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Pledged to Mr. Darcy: a Pride and Prejudice variation

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Elizabeth Bennet’s world is shattered when she receives a letter at Rosings telling her that her father has passed away. Moments later, Mr. Darcy arrives and asks for her hand in marriage.

Thrown by the dreadful news she has just received, Elizabeth cannot respond to him. Once the sickness that claimed her father has finished raging through Hertfordshire, Elizabeth’s family has been decimated, only leaving behind herself, Jane, and Lydia.

Numb and aggrieved, Elizabeth agrees to become pledged to Mr. Darcy, but asks that he wait for her period of mourning to be over before they wed. Together, they set off for Pemberley, where Elizabeth must face Lady Catherine’s disapproval, Georgiana’s painful shyness, and the sudden appearance of Mr. Wickham…

178 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 30, 2019

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Valerie Lennox

41 books38 followers

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for James S.
1,416 reviews
September 22, 2019
Awful story

No one can be counted on to do anything sensible. Even at the very end the person who is the nexus of most bad decisions in the story, Wickham, is still free to reappear in everyone’s life anytime he wants to.

Absolutely no fun reading the story. I do not recommend the book at all.
Profile Image for Sheila Majczan.
2,657 reviews198 followers
September 21, 2019
The blurb tells us that Elizabeth learns that death has visited Hertfordshire when a letter from Jane arrives while she is staying with M/M Collins at Hunsford. While the letter is still in her hand Mr. Darcy arrives and proposes, not realizing what she is suffering. When she informs him he takes over arranging to take her home in his carriage (not chaperoned) and then takes care of arrangements at Longbourn. Jane and Lydia are the only survivors of the family as a plague decimates the community. One of the main characters from canon is also a casualty. Darcy and Elizabeth have not addressed the fact that his proposal has gone unanswered. It hangs in the air between them until after the funerals.

Elizabeth's thoughts are that she would have refused him (Yes, it was that dreadful first proposal.) but now she sees a different man. He takes great care and shows compassion: he is not disdainful to those who come to the house. As Elizabeth now has a period of mourning to observe he suggests that she come to Pemberley to live before the wedding and they will also use that time to get to know one another.

However, Darcy also makes the observation, several times, to himself that this Elizabeth is not the Elizabeth he fell in love with. Her witticisms are gone, her delightful conversations and debates have disappeared. But he will do the honorable thing and marry her but until that time arrives he is little in her company. He finds trips to make and business to which he must attend.

It is during one of his away trips that Wickham comes upon Elizabeth out walking. Darcy has not related to Elizabeth the history of that man. She therefore does not realize that he is to blame for the painfully withdrawn behavior on Georgiana's part.

Of course, there is a blow up when he comes home and finds Wickham in the house. Darcy does not place blame on Elizabeth and trusts her when she does give him an explanation but the incident does not draw them closer.

I found that I was disappointed in how Darcy was so cool towards Elizabeth...even after their marriage. And Elizabeth was not herself. Yes, she was in mourning but the author did not convince me that the status of bereavement was fully to blame in her state of isolation from Darcy. I expected that the chemistry which drew him to her in the beginning to be still in force. He does act with honor but with little warmth for much of the story. He has fallen out of love with her we read.

Jane goes to stay with the Gardiners. Lydia lives with one and then the other sister and she is out-of-control and drags Georgiana into some of her antics. The London housekeeper is a problem, not accepting Elizabeth's role as Mistress.

While I find the premise enticing the story's characters were a disappointment. There is an epilogue.
Profile Image for Les.
2,911 reviews1 follower
September 26, 2019
This was a hard book to rate because the author checks all my boxes for a great P&P variation yet there is an essential something missing that I can't put my finger on that kept it from being better.

We open at the DP@H and things go pear shaped because Things go from bad to worst to really worst once ODC arrive in Meryton.


