Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe
Ratings5
Average rating2.2
Oh, dear. This was not good. I can deal with cheesy, and I liked the idea of gender-swapping the lead characters in this modern-day Pride and Prejudice reimagining. But the writing was just so bad. Everything felt frantic (I like you, I don't like you, I'm marrying someone else, I called off the wedding, me too, I love you, wait I'm not sure, OK yeah I love you -- all in about two weeks!), Luke was not really like Elizabeth Bennet at all, and Darcy was not believable as a super successful business person. I really want to love Austen retellings, but there are a lot of bad ones out there, and this is one of them.
I loved the blurb for this book, and almost ordered it instantly...but I decided to be good and wait, and then I saw it at my library! Of course I picked it up...and I was shocked by how small it was. “How does anyone fit a retelling of P&P in a book this size?” I thought...but I gave it a try anyway. The answer is...eh...they don't. Or at least not very well. Seriously...where's the rest of it?Yes, it read just as rushed as I expected. The characters are flat and not very interesting. Darcy (female type here, remember) is done better than any of the rest. Even Luke, her “Lizzy,” who is supposed to be this amazing artisan who creates fantastic wood furniture...which is mentioned like twice...and then forgotten all about. At the end he even randomly picks up a new career (WTF?). The writing is boring. The adults feel like teenagers. The plot of P&P is condensed from well over a year down to less than 2 weeks. Uggggh.However, I did really like the Darcy/Bingley combination going on here. I loved that they totally stepped outside the expected m/f relationships there. Bingley was just adorable (if somewhat stereotypical in his own way). He is what saves this from being a 2-star read. If you know P&P, there are no surprises here. Which is fine! However, I felt like the stakes were not as high as in the original, or even as in a better retelling - which, by the way, would be [b:Eligible 25852870 Eligible (The Austen Project, #4) Curtis Sittenfeld https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1460477855s/25852870.jpg 26428236] by Curtis Sittenfeld - and besides all the lackluster writing, that just made it very bland and overall disappointing. Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+
The FMC is insufferable, but that's a plot point and if you can get past that and the fact that Melissa de la Cruz doesn't know anything about Ohio, it's not bad.