Review: Georgiana Darcy's Diary: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Continued

Georgiana Darcy's Diary: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Continued by Anna Elliott
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There are probably literally carriage-loads of books based off Jane Austen's writings, this book happens to be one of them.

It was nice that the author chose to write from the perspective of one of the lesser known characters, one that in Austen's own writing boils down to a sweet girl who had the bad luck of drawing Wickham's attention. Elliott tries to show Georgiana as having grown up and come into her own. She wants to be someone more than her almost elopement which is admirably and would be an interesting book. However, the book is written in the style of a diary, starting off with Georgiana saying that she doesn't usually keep a diary but she has to write down her current feelings somewhere. The first third of the book is a bit difficult to get into, Georgiana borders on being boringly good (A touch Fanny Price) and we all know what's coming when Col. FitzWillaim shows up and just sort of want to get on with it.

Later on when Georgiana starts to stand up for herself and drag her cousin Anne with her the story starts to get good. I would rather that the two cousins had ridden off on a Grand Tour together in search of adventure and practice at saying 'no thanks' than the true ending.

That being said, it was a fluffy read, no real surprises in the narrative, and if you don't mind the diary format of an 18 year old a fun-ish read. Elizabeth and Darcy pop-in enough so you know that they are there, but have little to do within the overall narrative beyond introducing plot points.

You could do worse when reading a book based of Austen's work.

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Review: Romancing the Werewolf

Romancing the Werewolf by Gail Carriger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You can read this novella if you haven't read any of the Parasol books, however, you won't get most of the jokes, you'll have very little idea what's going on, and the bit about the Wicker Chicken will fly over your head. But you know, it is possible to read it much like it's possible to wear a hat made entirely of cheese and assorted baked good. You do you.

That being said, this book is the long awaited reunion of Buffy and Lyall, a couple I am highly invested in. which, might be one of the reasons that I found this book good, but not fainting couch good. The length of a novella might not have been the best place to delve into the relationship of these two. I'm hoping that there will be a bit more fleshing out of Lyall's time away from pack with the 3rd Custard Protocol book that will fill in some of the holes and emotional aspect.

However, it is a fun little holiday story that introduces a character of two that I am hoping to see later on *CoughRobinCough* even though it doesn't have quite the emotional payoff one had hoped for the reunion. It also lays out some of the difficulties that Buffy is facing with the pack, which hopefully we will be able to see more of later on.

Fast read, took me less than three hours, and has some great call-backs for those who are well antiquated with the rest of the series. Looking forward to the novella for Channing, the guy is a bastard, but a big old softy...a crusty marshmallow if you will.

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