Review of Miss Bennet’s Dragon by M Verant

This is a review of Miss Bennet’s Dragon by M Verant, a Pride and Prejudice inspired fantasy.

The full title is Miss Bennet’s Dragon: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling (Jane Austen Fantasy Book 1). Personally, I disagree with the author calling it a retelling. I think it’s a variation as are all Pride and Prejudice inspired fantasy stories.

This fantasy novel is about dragons, so I was interested to see how it compared to Maria Grace’s Pride and Prejudice inspired dragon series – Jane Austen’s Dragons.

One thing I noticed straight off was that this novel is written in the first person. This is unusual. I don’t remember having read any other Pride and Prejudice inspired novels that are in the first person. Normally, they’re written in the third person. I thought it made for a more immersive experience. It’s written from the viewpoint of Elizabeth Bennet.

Setting

The set-up is quite different in this novel from Maria Grace’s novels. The gentry hold their estates through inheritance and/or bonding with a dragon when they first marry and consummate the marriage. They also need “marriage gold” to bond a dragon. If the husband dies, the family will lose their estate unless the son and his wife bond with a dragon. If there is no male heir then unless a daughter has married and the couple have bonded, the estate will be lost. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a major exception to this societal rule.

Oh, and dragons are called “draca” in this novel.

I loved the different types of dragons (or draca) in the novel. None of them seem to be that big unlike Maria Grace’s. They have great names such as tunnelworm, roseworm and lindworm, etc.

Plot

This novel is quite dark, a fair few characters die. I wouldn’t describe it as a light and fluffy Pride and Prejudice inspired novel.

The plot involves draca and French spies. I don’t want to say more and give the plot away.

One change to the original plot is that Jane becomes ill at Netherfield through being bitten by a foul crawler rather than catching cold on the way there. This is potentially fatal until Elizabeth is guided by a Scottish laundry maid to get Jane to drink a few drops of draca blood. And then Jane falls sick with binding sickness because she is in love with Bingley who has gone away to America so, she’s in danger of dying unless Elizabeth can find a way to save her. This is the reason Elizabeth visits Pemberley in order to find a cure for Jane. I liked how the author adapted the original plot.

Another change to the plot is that Mr Collins and Charlotte don’t bind a draca so he loses the claim to Longbourn. However, the Bennets are still at risk unless a Bennet daughter and her husband can bind a draca. Enter Lydia. It seems Wickham had an ulterior motive in seducing her.

Characters

Elizabeth is a very strong character; she holds the family together. She’s basically running the estate for her father. Elizabeth has a telepathic bond with dragons. They will all obey her.

I did like the version of Mr Darcy in this novel. He’s the strong, silent but passionate type. He certainly goes above and beyond for Elizabeth.

I wasn’t sure about Jane in this novel. She seemed a bit of an air head to me once or twice in this novel. And as the eldest, wouldn’t she have had some involvement/training in the estate? She does play a very passive role.

Mary Bennet in this novel reminded me of the heroine of The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough. She’s much more interesting than the original Mary in Pride and Prejudice. She’s a feminist and would be social reformer, even a bit of a goth. She and Lizzie are very close in the novel.

Lydia is probably the most evil that I’ve seen her character be in any of the Pride and Prejudice inspired novels that I’ve read so far. And Wickham is pretty evil too.

Summary

Miss Bennet’s Dragon was an enjoyable and gripping read if darker than most Pride and Prejudice inspired fantasy novels.

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.

Darcy Bites: Pride and Prejudice with Fangs by Amy Elizabeth Davis

Warning: Spoiler Alert

In this post, I’ll be reviewing Darcy Bites: Pride And Prejudice With Fangs by Amy Elizabeth Davis. I almost didn’t read this Pride and Prejudice inspired paranormal novel because I thought the cover looked amateurish. However, I’m glad I gave it a chance because it was well written and entertaining.

There’s a few Pride and Prejudice inspired vampire novels around but only one other one I can think of where he’s a dhampir. Vampire Darcy’s Desire: A Pride and Prejudice Paranormal Vagary by Regina Jeffers.

It’s very nearly a mashup novel (where 80% of the text comes from a classic novel and 20% is original like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). There’s lots of the original text in the novel. For example, Darcy does indeed say to Bingley that Elizabeth “is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me”.

However, the author also often slightly changes the text.

For example, Elizabeth says to Darcy. “Did you not think, Mr. Darcy, that I expressed myself uncommonly well just now, when I was teasing Colonel Foster to spar with me?”

“With great energy, but it could hardly be a fair match.”

‘You are severe on Colonel Foster.”

