Darcy & Elizabeth : Nights and Days at Pemberley

Darcy & Elizabeth #2

by Linda Berdoll

Mr. and Mrs. Darcy have an exceedingly passionate marriage in this continuing saga of one of the most exciting, intriguing couples in the Jane Austen Literature.As the Darcy's raise their babies, enjoy their conjugal felicity and manage the great estate of Pemberley, the beloved characters from Jane Austen's original are joined by Linda Berdoll's imaginative new creations for a compelling, sexy and epic story guaranteed to keep you turning the pages and gasping with delight. What people are saying about Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife, the bestselling Pride and Prejudice sequel."A breezy, satisfying romance." -Chicago Tribune"While there have been other Pride and Prejudice sequels, this one, with its rich character development, has been the most enjoyable." -Library Journal"Wild, bawdy and utterly enjoyable sequel." -Booklist

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Historical, Regency, Chick Lit

442 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2003

About the author

NUMBER 4 - The Darcys: New Pleasures

With the success of her latest Pride & Prejudice sequel, The Ruling Passion, Linda has just completed a continuation of their story in The Darcys: New Pleasures:

Even twenty years into their future, Mr. Darcy remains every woman’s ideal. Still darkly handsome, he is a gentleman of vast wealth and exceptional leg. His virility, whilst of considerable note, is not what invites adoration. His true allure is his all-encompassing love for his wife. Indeed, Elizabeth and Darcy’s passion for each other remains steadfast.

There is but one test that stands in the way of the Darcys’ boundless happiness in this latest telling. It is an ordeal familiar to parents through the ages. Their offspring have come of age and are eager to pursue their own love affairs.

Moreover, Elizabeth Darcy, the Mistress of Pemberley, has been overtaken by a peculiar malaise. Her disorder has the entire family in a state of agitation. Darcy is particularly uneasy. Hence, when he learns that his son engaged in a flirtation with a village wench, he reproves him a tad too vehemently.

