Austenesque fiction Archives

Review of A Season of Magic by Sarah Courtney

This is a review of A Season of Magic by Sarah Courtney. The full title is A Season of Magic: A Pride and Prejudice Variation. It’s a Pride and Prejudice inspired fantasy. I’ve already reviewed a couple of novels by Monica Fairview that has the same premise as this novel; that mages exist in Regency England.

There are two types of magic users, those who can use elements e.g. air, fire, water or earth and those who have talents. Elemental mages usually have a talent as well.

Elizabeth and Jane Bennet have not had an easy time in this version. Mr and Mrs Bennet are only their foster parents and unpleasant ones at that. They’re greedy and unscrupulous.

Elizabeth and Jane’s true parents were evil mages who died while the girls were young.

Plot

After the girls reveal that they are elemental mages by helping to put out a fire at the Netherfield Ball, Elizabeth is sent to The Season, a magical boarding school, to learn how to control her powers while Jane remains at Longbourn. This of course, allows her to continue her romance with Mr Bingley. Elizabeth has a rough time at The Season to begin with. She’s not trusted and there are attempts to bully and intimidate her until she proves her worth. Jane joins her for the second year and things really start to hot up then.

The plot is a radical departure from the original novel. As mentioned before, Mr and Mrs Bennet are only the foster parents so the whole issue of who inherits Longbourn is removed, and Mr Collins doesn’t make an appearance. And Wickham running away with Lydia is not part of the plot.

In another departure from the plot, Elizabeth doesn’t meet Darcy at the Assembly until a dance at The Season. He’s just as dismissive though. Darcy warns her he’s keeping an eye on her to watch for dark tendencies. However, he soon becomes fascinated by, and then falls in love with her.

Characters

One of the things I really liked about this novel was the use of characters from other Jane Austen novels. Emma Woodhouse, Anne and Elizabeth Elliot, Captain Tilney, Lucy Steele, etc. As you’d expect, the nice characters are still nice, and the unpleasant ones still behave badly. A couple such as Emma and Anne have quite important parts, the others are really just walk on parts. Anne Elliot came across as pretty wimpy in this novel, which disappointed me as she’s my second favourite heroine after Elizabeth Bennet. I was also a little disappointed that Catherine Morland didn’t make an appearance as she’s too young to attend The Season.

I liked that the author shows Wickham as an unreliable character. Elizabeth knows him from her youth and at first he is the only friendly person at The Season. However, before long he proves himself to be self-seeking and disloyal and Elizabeth realises he is not a real friend.

I also liked that Wickham’s parents are part of the story, the first novel I’ve read where they do so.

In summary, A Season of Magic is a well written and enjoyable Pride and Prejudice inspired fantasy.

Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon by Maria Grace

A tagline for Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon reads “Pern meets Pride and Prejudice”. I could see that. There were echoes of Pern especially the fairy dragons that reminded me of the fire lizards in the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. However, the novel also reminded me of the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.

This was a very entertaining read. After all, what’s not to like – Pride and Prejudice and dragons? Mr Darcy comes to Meryton looking for his stolen dragon egg that he needs desperately. If the egg hatches and is not bonded to a human, it will become a wild dragon and threaten the peace agreement between humans and dragons. Elizabeth Bennet can speak to dragons. She’s intended to marry Mr Collins because the estate will pass to him, and the estate’s dragon needs a dragon keeper (one who can hear dragons).

The egg hatches in the wild so there’s a race to find it so it doesn’t go feral.

I found it interesting that Mr Bennet in this novel insists that Elizabeth marry Mr Collins because she is the heir to the Dragon’s Keeper. Quite different from his attitude in the original Pride and Prejudice.

I also found it interesting that Mary is the only other Bennet sister who can hear dragons and not Jane, Elizabeth’s favourite sister. In the other fantasy Pride and Prejudice inspired novels I’ve read, it’s usually poor old Mary who lacks any magical ability.

I really loved the different types of dragons in Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon. Wyverns, cockatrices, fairy dragons, tatzelwurms. The fairy dragons strongly reminded me of the fire lizards in the Pern series and were just as enchanting. Rumblekins the Tatzelwurm, who is a cat like dragon was one of my favourites. Pemberley the baby dragon is very sweet.

