I forgot how entertaining this series is. ( )

A Pride & Prejudice spin off. This is the only one I've read, and I shall not be heading back for more. At the start, we find Mr Collins has been instaled as Bishop of Ripon. He has two daughters with Charlotte Lucas, Charlotte & Eliza. Eliza's godmother is Elizabeth Bennett, and seems to take after her - despite not being a relation in any close sense. Mr Bennett has also found himself a new lady friend, and so the inheritance of Longbourn is put in doubt. This is putting the financial strain on the Collins' as Ripon is not a rich see. So when aunt Lucas offers Charlotte a season in London, she s swept up in the possibility of snaring a rich husband for both her own and her family's sake. Eliza is in disgrace and packed of with her to get her away from the Squire's son, with whom she has an understanding. The sisters are not close and Charlotte might as well be a cardboard cut out (or ice maiden) for all the character that comes across. Eliza has more spark, but seems to be too close a copy of Elizabeth in P&P to seem real. She makes snap judgements about a man from whom she overhears a less than charitable remark. Sound at all familiar? Yup, and all too predictable it was as well.
It wasn't badly written, but it wasn't anything like as good as writing can be. Put it this way, my Playaway device from the library failed to play two chapters and I didn't feel like I'd missed a thing. It just felt a bit lazy. Take an existing, well loved story (although not by me), and borrow some of the characters and the situation. It wasn't terribly inventive, the plot was pretty predictable and the characters didn't come to life. It was OK, but not better than that. ( )

A good book and easy read. Some underlining themes of P & P...but NOT QUITE like Austen's book. Loved the characters and enjoyed the plot. Would want to read more of them in the series. ( )

Aston's Darcy series is one of my addictions, and this latest installment is just as good as the rest. In this book, Aston takes a look at Charlotte and Eliza Collins, the two daughters of Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas from Pride and Prejudice. Charlotte, the elder, is extremely beautiful but also extremely reserved; the younger daughter Eliza isn't as pretty, but she is witty and intelligent. Both girls are granted the opportunity of a London Season, where Charlotte's duty is to make a good marriage, and Eliza's is to stay out of the way. Romance comes to both sisters, but of course there are obstacles, which eventually dissipate in true Austen style with weddings. Eliza finds the right guy for her, but I was a bit let down by the outcome of Charlotte's story - I feel like we didn't get enough of her motivations or feelings. Overall, I applaud Aston for doing these Austen spinoffs that don't really focus on Austen's characters, like Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. It's hard to keep those characters true to Austen's originals - because no one can write them as well as Austen did - so Aston wisely doesn't try. Instead, she deals with daughters, nieces, and distant relations, and I think she does a good job of delivering Austen-flavored Regency romances in a well-written and lighthearted style.