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Mr. Darcy's Vow
I shall never be like him.
Marrying a penniless girl would be irresponsible and selfish. He was Fitzwilliam Darcy. He would not break his vow, not even to marry the woman he loved...
Darcy’s father had been reckless, self indulgent, and extravagant. He sold part of the ancient holdings and left the estates with vast debts. Despite years of effort, Darcy still owed a huge sum. Then Georgiana eloped with Wickham, and Darcy needed to borrow thirty thousand more for her dowry.
Elizabeth was perfect. Beautiful, clever, wise, and sweet. She loved him and wanted him as much as he desired her. But he needed to marry a rich woman. A woman like Bingley’s sister.
Marrying a penniless girl would be irresponsible and selfish. He was Fitzwilliam Darcy. He would not break his vow, not even to marry the woman he loved...
Darcy’s father had been reckless, self indulgent, and extravagant. He sold part of the ancient holdings and left the estates with vast debts. Despite years of effort, Darcy still owed a huge sum. Then Georgiana eloped with Wickham, and Darcy needed to borrow thirty thousand more for her dowry.
Elizabeth was perfect. Beautiful, clever, wise, and sweet. She loved him and wanted him as much as he desired her. But he needed to marry a rich woman. A woman like Bingley’s sister.
- GenresHistoricalRomance
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 20, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 5, 2016
In my opinion this Fitzwilliam Darcy has much deeper hang-ups about his position and his honor than in canon. As you may read in the book description and even in the Sample: Darcy’s father has many traits in common with George Wickham: gambling, whoring and racing across the countryside on horses being the primary bond between them. But the senior Mr. Darcy also spends on art, furniture, knick-knacks, wine, tapestries, etc. (a la Catherine de Bourgh) simply because this is his view of how a person of his class should live. Pleas from his son, even the example his son sets in depriving himself of fine housing and clothing while at university, are scorned. Then he dies while racing GW on horseback across a snowy field.
Wickham weeps at the funeral but he then has the audacity to approach Darcy demanding to know what was left him in the will. He sits outside the door while the will is read. When refused £10,000 for the value of the living at Kympton and offered only £3,000 he vows revenge. Darcy has learned the estate owes one hundred seven thousand pounds sterling plus has the lien of £30,000 owed for her dowry when Georgiana gets married. Darcy makes a vow to himself, “I swear to God I will be nothing like you.” and this premise turns the man into a self-denying, penny pinching, lonely recluse. He sells off anything of value in the house, lays off what staff he can (after seeing that they secure positions elsewhere), wears clothing until the knees and elbows appear shiny and takes the Post Chaise to and from town, etc.
(I don’t know about you but my heart was aching and my being in a deep melancholy mood by this point.) But to top it all off, Georgiana is rather like the Lydia we know in canon. She resents her limited allowance, even the limits in her wardrobe and has no problem whining about it. Five years after the death of George Darcy his son has managed by all his cost cutting measures to make a dent in the debt but he also sees many more years of deprivation on his part to finalize this need. Then the bottom drops out. He gets a letter from Georgiana that she has married in Gretna Green and along with that letter is a note from George Wickham. “I win, brother, pay up.” (Don’t you just want to howl?) The final insult is that Wickham refuses to allow Darcy any communication with his sister. Darcy visits friends, his uncle and his bank to scrape together the dowry and pays it.
Darcy’s only friend, besides the good colonel, is Charles Bingley. This Bingley is a stronger and more decisive version of the man we know from P&P. He is the one to console Darcy and even the one to help him when the above financial crisis hits. So he persuades Darcy to take some time from all his duties and join Bingley at the newly leased Netherfield. And so ODC meets. “The insult” occurs at the assembly dance but Darcy does realize his blunder and apologize. Caroline Bingley is, despite the rumors of bankruptcy, determined to have Darcy - whispering in his ear how she admires his attention to taking care of business but in her own mind determines that things will change when he marries her. Elizabeth learns everything she can about this man as she is sure that there must be reasons for his despondent mien in company.
So they do fall in love, but she “understands” and even pushes him to marry well as the story goes on. He is “damned if I do, and damned if I don’t” over and over again. (Katy Perry’s “You change your mind like a girl changes clothes” came to mind.) Here it became almost tedious: she admires him and he admires her but they both “accept” their fate. However: at one pivotal point Elizabeth comes to realize that love should conquer all. She begs, and even circumvents proprieties and kisses him. (The latter fact comes to Mr. Bennet’s attention and there is a confrontation.) Darcy walks away; he will not be his father, giving into his desires over the estates’ needs.
The Elizabeth in this story does have the ability to “tell off” those getting in her face or acting against Darcy’s interests: Wickham, Lord Matlock and Lady Catherine, etc. Late in the novel we read, “Matlock laughed. “Your Miss Bennet can defend herself — You should’ve seen her light into me and Cathy. It was extraordinary. What a woman. Darcy, if you are fool enough to let her go, I’ll go after her. Don’t doubt it.”
There is much more to this story but you must read it. I was wound tight wanting happiness for Darcy (and Elizabeth) but seeing it denied by circumstances, by family, by acquaintances but most of all by Darcy's own determination not to be his father.
