Week 38 Review: Unequal Affections

From Goodreads:

When Elizabeth Bennet first knew Mr. Darcy, she despised him and was sure he felt the same. Angered by his pride and reserve, influenced by the lies of the charming Mr. Wickham, she never troubled herself to believe he was anything other than the worst of men—until, one day, he unexpectedly proposed.

Mr. Darcy's passionate avowal of love causes Elizabeth to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about him. What she knows is that he is rich, handsome, clever, and very much in love with her. She, on the other hand, is poor, and can expect a future of increasing poverty if she does not marry. The incentives for her to accept him are strong, but she is honest enough to tell him that she does not return his affections. He says he can accept that—but will either of them ever be truly happy in a relationship of unequal affection?

Diverging from Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice, this story explores the kind of man Darcy is, even before his "proper humbling," and how such a man, so full of pride, so much in love, might have behaved had Elizabeth chosen to accept his original proposal in the Huntsford parsonage. 

My Review:
I really enjoyed reading this book! It totally wasn't what I expected-I though it would mainly be after they married, but no, this book takes place during the same time as the original, of in this timeline, the engagement, leading up to their marriage. I do wish we could've been a bit more of them post-marriage, not just a snippet of their honeymoon, but I guess in the original, we didn't really get much either. Bah!

This whole what if idea is so very fascinating! Because it does have a lot of the same story beats, like him helping Lydia, but it happens in a different way, because she doesn't go with the militia, doesn't marry Wickham. It got to the same point that the original did, but it took it's own path, and it was so great! 

It was so wonderful to see what their relationship looked like, with him madly in love, and her having loathed him. They both are so different, but they do fit together so very well, once a few bumps were passed by!

On his side, he was worried about her falling in love with him. At first he was confident that it would happen before they got married, but as his flaws where shown to him, he started to despair. On her side, she was disagreeable with how he was treating her family and the members of her town, while also known that she had made bad judgment calls in the time before she actually knew him. But they are flawed, but again, they fit together so well! 

I wasn't meaning to read this book, at least not now, but I did, and it was a really great read, and I'm thrilled that it exists and that I did read it! 

Author: Lara S. Ormison
Read: September 21st, 2021
Source: Ebook.bike 
Reason Why: Sounded really great, and it's a 2021 Retelling Reading Challenge, Historical Fiction 2021 Book and a SAC 2021 Book!
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: January 7th 2017

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars