Mr Darcy, Vampyre

by Amanda Grange

[Raven]

Elizabeth and Darcy are set up to be the two happiest people in the world, but all is not what it seems. Darcy is being distant and won’t consummate their marriage, and strange things are happening all around them. Elizabeth is certain she is to blame for his obvious displeasure with her until she finds out Darcy’s secret. Her new husband is a vampire.
I am a sucker for any Pride and Prejudice variation. I read them all with no remorse, even when they are questionable. I had really mixed feelings about this book as I began it. You know right away because of the title that Darcy is a vampire, but the book is written in a way that you don’t learn it on the pages until well into it. It ruins the mystery and thrill of finding out what happens as you go. I would much rather have had a vague name with the Goodreads shelves being the only reason I knew it was a vampire novel. The unfolding of his secret is written subtly and wonderfully, building up well, and it just kills all of the steam because of the stupid book title.

The plot is actually fairly nice. Being a paranormal, you have to suspend reality and put yourself in that mind-state to appreciate it. But things have a decent build up. I didn’t like the start and stop of the writing. I felt like the story would speed up and then come to a screeching halt in each chapter, messing with the flow. When I reached Chapter 7, I had to set the book aside for a while. The story had gotten so slow for me I could barely stand it. When I came back to it, I was pleased again at Chapter 9. From there, it was a smooth sailing bullet train to the ending. There were many questions left for me at the end, and I found the ending itself incredibly anti-climatic. It almost felt like the climax was written to be the first in a trilogy it was lacking so much tension. Al the leftover questions bothered me, and made me wish more would be written just so I could learn the answers to them.

Elizabeth was written badly. I felt more like she resembled Kitty or Lydie than herself. Darcy was written highly aloof, so much in fact that it left him very disengaged from the story. Everyone else was written well, but the two primary characters left much to be desired.

Even with it’s flaws, I still enjoyed the book very much, enough that I consider it one of my favorite Pride and Prejudice variations. Sure it was slow in parts and had some issues, if it hadn’t been for the title killing the story for me, I would’ve been able to overlook the flaws and enjoy it completely.

Read this and other reviews at my blog.