Guest Review: Mr. Darcy Forever – Victoria Connelly

The third in a trilogy of Jane Austen romantic comedies from UK author Victoria Connelly featuring characters obsessed with Jane Austen and set in Jane Austen locations (A Weekend with Mr. Darcy, Dreaming of Mr. Darcy). Sarah and Mia Castle, two estranged sisters (and Austen addicts) who have spent a lifetime fighting over the men in their lives, meet for the first time in three years during the annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath, the city where Anne Elliot (Persuasion) and Catherine Morland (Northanger Abbey) found their happy endings. During the festival, the sisters realize that they can’t bear to be apart, even though Mia fell in love with the man Sarah eventually married and settled with in beautiful Devon, another Jane Austen location (the filming of Emma Thompson’s Sense & Sensibility). They discover that their sisterhood forms a bond stronger than their mutual connection as Jane Austen addicts. And in true Jane Austen fashion, they each begin to lose their hearts to dashing gentlemen. A beautiful, fun and quirky story of sisterhood and romance.

Series:  Austen Addicts #3
Release Date:  April 1, 2012
Publisher:  Sourcebooks Landmark
Source:  NetGalley
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Reviewer’s Thoughts:

I picked up this book because I’m one of “”those”” people, a lover of all things Jane Austen, especially the modern versions of her books.  So, I was prepared to love this book. Unfortunately, I didn’t. I didn’t hate it either; it was just a bit bland for my tastes.

First, the language was a bit stilted.  It seemed out of place that characters from 2012 would use the same phrasing and diction as characters from the 1700’s or 1800’s.  As a result, I was not able to settle in and enjoy the book.  The language was too formal, like the living room in grandma’s house with the couches covered in plastic – uncomfortable.

Second, Connelly told me too much.  As a reader I wanted to discover things about the characters on my own.  For instance, the older sister suffers from OCD.  Instead of scenes that show she struggles with an urge to organize something the reader is told she is struggling and then the character says something like “”oh curse my OCD.””

My third and biggest problem was the pacing of the story and development of the love stories.  The author tries to fit too much in and the story ends up fractured.  Every character had a love interest and some secret to be uncovered.  Since the story was told from the alternating perspectives of Sarah and Mia each chapter cut off with some sort of cliff hanger.

I wanted to know more about the sisters and their relationship but was sidetracked by their deep dark secrets which seem to pile up with a really trite one thrown on at the end.  Also, Connelly’s insistence on telling the reader which Jane Austen character Sarah or Mia most resembled was overwhelming.  I wished she took more time developing the secondary characters and love interests.  But she didn’t and I just didn’t feel invested in the budding romances.  The ending was sweet but felt completely disconnected from the first half of the book. Overall, the best things about this book were the descriptions of Bath and the Jane Austen festival.