Wickham weeps at the funeral but he then has the audacity to approach Darcy demanding to know what was left him in the will. He sits outside the door while the will is read. When refused £10,000 for the value of the living at Kympton and offered only £3,000 he vows revenge. Darcy has learned the estate owes one hundred seven thousand pounds sterling plus has the lien of £30,000 owed for her dowry when Georgiana gets married. Darcy makes a vow to himself, “I swear to God I will be nothing like you.” and this premise turns the man into a self-denying, penny pinching, lonely recluse. He sells off anything of value in the house, lays off what staff he can (after seeing that they secure positions elsewhere), wears clothing until the knees and elbows appear shiny and takes the Post Chaise to and from town, etc.
(I don’t know about you but my heart was aching and my being in a deep melancholy mood by this point.) But to top it all off, Georgiana is rather like the Lydia we know in canon. She resents her limited allowance, even the limits in her wardrobe and has no problem whining about it. Five years after the death of George Darcy his son has managed by all his cost cutting measures to make a dent in the debt but he also sees many more years of deprivation on his part to finalize this need. Then the bottom drops out. He gets a letter from Georgiana that she has married in Gretna Green and along with that letter is a note from George Wickham. “I win, brother, pay up.” (Don’t you just want to howl?) The final insult is that Wickham refuses to allow Darcy any communication with his sister. Darcy visits friends, his uncle and his bank to scrape together the dowry and pays it.
Darcy’s only friend, besides the good colonel, is Charles Bingley. This Bingley is a stronger and more decisive version of the man we know from P&P. He is the one to console Darcy and even the one to help him when the above financial crisis hits. So he persuades Darcy to take some time from all his duties and join Bingley at the newly leased Netherfield. And so ODC meets. “The insult” occurs at the assembly dance but Darcy does realize his blunder and apologize. Caroline Bingley is, despite the rumors of bankruptcy, determined to have Darcy - whispering in his ear how she admires his attention to taking care of business but in her own mind determines that things will change when he marries her. Elizabeth learns everything she can about this man as she is sure that there must be reasons for his despondent mien in company.
So they do fall in love, but she “understands” and even pushes him to marry well as the story goes on. He is “damned if I do, and damned if I don’t” over and over again. (Katy Perry’s “You change your mind like a girl changes clothes” came to mind.) Here it became almost tedious: she admires him and he admires her but they both “accept” their fate. However: at one pivotal point Elizabeth comes to realize that love should conquer all. She begs, and even circumvents proprieties and kisses him. (The latter fact comes to Mr. Bennet’s attention and there is a confrontation.) Darcy walks away; he will not be his father, giving into his desires over the estates’ needs.
The Elizabeth in this story does have the ability to “tell off” those getting in her face or acting against Darcy’s interests: Wickham, Lord Matlock and Lady Catherine, etc. Late in the novel we read, “Matlock laughed. “Your Miss Bennet can defend herself — You should’ve seen her light into me and Cathy. It was extraordinary. What a woman. Darcy, if you are fool enough to let her go, I’ll go after her. Don’t doubt it.”
There is much more to this story but you must read it. I was wound tight wanting happiness for Darcy (and Elizabeth) but seeing it denied by circumstances, by family, by acquaintances but most of all by Darcy's own determination not to be his father.
April 28, 2016
What a fascinating premise! The senior Mr. Darcy, instead of being a responsible, noble father for his son to look up to, instead has accrued enormous debt. Along with having an inflated sense of entitlement that caused him to overspend frivolously, he has gambled excessively, which has been the basis of his bond with George Wickham. The relationship with his more responsible son at the time of his death is strained, to say the least.
His death leaves Fitzwilliam Darcy with the burden of trying to save the estate. The younger Mr. Darcy is determined to set a different path, and he cuts all nonessential costs to the bone while still taking proper care of his tenants and employees. His drastic measures become known to the rest of the ton, who now mostly hold him in disdain for his father's disgrace. Unfortunately, within a few chapters, Georgiana adds to Darcy's woes by creating a scandal that has serious repercussions for him, both financial and social.
By the time Darcy comes to the Meryfield assembly with Mr. Bingley, one of the few friends who has stood by him, he is a subject of general scorn and disdain. His taciturn disposition doesn't help matters with the locals. Elizabeth Bennet refuses to judge him based on the behavior of his father and sister and instead views him with compassion, but she overhears his infamous insult when Bingley suggests that Darcy dance with her.
This is a marvelous beginning, but I believe the story gets off track from there. As much as I admire the decisive Mr. Darcy in the early chapters, doing what he knows he must even though it's painful, he is exasperatingly wishy-washy when it comes to Elizabeth throughout most of the book. I lost count of the number of times he pulled closer to her and then ran away, then back again, then away again, etc, etc., with no real motivation besides his own thoughts drifting back-and-forth. I understand the concept of a book using "man versus himself" as the primary conflict, but it doesn't feel like it works here. Darcy believes marrying anyone other than a well-dowered heiress would turn him into his father, since he would not be serving the best interests of the estate and instead be following his own desires. He even considers marrying Miss Bingley despite all the evidence that she'd never put up with his economizing. By the time he finally realizes that Elizabeth is the correct choice, she refuses to marry him. It's not that she doesn't love him, but she loves him so much that she encourages him to marry an heiress to save Pemberley. By that time, I was aggravated with them both.
