Mr. Darcy's Perfect Match: A Pride & Prejudice Variation by Kelly Miller, Janet Taylor
Series: Standalone
Published by Meryton Press on January 25th 2020
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 328
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Tour Host
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Rating:

I received this book for free from Tour Host in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

When secrets are revealed and a family agenda works against him, can Fitzwilliam Darcy recover his damaged spirits and find happiness?
Following his disastrous proposal to Elizabeth Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy returns to London from Kent, broken-hearted and dejected. One bright spot penetrates his sea of despair: his sister, Georgiana, has finally recovered her spirits from the grievous events at Ramsgate the previous summer. She has forged a new friendship with Miss Hester Drake, a lady who appears to be an ideal friend. In fact, Lady Matlock believes Miss Drake is Darcy’s perfect match.
Upon Elizabeth’s arrival at the Gardiners’ home from Kent, she finds that her sister Jane remains despondent over her abandonment by Mr. Bingley. But Elizabeth has information that might bring them together. She convinces her uncle Gardiner to write a letter to Mr. Bingley, providing key facts supplied to her by Mr. Darcy.
When Bingley discovers that his friend and sisters colluded to keep Jane’s presence in London from him, how will he respond? Given the chance, will Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth overcome their past misunderstandings? What will Darcy do when his beloved sister becomes a hindrance towards winning the lady he loves?

Exploring alternate paths for Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is an enjoyable reading experience for me. Mr. Darcy’s Perfect Match offered so many wonderful ‘what if’ possibilities to the plot, to the characters, and most definitely to the romance. Lovely, inventive, and tension-wrought tale!

Mr. Darcy’s Perfect Match is a Pride and Prejudice variation story that starts taking an alternate path from the original classic at the point Mr. Darcy leaves Hunsford after his disastrous proposal to Elizabeth Bennet. Because of this, I do recommend that interested readers have at least a general idea of the P&P story up to that point so earlier actions and character introductions that are somewhat assumed will work out much better. That said, I don’t think a reader would have too much trouble just diving in without reading P&P.

As I said, I love exploring alternate paths. In this one, Elizabeth uses the knowledge gleaned from Mr. Darcy’s explanation letter to attempt a reunion between her beloved sister and Mr. Bingley while in London. And, Georgiana, Darcy’s little sister, plays a stronger role in that she makes a friend of a beautiful, talented young woman who Darcy’s aunt is attempting to set him up with. Miss Drake is prepared to further her own schemes to get the wealthy and handsome Darcy in her own way. Elizabeth has a worthy rival, it seems, even as she is just figuring out that she doesn’t hate Darcy- quite the opposite, in fact.

I had a good time with this one. Hester Drake was such a schemer and had everyone fooled. I do love a well-drawn villainous character. I also enjoyed the progression of a new attempt at romance between Darcy and Lizzy after they cleared the air. I thought all the characters were engaging and complex as was the gently-paced plot and the setting that always felt authentic and I’m so glad the author did her homework for that because it made it easy to settle into the story.

In summary, I enjoyed this sweet historical romance where two people have to learn to trust each other and find love while a clever schemer has everyone side-eying each other. Light and easy read that I can definitely recommend to Austen lovers and also to those who enjoy authentic, gently-paced Regency Romance.