Mrs Darcy's Dilemma

Mrs Darcy's Dilemma is a sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and is set 25 years after the events that took place in that book.

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.

What a dilemma!

That rather feeble post title refers to my current read - Mrs Darcy's Dilemma by Diana Birchall. I was interested to see that it made dovegreyreader's breaking reader's block list and thought it was time to read it! I'm about half way through and enjoying it immensely.

So, to celebrate what is the start of my "Jane Austen" reading pile (which along with her books also includes her collected letters, Claire Tomalin's Jane Austen biography and Deirdre le Faye's The World of Her Novels) I've made some themed bookmarks to use. I had a bit of trouble with the cutting-out-in-a-straight-line but I think that they still look very pretty.

A4 pdf available of all four if anyone wants their own - email me!

Random Acts of Heroic Love - Danny Scheinmann

Random Acts of Heroic Love is Danny Scheinmann's debut novel and came to prominance after being selected as one of Richard and Judy's book club reads last year. The title alone was enough to convince me to read this book even though I didn't know anything about it!

This book follows two intertwining story threads. The first is that of 25 year old Leo Deakinwho has woken up in a South American hospital with no clear recent memories and who learns that Eleni, his girlfriend, has been killed in the same bus crash that put him there. We follow Leo as he returns home to England and struggles to come to terms with the loss of Eleni.

The second story thread starts at the outset of World War One and follows Moritz Daniecki as he is conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army and sent to fight on the Russian front, leaving behind him his young love Lotte. He experiences horrific, freezing battle conditions on the before being captured and sent to a POW camp in Siberia. His memories of Lotte give him the determination and strength to survive his experience and his journey back to try to find her is remarkable in that it was actually undertaken by Scheinmann's grandfather.

Between them, both stories cover decent ground in terms of dealing with love, loss and hope however for me the Leo storyline fizzled out once he'd returned home and I soon lost patience with his situation wishing that he'd been killed in the crash rather than the more interesting character of Eleni. Luckily, it was interspersed with Moritz's journey home or I might have given up on this one.

Feeling I am being a bit harsh, I'd say it's a good debut novel with the story itself being enough to keep you engaged but don't expect too much from the Leo bits.

Crime Scene Evidence!

So that's who has been eating all my strawberries...

A Hidden Life - Adèle Geras

The lovely Adèle Geras was kind enough to send me a copy of A Hidden Life after reading on here how much I enjoyed Facing the Light earlier this year.

From the blurb - "When Constance Barrington dies, she leaves behind a wealthy estate and a complex family network. But when the whole family gathers to hear her last will and testament, they are in for a terrible shock. Constance - possessed of a long memory and a spiteful disposition - altered her will shortly before her death. The new provisions are far from fair; some benefit hugely and others hardly at all. Constance's granddaughter, Louise, is bequeathed the copyright for her late grandfather's novels.

Soon, old family feuds and long-hidden resentments come to the surface, and with them, secrets start to emerge. But it is through Louise's inheritance - those dusty, long-forgotten books - that the most explosive secret of all will come to light, bringing with it a very different future for her and the rest of the family."

This is a family saga in the best of the tradition - plenty of internal politics with shifting alliances, shifting point of view narrative, greedy battles over money with a mystery at its heart. The main thread, or maybe that's just me, was Lou's re-reading and exploration of one of her grandfather's books, Blind Moon, and the untangling of fact from fiction as we learned more about his life.

It's a book that once started was almost impossible to put down... so I didn't and greedily devoured it in one day. Definitely a book for reading in the sunshine whilst we attempt to enjoy the English "summer".

Booking Through Thursday

This week's Booking Through Thursday:

"What are your favourite first sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its first sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the first line?"

Clearly, it would be awfully remiss not to mention the wonderful opening line from Pride & Prejudice, which is "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." This must be one of the most famous lines in literature and it's a gem.

There's an opening line that really stuck in my mind - so much so that it's the sole reason the book is on my "to buy" list. "To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor." That one is from Deanna Raybourne's Silent in the Grave and, although I've not yet read the book, has me very intrigued.

I don't think I've ever liked a book solely because of a first line or that a successful one would change my impression of a subsequently average read. It is a lovely feeling though to start a new book and within one sentence have already paused for reflection. It's not something that often happens but when it does you know you're on to a winner.

Anyone who has even the vaguest interest in the opening lines of books should head over to twitterlit. It's a great site that posts the first line of a book every day which is such a simple concept that's strangely addictive.

Bonus Feature - a short quiz from the BBC from 2004 - how well do you know these famous opening lines? My 8/10 is respectable but I do confess to a couple of guesses.

Sony Reader

Hot on the heel of yesterday's post on free reads comes the news, courtesy of The Independent that the Sony Reader is coming to the UK. Which is quite handy as after a downloading frenzy I now have several books in an e-format to read! Priced at £199 and available for pre-order at Waterstones or via Sony stores now.

If I was still travelling loads with work this would be a tempting offer however having read this very in depth and useful article from a reviewer last year, I think I'll wait for the second generation to be released. Or until someone buys me one as a present!