Then Jane & Lydia go to London while Lizzy goes to Pemberley with her fiance. I feel like this would be a Regency manners error but I am not 100% confident. There tey join an exceedingly shy Georgiana and her governess Miss Thomlison (? I am not 100% on this name and I already returned the book)

What the author did here that I really liked was have Darcy reflect on his mostly impulsive proposal and now while facing the reality of a life with a mourning and subdued Lizzy is starting to wonder if he made the right decision.
Turns out Wickham is even worse than in canon, Lydia is even more impulsive and Lizzy and Darcy can't seem to figure one another out.

the author places Lizzy in lots of situations where she has to figure things out for herself and doesn't always get things right. Which I found myself wondering at, after all Darcy was thrust into great responsibility when his father died he should know she needs help.

There's a subplot with Jane and the Colonel which the author wrapped up a little too neatly for my liking.

What I liked
The author takes the plot in a wholly new direction
There is much that happens off the page so we aren't subjected to endless rote research
There is very little dialogue used for exposition
There are jumps in the time line without people filling us in on what happened
Fricken Anne deBourgh is hilarious, tragic, but hilarious.

What I didn't like
Modern language. And lots of it. Lots of contractions, people saying "Listen"

A real under utilization of the Gardeners

Some stuff that didn't make sense surrounding Lizzy and Wickham. When they first meet she is riding wearing a borrowed riding habit. Yet when she talks about her loses he says something like I should have asked about your mourning clothes. I doubt the borrowed riding habit was in mourning colors. Another thing about the riding habit was that Lizzy said she always rode in her regular clothes. I suspect it would have been difficult to ride in a normal regency dress, even side saddle, without revealing much of your legs a riding habit wasn't merely fashionable it was practical.
3,268 reviews41 followers
June 27, 2023
I got this book as part of a forced marriage box set. In this one, it's not really a forced marriage though. Not a love match, on her part, but not a forced marriage, as Elizabeth gets asked in the regular way and she sorta kinda agrees.

The set up is Hunsford, and while Darcy is asking for her hand, Elizabeth is hardly even able to process what he's saying as she's just heard that her father is dead. Returning to Longbourn with Darcy, she is to learn that there are several other deaths in the family as well. Jane, Elizabeth and Lydia are the only ones left of the Bennet family. I liked the descriptions of the fog of grief and shock she was in. Well, perhaps like is the wrong word, who can like such a thing, but it was well written and evoked emotion, I felt like I recognized some of that. Darcy and Elizabeth can't marry immediately because of the mourning but she and Lydia spend time with the Darcys. She doesn't really know what she feels about Darcy, or anything else, because of the huge upheaval her life has undergone. Darcy is having second thoughts because he fell in love with a vivacious, lively sort of a girl and this grim, serious Elizabeth is only a shadow of her past self. Georgiana is shy and timid and her governess Miss Thackeray is trying to encourage her. Lydia is a good influence in this respect but a bad influence in some others. There is a subplot involving the younger girls near the end felt a bit unnecessary.

I enjoyed the story and the angst level was tolerable despite the sadness of the set-up.
Profile Image for Jamie Bee.
Author 1 book116 followers
June 30, 2019
I will admit that I am a sucker for Jane Austen fan fiction. In fact, when I bought my first Kindle some years ago, I gorged myself on all the available Pride and Prejudice fan fiction, both on Kindle Unlimited and ones I bought straight out. So I always love to discover both a new story and a new author in this sub-subgenre of Regency romance. I was intrigued by the very first chapter of the book. We start in the sitting room of Mr. Collins vicarage at Hunsford just after Elizabeth has received a terrible letter from Jane. She is reading this when Mr. Darcy comes in to make his infamous, and infamously bad, first proposal. He doesn't even notice her upset so lurches forward with his inept proposal, which is even worse than the one usually portrayed in the movies. She doesn't give him a direct answer and instead tells him about the contents of the letter. Jane has told her that their father has died and much of the rest of the family is sick from a sudden illness that is sweeping through town. Mr. Darcy immediately offers to take Elizabeth back to Hertfordshire so she can be with her family.

