Title by Author: Mr. Darcy Forever by Victoria Connelly
Series (if applicable): Austen Addicts #3
Publisher: Sourcebook
Landmark
Publication Date: April 2012
Page Count: 336
Source: netgalley.com
Blurb: The
third in a trilogy of Jane Austen romantic comedies from UK author Victoria
Connelly featuring characters obsessed with Jane Austen and set in Jane Austen locations
(A Weekend with Mr. Darcy, Dreaming of Mr. Darcy). Sarah and Mia Castle, two
estranged sisters (and Austen addicts) who have spent a lifetime fighting over
the men in their lives, meet for the first time in three years during the
annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath, the city where Anne Elliot (Persuasion)
and Catherine Morland (Northanger Abbey) found their happy endings. During the
festival, the sisters realize that they can't bear to be apart, even though Mia
fell in love with the man Sarah eventually married and settled with in
beautiful Devon, another Jane Austen location (the filming of Emma Thompson’s
Sense & Sensibility). They discover that their sisterhood forms a bond
stronger than their mutual connection as Jane Austen addicts. And in true Jane
Austen fashion, they each begin to lose their hearts to dashing gentlemen. A
beautiful, fun and quirky story of sisterhood and romance.
My Interest in
this book is: Loved, loved, LOVED A Weekend with Mr. Darcy, read the second one, and
wanted to finish the series.
My Review:
I’m a single mother with
no career prospects who hasn’t spoken to her sister in over three years and
who, in the Bath Pump Room, managed to slap her ex-lover who, it seems, wants
nothing to do with his son. – Mia Castle
This story is about two sisters who are nine years apart. When Sarah and Mia’s mother walks out on
them, Sarah is left raising Mia. They
share a deep love for everything Jane Austen, and on Mia’s 21st
birthday, Sarah had managed to rent ‘Barton Cottage’ from the movie Sense and
Sensibility. It was to be a ‘No Man’
weekend, but that didn’t last long, as Alec was staying down the road from
Barton Cottage. That week that was meant
to 'get away and spend time together' ended up driving the two sisters apart for
the next three years. Much had happened
in that time period, but neither sister knew what was happening with the other,
as they did not speak with one another.
Sarah is an accountant and a sufferer of OCD. Everything must be in its place or it
disturbs her. Mia is a free spirit who
loves to sing and graduated from drama school, in hopes of being on stage one
day. Even though Sarah is nine years
older than Mia and feels that she has to always protect her little sister, a
man came between these two sisters.
Three years after that fateful holiday, both sisters
independently decided to participate in the Jane Austen Festival in Bath. They had done so in the past, and it was time
to move on. However, unknowingly, the
sisters constantly think they are catching glimpses of one another, and have it
verified when they end up as dance partners.
The book is written in alternating chapters of the
past and the present. A little bit is
revealed in each chapter to get the two sisters together to work things
out. This was done well enough, and in
the present you also learn a little more of what their past three have been
like as they divulge deep secrets to perfectly strange men. Thus, this leads to two romances by sisters
who fall for different men, and fall in love in less than a week.
I loved A Weekend with Mr. Darcy – it was fun
and flirty! The second book, Dreaming
of Mr. Darcy was an alright second book, but this last book in the Austen
Addicts series almost seems to have been written by someone else. I know that the author is British, and it is
evident in the first two books, but this novel seems to have been washed of
anything British – the speech patterns, the terminology and even how the characters
acted seems to have been rather Americanized.
This was a great disappointment.
The conversations were also very stilted and not individualized for the
different characters – they all sounded the same – men and women alike.
While it was nice to revisit some of the concepts of
Jane Austen’s books, this book felt forced and ill-conceived. It also seemed as if the author was told to
do something with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (which was seen in another Sourcebook Landmark book, Compulsively
Mr. Darcy) – granted, this book did a better job than the other, but still
didn’t quite put in to words the true sense of OCD…it was more of an
affectation. The romance also had a
certain lack-luster to it.
This book seemed void of much emotion. When either Sarah or Mia tried to articulate
whet they loved about Jane Austen and her novels, I was hoping to find words
that describe how I feel about the novels, but it feel short and seemed a
rather simple response. The only passionate response was about
reading on a Kindle – and how Mia felt it was not natural to read on an
electric reader. I kept waiting for the
humour that is present in most of Miss Connelly’s books – and wasn’t rewarded
until the Darcy Wet Shirt contest near the end.
Personally, I would recommend reading A Weekend
with Mr. Darcy, and leave it at that.
That book was brilliant and a lot of fun! Mr. Darcy Forever seemed rushed,
forced and a bit sad. I hope that future
books by Ms. Connelly return to her previous humour, wit and romance.
This book was provided by the publisher through Netgalley.com for an honest review.
Favorite Quotes:
Mia was a romantic and wanted to exist in the world
where all men were handsome and eloquent and – above all – polite. Was that too much to ask?
‘Why is life a constant disappointment?’ ‘Because we read fiction,’ Mia said, and
Shelley nodded, knowing it was true.
‘Never give up.
If you have a dream – no matter what that dream is, whether it be to
become a great actress or to open your very own sweet shop – never stop
dreaming it, because if you do, life becomes one long nightmare.’
When I finished
this book, I felt: Disappointed – left wondering if the same author who did A Weekend with
Mr. Darcy wrote this book.
Rating: 3 stars
Other books to
read by this author or theme: A Weekend with Mr. Darcy is a must!
Molly’s Millions was a fun one, but not as wonderful as the
aforementioned!
Tag: romance,
OCD, sisters, Bath, England