His pride injured, Geoff flings himself headlong down Calamity Road–in the company of George Wickham’s son.

~~~~~~

In Ms. Berdoll's wildly successful Pride & Prejudice sequels, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, Darcy & Elizabeth, and the Ruling Passion, have over 400,000 copies in print. The Ruling Passion has been given the Independent Publisher's Gold Award 2012 for Historical fiction. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife (2004) won FOREWORD MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR Silver Award, and Darcy & Elizabeth, winner of INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER’S BOOK AWARDS - 1st Place HISTORICAL FICTION 2007.

New Pleasures is now available in soft cover on Linda's website www.lindaberdoll.us, in digital and paperback on Amazon and BN.com. Her books are on the shelves of Barnes & Noble and available to order through bookstores large and small.

Review for The Ruling Passion From Austenprose.com
Best-selling author Linda Berdoll's Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife and Darcy & Elizabeth have been hailed as "sexy, hilarious, poignant" and "wild, bawdy and utterly enjoyable (Booklist.)" The Ruling Passion, her highly anticipated sequel to the sequels, has finally come to fruition... If your sensibilities are offended by explicit, passionate love scenes with Jane Austen's original namesakes, this is presumably NOT the book for you. However, those who delight in reading about the Darcys beyond Pride and Prejudice, including all their complexities, and intimacies, (in and around the bedroom), and most particularly if you are a fan of Berdoll's previous works, The Ruling Passion is not to be missed! Yes, hold on to your bonnets as Linda Berdoll has quite done it again. Christina Boyd 4.5 of 5 stars

In a change of pace from her Jane Austen sequels, Linda released Fandango in 2010. This tale takes place in 19th C. San Francisco. In this entirely original work, our heroine, young Annabella Chase comes to learn that it's one thing to go asking for trouble, quite another to offer it a chair.

While researching her Pride & Prejudice sequels, she collected a vast store of euphemistic grandiloquence and wove it into a small gift book titled Very Nice Ways to Say Very Bad Things.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berdoll continues her VERY passionate take on the married life of Darcy and Elizabeth, which is entertaining itself. Better than that, she goes on to speculate on dear Georgiana's coming of age. Thankfully, Berdoll infuses her with some much-needed backbone, and her story becomes as interesting as the main one. All I can say is that she BETTER write another one :)

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another, let's call it Jane Austen fanfic. Picking up (or, rather, dragging) where _Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife_ let off, it follows the further fortunes and misfortunes of the Darcy, Bingley, Fitzwilliam, Wickham, and Christie/Arbuthnot (Berdoll's characters) families after Waterloo. This book is afflicted by Berdoll's coyness, as she jumps ahead in each character's story, falls back to fill in the past details, and drives the reader crazy with the flow and pacing (this flaw was present in the previous book too, but it's worse here). Also the attempt at period language is inconsistent at best. Just spelling the words "compleat" and "eagre" don't make you Austen or even Susanna Clark. Anyway. The best parts had to do with Wickham's life / misadventures after his Waterloo desertion and presumed death (I know this is a semi-spoiler, but given the character, can you doubt it would have happened?) and interaction with Lydia's scandalous fate. Also, Georgiana Darcy emerges from a chrysalis as a fairly ruthless character, comparable indeed to Wickham except for the, you know, lack of being a sociopath. Anyway, this was worse than the previous book, worse than Austen, I doubt I'll buy any more even if she publishes them.

[Sheila Majczan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those stories I read before I retired and began reviewing every book I read. I do want to reread all those stories which I did not review but as time has slipped by and I haven't done so, I just want to mark all those stories as "read" so I have a record of the true number of books in the JAFF sub-genre I have read. If I ever get around to rereading it I will look at my rating to make sure it is true to my opinion. It was published in 2006 so that is most likely when I read it.

[Care Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

90% of this book….is nonsense.
The other 10% is pure, unadulterated Darcy & Lizzy lovey-ness/sexiness.. I read and ✨only✨ read for that 10%.

[Emilie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blah. I have to say that I really enjoyed Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, even in spite of myself. But this one does nothing for me. The author spends so much time rehashing everything that happened in her first "sequel" to Pride and Prejudice that I got 100 pages into it and nothing much had happened. The author doesn't seem to understand her audience. No one who hasn't read Pride and Prejudice is going to bother with this book, and I think the same is true (to a lesser extent) of Mr Darcy Takes a Wife. There would be little point in reading this book if you are not familiar with the first two. Therefore, there is NO NEED to tell us what happened in P&P; we already know.

My second complaint is that while Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife was certainly filled with some crazy sex scenes, when the author starts using phrases in this book like "his engorged member", the whole thing starts feeling like a trashy romance novel.

