilliam and Darcy ever reconcile their growing resentment?
I know from other reviews I read that reviewers either liked or hated this book. Many of the “hate” reviews seemed to be centered around their dislike of the liberties taken with the characters. Personally I’m not an Austen purist; I tend to get bored with reading the same thing over and over and over again. I really enjoy reading the new personality traits that authors come up with and give to each character. It’s this trait that helped in guiding my enjoyment in this novel. I was able to take it for what it was at face value: laugh when I was supposed to, be sad when I was supposed to, and just enjoy the overall story lines that Wasylowski came up with.
Just from following Wasylowski’s twitter, I knew I was in for lots of laughter when I decided to read Darcy and Fitzwilliam. Wasylowski’s take on Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet were absolutely hysterical; taking the most ridiculous elements in both of them and blowing them way out of proportion. The end result are two uproarious women who were utterly ridiculous (in a good way).
For those of you Janeites out there, that can withstand liberties taken with Jane’s original masterpieces, then I’d tell you to give this novel a try. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will certainly make you joyful for deciding to revisit Darcy, Elizabeth, Fitzwilliam, and the rest of the Pride and Prejudice gang.
Kimberly (Reflections of a Book Addict)
http://wp.me/p18lIL-Fi
I know from other reviews I read that reviewers either liked or hated this book. Many of the “hate” reviews seemed to be centered around their dislike of the liberties taken with the characters. Personally I’m not an Austen purist; I tend to get bored with reading the same thing over and over and over again. I really enjoy reading the new personality traits that authors come up with and give to each character. It’s this trait that helped in guiding my enjoyment in this novel. I was able to take it for what it was at face value: laugh when I was supposed to, be sad when I was supposed to, and just enjoy the overall story lines that Wasylowski came up with.
Just from following Wasylowski’s twitter, I knew I was in for lots of laughter when I decided to read Darcy and Fitzwilliam. Wasylowski’s take on Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet were absolutely hysterical; taking the most ridiculous elements in both of them and blowing them way out of proportion. The end result are two uproarious women who were utterly ridiculous (in a good way).
For those of you Janeites out there, that can withstand liberties taken with Jane’s original masterpieces, then I’d tell you to give this novel a try. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will certainly make you joyful for deciding to revisit Darcy, Elizabeth, Fitzwilliam, and the rest of the Pride and Prejudice gang.
Kimberly (Reflections of a Book Addict)
http://wp.me/p18lIL-Fi
samhend101's review against another edition
2.0
DNF
I started out chuckling to this story. Some of the dialog was quite witty. But then it got old. And it felt like upper class British from the 1960's on LSD.
This wasn't just out of canon, the characters were inconsistent, even if they were different.
And then - it got boring. I kept waiting from the flashback that explains what happened between the failed proposal and the 2 months of marriage.
When I got to Vol. 2 I could not get in to the new Amanda character.
And through it all it was like the author had a running competition on how many times and in how many ways sex, physical attributes and general horniness could be mentioned.\\
As I said above, it got boring and old.
I started out chuckling to this story. Some of the dialog was quite witty. But then it got old. And it felt like upper class British from the 1960's on LSD.
This wasn't just out of canon, the characters were inconsistent, even if they were different.
And then - it got boring. I kept waiting from the flashback that explains what happened between the failed proposal and the 2 months of marriage.
When I got to Vol. 2 I could not get in to the new Amanda character.
And through it all it was like the author had a running competition on how many times and in how many ways sex, physical attributes and general horniness could be mentioned.\\
As I said above, it got boring and old.
drcopeland's review against another edition
4.0
Highly entertaining. I loved the development of Lady Catherine and seeing a different side of Darcy and seeing more of Fitzwilliam. My only criticism is that it could have left out some of the details in the love scenes.
directorpurry's review against another edition
1.0
No.
Nope.
That's gonna be a hard no from me.
This book was not at all what I wanted. From the ridiculous characterization of Lizzy to the incongruous use of language and expletives, this was not at all an appropriate representation of the time period.
The epilogue was also somewhat dreadful.
When I first started this book, I thought it was going to be okay and then I would hand it off to a friend who is even more obsessed with Pride and Prejudice than I am, but I will not inflict this on her... She's the one I ask for pointers when I'm writing my Regency/Georgian novels!
Nope.
That's gonna be a hard no from me.
This book was not at all what I wanted. From the ridiculous characterization of Lizzy to the incongruous use of language and expletives, this was not at all an appropriate representation of the time period.
The epilogue was also somewhat dreadful.
Spoiler
"...into the arms of Mary Bennet, who had secretly been in love with him the whole time." Show don't tell much???When I first started this book, I thought it was going to be okay and then I would hand it off to a friend who is even more obsessed with Pride and Prejudice than I am, but I will not inflict this on her... She's the one I ask for pointers when I'm writing my Regency/Georgian novels!
melbsreads's review against another edition
1.0
This was...not good. It never quite reached "I want to throw it at the wall" status, so it's probably more like a 1.25 star book, but STILL. The characters are universally awful. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam are both enormously controlling "you-belong-to-me" types. At one point, Darcy spends like three pages screaming at a heavily pregnant Lizzy through her locked bedroom door, then kicks the door in, and has the nerve to be offended when she cowers, because he would NEVER hurt a woman. The women, on the other hand, are all shrewish and foot-stampy types who generally go from throwing things and "I never want to see you again" to "I'm so sorry please forgive me for my womanly stupidity" in the space of one kiss. Add in Caroline Bingley as a manipulative individual who's apparently slept with half the ton, and things are looking pretty awful.