I'm not certain of where the exact climax is supposed to be, as first Darcy "decides" he will marry her, and later he "commits" to marrying her. I'm not certain what the difference is supposed to be, but apparently Elizabeth can sense it and responds to the "lightness" in his manner the final time.
I was also disappointed that I found editing and grammatical errors. I believe Mr. Underwood's previous two books were comparatively free of those, so it was a surprise to note them here.
The idea of Darcy rumored to be on the brink of bankruptcy is marvelous, and the book does have some really wonderful scenes. I particularly enjoyed where the story moved to Kent and things progressed to Elizabeth unloading on Lord Matlock and Lady Catherine. There are plenty of nice romantic moments, too. It's just hard to read Darcy figuratively shooting himself in the foot over and over and over again with no apparent change in his circumstances to cause it.
His death leaves Fitzwilliam Darcy with the burden of trying to save the estate. The younger Mr. Darcy is determined to set a different path, and he cuts all nonessential costs to the bone while still taking proper care of his tenants and employees. His drastic measures become known to the rest of the ton, who now mostly hold him in disdain for his father's disgrace. Unfortunately, within a few chapters, Georgiana adds to Darcy's woes by creating a scandal that has serious repercussions for him, both financial and social.
By the time Darcy comes to the Meryfield assembly with Mr. Bingley, one of the few friends who has stood by him, he is a subject of general scorn and disdain. His taciturn disposition doesn't help matters with the locals. Elizabeth Bennet refuses to judge him based on the behavior of his father and sister and instead views him with compassion, but she overhears his infamous insult when Bingley suggests that Darcy dance with her.
This is a marvelous beginning, but I believe the story gets off track from there. As much as I admire the decisive Mr. Darcy in the early chapters, doing what he knows he must even though it's painful, he is exasperatingly wishy-washy when it comes to Elizabeth throughout most of the book. I lost count of the number of times he pulled closer to her and then ran away, then back again, then away again, etc, etc., with no real motivation besides his own thoughts drifting back-and-forth. I understand the concept of a book using "man versus himself" as the primary conflict, but it doesn't feel like it works here. Darcy believes marrying anyone other than a well-dowered heiress would turn him into his father, since he would not be serving the best interests of the estate and instead be following his own desires. He even considers marrying Miss Bingley despite all the evidence that she'd never put up with his economizing. By the time he finally realizes that Elizabeth is the correct choice, she refuses to marry him. It's not that she doesn't love him, but she loves him so much that she encourages him to marry an heiress to save Pemberley. By that time, I was aggravated with them both.
I'm not certain of where the exact climax is supposed to be, as first Darcy "decides" he will marry her, and later he "commits" to marrying her. I'm not certain what the difference is supposed to be, but apparently Elizabeth can sense it and responds to the "lightness" in his manner the final time.
I was also disappointed that I found editing and grammatical errors. I believe Mr. Underwood's previous two books were comparatively free of those, so it was a surprise to note them here.
The idea of Darcy rumored to be on the brink of bankruptcy is marvelous, and the book does have some really wonderful scenes. I particularly enjoyed where the story moved to Kent and things progressed to Elizabeth unloading on Lord Matlock and Lady Catherine. There are plenty of nice romantic moments, too. It's just hard to read Darcy figuratively shooting himself in the foot over and over and over again with no apparent change in his circumstances to cause it.
August 29, 2016
This variation of Pride and Prejudice is based on Darcy's father running up tens of thousands in debts and when he dies Darcy vows to pay it back and not be like his father.
This leads us to his meeting of Elizabeth, which despite some bumps, goes better than the original meeting. Most of the story is a battle between Darcy and Elizabeth as well as Darcy and Elizabeth's own feelings between Darcy's duty to his estate and their feelings for each other.
It's a good story, a concept I've not yet read for a P&P variation. My only issue is with some of the characterization of Elizabeth. at times she's almost like Lydia in the original. While the Lizzy we know in the original is vibrant.
This leads us to his meeting of Elizabeth, which despite some bumps, goes better than the original meeting. Most of the story is a battle between Darcy and Elizabeth as well as Darcy and Elizabeth's own feelings between Darcy's duty to his estate and their feelings for each other.
It's a good story, a concept I've not yet read for a P&P variation. My only issue is with some of the characterization of Elizabeth. at times she's almost like Lydia in the original. While the Lizzy we know in the original is vibrant.
May 25, 2016
A very interesting premise of Darcy being in serious debt due to his father's overspending. In addition, he does not go to Ramsgate and Wickham is successful in his elopement with Georgiana. When Darcy arrives in Meryton, he is worried about money, unsure where Georgiana is with Wickham, and has just paid out her dowry of 30 thousand pounds through a loan from Bingley.