My advice - don't bother.

[Heather Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous find! I stumbled across Linda Berdoll on one of my random B&N runs. (ironically she lives right up the road from Austin) and found that I fell in love with her interpretation of the happenings AFTER Pride & Prejudice....so much so that I cannot bring myself to read anyone else's versions. That's how much I loved the characters she created that were so Austen that I truly believe that Jane herself would've been proud!

[Joanni · Rating 5 out of 5]

good.
Made me blush

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2009 #4: I love Jane Austen. So I was interested but skeptical when I heard about modern authors who had written sequels to Pride & Prejudice. This was the second sequel, and it definitely wasn't as good as the first one by Linda Berdoll (Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife). It has been a while since I read that one, so it is a little hard for me to compare. But as far as this book goes, it felt a bit pretentious. I also didn't like how it brought in all these additional characters... most of them didn't seem to add much value to the story and were more of distractions than anything. Also, wasn't a big fan of how the chapters jumped around in time, it just didn't give a smooth flow to the story. Like the first sequel, it was a bit like a trashy romance, so for some that might take away from the story, but I thought the juxtaposition between that and all of the ways that people had to act proper made it interesting. But, all-in-all it was just nice to live a little in Mr. & Mrs. Darcy's world.

[Blodeuedd Finland]

I tried this one years ago and gave up. I give it another go and gave up. It kept jumping in time. I want a story not a blah blah blah

[Carol Perrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darcy and Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley

Continuation of Linda Berdoll's first book, "Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife". Darcy and Elizabeth have a very warm, loving, and amorous marriage. Many days and nights are spent providing each other's firm commitment. Colonel Fitzwilliam heads back to France to fight against Napoleon. Following him, Georgiana follows him across the channel to France to serve as a nurse. She leaves Pemberley with the young groom. Darcy thinking she is eloping with him, follows them to France. Lizzy doesn't tell him she is again with child, because she doesn't want him to be worried about anything else other than his sister. When he finally catches up with her, she's is in a makeshift camp tending to the wounded soldiers. He finds Colonel Fitzwilliam also. He is badly wounded and may not pull through. He also finds his groom, John Christie, dying from a gun shot in the stomach. His killer is his own commanding officer, Wickham. Months pass and when Darcy finally arrives home he finds himself father to twins. More family disasters occur that call for Darcy's assistance. Between handling family matters and romps with Elizabeth, it's a wonder that poor Darcy finds time to handle Pemberley. But for goodness sake, the man sure knows how to smile.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is it- the last straw. Never again will I read a Pride and Prejudice sequel. Thirty pages into it and I couldn't bear to read any more of this awful book. Thank goodness I didn't waste money on this book and I could just take it right back to the library. Not even the slightest regret that I hardly gave it a chance.

Pride and Prejudice told from different perspective books are all right, mainly because they have to stay fairly close to the clean plotline Austen set out. Sequels, on the other hand, just seem to be fantasy sexual outlets for dirty women.

[Althea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Being a HUGE fan of Jane Austen and being absolutely in love with Pride & Prejudice, I had high hopes for this book. Just reading the first chapter though, was very unsettling for me. I felt like it was a travesty. I couldn't go through reading the whole thing, so it might actually be very good. Speaking for myself, part of the charm of Austen's works are the wit & restraint with which she writes. Her books always have an undercurrent of emotion & passion despite the rigid settings. I am no prude, but I couldn't accept this take on what happened after the end of P&P.

[Gracielou · Rating 1 out of 5]

A real disappointment. Mediocre writers should never try to write a sequel to one of the greats. Also, the insertion of copious sex does not mask the lack of an interesting or even plausible plot nor the author's silly pretensions to the spoken language of the early 19th century. Her dialogs come off as banal.

This author has neither the wit nor the literary skill of Ms. Austen and should have used her writing abilities for dime romance novels, not a sequel to an Austen masterpiece.

[Leslie Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

WARNING!! This is not a very "clean" book...there are many love scenes throughout the book...this is the sequel to Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. It is such a guilty pleasure! While this book is not as good as its predecessor, it is still a good read for the girl who can't get enough of Elizabeth and Darcy. If you don't mind a lot of love scenes between the happily married couple, read it. If you are an Austen purist - don't.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well...third time's a charm :-) I finally started and finished the sequel to Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife...one of my favorite guilty pleasure books. I am glad that I read it. It wasn't bad really, just a bit tedious and I hate to say that I grew tired of reading about sex with the Darcy's over and over again. There were definitely aspects of the story that were really clever, but some of the loose ends tied up way too neatly. Glad I finished, but glad to be finished!

[Quianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plot, what plot? While Berdoll's first book was an entertaining look into what Darcy and Elizabeth's marriage would be like, Nights and Days at Pemberly is nothing more than a third-rate romance novel that perverts two of our most beloved literary characters. Each chapter is just an excuse for them to jump each other which Berdoll tries to justify by throwing in convoluted pieces of intrigue.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why do I do these things to myself? A mediocre writer continuing where a classic story left off. And adding a whole bunch of sex (seriously, how do they even sit down). It's a good thing it was cheap because I didn't finish it. I should read the description of books more carefully in the future. Jane Austen is rolling over in her grave.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Less oddly written than its predecessor, but the action is far less interesting.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Note to self: Never read revisionist writing of the classics. They're usually awful. And are all about sex.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

" 'It is a truth universally acknowledged,' Jane Austen wrote, 'that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.' But after marriage -- then what?

"In Darcy and Elizabeth, Linda Berdoll imagines a future for the characters of Jane Austen's beloved classic Pride and Prejudice that is full of drama, danger -- and desire.

"It is several years since the felicitous union of Elizabeth Bennett and the dashing Fitzwilliam Darcy at the conclusion of Austin's novel, and the couple are settling down to a life of domestic bliss, raising their twin infants at the Pemberly estate. All should be happy at home and hearth -- but dark clouds loom on the horizon of Derbyshire.

"On the continent, the Napoleonic Wars are raging, and Wickham, Lydia Bennett's despicable husband, has returned miraculously from his presumed death with vengeance in his heart toward Darcy and all whom he holds dear. Meanwhile, haughty Lady Catherine de Bourgh, still stung by her nephew's betrothal to Elizabeth, schemes scandalously to unite their families' bloodlines.

"Readers who enjoyed Jane Austen's timeless tale of romance and respectability will thrill to the unbridled emotion and wild abandon of this modern sequel. Darcy and Elizabeth is a tale of pride, prejudice, and passion."

"Unbridled emotion and wild abandon" certainly play prominent part throughout this book! It certainly can't be classed as porn, but it's so unlike the sensibilities of Jane Austen's works that I found it jarring. I also had a hard time with each chapter jumping from one situation to another -- I found it difficult to keep track. Granted, all the threads came together in the end, but that weaving took 400 pages, which I found a bit excessive. All in all, I enjoyed this fan fic book less than others I've read, which kept more to the original sense of decorum and more euphemistic language.

[Cameron Toney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another book I'm shelving under "retelling", even though it's a sequel.
I felt a little guilty. This is not the first sequel that this author has written of this story. No, this is the sequel to that sequel. Would I be missing important information and character development?
No. The answer is no.
Uuuuugh. This book.
Let's start with Elizabeth and Darcy, shall we? They are, after all, the title characters. Berdoll shows us the love of these two by having them fuck on anything that stays still long enough, by angonizing about the fucking (are they doing enough of it?!), and being rather smug about it (surely no one else is doing it as passionately as they are). Ugh. I am no prude, and don't mind a healthy bit of sex in my reading, but this is the bad sort- where it acts as stand in for any sort of chemistry or connection. These two are perfect for each other for their wit, their shared intelligence and the way they challenge one another. In this novel they lack that sparkle, instead just knocking boots to show that they're right for each other.
Now, let's talk about everyone else.
*deep inhale*
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
What the hell? There are egregious liberties taken with all sorts of characters that would never, never, never in a million years happen. I am particularly offended by what happens to Georgiana and what happens to Bingley in their separate stories. I'm sorry, what? Never! What this author has them doing is so far from what the characters would do, that I put this book down with rather more force than was necessary. Several times.
I have a vague notion that I have the first book in this series hiding somewhere in the gigantic mountain of books I own. Will I read it, if I do in fact own it?
..............maybe.

[J Penar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as good as the first, and that is saying something.

Zero character growth. All the lessons supposedly learned in the first novel are negated. The imbalance of Darcy being perfect but reticent and Elizabeth being “witty” and “headstrong” but functionally insecure continues (except for sudden and unearned Mary Sue moments where she isn’t).