I actually thought that having Elizabeth receive such a letter from Jane was a great start for a Pride and Prejudice variation. However, after that, the book kind of fell apart for me. Once they got back to Hertfordshire, it seemed like everybody was just dying off at the level of a Shakespearean tragedy: Mrs. Bennet, Mary, Kitty, some servants, and even poor Mr. Bingley. As an RN who has studied infectious and communicable diseases, I find myself wondering what could have been so virulent and always fatal? There are few (none?) that are both.

I didn't like this Mr. Darcy; for a P&P variation to work for me, I have to be able to fall in love with him along with Elizabeth. One of the keys to Mr. Darcy, I think, is that he must be absolutely constant in his love or Elizabeth once he figures out that's how he feels about her. To me, this is an immutable part of Darcy's character that must be in a variation, or for me, the story will fall flat. Much of what happens to Mr. Darcy in the later part of the original, how he becomes a better version of himself, hinges upon this constancy of love (even when it was unrequited). In this variation, as he sees Elizabeth struggle with the deaths of most members of her family, while he expresses compassion and understanding to the remaining Bennets, he actually doesn't feel himself to be in love with her anymore now that her bright smiles and witty rejoinders are gone and hopes that in the time of her morning—she has asked that they wait six months to marry to mourn her parents—that they will grow closer and he will again feel that same love that he purports to have felt before the deaths. All I can say is: no, no, no! Even though Darcy has not been humbled in the proposal scene as in the original and the movies, that constancy of love should be present, or it just isn't a viable Pride and Prejudice variation. While I think the story had some potential, I thought it was those too dark and Mr. Darcy too inconstant to be a truly good spin on the classic.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
Profile Image for Madenna U.
2,130 reviews1 follower
October 15, 2019
In this Pride and Prejudice variation, Darcy walks in the the parsonage at Hunsford after Elizabeth receives a letter informing her that her father has died. His proposal gets lost due to her shock. He takes ownership of the situation - taking her home and arranging for their marriage. However, were is the woman he fell in love with? She needs to come out from behind her grief allow them to find their happily ever after.
Profile Image for wosedwew.
1,332 reviews124 followers
September 24, 2019
Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion. ~ Robert Harling, Steel Magnolias

This book was hard for me to like and it was the absence of the laughter and the lasting presence of the tears.

Elizabeth learns of her Father’s death and the illness of most residents of Meryton prior to the proposal at Hunsford. Darcy aids her in a prompt return to her home where eventually her Mother and her sisters Mary and Kitty also succumb.

Confusion exists as to whether an acceptance was given of Darcy’s Hunsford proposal. The couple finally agrees they will marry after Elizabeth’s mourning is complete. In the interim, Elizabeth will live at Pemberley with Darcy and Georgiana (a major Regency impropriety). Lydia and Jane will reside with the Gardiners in London.

Darcy sees such difference in Elizabeth as she mourns that he doubts he has made the right choice. Elizabeth agrees to marry for prudent motives. These people are not the Darcy and Elizabeth I know. They both were unattractive to me.

Lydia is Lydia still; untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless. She causes the usual turmoil.

Overall, the story is well-written and held my interest.

In the grief of losing someone,
Why do I feel like the lost one?
~ Terri Guillemets
387 reviews2 followers
June 30, 2019
This is my second book read by this author. As the first, it is a lengthy novel. There were a few conflicts and once it was resolved, then come another. The direction of the story is not also what I thought making this an interesting story. (Spoiler: I didn't care much for Jane's love story... sorry Jane and Bingley fans you might be disheartened with this one). The story began with the proposal in Rosings and death of Lizzy's family. Then the travel home and to Derbyshire. This Mr Darcy did not care for propriety, he travelled with Lizzie without a chaperone and she stayed in Derbyshire even befroe the marriage.There was a HEA for ODC but there was a part of me either wishing Lizzie disappeared or she broke off their engagement. This FD seems to love Lizzie only for her characer/wit, so when it was lost he seemed to lose his interest in her. This Darcy was undecided, unromantic, flat and cold (annoying Darcy). The Lizzie here on the otherhand was passive and complacent.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Nicole Walsh.
2 reviews
February 17, 2024
Not her best

Honestly didn’t like Darcy or Elizabeth in this one much, felt neither of them were very true to character. Took way too long to see any semblance of a relationship really growing between them, I skipped a lot of pages. Ending was good but too much too long to get there.
54 reviews1 follower
March 9, 2024
Interesting!