Although the premise is interesting, I am not sure it was successful as a story. This Darcy is less admirable than the original, although he is trying desperately to live up to his vow that he will not be like his father who wasted money, kept a mistress, and brought Pemberley to its knees financially. Darcy appears to stubbornly stick to the letter of this vow while not at all recognizing when it is hurting his own self-interest, not to mention that of Elizabeth. He continually attempts to stay a "rational man" and not let his emotions run away with him. From my perspective, he is very irrationally sticking to a vow. At one point he reminds himself he has an adequate income to marry anyone he chooses, even if a good portion of his income is still going to pay off the huge debt. He keeps telling himself over, and over, and over, that he must marry an heiress or his uncle Matlock will stop lending him money when he knows, and Bingley tells him, his uncle would not abandon him. He seems to believe he is being selfish and like his father to choose to marry a woman he loves. More troubling, however, is his ability to flip back and forth between wanting to marry Elizabeth (and demonstrating his love to her, so she and everyone around knows) and determining he cannot have her (hurting her and himself each time). He just seems like such a stubborn idiot over and over.
I also found little to admire in Elizabeth. She appears to be a loose cannon, letting her mouth go off pretty much wherever she is regardless of possible consequences to herself or to others. It is not only that what she says is improper, it is that it is not smart to attack people verbally when she doesn't know what they are capable of.
I really enjoyed The Return written by Underwood, but found the writing style in Mr. Darcy's Vow to be stiff and less descriptive. There was not a lot of emotion or a sense of place. The book is okay, but nothing to recommend to others.
Although the premise is interesting, I am not sure it was successful as a story. This Darcy is less admirable than the original, although he is trying desperately to live up to his vow that he will not be like his father who wasted money, kept a mistress, and brought Pemberley to its knees financially. Darcy appears to stubbornly stick to the letter of this vow while not at all recognizing when it is hurting his own self-interest, not to mention that of Elizabeth. He continually attempts to stay a "rational man" and not let his emotions run away with him. From my perspective, he is very irrationally sticking to a vow. At one point he reminds himself he has an adequate income to marry anyone he chooses, even if a good portion of his income is still going to pay off the huge debt. He keeps telling himself over, and over, and over, that he must marry an heiress or his uncle Matlock will stop lending him money when he knows, and Bingley tells him, his uncle would not abandon him. He seems to believe he is being selfish and like his father to choose to marry a woman he loves. More troubling, however, is his ability to flip back and forth between wanting to marry Elizabeth (and demonstrating his love to her, so she and everyone around knows) and determining he cannot have her (hurting her and himself each time). He just seems like such a stubborn idiot over and over.
I also found little to admire in Elizabeth. She appears to be a loose cannon, letting her mouth go off pretty much wherever she is regardless of possible consequences to herself or to others. It is not only that what she says is improper, it is that it is not smart to attack people verbally when she doesn't know what they are capable of.
I really enjoyed The Return written by Underwood, but found the writing style in Mr. Darcy's Vow to be stiff and less descriptive. There was not a lot of emotion or a sense of place. The book is okay, but nothing to recommend to others.
November 20, 2022
He can be really obstinate
Darcy's father inherited him a mountain of debt and his sister complicated the situation. This is a story of a love against the odds. Gripping and incredibly romantic.
Darcy's father inherited him a mountain of debt and his sister complicated the situation. This is a story of a love against the odds. Gripping and incredibly romantic.
May 4, 2016
There are Pride and Prejudice variations, Pride and Prejudice sequels, Pride and Prejudice what ifs and then there are Pride and Prejudice WTFs. This book definitely falls into the last category.
The author takes about 1/2 of Pride and Prejudice and stands it on it's ear. Now parts of that are amazing. I would say about 3/5's of the book is 5 star. But it is that last 2/5th that is not so good.
The New: Darcy's father wasn't the great, responsible, best landowner and father. He was a spoiled, self-indulgent a-hole who overspent his income and considered his sensible son- boring. Dying following a midnight winter evening horse race with Wickham.
And Georgiana isn't the sweet, shy darling girl; but rather a greedy, spoiled, snotty child who resents having to live below the style upon which she is accustomed when her father's passing leaves her brother facing £90,000 in debts. [£3,056,400 in today's money http://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_wou...] So when she is sent to Ramsgate with her companion she runs off and marries Wickham over the anvil.
This financial setback and the need to payout Georgie's mind blowing dowry puts Darcy right back where he was when his father died; £90,000 in debt - five years of hard work and deprivation wasted.
It is a poorer, rumored to be bankrupt, brother to a scandalized woman, Mr. Darcy who appears at the Meryton Assembly in the company of his good friend Charles Bingley. And still he manages to offend Lizzy Bennet with his famed line "Tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me"
This Lizzy is slightly less judgemental and refrains from sharing her insult with the whole town. and this Darcy does apologize upon their next meeting.
This Darcy is kind of a hot mess; still ingrained with his disdain for the lower classes, yet really not above them. He wears shabby clothes and rides the Post chaise. He does however have a valet [which seemed strange to me ].
Once he realizes his attraction to Elizabeth Bennet he struggles with his obligation to marry well and get out from under his debts; which are precarious and can be called it at any time, and his desire to be happy. He tells her so much at Netherfield. But then he loves her, he must live up to his standards, he loves her, he must live up to his standards, he loves her, he must live up to his standards, etc.
Eventually he determines no matter what his heart feels he duty is to Pemberley and only Pemberley and he dumps her. The End ... no not the end but this is where the book and I parted ways.
