A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester. Published by Sourcebooks. ISBN: 978-1-4022-4136-9, 387 pages including index. Trade Paperback. $14.99 (Amazon: $10.19; Kindle: $9.68)

Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester is just what the title implies, it’s a book about the Regency World that made up the background for Heyer’s Regency books. It helps to explain to today’s readers the nitty gritty details of what it was like to live in that time, in that society, and explains a lot of the customs, rules, and etiquette of that period. Now I know that makes it sounds like it would be incredibly dull and boring but, in fact, Kloester’s book is extremely readable. I started with the intent to read it front to back and before I was in more than 30 pages, I found myself reading a bit that made me think of a question, so I checked the table of contents and index and thereafter I skipped and dipped into the book at will, checking on those things that had niggled at the back of my brain when reading one book or another.

I wanted to read this book because I read a fair number of books that take place during the Regency Period. I will admit that I don’t read a lot of Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels. So, while the book is filled with examples from Heyer’s writings, I wasn’t familiar with the works cited; however, that’s not a problem because Kloester gives enough background that if you’ve read in the period you’ll get pick up what’s being explained from the books you have read.

Georgette Heyer’s Regency World is well organized so that the reader can go to a specific section to find an answer to questions about what the society was like and how it worked. Chapters are titled: Up and Down the Social Ladder; At Home in Town and Country; A Man’s World; The Gentle Sex; On the Town; The Pleasure Haunts of London; The Fashionable Resorts; Getting About; What to Wear; Shopping; Eat, Drink and Be Merry; The Sporting Life; Business and the Military; and Who’s Who in the Regency. Each chapter in the table of contents is listed with a subset of what’s included in that chapter, for example; the chapter on Getting About includes: All Kinds of Carriages; On Drivers and Driving; Public Transport; On the Road; Long-Distance Travel; and Turnpikes, Toll-gates and Tickets. Each individual chapter starts with an overview of what will be covered in that chapter. I was surprised to learn that long distance travel was considered anything further away than 10 miles. That’s rather difficult to wrap your mind around when most of us travel further than that one-way to work now-a-days.

There are also black and white illustrations throughout the book. I found the pictures of the various types of carriages, the cut-a-way view of a London townhouse, types of dress, and a circulating library, among others to be worth more than words while changing the mind pictures I’d built up while reading. There are also several appendices: A Glossary of Cant and Common Regency Phrases; Newspapers and Magazines; Books in Heyer; Timeline; Reading about the Regency and Where Next?; and Georgette Heyer’s Regency Novels.

For readers of books set in the Regency period, Georgette Heyer’s Regency World is an outstanding resource for understanding the world and society those characters lived in. For those who read books that take place in historical settings, the world has changed. Many of the social conventions that ruled the lives of the people living in Regency England no longer apply. Even during that period people who were born into the lower social classes found it difficult to deal with the myriad levels of behavior that those in the upper class were breed and trained to exhibit in their behavior. Many of the books set in that period mention the misunderstandings and missteps that characters took when moving into a higher social circle than that which they grew up in.

If you enjoy the Regency period, and want to have a better understanding of what society was like, this is probably the best, most accessible and readable book you’ll find on the subject. Even though I haven’t yet read Heyer’s Regency novels (I now have several on my to be read pile), I found Georgette Heyer’s Regency World a wonderful guide to the ins and outs of this social, cultural, historical time period of so many of the books that I read as a Jane Austen fan.

I’d like to hear other readers’ impressions of this work. Have you read it? Do you plan to?

Conquering Mr. Darcy by Abigail Reynolds, Sourcebooks Casablanca, August 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4022-3730-0, 416 pages, Mass Market Paperback. [Note: Previously published as Impulse & Initiative: What if Mr. Darcy had set out to win Elizabeth's heart? (Pride & Prejudice Variation)]

To Conquer Mr. Darcy, by Abigail Reynolds, is truly a “What If” novel. The critical question is what if Mr. Darcy didn’t give up on Elizabeth after his first disastrous proposal and Elizabeth’s unequivocal refusal? What if instead of meeting her again purely by chance at Pemberley, he returned with Bingley to Netherfield and made a concerted effort to win Elizabeth’s love and respect.

