Review: To Conquer Mr. Darcy

To Conquer Mr. Darcy (originally called “Conquering Mr. Darcy”) by Abigail Reynolds 
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
ISBN:9781402237300
Publication Date: August 3rd 2010, Sourcebooks Casablanca
Rating: 2, DNF

The thing that makes Pride and Prejudice so great is the fact that Elizabeth disliked Mr. Darcy so much, and rejected him. Then he did so many wonderful things for her, and she fell in love with him because of the love (action) he showed her.

But in this variation of Pride and Prejudice, the love (action) is gone. It is more like an every-day romance, not one of those new classics. It’s cute and sweet and romantic, but it’s not P&P.

The writing and the style feel like Reynolds has read P&P many times. For the first time in a long time, I fell like I’ve found a great romance writer, the word writer being used literally. She’s a good writer, her prose and her vocabulary, her sentences… I liked it a lot. The characters—up until about the middle of the book—felt very much like the original. That pleased me.

With that in mind, I liked it… up to the point they slept together. That’s when I stopped reading. I just couldn't see Mr. Darcy doing that, no matter how much he desired her. And even when Mr. Darcy came back for her in the beginning… even after getting inside his head, I couldn’t see why he loved her. It was the same with reading from Elizabeth’s perspective… I didn’t know why she loved him. It was all emotion and chemistry, and no reason for love.

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