First Mr. Bennet turns into a lunatic; then Lizzy meets Georgiana Wickham and her husband. I started to feel like the author didn't like this part of the story and it shows in the writing. The language becomes strangely modern, as do the behaviors of some characters. Lizzy becomes almost bi-polar and Darcy suddenly has time to stalk her around the country. There is a side story line with Anne that is really unnecessary. I got to the point where I was like both of them have had this bout of mental gymnastics at least twice - can't we just move it along.
The end features an epilogue that is totally unnecessary and filler like.
The author takes about 1/2 of Pride and Prejudice and stands it on it's ear. Now parts of that are amazing. I would say about 3/5's of the book is 5 star. But it is that last 2/5th that is not so good.
The New: Darcy's father wasn't the great, responsible, best landowner and father. He was a spoiled, self-indulgent a-hole who overspent his income and considered his sensible son- boring. Dying following a midnight winter evening horse race with Wickham.
And Georgiana isn't the sweet, shy darling girl; but rather a greedy, spoiled, snotty child who resents having to live below the style upon which she is accustomed when her father's passing leaves her brother facing £90,000 in debts. [£3,056,400 in today's money http://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_wou...] So when she is sent to Ramsgate with her companion she runs off and marries Wickham over the anvil.
This financial setback and the need to payout Georgie's mind blowing dowry puts Darcy right back where he was when his father died; £90,000 in debt - five years of hard work and deprivation wasted.
It is a poorer, rumored to be bankrupt, brother to a scandalized woman, Mr. Darcy who appears at the Meryton Assembly in the company of his good friend Charles Bingley. And still he manages to offend Lizzy Bennet with his famed line "Tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me"
This Lizzy is slightly less judgemental and refrains from sharing her insult with the whole town. and this Darcy does apologize upon their next meeting.
This Darcy is kind of a hot mess; still ingrained with his disdain for the lower classes, yet really not above them. He wears shabby clothes and rides the Post chaise. He does however have a valet [which seemed strange to me ].
Once he realizes his attraction to Elizabeth Bennet he struggles with his obligation to marry well and get out from under his debts; which are precarious and can be called it at any time, and his desire to be happy. He tells her so much at Netherfield. But then he loves her, he must live up to his standards, he loves her, he must live up to his standards, he loves her, he must live up to his standards, etc.
Eventually he determines no matter what his heart feels he duty is to Pemberley and only Pemberley and he dumps her. The End ... no not the end but this is where the book and I parted ways.
First Mr. Bennet turns into a lunatic; then Lizzy meets Georgiana Wickham and her husband. I started to feel like the author didn't like this part of the story and it shows in the writing. The language becomes strangely modern, as do the behaviors of some characters. Lizzy becomes almost bi-polar and Darcy suddenly has time to stalk her around the country. There is a side story line with Anne that is really unnecessary. I got to the point where I was like both of them have had this bout of mental gymnastics at least twice - can't we just move it along.
The end features an epilogue that is totally unnecessary and filler like.
March 13, 2017
Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors -- African proverb
Poor Darcy!
A sad tale to be sure -- Darcy is not poor in every way (Caroline still wants him after all). His income is still outstanding but his inherited debts are tremendous and on top of this Georgiana runs away with Wickham who demands immediate payment of her dowry even though he knows Darcy has no cash reserves!
It did seem odd that no one mentions that Wickham would gain control of Pemberly in the case of Darcy's death since Darcy doesn't have children. Darcy and the Matlocks should be very concerned.
Since Elizabeth agrees to live "on the cheap" why would Darcy think he can't marry? A wife and children would cost less than what he was paying to support Georgiana before her elopement. And Pemberley would be safe -- a strong inducement indeed!
After posting this on Amazon, I got a response from the author:
Thanks for the review
The estate isn't entailed, which is the cause of the entire problem in the story really. That means Darcy is free to dispose of the estate however he wishes in his will. The only way that Wickham as the husband of Darcy's nearest relation would get it is if Darcy didn't have a will. I never thought about what would be in Darcy's will, but you can be absolutely confident Wickham would never be able to get control of the principal.
It is always useful to find out about little bits of information which aren't automatically understood. For example in my initial draft of the book almost all of my beta readers were confused by why Darcy (both in my story, and in the original novel) was willing to give Wickham any money for the living. The reason of course was that his father's will gave Wickham the right to the living, so to permanently get rid of Wickham, Darcy had to buy it off of him.
Poor Darcy!
A sad tale to be sure -- Darcy is not poor in every way (Caroline still wants him after all). His income is still outstanding but his inherited debts are tremendous and on top of this Georgiana runs away with Wickham who demands immediate payment of her dowry even though he knows Darcy has no cash reserves!
It did seem odd that no one mentions that Wickham would gain control of Pemberly in the case of Darcy's death since Darcy doesn't have children. Darcy and the Matlocks should be very concerned.
Since Elizabeth agrees to live "on the cheap" why would Darcy think he can't marry? A wife and children would cost less than what he was paying to support Georgiana before her elopement. And Pemberley would be safe -- a strong inducement indeed!