The book begins with Colonel Fitzwilliam stopping at Darcy’s townhouse in London. Georgiana has been worried about Darcy. Ever since the visit to Rosings, Darcy has spent his time alone, in the dark, drinking himself into a stupor and refusing to see anyone. This is totally out of character for him to be so depressed but he stubbornly resists all efforts to find out what is bothering him. Fitzwilliam luckily is a soldier and he barrels in where Georgiana and Bingley fear to tread and drags the story out of him. His advice is to go after Elizabeth if she means that much to him and win her.  For to do otherwise is evidence that he really doesn’t care. Darcy is angry but he pulls himself together and sets out determined to win Elizabeth.

At this point, we’ve diverged from the original story of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, and Reynolds has to weave her story between the incidents of the original story with a few changes. Darcy supports Bingley in his desire to marry Jane Bennet. Thus Darcy is with Bingley when he visits Jane and can pursue Elizabeth’s good opinion.

You can imagine that things are awkward at first as she’s refused his offer of marriage and while his explanation of his dealings with Mr. Wickham have somewhat changed her opinion of him, she doesn’t care to be more than acquaintances. Darcy on the other hand, really makes an effort to be civil and courteous to Elizabeth’s family members. He makes sure that he meets Elizabeth when she goes for walks and rambles and essentially treats her as you would a wild animal — kindly, slowly taming her — getting her used to the idea of him being around.

Reynolds uses much of the original dialogue and manages to incorporate Elizabeth’s trip with the Gardiners and Lydia’s pseudo-elopement with Wickham. Of course, the changing relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy, changes the way these events play out.

And for purists, I have to mention that his book is a romance — there’s several very steamy scenes along with some that are more conventional for the time period such as holding hands, kisses. But, the real non-cannon event is Elizabeth and Darcy having sex prior to their marriage. Reynolds builds up to this slowly over the books so that when it occurs it seems a logical extension of their relationship within context of this book. By the way, this doesn’t give anything away as it’s on the blurb on the back of the book and in the Amazon description. So, purists are warned.

In summation, I felt that it was a well done. Reynolds took her “what ifs” and wove them into the plot points of the original books so seamlessly that you might have to refer back to the original to scope out the magnitude and number of changes those what ifs cause. At heart To Conquer Mr. Darcy is a romance — now it’s just a bit more racy romance than we’re used to between these two well-loved characters.

[Note: Edited 10 Aug 2010 to change book title to match the actual published title as it change since I read the review copy.]

Farm Fatale by Wendy Holden. Sourcebooks Landmark (July 1, 2010). Trade Paperback. ISBN: 978-1-4022-3716-4. Pages: 402. Price: $14.99 (Amazon: $10.79 Book/Kindle $9.99).

Book Description:

Cash-strapped Rosie and her boyfriend Mark are city folk longing for a country cottage. Rampant nouveaux riches Samantha and Guy are also searching for rustic bliss-in the biggest mansion money can buy. The village of Eight Mile Bottom seems quiet enough, despite a nosy postman, a reclusive rock star, a glamorous Bond Girl, and a ghost with a knife in its back. But there are unexpected thrills in the hills, and Rosie is rapidly discovering that country life isn’t so simple after all.

Review:
Rosie dreams of living in the country away from the noise of London’s streets, especially the one they lived on which always seemed to be under repair — with big trucks and loud noises. Mark, however, barely pays attention to Rosie’s chatter about finding a place in the country. He loves the city and doesn’t want to leave because he’s just about to get his own column in the newspaper where he works as an assistant editor on the Sunday lifestyle section. Besides, they don’t have the money to move. That worked out well for Mark, he went to an office everyday which got him out of the noise and their grubby little apartment. Rosie, a freelance illustrator, was stuck working in the noise day after day, trying to draw when she could barely hear herself think. It seemed hopeless.