While I enjoyed most of it, I was frustrated with all the spelling mistakes and typos. Please use a proofreader next time.
As for the plot, not as good as your other books, just passable but not as engrossing as previous works.
Nevertheless, please carry on as I love your books in general.
Cheers
336 reviews
January 1, 2025
Sorrowful but Truly Romantic

There is so much loss at the beginning and changes. It begins heartbreaking and ends HEA.
Lydia is a hoot, Georgianna is transformed and Darcy he is stubbornly constant. There is more on Elizabeth but it’s a little /lot of a rollercoaster 🎢 ride. There are more of the original.It’s worth the read!
18 reviews1 follower
September 10, 2024
Excellent book!

Sad due to deaths (oops! Spoilers!) but definitely well written! Very good book and I enjoyed it a great deal!
Profile Image for Holly.
272 reviews10 followers
January 28, 2020
Kept me engaged

The book kept me engaged, except for a bit toward the end involving the younger girls. The dramatic love story in this one is more about Jane than Lizzy.

I have recently read another book where some family members die, and I do feel that this is a more realistic view of grief, of the before and after and the changes that occur when one is faced with the loss of parents at a young age.

The author could have made more of a slow burn between Darcy and Elizabeth, and I was actually disappointed that their story missed that heat. Even when the heat showed up, it was rather like having the author describe heat rather than, as a reader, make you actually feel the heat. Not sure why the author chooses that, when she managed to convey it between Jane and her paramour. Odd, but I still give the story three stars. All this discussion of heat, yet this one is still more PG than PG-13.
Profile Image for Barbara.
18.9k reviews8 followers
July 1, 2019
This is a very different variation on Pride and Prejudice, the only sisters left alive are Jane, Lydia, and Elizabeth. the other members of their family are dead. Lydia can get into just as much trouble as usual but this time she talks Georgiana, Mr, Darcy's sister into going with her. I enjoyed reading this story. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Elizabeth McDaniel.
2,383 reviews
July 4, 2019
This was a very different but interesting read from the original. With most of her family gone Lizzie puts her marriage on hold. Then conflict after conflict happen. I’m a die hard P and P fan so I love the characters. Interesting story.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Jean Stillman.
1,021 reviews11 followers
August 18, 2019
This book will be very different for Darcy fans. I wasn't too impressed with his character in this book. As I felt he was to wishywashy about his love for Elizabeth. He was a bit of a disappointment. But then, so was Colonel Fitzwilliam. The story plot was good and I had to stay with the tale to completion. I found that I liked Lydia a great deal in this version.
Profile Image for Bethanne.
618 reviews10 followers
September 20, 2019
I could not finish

For the first time I actually couldn't finish the story. The plot COULD have been good if the writer didn't water everything down to nothing. So many plot holes, unrealistic events and the worst dialogue in print. No one has any real emotional expression. No depth of grief or anger. It's poorly done..
Profile Image for Laura.
170 reviews12 followers
August 15, 2020
It was somewhat unwise of me to start reading a story where many people die of a pandemic as at attempt at escapism in the current times, but this really wasn't well done.

I couldn't get past about 20% and I really didn't enjoy what I did read.
Profile Image for Alison Dygnas.
87 reviews1 follower
November 5, 2019
Different

The plot is very different from the other versions of P&P, but the characters are the same, which makes a pleasant change. There are lots of twists and turns in this delightful book.
59 reviews1 follower
September 24, 2019
Super read

Interesting read. I hated to see Elisabeth so unhappy for so long. Also. The switch of the Bingley was unexpected
87 reviews
November 16, 2019
Not a love story

Not the right language and Elizabeth was stupid and a failure. Horrible story. The only consistency with the original was Lydia. She's always annoying.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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