After posting this on Amazon, I got a response from the author:
Thanks for the review
The estate isn't entailed, which is the cause of the entire problem in the story really. That means Darcy is free to dispose of the estate however he wishes in his will. The only way that Wickham as the husband of Darcy's nearest relation would get it is if Darcy didn't have a will. I never thought about what would be in Darcy's will, but you can be absolutely confident Wickham would never be able to get control of the principal.
It is always useful to find out about little bits of information which aren't automatically understood. For example in my initial draft of the book almost all of my beta readers were confused by why Darcy (both in my story, and in the original novel) was willing to give Wickham any money for the living. The reason of course was that his father's will gave Wickham the right to the living, so to permanently get rid of Wickham, Darcy had to buy it off of him.
June 5, 2023
I've said when authors have had many errors in their works that even a very good story cannot get more than three stars from me with a lot of technical errors, and I'm sticking to that statement. Horrible head-hopping, record-breaking use of contractions for a JAFF novel, and a length that comes from redundancy will change a good plot and excellent prose into an annoying novel.
I write technical reviews that don't have a synopsis or much subjective analysis, just a check of those symptoms that cause readers to drop stars, yet are not mentioned by most reviewers.
- The plot concept was a good one, but the story arc could have been completed much sooner had it not been for redundancy of the concept of Darcy's navel-gazing on his perceived flaws and Elizabeth's parallel whining on her issues.
- The flow tended to be on the slow side, partly due to said redundancies as well as introspective passages.
- Angst was on the average side considering the subject matter, but the tension ramped up to high on several occasions when challenges were offered for the couple regarding the possibility of their getting together (no details here to spoil the read).
- Point of view was third person multiple with alternating point of view with no proper delineation or separation of the sections where the point of view character changed. In fact, the point of view character changed within paragraphs at times, and frequently, it was difficult to discern whose head we were in, definitely requiring re-reading for dozens of locations. It was one of the worst examples of head-hopping I've read in a long time.
- Some telling language was used, with a few filter words, where showing language would be preferred.
- The book had nice prose with slightly above average utilization of non-Regency words and modern phrases (ten) and Americanisms (seven), and there were eight occasions where the wrong word was used, also above average for a JAFF novel. However, most JAFF novels have under five contractions, and those are usually given to lower class or silly people like Austen used them. In this book, I was distracted from the era by contractions no less than 86 times (and those were only the ones I noted). This is a record for my reading of JAFF, and it smacks of either a very amateur author (where most of the rest of the writing save the head hopping does not) or a very lazy author who was too cheap to get a good editor. Shame on you, Timothy Underwood. It's your book that makes the rest of self-published JAFF get painted with the brush of poor editing when most other JAFF authors hire decent editors to get a good to excellent product.
- The errors went on to punctuation, where no less than 15 blatant errors were detected, and I'm no punctuation expert--a proofreader might be able to find more.
- Little errors in writing and history also put the reader off, such as the protagonist being unable to see herself blush, or a Regency error like Lady Catherine being called "Cathy." That would never happen--it's insulting. In the Regency, only peers can obtain special licenses, and it took a week even if the groom was in a rush. Parliament took specific breaks such as Easter, not willy-nilly days off as the book seemed to decide. The author should have consulted Hansard for break times that Season.
- Excellent scene-setting was sprinkled throughout the book, and not merely as introductory scenes or descriptive breaks, but throughout. The author definitely is gifted in keeping the minds of the reader filled with a picture of what's happening for the characters. The prose quality and descriptions lead to a great atmosphere.
- At the outset of the novel, the characterization was excellent, but that of the protagonists deteriorated to caricature-ish later in the story, where Darcy was far too obsessed over a single issue and Elizabeth was too whiny and dependent on Darcy. Although these were characteristics that Austen used for these two characters in places in P&P, in my opinion, they were overdone near the end of this novel.
- Dialogue was well done without too many inappropriate tags.
- The romance development was paced appropriately, showing us the heart of each protagonist, and making it clear that they were in love at a fairly early point in the book, yet not too soon, but using obstacles to break the completion of the romance and add to the dramatic tension.
- I don't care for the cover quality. The subject material is good since it shows the story, but the focus is out on the man, and the images look pasted together. The colour is drab as well. The man in the image looks depressed, which is off-putting even if it shows the story. Those aspects of this book won't stand out at all among all those other covers that Pop and say "Buy me." The fonts are well done and the scale is good for an Amazon thumbnail.
Under all those technical errors and the redundancy, this is a quite a good story. The author definitely has some strong skills in prose with evocative descriptive sections that are better than average, but that doesn't make for a great book if paired with amateurish words or style that knock the reader out of the era at a rate of one every few pages. I do hope the author pays attention to the head-hopping especially and gets a good editor for the other issues because his books have potential to be great.
Disclaimer: I'm a JAFF author, and some might say this review is a conflict of interest. However, I was a reader first, and I my reviews are honest and impartial. I write them for both the reader and the author.
I write technical reviews that don't have a synopsis or much subjective analysis, just a check of those symptoms that cause readers to drop stars, yet are not mentioned by most reviewers.
- The plot concept was a good one, but the story arc could have been completed much sooner had it not been for redundancy of the concept of Darcy's navel-gazing on his perceived flaws and Elizabeth's parallel whining on her issues.
- The flow tended to be on the slow side, partly due to said redundancies as well as introspective passages.