But suddenly, Mark was all for moving to the country. It seemed that he did listen to Rosie’s talk on how good a move to the country would be because he pitched it to the senior editor for a column and they were going to let him run with it — provided he moved to the country.

They finally settled on a small village called Eight Mile Bottom. However all they could afford was a small terrace cottage (in the US a row house) with a small garden area. Rosie throws herself into country life getting to know the neighbors, the nosy postman, and barkeep at the local pub, and many other colorful characters. Mark, however, barely leaves the house, ignoring and insulting Rosie by turns as he tries desperately to come up with a column.

Interspersed with Rosie and Marks plot line is one involving Samantha, a has-been actress with delusions of grandeur, and her husband, Guy, a banker. Samantha thinks that hiring the newest, brightest, whoever (architect, interior decorator, new age guru) will somehow put her in the same social strata as the famous people the newest and brightest whoever was with, in whatever fashion magazine she found them in. Guy on the other hand is thinking he made a mistake in marrying Samantha. Seeing a great spread in a home magazine about someone elegant country home Samantha begins to scheme to sell their London home and move to — you guessed it — Eight Mile Bottom.

These plotlines alternate and spin around each other throughout the book. Throw in a reclusive rock star, some ghosts, a farmer desperate for a wife who doesn’t mind hard work, an ex-Bond girl who raises racing chickens, a very nosy postman, loud hippy SCA neighbors, great dialogue, a few plot twists, and you get a wonderful romantic comedy with a definite English flair.

My only problem with the book and it’s one that I have with most romances is that Rosie was too darn accommodating to Mark. Just because he’s extremely handsome isn’t any reason to stay with someone who treats you like hired help. He’s lucky it was Rosie — I’d have booted him out long ago. I wished fervently that I could reach into the book and hit her upside the head with a clue stick. In a way that means the book is very well written — if the characters didn’t seem so real — no matter how outrageous — I wouldn’t have cared.

Since this is a romance, you know there will be the traditional HEA or happy ever after. What you don’t know is just who is going to get that HEA — will it be just Rosie or someone else, or several characters. To find out you’ll have to get the book and settle in for a delightfully funny and occasionally poignant getaway to the English countryside with Farm Fatale.

I Survived the Sinking of the Titantic, 1912 by Lauren Tarshis. Scholastic Paperbacks (June 1, 2010). ISBN: 978-0545206945. 112 pages. Cover by Steve Stone. Interior Illustrations by Scott Dawson. RL4 007-010. Includes Facts about the Titanic and an Author’s Note.

Book Blurb:

Ten-year-old George Calder can’t believe his luck — he and his little sister, Phoebe, are on the famous Titanic, crossing the ocean with their Aunt Daisy. The ship is full of exciting places to explore, but when George ventures into the first class storage cabin, a terrible boom shakes the entire boat. Suddenly, water is everywhere, and George’s life changes forever.

Tarshis opens the story on Monday, April 15, 1912 at 2:00 a.m. on the deck of RMS Titanic, the ship is sinking and ten-year-old George Calder is on the deck holding on to the rail in the freezing cold. The ship begins to tilt and George looses his grip and is knocked unconscious. Thus ends Chapter 1. What? The ship is already sinking and our main character is unconscious. I doubt there is a reader born who could put the book down at this point. We’re hooked.

Chapter 2 starts nineteen hours earlier on Sunday, April 14 at 7:15 a.m. in a first class suite on B Deck. Now we go back and meet George and his eight-year-old sister Phoebe. They are returning to America after visiting London and the surrounding area with their Aunt Daisy.

As we follow George, we learn that he is always getting in trouble and is as curious as a cat. He’s been all over the ship even to areas where he is not supposed to go. He’s made friends in steerage and exasperated his aunt and his sister — not to mention a number of the other first class passengers.

George, in other words is a typical boy who if there isn’t an adventure handy will invent some of his own. We also learn that his behavior had previously been causing problems between him and his father. Since George and Phoebe’s mother died a few years ago the family just hasn’t been the same. This trip was a time-out for father and son — a chance to get some distance and calm down.

