Becoming Elizabeth Darcy by Mary Simonsen

Becoming Elizabeth Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen

A modern day variation with our herione suffering from swine flu and going into a coma as the story opens.

As she goes into a tunnel of light she is escorted through time awakening as Elizabeth Darcy many years into her marriage.

Totally clueless at first she can't believe they expect her to use a chamber pot! And some of her behavour is putting her at serious risk of being dragged of to an Asylem.

But after the initial shock and the horror at the hygiene and medical treatments of the time, she settles down to make the best she can of the situation. 

She finds Darcy to be charming and humorous but the last few years of their marriage have not been smooth and she feels she has been put there to mend some of the tragedies in Darcy and Elizabeths lives. Hoping that it will earn her a passage home to the family she misses terribly.

She sets about introducing some basic hygiene essentials to Pemberley and even teaches the making of pizza which becomes a giant success with all.

Warm funny and caring, while dealing with some very difficult subjects.

I enjoyed this book immensely.

Darcy Goes to War by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Darcy Goes to War by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Well and truly into the Second World War and Darcy is a Bomber Pilot with the RAF and Lizzy is driving trucks around war torn Britain.

They meet in a pub where Darcy is trying to drown his sorrows after a traumatic bomb raid and Lizzy is delivering vegetables from the farms. He feels he knows her face but is still insufferably rude to her.

She thinks he is good looking but intolerable and so the story starts in time honoured tradition.

But how can they fall in love when she vowed to keep her heart safe after her beloved Sister jane lost her fiancee early in the war, Elizabeth won't even dance.

Darcy is confined to barracks with each mission and will be moved to the other end of the country for training. It looks hopeless for them.

All the Bennet family are fighting the war by doing their part to help the war effort.

But Lydia still gets into trouble as she falls for Wykhams lies. 

This tale of Elizabeth and Darcy is gripping, romantic and a real pleasure to read.

Mary brings the London blitz back to life as we hide under the table with Lizzy and Darcy as buzz bombs fall all over London.

Christmas with Mr Darcy by Victoria Connelly

Christmas with Mr Darcy - Victoria Connelly

Victoria Connelly collects up the leading characters from her Jane Austen Addicts Series and takes them all back to Purley Hall the home of Dame Pamela and her Butler Higgins.

This year she is hosting her first Christmas Austen Convention in her grand home.

As all the usual characters turn up the snow is falling fast and some guests are more welcome than others as the black sheep of the family shows up.

Everyone is set for a sumptuous Christmas but not everything is going quite to plan from the drunken Angel who will not sit straight on top of the Christmas tree to the terrible shock that finds the air ambulance on the snowy lawns of Purley Hall, there is never a dull moment, romance and skullduggery included,

The story becomes a real country home who dunnit and I can tell you it definitely was not the Butler Higgins. You could grab this book electronically and still read it for Christmas.

While on the subjects of who dunnits, I would like to mention a book by another beloved Austen author: Mary Lydon Simonsen. A Killing in Kensington although this is not an Austen adaption it is a good detective story with plenty to keep you guessing and some really vile characters. I enjoyed it greatly especially as it was set in an area I lived in for many years.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Mr Darcy’s Bite by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Mr Darcy’s Bite by Mary Lydon Simonsen

 A forbidden tale of passion and possession...

If you have read my reviews of Mary’s books, Searching for Pemberley and The Perfect Bride for Mr Darcy, you will know I am quite the fan.

I like her style and this book is no exception, although this is a werewolf book (I’m giving nothing away here as the cover makes that clear).

It is also a sensitive look at how Darcy’s condition affects his life, the Estate of Pemberley and the people who work there. How it changes his hopes of a happy marriage and the pain and torment of falling head over heels in love with Elizabeth Bennet, knowing he will have to tell her about his condition, and, risk all in the hope that she will not reject him.

There are no angry mob scenes, no rabid wolf attacks but this is a moving love story about, love and understanding conquering even the largest obstacles.

Definitely a recommended read.

The Perfect Bride For Mr Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen

The Perfect Bride For Mr Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Mr Darcy obviously needs a good matchmaker... or two...

I started this book with huge expectations having really enjoyed Searching for Pemberly by the same author.

The Perfect Bride for Mr Darcy is another rerun of Pride and Prejudice but with some added characters. Central to the story is a plot with Anne de Bourgh who has with Georgianas help to try and make sure the stubborn  Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy get together and mend their differences.

Anne De Bourgh though very frail is very determined to help the cause of true love along, even when it means hours spent in tiring journeys and plenty of subterfuge.

Georgiana is a fairly bubbly and enthusiastic teenage only too keen to find the romance in any situation, with a huge love of the gothic novel (as an aspiring author herself) she is keen to have Elizabeth and her support as a permanent part of her family.

In this version Charles Bingley has a much larger family including an older brother who is a bit of a financial genius and aides Darcy as his partner in this search for Wickham and Lydia.

The other notable characters are Darcy’s ex-girl friends who turn up like bad pennies and Colonel Fitzwilliam’s older brother who is a total lush with a cutting tongue (not the first choice at a family re-union)

There is plenty in here to make it worth a read but I still feel that for me Searching for Pemberley is the better book. Read both & let me know what you think.

http://marysimonsenfanfiction.blogspot.com/

Searching For Pemberly by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Searching For Pemberly by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Now for something completely different, I loved this tale of a girl in World War II, from a very poor mining community in Minooka, Pennsylvania, USA, who as a part of her work for the war effort is sent to work in post war Germany.

A Germany ravaged and harrowing, she then moves onto England, an England still in the grip of austerity and rationing.

As a child in Minooka she has escaped in to the classics with Jane Austen transporting her out of her bleak surroundings and into the lush green English countryside.

She had always loved Pride and Prejudice and so when she has the chance to escape London’s bomb ravaged streets and go in search of Pemberley in Derbyshire with her work colleague, she jumps at it.

The story of Pride and Prejudice is overlaid by the story of a family that had existed with a very similar history, the story is slowly revealed to our heroine in letters and diary excepts.

At the same time she is falling in love with an American bomber pilot.

The book is multi layered and riveting getting under the skin of all the characters and how they coped with the horrors of the First and Second World Wars and how those wars changed the social structures of the time.

The heroine Maggie Joyce tries to trace all the places that Pride and prejudice is based upon at a time when so many of the great British Mansions were lost, as they were too large and expensive to upkeep and were crumbling as the neglect during the wars could not be put right due to the lack of materials and labour, in a country needing to rebuild after the bombing.

Although this book covers so many different levels, it is smoothly written and carries you along. Maggie Joyce is likable and you want her love life to work out well and have a happy ending.

I know this is not a straight forward sequel but do pick it up, it really is a very accomplished piece of fiction.