What If Mr. Darcy Doesn’t Trust Georgiana’s New Friend?

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Source: Review Copy from Author

TYPE OF NOVEL: Pride and Prejudice Variation

THE PREMISE: Elizabeth is in Derbyshire and meets a friendless young woman in need of some kindness and compassion. A friendship is blossoming quickly, until a protective brother misconstrues and mistrusts his sister’s new friend. Will he break his sister’s heart and ruin her newfound friendship? Or can he learn to trust her intentions are innocent and honorable?

WHAT I LOVED:

• A Georgiana and Elizabeth Meet Cute: Love the idea of Georgiana being the first Darcy Elizabeth meets. And this meeting was really sweet – although it begins a little bit alarming… It is easy to believe that these two would become quickly attached. And that Elizabeth would be exactly the friend, companion, confidant that Georgiana needs. In general, the Georgiana and Elizabeth relationship is one of my favorites to witness and explore, and the one created by Monica Fairview in this variation is endearing, realistic, and compelling.

• Bad First Impressions…But In a Different Way: No Meryton, no pestering Mr. Bingley, no overheard insult. Instead, Elizabeth forms the impression that Mr. Darcy is a unkind and strict brother, and because of an misconstrued accident/incident, Mr. Darcy immediately jumps to viewing Elizabeth with mistrust. So Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth need to overcome slightly different obstacles of mistrust and misunderstandings. I enjoyed seeing such a different beginning to Mr. Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s relationship.

• A Young Woman’s First Establishment: In this story, Georgiana is establishing her own home in London – something often alluded to in Pride and Prejudice variations. But in this circumstance, we see more of what that is like firsthand. It feels very progressive and modern for Georgiana to be able to do this. I enjoyed seeing Georgiana enjoy all the fun of making her own decisions and being super busy with decorating her own space. I also loved seeing Georgiana flex her independence, and the notable contrast of her situation and freedom and Caroline Bingley’s.

• Trustworthiness: An important ingredient in any relationship and a reoccurring theme in this story. Characters learning to trust others, characters needing to trust after being betrayed, characters working on regaining trust after it has been damaged. I loved how this theme was woven into so many different relationships in this story.

WHAT COULD’VE BEEN BETTER:

• More Falling in Love: While I loved the focus on Georgiana’s and Elizabeth’s friendship and appreciated all the girl time we shared with them, I did find myself longing for a little bit more romance. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth don’t get as many stolen moments together, and it felt like their feelings for each other developed quickly and more off-page…and my romantic heart wanted to see more of it on-page 🥰 And instead of more romance post-declaration, we got more Wickham… 😕

FINAL THOUGHTS:

😮 Is Mr. Darcy still the best of brothers if he bans Georgiana from seeing her new friend?

❤️‍🩹 Can a beautiful friendship full of comfort, kindness and healing stand the tests of treachery and misunderstandings?

📖 Tangled misunderstandings, trials with trust, and the tests of true affection – another worthy, thoughtful, and captivating tale by Monica Fairview!

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