By Force of Instinct: A Pride & Prejudice Variation | Abigail Reynolds

By Force of Instinct: A Pride & Prejudice Variation | Abigail Reynolds | Good series

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By Force of Instin...

	By Force of Instinct: A Pride & Prejudice Variation Abigail Reynolds Intertidal Press, 2007 - 260 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In Jane Austen's classic Pride & Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet never expects to see Mr. Darcy again after his disastrous proposal in Hunsford. But what if family business required him to stay at Rosings after giving her his letter? Coming face to face with Mr. Darcy only days later could give Elizabeth a new chance to understand him... or chance for even more misunderstandings. THE PEMBERLEY VARIATIONS by Abigail Reynolds is a series of novels exploring the roads not taken in Pride & Prejudice.

A great, fun read!

I'm a P&P addict! So of course, the characters of Darcy and Elizabeth are "sacred" to me. But I really, really liked this book! It's kind of like Jane Austen meets Sandra Brown, Jenny Crusie, and Linda Howard. Not as long and not quite as "spicey hot" as Berdoll's first book--although it is definitely hot (but believable) in places.

It bogs down just a little in so very many misunderstandings and ups and downs between Lizzy and Darcy. But still, a very enjoyable read. It explores interesting, believable, real/more human sides of Lizzy and Darcy, as well as some other main characters, like Mr. Bennet and Georgiana--for once, she's NOT the simpy, adoring little sister, but more like a real, albeit maybe very modern, teenager!

This is the first of Reynold's books I've read. I just purchased all of the others--although I think I'll wait between reading each book--since each one is a "path not taken" in the same story, it could become disconcerting I think to read them all in a row.

In sum, I do definitely recommend this book!

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Good series

So far have read 3 of the 5 variations from this author, and "From Lambton to Longbourn" is the best one. This one is also very good. At first the romancy-part is a bit much but then you get used to it and enjoy the story. I liked it so much that I am going to order the other 2 books in this series.

Four stars plus two stars divided by two equals three stars from me!

I gave in to temptation and ordered all five of these Pride and Prejudice variations at one time. I have been allowing some time to elapse between reading each book because basically they are all telling the same story, just with "variations". From this point on, there is information in my review which some may consider spoilers.

This book, BY FORCE OF INSTINCT, was well written and pleasant to read. I have rated it with three stars because it just did not rise to the level of a four star book for me consistently enough. I enjoyed it but I also began to lose patience with it and wondered why the author continued to write when she had essentially solved the problem for the two main characters.

Our story begins just after Elizabeth Bennet has read the letter from Fitzwilliam Darcy explaining his feelings and misgivings about her and the true happenings between his family and Wickham. Elizabeth is mortified to know that she has misjudged Darcy so terribly and just wants to retreat into some private place to recover emotionally from what she now knows. But she will not be allowed to do that. Due to family commitments Darcy is unable to leave Rosings Park immediately as he had planned. He has to stay on for another week and he and Elizabeth are together frequently. It is an extremely trying time for both of them.

All of the Reynolds "variations" are explorations of what might have happened to these two people if just one circumstance had changed. In this book Elizabeth and Darcy are thrown together enough after "the letter" to give them a chance to view each other more realistically. I was actually fine with the book until it began to portray characters in such completely unfamiliar roles that they made me uncomfortable. Georgiana is an insecure, spoiled brat. I realize that she is a 16 year old girl but in those times she was old enough to be considered eligible for marriage so this was not a favorable aspect of her personality for me. She does something spiteful which causes a huge problem for Elizabeth and Darcy. Too much character deviation for my taste. Mr. Bennet makes a conscious effort to dislike Darcy, even after Elizabeth tries desperately to convince him of her love for Darcy and his innate goodness. I didn't understand Mr. Bennet's pigheadedness and the author didn't help me understand. Once again, too much character deviation for my taste. Elizabeth's Uncle Gardner played a pivitol role in the engagement but he was shown to be a very harsh, stern, immoveable person. Yet again, too much character deviation for my taste.

And now we come to the sexual content of the book. Never, in my wildest dreams would I imagine Elizabeth Bennet initiating a sexual encounter with Fitzwilliam Darcy but that is exactly what this book portrays her as doing. And from then until the final pages of the book it is just one time after another of the author describing these characters trying to keep their hands off each other and not always succeeding. Okay, this is not Pride and Prejudice, this is a story written by another author, b-u-t I didn't like this aspect of the book. One incident, maybe. On and on, no. They do get married I'm glad to say but that just seemed to reveal Darcy as being totally insecure. I wasn't prepared for him to need so much reassuring by Elizabeth that she loved him. And this book just contains one misunderstanding after another (indulged in equally by both characters which at least made it different from other romances).

My bottom line is this: if you enjoy reading historical romantic fiction, you will like this book. If you are a stickler for the straight and narrow Pride and Prejudice, you will not like this book. If you find yourself somewhere in between, you will enjoy parts of it and get really frustrated (and bored) by other parts of it. Three stars? Yes, it went up to a four star level sometimes and dipped down to a two star level during other portions. I did the math and came up with three stars!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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