The Houseguest by Elizabeth Adams"When Georgiana Darcy comes to Netherfield to visit her brother, she becomes friends with a neighbour, Elizabeth Bennet. After Miss Darcy has returned to London, she invites her new friend to stay with her at the Darcy home in town ... unbeknownst to Mr. Darcy.
Will this change in circumstances lead to a change in affections? "
This is my second Pride and Prejudice variation (after KaraLynne Mackrory's Falling for Mr Darcy) and this has made me want to read more! I won't call this a review as such, as it is more likely going to be a collection of my thoughts with no structure what's so ever!
What a wonderful story! It really was a lot of fun and my favourite scenes were between Darcy and Lizzy (surprise surprise!) when she was 'The Houseguest' at their home in London. Seeing how their relationship built up, developed and changed from the first meetings at Meryton (which, lets face it, didn't go well for Darcy!) was very sweet.
It was clever how certain scenes and conversations seen in the original were included in different contexts and between different characters ('You insolent boy!') and how important revelations were revealed in different ways (for example the truth about Wickham and the real reason Bingley left Netherfield.)
There were still a few issues between Darcy and Lizzy which needed to be resolved, adding to the, well... not suspense, as we all know they would get together in the end, but it adds interest to the route of getting to their happy ending. And the issues weren't drawn out too long, nor were there never ending problems (it annoys me when there is just problem after problem after problem...)
I also enjoyed seeing the jealous side of Darcy! In the original, Wickham wasn't really competition, at least not for long. It was nice for Darcy to have some competition, and serious competition at that! Jealous Darcy was funny!
There were many delightful additions to the story, character wise, and I loved to get to know Georgiana and Col. Fitzwilliam more. Col. Fitzwilliam was a very funny man! He brought humour to any scene he was in!
I especially loved the relationship between Georgiana and Lizzy which became very sisterly. The whole story is based on them meeting earlier in the story and it was nice for them to meet quicker, as really, in the original they don't meet for quite a while, but once they do they get on marvellously, as they did in the variation. It didn't take long for them to get to become very close friends and the influence of Lizzy that was rubbing off on Georgiana was great, as it was giving her the much needed confidence after the blip with Wickham. Georgiana was very sweet and innocent, but as I said, she grew throughout the novel and as she and Lizzy became almost like sisters, you could see the enjoyment Georgiana had in having a sister! It was so sweet!
The ending was very sweet between Darcy and Lizzy (which is always good!) and the very, very end was a great way to finish it as it was so nice seeing what happened to all of the characters in the story, especially the new characters.
I highly recommend this to anybody who just wants to see more of Darcy and Lizzy, with a great take on the original story!
As I said, this was not a structured review, just a few thoughts :)
Your affectionate friend,