One example: Despite birthing twins at the end of the last book, and now going to extremes to hide her postpartum body from Darcy out of worry that he will be repulsed, when she finally lets him see her, Darcy is all praise and wonder (continuing the “perfect Darcy” trope) and talks about her being as “supple as an eel”- So, she gets her figure right back with no apparent effort, despite having twins and in the 1810s, not the 2010s. She also gets her sexual groove back immediately, of course, and never struggles with her self-image again. *eye roll, huffs*

New characters that were ridiculous enough in the first book get unwarranted encores. Of special note are Darcy’s former mistress, now a French-intrigue social maven that pursues him despite having supposedly shown respect to Elizabeth in the first novel (again, a negation of a good character moment) and Wickham, who is undeservedly and therefore annoyingly elevated to being far more savvy and evil than he already was.

The plot is both tedious and unbelievable. Soap-opera fan levels of credulity is necessary.

The prose that seemed like a loving parody that was in on the joke (at first reading) in its literary forebear is only embarrassingly sincere and overwrought, here.

While I can see the first book being someone’s very guilty escapism, this one is just a total waste of one’s time.

[Sabrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I keep reading these because I want more of Darcy and Elizabeth and none will ever be as good as the original! I was disappointed in the author changing things that were said by a particular character in Pride and Prejudice to make it fit with her story. If you want to continue on, at least be true to the characters. The author also tried to expand into characters with smaller parts (new ones, added by her) and have them cross paths with Darcy and Elizabeth, the chapters on these characters are useless and not really worth anything but adding word and page length. It took be a while to read because of the frustrating back and forth on the extra characters as well as the focus on characters I really don't care about trying to weasel there way back into the main story.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copyright 2006. This was purchased new & was a favorite reread for quite a while. It's been years since I picked it up.

So, I remember this book as an interesting rework of P&P. During my reread I found myself bored silly. This is a large book with small print & 103 chapters. Granted the chapters are short, but some are beyond tedious. We get back stories & continuations from MANY secondary characters. Some that all come together at the end. Some are just....boring.
The last 20 or so chapters are the best.
I would say more Elizabeth & Darcy would be great. Less involved secondary character backstory. Less jumping around in time.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a book in need of a good editor. Actually the author mentioned an editor in the Acknowledgments who had saved the book from “self-publishing purgatory.” It seems, however that the editor needed to try a bit harder to pare down the prose. There are 430 pages of small print, closely spaced, with narrow margins. The prose is archaic, difficult to read, and filled with bloated sentences and paragraphs. Some chapters could have been dispensed with altogether.

That said, the author did take the characters inherited from Miss Austen, and imbue them with life. The plot, when you could find it beneath the bloated prose, was well-crafted and filled with a gentle humor.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! I mistakenly got this book not having read Mr Darcy Takes a Wife and had no problem following the story line. I loved how each chapter is from a different character’s perspective and LOVED how creative the author is with old and new characters. I did not find this book to be a cheap sex tale but an actual thought out plot that ties all together at the end with little dashes of sexy time here and there. I was shocked to see so many reviews ripping this book apart...I totally loved it!

[Emily Smiley · Rating 1 out of 5]

No. Just no. The writer’s treatment of characters was careless at best. Don’t know what to do with a character? Kill them off pre-story so you can simply refer to their death as a past tense event. Making Bingley and adulterer? No. Just no. I found myself so annoyed while reading this, that I just returned it without finishing it. I never do that! I have this weird thing where I feel like I HAVE to finish any book I start. But this was just...sigh. Couldn’t do it.

[Michele Lawson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave it several chapters to see if there was actually going to be a story, but alas, I was sorely disappointed. Page after page of discussion about Mr. Darcy's virility, endowments, etc., and Elizabeth's huge breasts after giving birth. Really, that's it? Jane Austen would be mortified what this author did to her characters. Just can't do it, I can't tarnish the love I have for Darcy, Elizabeth and Jane Austen.

[Brenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had read the first one in this series a long time ago. One item that this author includes in her Jane Austen fan fiction is sex. This one seemed to have a lot more than I remember. About one-third the way through the book, the plot and subplots seemed to be more pronounced than the beginning. The story got better at that point (unless you are looking for more erotica and the sex). I'm still deciding if I will read the next one.

[Genie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. I love all Jane Austen novels and it is so fun to read what might have happened if she had created more to their story. There are so many great series out there about Darcy and Elizabeth after Pride & Prejudice ends (even the zombie themed ones are fun reads). It gives other readers that are just as in love with these characters somewhere else to go with the story.