Friday, February 20, 2009

Review: Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy by Sharon Lathan


genre: historical fiction/romance

Lizzie and her Mr. Darcy have gotten married at the end of the 2005 movie version of Pride and Prejudice. This book begins where that left off and occasionally even flashes back to exact scenes from the movie. The book takes us throughout the first several months of their marriage as they fall even more in love and as Lizzy settles into her role as Mrs. Darcy and the mistress of the Pemberly estate.

One thing I think the author does particularly well is surround us by the Regency period. The language, the tones of conversations and the atmosphere felt authentic to original Austen (although, like I said, the plot is truer to the movie version than to the original book). Even the characters, for the most part, felt genuine and their behavior consistent. What did not feel so authentic to me was the amount and level of detail in the "bedroom" scenes. To be completely truthful, I would classify the book as a romance novel, chiefly for the fact that I was sometimes skimming through two, three pages of detailed romantic interludes.

I liked the interactions between husband and wife when they were not being "intimate," but these scenes felt cut short, always, by their desires for each other - often making me feel that the plot was lacking. It got a bit frustrating because I did like the world that Lathan had created and wanted to spend more time with Lizzy and Darcy out in it! Scenes where Lizzy was meeting Derbyshire society and when she was acting as hostess at Pemberly stand out as ones I particularly liked reading.

In the end, I think your pleasure in this novel will be what you are interesting in finding there. If you want a story of true love - a couple perfectly matched and infatuated with each other and living in a splendid historical time period, than this is the book for you.

5 comments:

Beth F said...

I may just look into this one. I really love P&P

Sharon Lathan said...

Thank you, Corinne, for taking the time to read my debut novel and write a comprehensive review. I truly do appreciate it and am honored that you would do so. Naturally the exposure is welcome!

This first novel is very much the 'honeymoon phase' I will admit. :) My subsequent novels do take the Darcys far beyond Pemberley with increased interactions. It is a saga after all!

By the way, not sure how it happened, but the image is of a way older cover. I would be happy to send you the correct image if you wish. Feel free to email me: babysavr@pacbell.net

Thanks again Corinne! I will place a link from my website to here.

Sincerely, Sharon Lathan

Anna said...

I agree with you about the number of bedroom scenes and that the other scenes felt cut short. Still, it was a pretty good book and I'm looking forward to the next one. I've linked to your review on mine, which is here.

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Hey Corinne! (I haven't been on the blogosphere much lately, but according to my google reader neither have you!). :) I'm glad you liked this one--there have been so many P&P sequels lately that I'm having a hard time choosing which one I might want to read.

Serena said...

I really enjoyed this though the interactive scenes with others in the household were a bit short, and I would have loved to see Elizabeth fumbling a bit more as head of the household.

I still liked this novel enough to check out the second in the saga.

here's my review: http://savvyverseandwit.blogspot.com/2009/02/mr-mrs-darcy-two-shall-become-one-by.html

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