I love reading continuations of the Pride and Prejudice story and this was really good once it got going. The start was a little slow for my liking establishing characters etc. That said I have now added the second book in this seris to my to be read pile. If you like this sort of book it is worth the read. ( )

12/3/22

Doubt I will finish this, but if I do I really doubt I'll read the other books in the series. With how many years they cover in this books what's left to tell? The stories of all the new characters she created that you can barely keep track of? ( )

Pretty boring. Unrealistic views on infant and child survival at the time. Almost no hardship encountered by any of the characters at all. ( )

I was really hoping to enjoy this one. Seeing that it had four sequels and was marketed as being more true to the original novel, it certainly seemed promising. However, I found that I had a difficult time staying interested in this one.

I almost gave up at the beginning - most of the other reviews I've read have said they enjoyed the beginning, but I thought that was almost the worst part. It seemed like the first 50 pages were nothing but illustrations (and explanations) of how perfectly happy they were, how much "respect and admiration" they had for the Gardiners, and how much respect and admiration Darcy had for Mr. Bennet, and that they respected and admired each other and how happy all of this made them...and it just kept going on with nothing really happening. At first it was cute, but then it just became irritating.

The rest of the book was a bit more entertaining, but I found it hard to keep track of which children were whose (especially since they liked to name them after each other). Collins also skips huge chunks of time without much explanation (although I'm sure we can trust they were supremely happy and had respect and admiration for each other the whole time). I also found it strange that through the middle of the book, we hear more about the children of other characters - I found myself realizing that Elizabeth and Darcy's children would be in their teens and I knew absolutely nothing about them. They came into play near the end, but for most of the book I wouldn't have known they had children at all if I hadn't read the pages telling of their births.

If you're desperate for a P&P fix or want to try something with less unlikely drama and situations than other sequels have, you might want to give this a try, maybe you'll like it more than I did. Overall though, I found it pretty forgettable. Let's just say I have no inclination to read the other four books. ( )