So, even though he’s only ten, George is observant and makes a great point of view character for us. We see the ship through his eyes as he explores the ship. He meets some of the people who become famous or infamous due to their connection with this ship and the tragic end of its maiden voyage.

The author researched the ship and the accident that sunk her and tells a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat even knowing what is going to happen. Now though, it’s seen and told through the experiences of a ten-year-old boy who will never be the same. He saw great courage and great cowardice. He found strength he didn’t know he had. He survived and, while he doesn’t understand survivor’s guilt, he nonetheless feels it keenly.

The George who survives the sinking of the Titanic, is not the same person we got to know when we flashed back nineteen hours and then moved forward to the collision with the iceberg.

At the end of the book there’s an author’s note listing the references used and a section of Facts about the Titanic. I think it would have been nice to list some books where young readers could learn more about the Titanic and the people who survived and died that night in 1912.

I can’t think of a better way to learn about history than through fictional stories that allow you the opportunity to see how a historic event affected the people who lived through it. If you know a young person who is interested in the Titanic, this just might be the book they’re looking for.

On a side note, a few years ago I attended a convention in California where the Queen Mary is anchored. The ship is now a hotel. In walking about the decks that first day I wondered how much smaller it was than the Titanic. I found a chart target in the little soda shop and learned that the Queen Mary is much larger, which surprised me. The Titanic always looked so huge in the movies and reading about all the decks and people (staff and passengers), I just assumed it was huge. We all keep learning all the time.

Bibliographic info: A Woman of Influence by Rebecca Ann Collins, Pride & Prejudice sequel series, Book 9, Sourcebooks Landmark, Pub. Date: June 1, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4022-2451-5, 336 pages, List: $14.99. (Amazon: $10.19 / Kindle $9.99)

I came late to this series, so I first met Rebecca “Becky” Tate in Recollection of Rosings where she seemed a bit like one of those women who, at loose ends, trys to take charge of the lives of those around her. Becky, throughout that book, tried to impress upon her sister Catherine that her daughter was making the wrong match. Over the course of the novel, Becky began, as she became closer to her sister and reacquainted herself with Huntsford and the surrounding area, to realize that her London friends were not really friends at all. She began to question her values and just what she wanted to do with her life. Most of this story was in the background because Recollection of Rosings is Catherine’s story.

In A Woman of Influence, Becky Tate is the main character. She’s sold her London house and moved to Huntsford to the house that she fell in love with…Edgewater. She’s within walking distance of the small church that her father, Mr. Collins, preached at when she was a child, and to the home of her sister, Catherine, and also the school that she helped Catherine establish for children in the area. She’s changed her life and she’s content but feels restless and is often overwhelmed with grief when she thinks of the death of her daughter, Josie, and the estrangement that caused with the Darcys.

It is little wonder that Becky becomes embroiled in the life of a young woman and her child. The child was caught looking into the windows of Edgewater and he refused to say what he was doing there. The mother rushed up in time to explain that the child didn’t talk since his father was arrested. Becky thought the young woman was well-spoken and, concerned for the woman and her child found living rough,  she employs the girl in her home. The girl’s story causes Becky to take an interest and she begins to unravel the threads of the story and to look into the facts. This task becomes difficult as Becky must find a solution that will bring the family together while managing to not let anyone involved know that she is looking into the legalities of the original arrest and testimony.

Becky’s quest to help this young girl is the thread that keeps you reading as she follows the clues and gathers information. There is a secondary love story as Becky once again meets a gentleman who had helped her through the worst of her grief after her daughter’s death. As they renew their acquaintance, they find that they pick up their friendship as if only a day had past rather than years. Will it deepen to true love? For that you’ll need to read the book.

Once again, Collins uses straight narrative from Becky’s point of view, mixed with letters, diary entries, and other material to lead us through the story and to fill us in on necessary information without having to resort to long information dumps. Though one could say the letters and the diary entries are just that — info dumps — they don’t feel like it to the reader because they fit so nicely into the setting of the story.

