fantasy Pride and Prejudice 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.

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.

Mr Darcy’s Enchantment by Abigail Reynolds

A review of Mr Darcy’s Enchantment by Abigail Reynolds

WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.

Here’s my review of Mr Darcy’s Enchantment by Abigail Reynolds. I’m a big fan of Abigail Reynolds. She’s one of the superstars of Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction authors. She’s written a lot of Pride and Prejudice variations, and this is one of the more extreme ones. It’s a fantasy variation. I like fantasy so was excited to find this one. There are quite a few Pride and Prejudice fantasy inspired novels around but not half as many as the hundreds of sequels and variations.

I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, which was pretty good. It irritated me a little that the fae all had Irish accents. I’d have thought Welsh would have been more appropriate but a minor point.

Plot of Mr Darcy’s Enchantment

I’ll quickly run through the plot of Mr Darcy’s Enchantment.

Mr. Darcy is a magician and Elizabeth is a Wise Woman, a healer. She must hide her magic because women are not allowed to use magic. If they are caught doing so, they have a binding spell put on them which basically makes them stupid. Elizabeth lives in terror of this unsurprisingly. (It turns out that Mrs Bennet had a binding spell put on her not long after she got married and that’s why she’s so silly.) I thought that was very clever of the author.

Elizabeth thinks Mr Darcy is interested in her because he suspects she has magic. She doesn’t realise he’s interested in her in a romantic way.

Elizabeth is staying with Charlotte and Mr Collins. She heals Lady Catherine de Bourgh who has been struck with elfshot. Instead of being grateful, Lady Catherine demands the Collinses throw her out of their house without any money. Elizabeth ends up fleeing into Fae land. Mr. Darcy goes after her. They end up becoming the emissaries of Oberon, King of the Fae and Titania, Queen of the Fae, in a bid to stop a war between the fae and humans. Elizabeth finds out some secrets about her own family. They also discover some evil human sorcerers who want the war for their own ends and have to defeat them too.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Elizabeth and Darcy with chapters alternating between them.

World building

Abigail Reynolds clearly did a lot of world building for this novel and thought carefully about how magic would be organised and managed, which I appreciated. For example, all humans can see the fey when children but usually can’t once they hit puberty. Elizabeth Bennet is one of the few adults who can still see the fey. I liked the complex fey relationships and the words she created for them.

By the way, I thought Aelfric is a Saxon name. So, it’s a surprising name for a fae character. I associate them far more with Celtic mythology rather than Saxon mythology but perhaps that’s just me.

I was also interested in the history she creates. It’s mentioned in the novel that Oliver Cromwell was a sorcerer as that Mary the First, Bloody Mary, was a sorceress. In my opinion, this turns the novel into alternate history. It’s also mentioned that Henry the Seventh was a sorcerer as well, so it seems that the Tudors were a line of evil magical monarchs. The author clearly doesn’t like the Tudors.

Characters

If you thought Lady Catherine de Bourgh was an unpleasant character in Pride and Prejudice, she’s a hundred times worse in Mr Darcy’s Enchantment. Far from being grateful to Elizabeth for healing her from elf shot, she orders Mr Collins to throw her out of the parsonage for being a witch even though Lady Catherine has magic herself. You learn that she wanted her daughter Anne to be put under a binding spell. And later on, we discover that Anne is not really her daughter but only Sir Lewis de Bourgh’s and an unknown woman. That I did find implausible. I couldn’t imagine someone like Lady Catherine obediently raising her husband’s bastard. In the end, it turns out that Lady Catherine is a is a sorceress who dabbles in black magic, and she does get her come-uppance.

Mr Collins too is much nastier than in Pride and Prejudice. He throws Elizabeth out of his house without even allowing her to get her purse so she has money for her journey home. You later discover that he’s been under a spell of obedience cast by Lady Catherine. However, I found it hard to forgive him, especially as he blames Charlotte as well for Lady Catherine enchanting him. Later you discover that prior to being put under an obedience spell, he used to argue with her. I hated him a little less after that. You also discover that Sir Lewis de Bourgh was a sorcerer and Lady Catherine de Bourgh used several of his spells to get her own way.

I didn’t think much of Charlotte for not sticking up for Elizabeth. She doesn’t even ensure Elizabeth gets her money when Mr Collins throws her out of his house for being a witch.

I also so wanted Elizabeth to give Mr Collins a mouthful when he did this and was disappointed by her tame reaction. I do think this version of Elizabeth seems rather emotional. She bursts into tears quite a few times, which just didn’t seem right to me.

I’ve always thought that Anne de Bourgh is a nondescript character in Pride and Prejudice, but she turns into a feisty character and a powerful magician once Prince Aelfric lifts the binding spell off her. She hates Lady Catherine de Bourgh her mother and banishes her to the dower house. This is hardly surprising as Lady Catherine encouraged a binding spell to be put on her.

Mr. Bennet is also not a very nice character in this novel. Mrs. Bennet had a child with Oberon and Mr. Bennet leaves the baby in a fairy ring, not knowing whether the child would be saved or not. That certainly made me like him a lot less. I found Mrs Bennet’s forgiveness of this and putting her under a binding spell, hard to swallow.

I liked the new characters introduced in the novel such as Lady Frederica Fitzwilliam and Viscount Disley, and the parents of Colonel Fitzwilliam, the Earl of Matlock and Lady Matlock. It also has the familiar fae characters of Oberon and Titania.

Summary of Mr Darcy’s Enchantment

I enjoyed the novel. It was well written although in my opinion the ending was “machina ex deus”. It didn’t come naturally from the actions of the characters, and was rather contrived. But it was great to read a Pride and Prejudice inspired novel with a fantasy setting.