I do love my Pride and Prejudice sequels and retellings. I'm a sucker for them. This was a swell one that was mostly from Mr. Darcy's point of view, his vampiric point of view that is (cue dramatic music). Yep, Mr. Darcy is a vampire. So is Wickham, dudes. It's not the first time it's been done, but I liked how Colette Saucier ran this particular Vampire Darcy show.

With a pen name like Saucier (I'm assuming it's a pen name) and a publisher called Secret Cravings, this book wasn't quite what I expected. Definitely more of a slow build to the hot stuff, which was fine by me. There were new characters introduced, like Rivens, Darcy's mysterious valet, and the Comtesse of Calmet. I enjoyed the scenes written with these characters, especially once I realized the Comtesse was not being set up as a rival for Elizabeth . Since it looks like there's a sequel planned, I hope both characters will show up in it.

The book followed the order of events of the original, with the author's twist on how the story might go if Darcy were a vampire and we saw the events of the story through his eyes. She did a particularly nice job of portraying Darcy as the book led up to the first proposal, how all his internal struggle was about himself and the implications for him, rather than for Elizabeth, and how he thought that was perfectly reasonable.

Once I got to the chance meeting at Pemberley and the renewal of the courtship, I enjoyed the extra bonding scenes Saucier wrote between Elizabeth and Georgiana, especially the maze scene.

The good outweighed the bad, but I have a couple of small complaints. One, the weird argument Bingley and Darcy have after Elizabeth has come to stay with Jane at Netherfield—what was the point of that? Two, what's with all the kooky vocabulary words? "Flagitious"? "Obtunded"? "Predaceous"? I don't think sprinkling the story with these really contributed anything to the narrative. In fact, it kind of interrupted the flow.

So as not to end on a critical note, I also enjoyed the references to Much Ado About Nothing and the many Beatrice and Benedick quotes. Now I not only need re-watch the A&E Pride and Prejudice miniseries; I also need to rent Much Ado About Nothing and pretend Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson still love each other.

This was an entertaining addition to the pile of Jane Austen fan fiction out there, and I will definitely check out the sequel. ( )