Rebecca Ann Collins’ writing is well paced but slower than many readers might be used to.  However, it has much the same tone and pacing of the original Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, which was the precursor to the series. Collins continues the characters of Pride and Prejudice, taking them forward in time and allowing them to change and grow with the changing times. The Appendix lists the main characters in the book and their relationships to each other. The main characters of Pride and Prejudice now have grandchildren and the world is changing around them.

Becky Tate was a women of her times with dreams and ambition that would be difficult to achieve for a woman. She married to achieve some of those goals. However, that marriage was a partnership rather than a love match and while she had much influence and did a lot of good with her charity work, she was dependent on her husband. In A Woman of Influence, you’ll see how much the world has changed and women have moved forward and gained some ability to steer their own course through life, but they are still not as free as women are today to be able to choose the life they wish to lead. It’s important to remember that Collins didn’t make up the rules that women in this period must live by, she’s only reflecting the historical period in which these books take place.

So, visit the world of the 1860s, take the time to slowing sink into the narrative and, for a while, enjoy a time when people took the time to talk to each other without a cell-phone or ipod in sight. Life was lived, at least on the economic level of our main characters, at a more leisurely pace. Curl up with this book and a cup of tea and enjoy.

Rumor has it by Jill Mansell, Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN: 978-1402237508, pages 404, Price: List $14.00, Amazon: $10.08.

Jill Mansell’s Rumor Has It is hilariously funny as well as embarrassingly relevant. Tilly gets home from work to find her live-in boyfriend has moved out with all of his stuff. Not to worry, she’s not that broken up about it, except she can’t afford the rent without him. She comforts herself with a visit to her friend Erin in Roxborough. The visit is just what she needs, but before leaving to return to London, Tilly spies an ad for a Girl Friday and applies. With some assertiveness and a bacon sandwich, Tilly lands the job and moves in with Max Dineen and his daughter, Lou. Everything is going great until she falls hard for Jack Lucas who is rumored to be the hottest one-night-stand around.

Humor is very difficult to write. I know that’s the popular myth but think how often you tell a joke and everyone just stares at you waiting for the funny part — just after you’ve delivered the punch line. To write humor is to try to deliver that laugh to readers you can’t see and don’t really know. That said, Mansell’s Rumor Has It is funny. It’s laugh out loud funny. I’m sure most readers will recognize the situations because they’ve been there or seen it at one time or another. Maybe the situations weren’t as humorous at the time but, in hindsight, and happening in a book — perhaps you can see the humor this time.

Mansell’s characters are people you’ve met, been friends with, avoided like the plague, were forced to put up with, worked for, or heard about via rumors. All of the characters are well-developed and each has their own quirks. Erin doesn’t like to hurt people no matter what they do to her but she’s loyal and will defend a friend against all comers. Tilly wants romance and love but is afraid to get involved because she doesn’t want to get hurt. Stella thinks the world revolves around her and can’t understand why things aren’t going the way she planned for them to go.

I grew up in a very small town. In small towns, there’s very little to entertain one and gossip, a more sibilant word for rumor, and one that perhaps is more exact since it has that snake-hiss built in. Rumors can destroy people’s reputations and rumors can build a reputation. Remember a reputation is not necessarily a bad thing, it depends on what that reputation is and whether or not it’s true. Problems arise when the rumors don’t reflect reality. So, if you believe that everyone else is telling the truth and your experience doesn’t match the rumors would you admit to being different? Could you even convince people that the rumors are wrong? What if trying to set things right makes it look like you have a problem — would you talk about it then?

Tilly moves to Roxborough and needs to play catch up to learn what everyone else already knows. But what if, being new to the town, you don’t see things they same way. Do you go with what you believe or do you accept that the villagers know best?

Rumor Has It begins as Tilly’s story but there are several other plot lines involving other people, including Tilly’s best friend, Erin, scary Stella, Max Dineen’s ex-wife Kaye, and Max’s young daughter Lou — just to name a few. The point of view shifts to the character who can best tell the story.

