No Cause to Repine: A Pride and Prejudice Variation in Four Parts

by Jann Rowland

THE BELOVED SERIES OF NOVELLAS NOW IN ONE VOLUME!After rescuing his sister from the clutches of the vile George Wickham, Fitzwilliam Darcy stays in London instead of returning to his beloved Pemberley, feeling despondent and adrift. Though he does not know it at the time, he will be forever grateful for his decision, as a chance meeting with a lovely young woman changes his perspective and sets him on the path to love and happiness.Ordinarily, Darcy would never have considered pursuing a young woman such as Elizabeth Bennet, who is not possessed of the usual advantages of those of high society. But he learns she is a woman of rich character and ethereal beauty, and his admiration for her grows with every meeting.Though the course of true love is not always smooth, Darcy and Elizabeth determine to meet every challenge together with courage and fortitude. In the background, unknown to the happy couple, forces move against them, threatening all they struggle to attain.No Cause to Repine is a single volume set of the beloved tetralogy by Jann Rowland and includes the four novellas A Tacit Engagement, Scandalous Falsehoods, Upstart Pretensions, and Quitting the Sphere.

425 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 18, 2021

About the author

Jann Rowland is a Canadian, born and bred. Other than a two-year span in which he lived in Japan, he has been a resident of the Great White North his entire life, though he professes to still hate the winters.

Though Jann did not start writing until his mid-twenties, writing has grown from a hobby to an all-consuming passion. His interests as a child were almost exclusively centered on the exotic fantasy worlds of Tolkien and Eddings, among a host of others. As an adult, his interests have grown to include historical fiction and romance, with a particular focus on the works of Jane Austen.

When Jann is not writing, he enjoys rooting for his favorite sports teams. He is also a master musician (in his own mind) who enjoys playing piano and singing as well as moonlighting as the choir director in his church’s congregation.

Jann lives in Alberta with his wife of more than twenty years, two grown sons, and one young daughter. He is convinced that whatever hair he has left will be entirely gone by the time his little girl hits her teenage years. Sadly, though he has told his daughter repeatedly that she is not allowed to grow up, she continues to ignore him.

Website: http://onegoodsonnet.com/
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Reviews

[Maggie Ikemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reasonably Good

The Good: nice sweet ending for ODC. Good allusions to and use of phrases from Canon. Significant improvement to character during the story arc. Always nice to see Mrs. Bennett become rational, Mr. Bennett get off his arse and start to govern his family. Lady Catherine is a sweetheart in this story. After her initial confrontation with Elizabeth, Anne manages to convince Lady Catherine that Anne will not marry Darcy. Subsequently Lady Catherine is Lizzy's biggest supporter.

The Bad: typos, missed letters in words and wrong word usage or just plain skipping word(s). I would have liked some denouement of Wickham's character. What was the motivation for his extreme actions? There are several discussions in the book with Darcy, Fitzwilliam and assorted others where the point seems to be that the actions Wickham is taking is a never before seen extreme. Later when Wickham is captured ther is no explanation offered by Wickham to explain his actions, other than the existing animosity between Wickham, Darcy and Fitzwilliam.

The Ugly: lack of consistency in character details. My number one complaint is that early in the story Elizabeth is knocked over by a man walking by her in Hyde Park. The author describes the only detail as "ice blue eyes." So I'm waiting for the character to appear with ice blue eyes, but he never does. When Lizzy meets Wickham in Meryton he is described as having dark eyes. Later in the plot it becomes evident that Wickham was the one who knocked Lizzy down in the park. How W. Had ice blue and dark eyes is not explained.

Note: This seems to be a Christian P&P variation.

[Jean Clements · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frustrating

Jann Rowland is always a great storyteller and I bought the first instalment of this series not realising it was a series until the end. I purposely did not buy the rest as I was so disappointed. I bought this collection as I've always enjoyed his work but found myself frustrated. More than once we have a scene then the story takes us back to another conversation days or weeks before. It was quite drawn out with the identification of the troublemaker which again was frustrating. D&E acknowledge very early their love and talk of a proposal and when they are married but do nothing about it and it carries on for almost all the four volumes. Not my favourite from Mr Rowland but it won't stop me looking for his future work.

[Judi · Rating 5 out of 5]

How different it is without the pride and prejudice.

This adaptation starts a few months before Jane Austen’s original novel. Elizabeth is staying with her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London that summer, where she meets Darcy by chance in an art gallery. From there, the relationship progresses without the usual mishaps; those come later, when family and libertines try their very worst to separate Lizzy and Darcy.
The four parts of this story are available separately, but reading them all together is wonderful.

[Alberline · Rating 4 out of 5]

stupid stupid girl

Oh Lydia even when you’re told the truth of him you still chose that option!

I enjoyed the story but it felt kind of slow going while they were at Rosings. Which makes up for the fast pace of their beginning.

Definitely loved the differences with the characters and the way they developed.

Loved the fact that the uncle was the only one to keep voicing his disappointment that Darcy was marrying Elizabeth.

[Tammy Buchli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, as I do most of Rowland's Austenations. My only complaint is that there were lots of redundancies. Perhaps I noticed this more because I read all 4 novellas back-to-back. But with some of the filler removed and the whole thing tightened up, I think it might have been a 5 star single novel.

[Sherry Edmondson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting Take

I like that Darcy and Elizabeth met differently, courted earlier, and had their trials to face together before their marriage. I enjoyed the characterization of Lady Catherine and the heroic act of Mr. Collins very much. Mr. Wickham's differences created mystery and intrigue. I hope every P&P lover will read this version.

[Monica Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this telling. Personal favorites are when Darcy and Lizzy fall in love early on. Changes to the canon story are good enough to keep it interesting. Lady Catherine is/becomes a gem. Collins isn't as annoying as usual and pulls off the save-of-the-day. The only thing about a 4 book set, is that it gets drawn out in the ending.

[Rev'd.Rosemary Caruana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

What a wonderful journey this book was. I didn't want it to end. The new and surprising side to the well known and much loved characters was a joy.

[Sheila Majczan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and reviewed all four books in this series. I enjoyed them and thus recommend them.