Maria Grace uses a lot of the original text in this novel and does it very cleverly. She sometimes transfers speeches from one character to another. For example, Charlotte Lucas’s cynical speech about marriage is given to Mr Bennet to encourage Elizabeth to marry Mr Collins. I imagine most readers will enjoy spotting the snippets of original text.

I definitely want to read more in this series.

Darcy’s Midsummer Madness by Cass Grix

Darcy’s Midsummer Madness by Cass Grix, is a novella, which is loosely based on the play, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream (as you can probably guess from the title). Cass Grix, I discovered at the end of the novella, is a pen name for Jane Grix. Jane Grix writes mainstream Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction and under her pen name of Cass Grix, writes paranormal and/or fantasy Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction.

Plot

The plot of Darcy’s Midsummer Madness is as follows: Miss Bingley is desperate for Mr Darcy to propose to her. However, she realises she hasn’t got a chance against Elizabeth Bennet. She hears of a witch and asks the old woman to make her a love potion. This is sent to Netherfield but James Puck who has a grudge against Miss Bingley because she’s just sacked him, intercepts it. So, he sprinkles the love potion over the pastries to be served at the ball. He also puts urine (ugh!) in the bottle and delivers it to her. She then can’t understand why the love potion doesn’t work on Mr Darcy.

At the Netherfield Ball, guests eat the pastries and fall in love with people different from the ones they’re usually paired with. Lydia Bennet falls in love with Mr Darcy until he rejects her which her vanity can’t stand. Mr Collins falls in love with Lydia, but Miss Bingley falls in love with him and proposes. He chooses to become engaged to her for mercenary reasons. Wickham’s friend, Mr Denny, falls in love with Mrs Bennet. This gets Mr Bennet all riled up and jealous after he eats a pastry and leads to a fist fight, and Mr Bennet kissing Mrs Bennet.

Mr Darcy avoids the pastries and he and Elizabeth get to know each other better. She discovers the truth about Mr Wickham at the ball. Elizabeth realises that Mr Darcy is a good guy and develops feelings for him.

Mr Bingley proposes to Jane at the ball but then eats a pastry and falls in love with Charlotte Lucas and ignores Jane at supper. Then later on, the potion wears off and he tries to win Jane back. I was really pleased that Jane didn’t immediately forgive him, and it took some time for him to win her back.

The epilogue also has Mary Bennet engaged to Mr Denny and Charlotte Lucas engaged to Colonel Forster. The latter did surprise me as I thought Colonel Forster was already married in the original.

Characters

Miss King runs off with James Puck the footman because James gives her one of the doctored pastries. I felt sorry for Miss King as James Puck is not a nice character. Miss Bingley sacked him because he got one of the maids pregnant and wasn’t going to marry her.

In the end, the traditional pairings have changed a little. Miss Bingley marries Mr Collins because Mr Bingley refuses to allow her to break it off when she realises what she’s done. This did disturb me a little bit. I thought Miss Bingley did the right thing by sacking James as he was a nasty character. Though I disliked her, I did feel sorry for her ending up married to Mr Collins. Although the epilogue shows that she’s okay with the situation.

James Puck’s name is a not so subtle hint about what plays the novella is based on.

Kitty doesn’t get a look in, she only gets one or two lines of dialogue at most. And Lydia plays only a minor part. So, if you like stories to feature Kitty or Lydia, this is not the novella for you.

The story is written in the first person from nearly all the characters’ viewpoints.

I enjoyed this novella; it was pretty light-hearted and amusing. For example, when Mr Collins gives his speech from Pride and Prejudice about his reasons for getting married and Mr Bingley cuts him short.

Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris

Pride and Prescience: Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged is a novel by Carrie Bebris who has written several Pride and Prejudice (or Austenesque) novels. It’s the first in the Mr & Mrs Darcy Regency Mystery series. It’s a murder mystery with Lizzie and Mr Darcy in the starring roles. At first, it seems to be just a murder mystery but later on some supernatural elements are added.