It the book funny? You betcha it is. But it will also hit on a lot of other emotions as the various story lines play out and lives are disrupted and changed. Change doesn’t have to always be bad but sometimes it can get really depressing before it gets better. Love lost and love won can mean broken hearts and lives torn apart. Relationships in a small village with a very active rumor mill can be very iffy indeed.

First, I’m inclined to call Rumor Has It an old-fashioned romantic comedy updated to the present day. Many would call it Chick Lit. Whatever genre you put it in, it’s well written, funny, and relevant to people today and their relationships. Most of us have been the subject of rumors so we’ll know exactly how these characters feel.

I should mention that Rumor Has It is very British. If you watch British comedies and read books written by other UK authors, and have some knowledge of current British politics and social icons, you’ll get more of the jokes. The comedy is a bit off-the-wall, but totally believable. However, sometimes the humor is in a reference to a person, TV show, or political scandal. Don’t worry, the story is still very accessible and you’ll get most of the humor from context.

If you enjoy a good story with comedy, romance, and a bit of drama, give Jill Mansell’s Rumor Has It a try. She’s not an author I’d read before but her name is going on my “watch for this author” list.

The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice by Abigail Reynolds, Sourcebooks Casablanca, ISBN: 978-1402237324, pages 448, paperback.  (Amazon price: $6.99) (Previously published as Pemberley by the Sea in 2008 by Sourcebooks Landmark).

I’m always a bit trepidacious about reading a Pride & Prejudice follow on especially when it’s a modern retelling, however, Abigail Reynolds, not only manages to follow the spirit of Pride & Prejudice and the romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy but she also manages put in a retelling of that tale in modern times using the main plotline of her book. It’s an amazing bit of self-referencing and it not only works but packs an emotional punch just when the narrative needs it to move forward.

Since the book title is The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice, we expect that the characters will be mapped to those in Pride and Prejudice. Cassandra (Cassie) Boulton is a marine biologist who does summer research at BML in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and teaches at a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. She grew up in the slums of Chicago and has worked extremely hard to make her dreams come true — to get stability and tenure and to have a career where she can be near the ocean. Calder Westing is the son of Senator Joseph Westing and grew up with wealth and all the advantages that wealth and a family active in politics and high society could provide. As with his prototype, he gives the impression of pride and arrogance. The book also has stand-ins for Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley in Erin, Cassie’s best friend, and Scott Dunston, Calder’s best friend.

Cassie spends every summer doing research in Woods Hole, which is a mecca of marine biology and oceanography research on the east coast of the United States, as well as a picturesque vacation spot. Erin, who is recovering from a bad relationship, came to be Cassie’s research assistant, and to pull herself together before her final year of graduate school. Erin had arrived first and met a wonderful man, Scott. Cassie is expected to meet Scott at the evenings contradance. Calder who just had a bad experience with his family is going to be spending part of the summer with Scott, but when he arrives he finds the house locked and a note from Scott telling him that he can wait or meet him at the dance.

The scene is set, the characters meet, and except for the modern setting and character changes necessary to update, if you’ve read Pride & Prejudice, you know how things are probably going to go. [Remember the first meeting of Elizabeth and Darcy was at the ball in the assembly rooms.]

Once in motion much of the action is predictable if you know the underlying story, however, even so Reynolds manages to surprise and entice the reader to get involved with these characters and their lives and before long you’ve forgotten the Pride & Prejudice of the title and become totally committed to this story. She tells the story mainly from Cassie’s point of view with occasionally forays into Calder’s viewpoint.

There’s a lot going on in The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice. There is the romance between Cassie and Calder. There is the romance between Erin and Scott. There’s the underlying story of Pride & Prejudice that is echoed in the main plot line. There’s the additional story of the updated Pride & Prejudice written within the story that echoes again the main plot line. And it works — it all comes together to be one of the best modernizations of Pride & Prejudice that I’ve read in quite a long time.

