Review: MR. DARCY'S BITE by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Mr. Darcy a werewolf? Really?

Yes, really, in Mary Lydon Simonsen's wonderful Regency take on the paranormal, Mr. Darcy's Bite.

For months, Darcy has visited Elizabeth. To all appearances, he wants to court her, but he has yet to make a declaration. At last, Elizabeth has had enough. With the love of his life about to dismiss him forever, Darcy has no choice but to reveal he is a werewolf.

Of all the reasons Darcy would hesitate to marry her, Elizabeth never imagined this. She loves him, but does she want to wed a man who grows fangs and fur every month?

In general, I don't care for paranormal in historicals. The paranormal can easily overwhelm the history, and combining the genres in the correct proportions to satisfy the historical reader is a delicate operation. In Mr. Darcy's Bite, Mary Lydon Simonsen has succeeded in crafting a story true to Regency sensibilities within the framework of an almost done-to-death paranormal motif.

Ms. Simonsen uses Darcy's unusual condition to heighten both the conflict and the emotion. Both Elizabeth and Darcy agonize over whether marriage would help or hurt the other, without realizing their doubts manifest their true love. Ms. Simonsen's scrupulous attention to the Regency world lets us believe Darcy's and Elizabeth's love plus a little humor will allow them to adapt to a marriage in which Darcy runs on four feet once a month. I like that Ms. Simonsen has presented Darcy's lycanthropy as more curse than blessing. Darcy is already a hero for the ages, and using his werewolfism to turn him into a Regency superman would dilute his appeal. And I like the ending, where two truly become one.

Mr. Darcy's Bite adds an enjoyable new dimension to Pride and Prejudice.

Thank you all,
Linda
ARC provided by Sourcebooks

Review: A WIFE FOR MR. DARCY by Mary Lydon Simonsen

A gentleman never insults a lady. But Mr. Darcy does precisely that when he says Elizabeth Bennet isn't handsome enough to dance with at the Meryton assembly. And so begins Mary Lydon Simonsen's A Wife for Mr. Darcy, wherein Darcy's apology sets off a story about the conflict between duty and desire.

Although Elizabeth shrugged off the slight, she boldly calls him to task for his behavior. In Darcy's experience, ladies are retiring, colorless little sheep, always bowing down to men. But not Miss Elizabeth Bennet. And he likes it. So much so, that he falls in love with her.

But there are stumbling blocks. Besides Elizabeth's obvious social inferiority, Darcy has already taken the first steps towards seeking another lady's hand--one of the aforementioned sheep. He cannot, in honor, back away. What to do?

Never underestimate the power of friends, as Georgiana, Col. Fitzwilliam, Anne De Bough and even Col. Fitzwilliam's brother, the earl, unite to save Darcy from making the most colossal mistake of his life.

Rich with the social realities of the era, A Wife for Mr. Darcy is also a cautionary tale of the pitfalls involved in blindly following society's dictates. Duty and position in the world loomed large in Darcy's day, with serious penalties for not conforming to expectations. But should you follow society's precepts in a matter of such importance as matrimony? Should you undertake a disastrous, loveless, life-long marriage with a "suitable" woman as Darcy's cousin, the earl, did, or follow your heart and risk the consequences?

Ms. Simonsen writes the style of Jane Austen well, but with added emotion. The emotion transforms a simple Cinderella story into a tale of real people caught in a bind of life-altering proportions.

Darcy and Elizabeth's love makes them both vulnerable and deeply human, and is a joy to read. I like the rehabilitated Mrs. Bennet, here a sensible woman whose dramatics are only a bid for attention in a crowded female household. Mr. Collins is even sillier than in Pride and Prejudice, and Georgiana shows a definite talent for intrigue as she helps extricate her beloved brother from a tangle not entirely of his making.

A Wife for Mr. Darcy is a happily-ever-after we will all enjoy.

Thank you all,
Linda
ARC provided by Sourcebooks

Review: A PERFECT BRIDE FOR MR. DARCY by Mary Lydon Simonsen

We read Price and Prejudice and sigh in happiness at this enduring tale of a romance that was always fated to be.

Or was it?

No seemingly random events drive the action in A Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy, Mary Lydon Simonsen's retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Everything is arranged by none other than that unlikeliest of characters, the little-seen Anne De Bourgh.

Anne may be sickly, but her frail body houses a rapier-sharp mind. The story begins as Darcy confesses to Anne his monumentally bungled marriage proposal to Elizabeth. With the skill of a master strategist, Anne, along with some help from Darcy's sister, Georgiana, orchestrates the events that at last being them together.

In A Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy, Ms. Simonsen writes Pride and Prejudice as Jane Austen would have if she were alive today. She fleshes out the supporting characters, giving their motivations in their own words, as well as providing rationales for some of the coincidences in the original. Did the whim of the gods bring Darcy and Elizabeth together at Pemberley? Nothing of the sort. Anne directs the action, never leaving us in doubt that our characters find their happy endings not because of the mercy of the universe, but because of her deliberate, watchful care.

With a fast-reading, engaging style, along with a touch of humor--Darcy is so excited about Elizabeth that he must now wear trousers instead of breeches--A Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy brings a new and enjoyable immediacy to Jane Austen's most popular novel.

Thank you all,
Linda
ARC provided by Sourcebooks.