- Angst was on the average side considering the subject matter, but the tension ramped up to high on several occasions when challenges were offered for the couple regarding the possibility of their getting together (no details here to spoil the read).
- Point of view was third person multiple with alternating point of view with no proper delineation or separation of the sections where the point of view character changed. In fact, the point of view character changed within paragraphs at times, and frequently, it was difficult to discern whose head we were in, definitely requiring re-reading for dozens of locations. It was one of the worst examples of head-hopping I've read in a long time.
- Some telling language was used, with a few filter words, where showing language would be preferred.
- The book had nice prose with slightly above average utilization of non-Regency words and modern phrases (ten) and Americanisms (seven), and there were eight occasions where the wrong word was used, also above average for a JAFF novel. However, most JAFF novels have under five contractions, and those are usually given to lower class or silly people like Austen used them. In this book, I was distracted from the era by contractions no less than 86 times (and those were only the ones I noted). This is a record for my reading of JAFF, and it smacks of either a very amateur author (where most of the rest of the writing save the head hopping does not) or a very lazy author who was too cheap to get a good editor. Shame on you, Timothy Underwood. It's your book that makes the rest of self-published JAFF get painted with the brush of poor editing when most other JAFF authors hire decent editors to get a good to excellent product.
- The errors went on to punctuation, where no less than 15 blatant errors were detected, and I'm no punctuation expert--a proofreader might be able to find more.
- Little errors in writing and history also put the reader off, such as the protagonist being unable to see herself blush, or a Regency error like Lady Catherine being called "Cathy." That would never happen--it's insulting. In the Regency, only peers can obtain special licenses, and it took a week even if the groom was in a rush. Parliament took specific breaks such as Easter, not willy-nilly days off as the book seemed to decide. The author should have consulted Hansard for break times that Season.
- Excellent scene-setting was sprinkled throughout the book, and not merely as introductory scenes or descriptive breaks, but throughout. The author definitely is gifted in keeping the minds of the reader filled with a picture of what's happening for the characters. The prose quality and descriptions lead to a great atmosphere.
- At the outset of the novel, the characterization was excellent, but that of the protagonists deteriorated to caricature-ish later in the story, where Darcy was far too obsessed over a single issue and Elizabeth was too whiny and dependent on Darcy. Although these were characteristics that Austen used for these two characters in places in P&P, in my opinion, they were overdone near the end of this novel.
- Dialogue was well done without too many inappropriate tags.
- The romance development was paced appropriately, showing us the heart of each protagonist, and making it clear that they were in love at a fairly early point in the book, yet not too soon, but using obstacles to break the completion of the romance and add to the dramatic tension.
- I don't care for the cover quality. The subject material is good since it shows the story, but the focus is out on the man, and the images look pasted together. The colour is drab as well. The man in the image looks depressed, which is off-putting even if it shows the story. Those aspects of this book won't stand out at all among all those other covers that Pop and say "Buy me." The fonts are well done and the scale is good for an Amazon thumbnail.
Under all those technical errors and the redundancy, this is a quite a good story. The author definitely has some strong skills in prose with evocative descriptive sections that are better than average, but that doesn't make for a great book if paired with amateurish words or style that knock the reader out of the era at a rate of one every few pages. I do hope the author pays attention to the head-hopping especially and gets a good editor for the other issues because his books have potential to be great.
Disclaimer: I'm a JAFF author, and some might say this review is a conflict of interest. However, I was a reader first, and I my reviews are honest and impartial. I write them for both the reader and the author.
January 26, 2018
I loved this novel. Perfect level of angst, romantic and passionate.
Mr Darcy the elder, gambling habits and tast of the good life leaves Pemberley on the brink of bankruptcy when he dies. Darcy must save every penny he can to pay of the vast debts after his father.
When he receives a letter from Scotland that Georgiana has married Mr Wickham and he must pay out the dowry of 30000 his economic misery is complete.
Meeting Elizabeth in Hertfordshire he still delivers the insult but the rumours in the assembly is not of his income but his vast debt and his sisters elopement.
Elizabeth recognize Darcy's torment and falls in love with him as he does with her, but he knows they can never marry because he needs a heiress. Darcy even consider marrying Caroline to pay off debt... Until they kiss in the library. He runs from her but Bingley has surprisingly a lot of backbone in this novel and marries Jane. Darcy comes to Hertfordshire for the wedding with the intention of offering for Elizabeth but backs out when she kisses him in the Netherfield gardens. The kiss is observed by a servant and Elizabeth suffer the derision of Meryton after he leaves for a second time. Mr Bennet is also unimpressed by his daughters antics and tells her off rather violently with some admissions of his own nuptials.
Elizabeth escapes the rumours in Meryton when the Bingleys return from their honeymoon and they journey to Ramsgate.
In Ramsgate Elizabeth meets the now married and pregnant Georgiana. She is the means of reuniting the Darcy siblings and Darcy proposes. Elizabeth however declines because she thinks he would regret marrying her instead of an heiress, believing that Pemberley needs the funds from a dowry. Darcy admitting his economy not being in that dire need of funds only make Elizabeth feel that he has lied to her in the past.
