Doesn’t everyone in the same family deserve a happy ending?

Synopsis

A sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Seven years after Elizabeth Bennett married Fitzwilliam Darcy, they are still deeply in love, with two small children. But paradise is showing cracks now that Darcy’s aged housekeeper has died and Elizabeth must take up her duties. It’s more than one woman, even one as capable as Elizabeth, can manage.

Her sister Kitty, with Elizabeth and Jane’s help and a heroic effort on Kitty’s part, has outgrown her silly youth and matured into a sensible young woman—who, being sensible, spends as much time away from her parents and visiting her sisters as possible. Darcy’s sister Georgiana, with perhaps more influence from Elizabeth than is good for her, has become a confident, independent woman who is nevertheless ripe for romance. Charlotte Collins, newly widowed, is searching for a way out of the household of her husband’s crabbed patron, Lady Catherine, that doesn’t involve returning to her parents’ house.

Elizabeth sees a way to restore order to Pemberley and give herself a chance to to breathe: she offers Kitty a job as housekeeper of the estate, and Charlotte a job as governess of her adored children.

With these four women under one roof, chaos and the unexpected are inevitable. Both Kitty and Georgiana meet and begin falling in love with honorable, interesting men, neither of whom are gentlemen and therefore not considered eligible matches for them. Charlotte has the opposite problem: a childhood acquaintance who is now a Lord has become fixated on her and begins diligently wooing her, when all she wants is a quiet life and a chance to recover from eight years of marriage to a man she never loved.

When Elizabeth and Darcy learn of their sisters’ budding romances, each has the same reaction: delight at their sister-in-law’s choice and outrage at that of their sister. Now throw a ball into the mix, with Elizabeth’s mother bringing up forbidden topics from the past and her father hiding from the noise, Jane and Bingley attempting to calm the waters, Elizabeth trying to set up all three of the younger women, and Charlotte’s Lord pursuing her all over the dance floor—and an explosion is sure to happen.

This charming romance will delight all lovers of Jane Austen’s masterpiece who have ever wondered, “What happened next?”

My review

Seven years ago Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy got married. But they still love each other as much as the day they married and their marriage has been also blessed with two children.
With their aged housekeeper passing, Elizabeth must take up her duties, which is not an easy task. Yet Elizabeth has come up with a plan, that will make more than 1 person happy. As her sister Kitty as made a tremendous change for the better, and has become a sensible young woman, Elizabeth believes that there is no one better to take up the job as housekeeper of Pemberley. And as Elizabeth’s best friend Charlotte Collins has recently become a widow and can no longer count on the patronage and protection of Lady Catherine, who is better as a governess to Elizabeth’s children?
And of course it’s great for Darcy and Elizabeth to see Darcy’s sister Georgina turning into a confident and strong woman.
Elizabeth wants nothing more for these women to also find a perfect match like she did with her Darcy. But is that written in the stars for them? And what if that comes, but not in the expected way?

So… Pride & Prejudice is my favourite book of all times. And I have read a few books that claim that are sequels of this classic, some being more alike the original than others.
Yet I am always curious to see a new “sequel” appear, so obviously I just *had* to read this book!

Now, I have to admit, that I perhaps I held on for too long on the image that the original book had, as there were moments that I doubted that Jane Austen would let the characters act in the way they did in this novel.
But once I didn’t try to hang on to my own image, I felt I could truly enjoy the book.

It was great to see how this power couple is still going strong after being married for several years now and that they even have two lovely children.
I found it also sweet in a way to see how both Elizabeth and Darcy have learnt from each other and are also still learning from each other but without ever losing the essence that made them the Elizabeth and Darcy we all love.

And it’s in that respect that Elizabeth wants both her sister Kitty and her friend Charlotte to come and work at Pemberley. While it may seem that she wants her family and friend to be her servant, it is more that Elizabeth wants both Kitty and Charlotte may have their independence and not be needing the help of the people with ‘wrong’ influences (a.k.a. Mrs Bennet or Lady Catherine).

In this book we have in fact 3 female leads, all under the supervision of Elizabeth. But while Elizabeth has certain hopes for each woman, their stories take all a different direction. We see Kitty and Georgina falling in love, but not with the men Elizabeth envisioned. And I have to say, I found it a bit funny to see how the cards were turned, as both young women fell for men of ‘lower state’. To put it simply: the complete opposite of what happened with Elizabeth!
This only shows that love doesn’t look at status, but just looks at the person itself. And if you are an honourable, honest and decent person, status shouldn’t be in the way of finding love.

Charlotte was a bit more difficult to like. Obviously, being married to Mr. Collins, cannot have been easy. And I could understand that she doesn’t know what to do now, now that she is ‘free’. She has endured enough in the past, so is it the right thing to tie herself to another man? And is the man that has set his eyes on her the right man this time?

But what was it that I didn’t truly like about her? It was her behaviour at moments that made my eyebrows frown. I know that Charlotte has certain views on things, but I also truly believe that some things can be said in a more respectful way than how Charlotte expressed them.

But even if I had some reservations towards Charlotte, I enjoyed reading this book, showing us that love can stand the test of time, and even after years can be as passionate as at the start. And I absolutely liked it how the situations were turned compared to the classis of Jane Austen. I truly liked seeing once again the battle of and for love, with characters that definitely also deserved their place in the spotlight and a chance at happiness! And all this by being surrounded by a great couple that shows us how wonderful love can be!