Let’s start with the positives, shall we? A genderflipped Pride and Prejudice is an interesting idea, as is swapping around the names of the guys from Pride and Prejudice so they still go by Darcy (now female) and Bingley (still a guy and gay). The Bennet boys are now Luke, Jim, Kit, and Lyle, and Darcy has three brothers who I’ve already forgotten because they don’t matter.
Bingley and Jim Bennet are adorable. They get a meet cute and fall head over heels, moving very quickly which is both noted and hand-waved in text. Unfortunately, their relationship disappears about the halfway mark and is only mentioned once after that.
The writing is not the best… grammatically, it’s mostly okay, apart from perhaps too many long sentences and that time when Darcy “power-walked clumsily to the bed". There is a tendency towards telling rather than showing, and the middle of a kiss is not the appropriate time to internally monologue about Christmases Past. However, it’s the editing where it really falls down. There are continuity issues, inconsistent characterisation and backstory, characters reacting to things that hadn’t actually been said, and a minor twist is revealed only retrospectively at 96%. The author even gets her parents’ names wrong once.
I’m very much not a fan of the main character, Darcy Fitzwilliam. She received a well-deserved smackdown at 50% and instead of learning from it, everyone around her falls over themselves to convince her that it was undeserved and she’s like the best person ever. Even said smackdown-er apologises at least twice. The whole point of the Lizzie Bennet Smackdown (tm) is that it's right! And Darcy learns! And apologises! Not the other way around. She really is a terrible person who strings her high school sweetheart along for about twelve years afterwards "as a constant ego booster" and thinks buying her assistant a Christmas gift makes her not selfish! Her declaration of love comes when both of them are engaged to other people! Her own father acknowledges that she’s selfish and entitled but that’s okay because it’s a family trait. She doesn’t learn anything! Ever!
There’s also a bit of internalised misogyny as she is ashamed to like Britney Spears and Gilmore Girls, calling Kate Middleton a “social climbing puppet”. She constantly asserts that she doesn’t need a guy to be happy and then is unhappy until she gets the guy. This has the unfortunate implication that even if you’re happy and successful alone, you’re secretly not happy and would be happier with a husband and child, which… no.
Overall, this book was a great idea but has inconsistent editing and a selfish main character. Its only redeeming point is a cute side couple who disappear too quickly. I can’t really recommend it.
Two prejudiced stars
I received a copy of this story from the author through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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