Entertaining, if a little contrived.

Struggling to honour his father, Fitzwilliam Darcy is faced with a dilemma when the old man determines that Elizabeth Bennet is not the girl for his son. When Darcy’s sister Georgiana gets chummy with Elizabeth, Darcy hopes his father will recognise her qualities, but love and duty seem incompatible…

Having read Pride and Prejudice many years ago, I’m familiar with the plot. This book being one of several popular ‘variations’ on the story, I wasn’t sure what to expect. To begin with, Darcy senior and his sister (young Darcy’s aunt) are still on the scene. Saving Georgiana from the dastardly Wickham, Darcy inadvertently gives his father reasons why less well-off families (like the Bennets) won’t make suitable alliances for his darling son, who should (obviously) keep any love interests within the aristocracy. This being a variation, I thought we might be faced with a tale where the plot goes off at an unexpected tangent, such as discovering Elizabeth Bennet harbours vampiric tendencies, or that Darcy conceals a terrible family secret that could ruin their good name. But no. For me, the story wasn’t sufficiently different to keep me riveted, and while the book is entertaining in its way, the conflicts facing the Darcys felt a wee bit contrived.

The audiobook is ably narrated by Scott Fleming.

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