The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice is though, at heart, a romance or a love story. It’s modern and there are sex scenes that will heat your house or power all your electronics. But flipping through the book to check, there really aren’t that many sex scenes, they just carry a lot of punch. Reading two of the most steamy ones over again, I realized that Reynolds manages to use the readers to add the steam. She doesn’t, as some authors do, go into detail in these scenes. She sets the scene, writes suggestive descriptions and leaves us with a hot flash of epic proportions. I’ve always preferred allusion and suggestion to explicit in-my-face descriptions and I think I’ve figured out why — it’s far more powerful a scene when the reader’s imagination is engaged. A fact that many writers should take note of, in my opinion.

Reynolds manages to harness the reader’s imagination throughout the novel as she plays with our expectations. This raises the book from a very good exploration of the theme to a really great one. If Pride & Prejudice holds a place in your heart, definitely give The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice a try.

For those of you who love romance and love stories and have never read Pride & Prejudice, dive into this book. It’s a wonderful romance and I would expect after reading it that you’d be willing to give Pride & Prejudice a try to see just why Jane Austen’s book is still so popular so many years after its publication.

The Darcy Cousins: Scandal, Mischief, and Mayhem arrive at Pemberley… by Monica Fairview, Sourcebooks, ISBN: 978-1-4022-3700-3, pages 432.

The rift between Darcy and his aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh has been somewhat mended since Elizabeth has given birth to an heir. Of course that doesn’t mean that Lady Catherine actually recognizes Elizabeth’s presence. But the entire family is gathering at Rosings once more for Easter. Joining the family are Robert Darcy (see The Other Mr. Darcy) and his wife and two relatives from America, Frederick Darcy and his sister Clarissa Darcy.

Georgiana is hoping that she and Clarissa will become close friends. Georgiana has been feeling that she’s in the way or not really wanted. Darcy marrying Elizabeth was definitely a good thing but where Georgiana always had her brother for company now he seems always involved with Elizabeth and their son — they don’t purposely exclude her they just don’t seem to notice.

Once Frederick and Clarissa arrive, they seem to get off on the wrong foot with Lady Catherine. While Frederick can be accepted, after all he is American, a business man, and rich. Clarissa must learn to become a lady — of course that’s the type of lady that Lady Catherine approves of, and that’s where all the trouble begins. Clarissa is neither tractable or docile.

Georgiana and Clarissa do become friends. Georgiana learns that one can be a lady and still have strong opinions and interests of her own. When Clarissa is appalled by the way everyone ignores Anne de Bourgh and has Georgiana join her in her campaign to become friends with Anne, Georgiana begins to realize that she’s always just accepted things and never looked at them from the outside. She’s also surprised by what they learn. Her eyes opened, she begins to look at other behaviors she’s always accepted.

As is usual, one things leads to another and before long Lady Catherine is convinced that Clarissa is practically the devil personified, and there to ruin the family. Once again the family finds itself rent by Lady Catherine’s insistence on her point of view. Everyone decamps for London and the season.

Georgiana struggles to find her own way in society with her new insights. She learns that Clarissa is in England for more than this visit and that there are depths to her American cousin. In fact, soon Clarissa and Georgiana find themselves interested in the same man. But is he the right man for either of them? Will their friendship last through the season?

To say any more would spoil the fun of learning all the secrets, intrigues, and adventures to be had in The Darcy Cousins. The book’s advanced press implies that the book is all about Clarissa and her problems but this is really Georgiana’s story. Clarissa is the spur that goads Georgiana to action and change. Georgiana is firmly front and center. She’s always been in the background and this time Monica Fairview gives the reader a chance to get to know her a bit better. Shy? Yes, but also she has the same strong Darcy stubbornness and loyalty. It’s a turbulent story as Georgiana becomes a person most of us would like to know better and have stand at our side in adversity.

Another excellent follow on to Pride and Prejudice that maintains the integrity of the original characters while moving the story of their lives forward.