Pride and Prejudice frenzy

Recently I discovered that I love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. So I decided to re-read it. Then I found out that there are contemporary sequels. Here are those that I could get my hands on:

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll

(LOVE THIS BOOK!!)

This book took my breath away. It did exactly what I expected. It continued with Darcy and Elizabeth and how they lived happily at Pemberley. Berdoll keeps the characters true to how Austen had originally written them. I was pleasantly surprised to see some very passionate scenes that I know Austen would have not approved of, but thankfully those of us who wished for it, were granted this. I could not put it down. In addition to Darcy and Elizabeth's lives at Pemberley, the world around them changes and all of our favorite characters as well as a few new ones are included. I highly recommend you pick this book up if you would like to read more about these great characters.

Darcy and Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley by Linda Berdoll

This was a continuation of the first novel but was not very good. It did little to add any good information about their lives and referred too much to the first novel. I guess if you can't get enough of Berdoll's interpretation of these characters you should pick this book up, but I would have done fine without it.

Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange

This is written as a daily account of Darcy's life beginning with his sister Giorgiana's almost elopement with Mr. Wickham. I was excited to read a book about Mr. Darcy's account of the events that took place but was not too happy as to how he was portrayed. He seemed to emotional and needy. The book is a written as a diary, but at the same time was giving direct quotes as a narrative. Mr. Darcy was too composed as a gentleman that he would not record in his daily diary with conversations verbatim. He would merely refer to them in passing (I assume). So it did not capture the essence that is Darcy. I didn't much like how the book didn't really explore Darcy's life and what he was doing when he was not at Longborn, Netherfield or Pemberley. It did not give more insight of what I already knew from the original novel. The ending was a bit too plain and not exciting at all. So I would pass over this book. It's not worth the read.

Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer

This book also covers what Mr. Darcy thought and did during the events mentioned in P&P. What I liked about this one is that he was not the narrator. It explained more about the events that took place and how he came to the conclusions he did. His relationship with his sister is more thoroughly explored which adds to the mystery of how he spoke of Elizabeth to his relations of Giorgiana and his cousin Fitzwilliam, which is alluded to in P&P.

Pemberley by Emma Tennant

I did not care for this book at all. I couldn't get past the 2nd chapter. I was so bored with it because it took forever to get the story going. It concentrated more on other characters like Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Hursts and not so much on Mr. & Mrs. Darcy.