Plot

It starts at the double wedding of Lizzie and Mr Darcy, and Jane and Mr Bingley. Caroline Bingley announces her engagement to Frederick Parrish, a rich and charming American at the wedding breakfast. Mrs Bennet is infuriated by this blatant attempt to upstage the weddings, and Lizzie is none too pleased. Lizzie and Mr Darcy are hoping to go to Pemberley as soon as possible after the wedding but their plans are thwarted by Caroline’s plan to marry the week after their wedding. Then Caroline begins to behave strangely, and the plot develops from there.

Characters

Several of the characters from Pride and Prejudice make an appearance including Jane and Mr Bingley and Caroline Bingley. Caroline has a major role in the plot. Other characters such as Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins play cameos.

Several new characters are introduced in the novel, Frederick Parrish, Juliet Kendall, Professor Randal, Mr Kendall and Lord and Lady Chatfield, some of whom play a fairly major role in the story.

Lizzie seems fairly true to her character in Pride and Prejudice. Mr Darcy behaves much as you would expect. Lizzie is more open minded about the possibility of the supernatural while Mr Darcy has no truck with it.

There are no steamy scenes in the novel, so if you like that sort of thing, you’re going to be disappointed.

I enjoy mysteries so I enjoyed this Pride and Prejudice inspired mystery and will look forward to reading the next in the series.

Dangerous Magic by Monica Fairview

Monica Fairview has written a fair few Pride and Prejudice inspired or Austnesque novels, mainly variations but a few sequels. She’s not written any other Pride and Prejudice inspired fantasy novels apart from the two in this series although she has written Steampunk Darcy set in the future (which I intend to read and review at some point).

Dangerous Magic: A Pride & Prejudice Fantasy Variation is set in Regency England where magic is real. It’s the first in a series – Mr Darcy’s Magic. It has a similar premise to Abigail Reynold’s Mr Darcy’s Enchantment but this variation is quite different. Here, mages are involved in the war against Napoleonic France. It did remind me a little of Susannah Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

Plot

Lizzie Bennet is forced to marry Mr Darcy because he is a Janus Mage whose “twin” has recently died and he needs a new one. Because she is female, they must marry to be respectable. They need to bond but find it difficult and need to find out what or who is stopping them from bonding. On the way, they fall in love.

There is a rigid hierarchical structure, there are Royal Mages and Rogue Mages. Royal Mages are descended from pure blood lines, have been trained at academies and work with spells from spell books. Rogue mages are less traditional driven. There are several types of mages, Healers, Warders, and Elementals. Mages who haven’t formally trained at an academy like Elizabeth are looked down on. Families like Darcy’s with generations of Royal Mages are in the top set of society. Mixed marriages are frowned on. This really reminded me of the Harry Potter series – “muggles” and “mudbloods”.

Characters

Some of the characters have been cut such as Charlotte. Mr Collins and Mr Wickham, and Jane is barely mentioned although they may appear more in the next novel. Lady Catherine De Bourgh plays only a minor part in the story, Lady Alice Enright seems to take over her role for this story. While Lizzie’s family and the Bingleys all appear indeed, Caroline Bingley is a supporting character.

I liked the way Lizzie and Mr Darcy came to understand and appreciate each other. I also liked that this novel reflected the original by having Mr Darcy change his attitude about the way magic was organised and the rigid hierarchical structure. And Lizzie come to realise that there is keeping to the rules is sometimes the best thing to do.

Style

I also liked the way the author wove parts of the dialogue from the original novel into hers.

For example, when Lady Alice insults her by asking her if she is chaste, this is Elizabeth’s reply – “If I were not,” said Elizabeth, stung by Lady Alice’s audacity, “you could hardly expect me to admit it”. And when Darcy expresses his feelings to Elizabeth about the proposed marriage, he says, “Do you think I can rejoice in the inferiority of your connections?’

Summary

In short, Dangerous Magic is an entertaining, well written novel. If you like your Pride and Prejudice inspired novels mixed with magic, then you’ll love it.