I am really reviewing the entire trilogy, since it is impossible to simply pick up one of these. As a rendering of Darcy's life during "Pride and Prejudice", Aidan does very well when she sticks to the plot set forth in P&P. Her portrayal of Darcy's character and inner life, and the fundamental changes in him after he is refused by Elizabeth, are well written and do the character justice. She also brings Georgiana to life very well, giving her a deeper dimension P&P does not allow, and also does nicely with the additional views we have of the Bingleys, and Charles' relationship with Darcy in particular. However, as Darcy disappears twice from the original story for fairly decent lengths of time (after the Netherfield Ball until Rosings, and then again after his disastrous proposal to Elizabeth until he sees her with the Gardiners at Pemberley) Aidan felt the need to fill in the blanks with something of an adventure of his own. This is by far the weakest part of the trilogy, and takes up almost the entirety of the second installment, "Duty and Desire". The intrigue seems forced and I think she would have done better to simply have portrayed the dangers of the typical social circles of the time rather than create this more sensational diversion. She gets back on track quickly, though, when Elizabeth re-enters the scene and when Darcy sets off to find Lydia and Wickham, and I found these sections in particular worthy imaginings.

Overall the books are well worth any Austen lover's time, but I found myself wishing she had cut out the odd intrigue storyline, and then condensed the whole thing to one book. I discovered this was originally self-published, so kudos to Aidan, but I also wonder if it couldn't have used a firmer editing hand.