Before I move onto talking about Mrs Darcy's Dilemma, I should make it clear that I am a big fan of Miss Austen and her work and that Pride and Prejudice easily features in my Top Five books of all time. I was really not sure about the prospect of reading a follow-up and put this one off for a couple of months, despite the praise it got from both dovegreyreader and random jottings, as I really, really didn't want it to be anything like Alexandra Potter's Me and Mr Darcy. If you've not read that gem then please, please promise me that you won't.
I digress.
The story opens with Elizabeth Darcy inviting two of Lydia Wickham's daughters, Bettina and Cloe, to come and stay with her family. The Darcy's have three children (Fitzwilliam, Henry and Jane), their relationship is comfortable and their marriage has been a personal success - even if Lady Catherine would still disagree.
The plot is enjoyable, the characters fit into the P&P world nicely, we get updates for most characters and it's a comfortable read with no jarring notes. I initially thought Bettina's sub-plot was a bit racy, but gather from Claire Tomalin's excellent biography that some of Jane Austen's teenage fiction was pretty sensationalist so perhaps not! Overall, I enjoyed this book which is a nice follow-up to the original and would be very happy to read more by Diana.
Want More?
Well, you could pop over to the author's website, read Diana's blog or pop over to Stuck In A Book and read interesting the Q&A they did together back in March.
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