The language was frequently just...wrong. Darcy and Fitzwilliam's relationship is supposed to come across as brotherly, but apparently that just means making a lot of fart jokes and discussing their virility. After one such conversation, Fitzwilliam starts referring to his dick as "the South of France", which leads to ongoing boner references. Add in members of the Royal Family shrieking like banshees in public, the use of the word "fanny" to mean "arse" (which led to both hilarity and cringing), and Lizzy's pregnancy leading her to be "much larger horizontally than vertically" (seriously?!), and I was firmly on the Nope Train.
Honestly, I think one of my biggest problems with this was that in the 50-ish% of the book that features Lizzy and Darcy, NOT ONCE do the Gardiners turn up. NOT. ONCE. Which, given that Austen tells us in the final chapter of P&P that they were frequent visitors to wherever the Darcys were living, seems like a MASSIVE oversight. Sigh. Oh, that and the fact that after trying to break up Darcy and Lizzy's marriage - going so far as to con Darcy into coming to Netherfield under false pretences, then getting him drunk and climbing into his bed naked - the only repercussion that Caroline Bingley receives is marrying a rich dude who lives in Edinburgh and being denied the joys of London. Dude. No.
Look, if you're a huge fan of Col. Fitzwilliam, maybe give it a go? But then again, maybe don't unless you want to see the character you previously enjoyed turned into a slightly abusive douchenozzle...
The language was frequently just...wrong. Darcy and Fitzwilliam's relationship is supposed to come across as brotherly, but apparently that just means making a lot of fart jokes and discussing their virility. After one such conversation, Fitzwilliam starts referring to his dick as "the South of France", which leads to ongoing boner references. Add in members of the Royal Family shrieking like banshees in public, the use of the word "fanny" to mean "arse" (which led to both hilarity and cringing), and Lizzy's pregnancy leading her to be "much larger horizontally than vertically" (seriously?!), and I was firmly on the Nope Train.
Honestly, I think one of my biggest problems with this was that in the 50-ish% of the book that features Lizzy and Darcy, NOT ONCE do the Gardiners turn up. NOT. ONCE. Which, given that Austen tells us in the final chapter of P&P that they were frequent visitors to wherever the Darcys were living, seems like a MASSIVE oversight. Sigh. Oh, that and the fact that after trying to break up Darcy and Lizzy's marriage - going so far as to con Darcy into coming to Netherfield under false pretences, then getting him drunk and climbing into his bed naked - the only repercussion that Caroline Bingley receives is marrying a rich dude who lives in Edinburgh and being denied the joys of London. Dude. No.
Look, if you're a huge fan of Col. Fitzwilliam, maybe give it a go? But then again, maybe don't unless you want to see the character you previously enjoyed turned into a slightly abusive douchenozzle...
denimchild's review against another edition
Characters act completely out of character. The dialogue is often modern and also out of character. I’m glad I didn’t waste too much money on this
vesper1931's review
4.0
In this P&P sequel the prologue quickly jumps from 1813 and Hunsford to Part 1 and 1815 where we have the Darcys married. The story carries on then for a few more years.
What I loved about the book was the character of Colonel Fitzwilliam, and the interactions between the Colonel and Darcy. I actually liked this Darcy even though he is not a patch on the Colonel. I also liked the character of Lady Catherine.
The only thing I didn't like was in the epilogue with the passing reference to Mary Bennet - my favourite Bennet - marrying the widowed Collins -yuck and totally unnecessary.
But overall a very enjoyable story.
What I loved about the book was the character of Colonel Fitzwilliam, and the interactions between the Colonel and Darcy. I actually liked this Darcy even though he is not a patch on the Colonel. I also liked the character of Lady Catherine.
The only thing I didn't like was in the epilogue with the passing reference to Mary Bennet - my favourite Bennet - marrying the widowed Collins -yuck and totally unnecessary.
But overall a very enjoyable story.
covertocovergirl's review
5.0
This book was full of engaging characters, laugh out loud situations and dialogue with a totally different but well done spin based on the Jane Austin classic Pride & Prejudice. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ of 5
julie_kcwbc's review
2.0
I was looking forward to see where this dynamic duo would go, but this story didn't pan out very well in my opinion. Darcy and Lizzie are altered drastically. Lizzie is completely unreasonable and annoying most of the book. She yells, rants or screeches at least once during every appearance. Lady Catherine was my favorite character of the entire book. I liked the relationship between Darcy and Fitzwilliam, but it was overshadowed by so many other things. However, I did like some of the things Wasylowski addressed like Fitzwilliam's depression from war.
Even so, the characters were too altered from their original personalities, the story could have been edited down so that this wasn't a 500 page book, and there was too little interaction between Darcy and his cousin for me to really enjoy this story. I was hoping for so much more.
Even so, the characters were too altered from their original personalities, the story could have been edited down so that this wasn't a 500 page book, and there was too little interaction between Darcy and his cousin for me to really enjoy this story. I was hoping for so much more.
annemarie5df76's review
2.0
I got to a third of the book and couldn't finish it. Darcy and Elizabeth are way too out of character. Darcy is portrayed as a very angry husband and Elizabeth sounds as silly as her mother. Oh well, the idea was interesting but the book itself was too boring for me to want to know how it ends.
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