Bathwater - No Doubt

Dreaming of Mr. Darcy
Austen Addicts, Book 2

Author: Victoria Connelly
Pages: 351
ARC Acquired from: Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Having lost her mother and a good friend in a short span of time, Kay is done with Hertfordshire, home of her favorite hero, Mr. Darcy. Now, everything's coming up Wentworth. She moves to Lyme Regis and purchases a lovely B&B, conveniently named after Wentworth. Even better, her first guests, who show up before she's even opened the place, are the main cast and crew for a new film adaptation of Persuasion, including the swoon-inducing Oli Wade Owens, playing Captain Wentworth. Unfortunately, heroes aren't always what you expect them to be.

Review:
Kay is a full-blown Austen fanatic. I have it pretty bad myself, thus the reading every spinoff I can get my hands on, but she's worse than me. Thus far, I have managed to avoid owning multiple copies of each of her books just because I love the different covers. Anyway, with this in common, along with a tendency to daydream and romantic expectations set way too high because of our dear Jane, I had every expectation to like Kay. And I did, initially. However, after a pretty short while, she pissed me right the hell off.

Why? Because she's so stupid. I get that she's swooning over Mr. Sexy Movie Star and all, but who would ever be interested in him after hearing about all of his conquests, and even having seen him leave someone's room in the morning. How can you convince yourself there's true love involved after that? She just jumps from one thing to another because she can't bear to be alone. Kay should see a shrink, because her behavior is not healthy.

Okay, rant over. As Jane Austen spinoffs go, I thought this was a pretty good one. It's light and fun with a nice ensemble of characters. I particularly liked Gemma, and Adam was a sweetheart. This makes for some good chick lit, whether you're a Jane Austen fan or not. If you aren't though, you will probably be tempted to give her a try afterwards though. Or not, what with all the discussion of how she messes you up for life because you want a man like that. (Speaking of, where is my Henry Tilney?) My main complaint about her writing is an overabundance of the word 'whilst.' This does not make you sound Austen-esque, and I really don't think Brits say that word constantly. Seriously, all the time.

Also, I would really love to watch the adaptation they made in the movie. There are two already that I have seen, but neither has quite captured the novel for me.

Rating: 3.5/5

"So why do we choose the boys that are naughty?
I don't fit in so why do you want me?
And I know I can't tame you...but I just keep trying"