Plot

The plot is as follows: Darcy is a dhampir (half vampire/half human). His mother was a vampire, and his father was human. He accompanies Mr Bingley to Netherfield Hall because it was attacked by vampires eighteen years ago. He wants to make sure that there are no vampires still lurking in the area. As per the original, he only becomes interested in Elizabeth after the assembly. Wickham makes an appearance. he’s also a dhampir and abuses his powers.

Elizabeth has been trained in martial arts (reminded me of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and volunteers as bait. Lady Catherine does come to visit Elizabeth, but she demands that Elizabeth promise not to marry Darcy and tries to kill her when she refuses. Darcy saves Elizabeth, and he stakes his aunt. This doesn’t kill her, but it does leave her comatose. She winds up imprisoned in his cellar for several years.

There are several discoveries about different characters: Wickham is a dhampir who abuses his ability to mesmerise people. Bingley is a werewolf and Mr Bennet is also a dhampir which is why Elizabeth has super hearing and is good at fighting. Jane, it turns out is the adopted daughter of Mr and Mrs Bennet. They had a son, Edmund, who was killed when he was young because he became feral. Mr Bennet makes his wife forget about Edmund (this reminded me of Abigail Reynold’s Mr Darcy’s Enchantment where a similar thing occurs).

Things I liked in Darcy Bites

Darcy is a dhampir not a vampire, which made a refreshing change.

Mr Darcy is aloof at the assembly because he‘s thirsty and wants to avoid the temptation of biting a human.

Elizabeth has a sense of humour and says witty things.

Bingley has a secret of his own although it’s pretty obvious early on what it is.

How the author changed the plot to fit in with the paranormal theme. For example, Wickham spreads rumours that Mr Darcy killed his own mother and brother.

Things I didn’t like about Darcy Bites

The cover. It really doesn’t do the novel justice.

For me, the epilogue went on too long. I could see the point of including Anna as a child as it related to Mr Darcy’s fears about going feral. However, I wasn’t that interested in the lives of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth’s children. I’m probably the odd woman out there though.

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.

Pride and Post Apocalypse

I was attracted to Pride and Post Apocalypse: A Regency Dystopian by Lauren M Flauding by the words ‘Post Apocalypse‘ although the sub title, A Regency Dystopian, had me wondering how you could have a Regency dystopian. After all, most dystopian novels are science fiction. One classic example is 1984 by George Orwell (which was in the future when he wrote it).

Turns out like this – there’s been a major EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) in modern times so nothing electrical works. Chaos ensues in Great Britain until a dictator called the Badger takes over. For some reason, wealth is now decided on the number of books people own and distributed accordingly. Oh, and women can’t work and can’t inherit books. A touch of the Taliban there. And the Badger wants everyone to adopt old-style manners and customs. Which they do. So far, so rather implausible.

Mr Darcy it turns out is part of a rebel group that is plotting to overthrow The Badger. However, this isn’t as important to the plot as you might think.

Style of Novel

It’s also a mash up novel which is where roughly 80% of the novel is the original text & 20% is new text that fits the genre it’s supposed to be. I like mash ups if they’re well done. I love Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith, and Pride and Platypus by Vera Nazarian.

The novel starts out well but then you read several chapters at a time before there are any changes to the text or plot. I wanted to have some changes to the text in every chapter.

I did like the Bennets having a car that is pulled by a horse. That made me laugh.

Summary

I don’t want to be too harsh, the author obviously spent time and effort on it. But I felt there were some missed opportunities in it.

Reviewing Pride and Prejudice Inspired Fiction

I love Pride and Prejudice fanfiction otherwise known as Austenesque fiction or, as I prefer to call it Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction because fanfiction implies (at least to me) that the story is available to read for free and there are many Pride and Prejudice fiction authors who are making a good living from their writing. Austenesque also doesn’t seem accurate enough to me because Austenesque included works inspired by all of Jane Austen’s classic novels. Because I love it so much, I’ve decided to start reviewing Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction.

My criteria will be:

It has to be Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction (duh!)

It has to fall into one of these categories:

a) paranormal

b) fantasy

d) science fiction

d) mystery

e) genderswapped

f) modern retelling

because those are the categories of Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction that I most enjoy reading.

Even with those criteria which excludes many, many Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction, there are still a lot of books to read. Last time I counted, there were well over three hundred Pride and Prejudice inspired novels/novellas/short stories. I calculate that will give me over a hundred books to read and review.

I’ll be reviewing Pride and Prejudice inspired fiction regularly or as regularly as I can, sometimes life and writing gets in the way.