Review: Miss Darcy Decides by Reina M. Wiliams
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2014
This is the second novella in the Love at Pemberley series by Reina M. Williams, a spin-off romantic love story of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. While I enjoyed the first installment, Most Truly, I enjoyed this story even more.I have only read these two novellas by Williams, but her writing style is very leisurely, spare, and sometimes lyrical. This is a quiet and pensive series, which is rather odd since Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is Austen’s most lively and spirited novel. Described as “light and bright and sparkling” by the author herself, that is not how I describe Miss Darcy Decides.The title has some promise, as it sounds almost gothic and fantastic, and there is an enticing element of the illicit in the story, but it is still a very sweet Regency romance. In fact, I thought Most Truly had some sexual tension while this story pretty much skips that emotion, and I found myself wishing for more.Especially since Sir Camden Sutton, the hero, is a rogue. He’s rusticating in the Derbyshire countryside before he intends to take control of his neglected estate and, at the invitation of his friend, Colonel James Fitzwilliam, stays a few days at Pemberley. He meets Georgiana Darcy at a neighbor’s cottage for tea. Intrigue makes a promising appearance when we discover that Miss Wilton is an unmarried pregnant woman living with her kind aunt. Camden is a reformed rake whose cousin’s reprehensible behavior left Camden extremely regretful of his own dissolute life.I really liked that Camden felt he could reform and become a better person, instead of feeling completely unworthy of a future of love and romance. He is confident in his own skin and knows who he is and what he wants. Camden represents what Willoughby (from Sense and Sensibility) might have become, and I really like how Williams presented his character.Georgiana, Fitzwilliam Darcy’s youngest sister, was almost ruined at fifteen by George Wickham. She is a quiet, sensitive, young woman, fearful of disappointing her brother again, but now she desires love and romance and finds herself attracted against her will to the enigmatic and dashing Camden. Her attraction confuses and excites her, but she is an old soul, a very mature young woman, and almost too serious for her own good. She’s also a worrywart. Williams’ descriptions of Georgiana’s emotions are lovely to read as you see her thought processes. Georgiana also recognizes that Camden needs a friend and is lonely; she’s very astute and attuned to the feelings of others.Darcy does not like Camden and makes his feelings quite clear. There are some nicely portrayed scenes where they confront one another in tense moments. Elizabeth sometimes acts as a diffuser, but Georgiana also speaks up for herself in a lovely moment.The descriptions of both the English countryside, landscape, and food are vividly and beautifully written and there are also several personal appearance descriptions, something Jane Austen herself rarely wrote. “The fire played shadows against the far wall, and the canary silk curtains were drawn against the chill summer eve.” (p13) I would say that, except for the characters and setting, this does not feel like a Jane Austen novel, but I don’t think the author intended it to be.There is some mention of God and faith, which felt out of place and, again, Jane Austen rarely wrote of spirituality, as devout as she may have been. It felt a little jarring and out of place in the story.As in Most Truly, characters from Austen’s most popular novel make appearances once again: Anne de Burgh, Mary Bennet, the nasty and vindictive Caroline Bingley, Charles Bingley, and of course, Darcy and Elizabeth. And Kitty and James are just beginning their married life here.Memorable moments:“It was past time to honor Sophia and all his family and friends who could no longer do as he could—live with honor, with kindness, with love.” (p24)“'I cannot undo my past. I can, however, live differently, and that I intend to.” (p41)“Miss Bingley was just the sort the Comte liked—well-bred, sharp, beautiful, with a vein of ice.” (p52)A genuinely pleasing and satisfying Regency romance that even Jane Austen purists will enjoy.*A modified version of this review first appeared on The Romantic Historical Reviews blog.