Tag: Maria Grace

Longbourn: Dragon Entail by Maria Grace

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

Longbourn: Dragon Entail is the second in the Jane Austen Dragons series by Maria Grace. The first was Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon. This novel is as enjoyable as the first one.

Plot

It takes up the story where it left off in the first novel. Pemberley, the baby dragon, has been carted off to Rosings at the insistence of Longbourn the estate dragon. He’s jealous of the bond between Elizabeth and Pemberley. Elizabeth doesn’t know it’s Longbourn’s fault and blames Darcy.

Mr Bennet and Longbourn the estate dragon, are still insisting that Elizabeth marries Mr Collins who is dragon deaf, and she tries to go along with it until she thinks they are trying to mentally manipulate her into marrying him. This is totally against the Dragon code, and she decides to leave Longbourn and go to London. I really disliked this version of Mr Bennet and my dislike of Longbourn, the estate dragon, only increased in this sequel.

She then goes to the Blue Order where her notebooks on the care of dragons is of great interest and bumps into Mr Darcy who’s been about to go to Longbourn because Pemberley is pining for her. Georgiana Darcy has been sending her letters but Mr Bennet has been hiding them. Elizabeth goes to Rosings and is reunited with Pemberley who is just as cute as in the first book.

Lady Catherine tries to order her to marry Mr Collins – they have the scene that happens in the original when Lady Catherine visits Longbourn. Then Elizabeth leaves the house and bumps into Mr Collins, He then gives her Mr Darcy’s original marriage proposal from the original. Elizabeth is no more impressed with Mr Collins giving it than she was with Mr Darcy. Unfortunately, Mr Collins persists in following her and comes across the dragons. This is a big NO NO as humans who can’t hear dragons are not meant to know about them.

The Blue Order assesses Pemberley to see whether she is feral or not and decide what to do about the “dragon deaf” Mr Collins. He ends up engaged to Mary who will become the Longbourn dragon keeper after Mr Bennet.

By the end of the novel, Elizabeth and Darcy are getting to know and appreciate each other. Elizabeth becomes engaged to Darcy, but Lydia has run away possibly with a rogue dragon which is VERY BAD NEWS. Cue the next novel.

Things I liked about Longbourn: Dragon Entail

The author uses some of the dialogue from the original, which I like. In the original, Mr Darcy proposes to Elizabeth at Rosings. In this novel, it’s Mr Collins who proposes to Elizabeth using Darcy’s words. It sounds even worse with Mr Collins saying it and unsurprisingly, Elizabeth refuses him.

We learn more fascinating details about the dragons living at Rosings.

Things I didn’t like about Longbourn: Dragon Entail

I can’t understand why Elizabeth blames herself for the way Longbourn behaves when it’s clearly the fault of her father for not being a very good Dragon Keeper.

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.