Elizabeth visit Hunsford and Darcy follows. Lady C discover that his economy is better than she feared decide that he should marry Anne, enlisting her brother, the Earl of Matlocks support. A rather impressing climax ensue at the parsonage. Not surprisingly followed by a HEA for ODC.
I read in another review that this is a battle "man versus himself " but it's also a battle between ODC and the world. The author does an excellent job in making the reader feel the anguish and torment both experience.
This novel will tug hard on your heart strings and yet leave you with plenty of sweet, romantic and funny moments. There is a lot of time with ODC which I feared it was not when I read the introduction of the novel...
My only complaint is that I would've loved some more pages on the HEA...
I heartily recommend this novel.
Mr Darcy the elder, gambling habits and tast of the good life leaves Pemberley on the brink of bankruptcy when he dies. Darcy must save every penny he can to pay of the vast debts after his father.
When he receives a letter from Scotland that Georgiana has married Mr Wickham and he must pay out the dowry of 30000 his economic misery is complete.
Meeting Elizabeth in Hertfordshire he still delivers the insult but the rumours in the assembly is not of his income but his vast debt and his sisters elopement.
Elizabeth recognize Darcy's torment and falls in love with him as he does with her, but he knows they can never marry because he needs a heiress. Darcy even consider marrying Caroline to pay off debt... Until they kiss in the library. He runs from her but Bingley has surprisingly a lot of backbone in this novel and marries Jane. Darcy comes to Hertfordshire for the wedding with the intention of offering for Elizabeth but backs out when she kisses him in the Netherfield gardens. The kiss is observed by a servant and Elizabeth suffer the derision of Meryton after he leaves for a second time. Mr Bennet is also unimpressed by his daughters antics and tells her off rather violently with some admissions of his own nuptials.
Elizabeth escapes the rumours in Meryton when the Bingleys return from their honeymoon and they journey to Ramsgate.
In Ramsgate Elizabeth meets the now married and pregnant Georgiana. She is the means of reuniting the Darcy siblings and Darcy proposes. Elizabeth however declines because she thinks he would regret marrying her instead of an heiress, believing that Pemberley needs the funds from a dowry. Darcy admitting his economy not being in that dire need of funds only make Elizabeth feel that he has lied to her in the past.
Elizabeth visit Hunsford and Darcy follows. Lady C discover that his economy is better than she feared decide that he should marry Anne, enlisting her brother, the Earl of Matlocks support. A rather impressing climax ensue at the parsonage. Not surprisingly followed by a HEA for ODC.
I read in another review that this is a battle "man versus himself " but it's also a battle between ODC and the world. The author does an excellent job in making the reader feel the anguish and torment both experience.
This novel will tug hard on your heart strings and yet leave you with plenty of sweet, romantic and funny moments. There is a lot of time with ODC which I feared it was not when I read the introduction of the novel...
My only complaint is that I would've loved some more pages on the HEA...
I heartily recommend this novel.
December 13, 2020
Very Different Darcy and Elizabeth
Darcy’s father dies leaving him with huge debts he is determined to pay. He refuses to be like his father. Georgiana elopes with Wickham, causing her dowry to be added to Darcy’s debt burden. He joins Bingley in Hertfordshire where ODC meet. They fall in love, but Darcy feels he has to marry an heiress to help pay his debt.
I couldn’t seem to warm up to this very indecisive Darcy and such a forward Elizabeth. They, especially Elizabeth, seemed so out of character. Not my favorite by Underwood, who I usually enjoy.
Darcy’s father dies leaving him with huge debts he is determined to pay. He refuses to be like his father. Georgiana elopes with Wickham, causing her dowry to be added to Darcy’s debt burden. He joins Bingley in Hertfordshire where ODC meet. They fall in love, but Darcy feels he has to marry an heiress to help pay his debt.
I couldn’t seem to warm up to this very indecisive Darcy and such a forward Elizabeth. They, especially Elizabeth, seemed so out of character. Not my favorite by Underwood, who I usually enjoy.
August 10, 2016
3.5 stars but I rounded up. What I loved, Mr. Darcy being an impoverished aristocrat. What I didn't like, Mr. Darcy as an indecisive man. He wasn't proud just indecisive. What I hated, the use of the F word and the editing errors. The story line jumped around a bit but in all honesty, it ended up being an enjoyable read.
November 24, 2017
Darcy's father leaves the estate with a massive debt which is not helped when he has to pay out for his sister's dowry. So he must marry a heiress. To pay help pay off the debt and not to seem to act like his father. And so not to marry some penniless lady he meets in Hertfordshire.
An enjoyable story but maybe a bit too much 'yes I can, no I can't'marry Elizabeth'.
An enjoyable story but maybe a bit too much 'yes I can, no I can't'marry Elizabeth'.
May 27, 2016
A Flawed Mr Darcy That Readers Will Love
I remain a fan of Mr Underwood's delightful retellings of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This story only strengthened my love of his writing. It is masterfully plotted, paced and completed. I highly recommend this book.
As always, Darcy is a man of honour, strength, and boundless responsibility for the welfare, faults, and even debts of others. Not the least of whom is his deceased father. He, as in Canon, it's unreservedly fond of Wickham, but there the similarities stop. He is a fop of the highest order.
Elizabeth Bennet is not as orifice as in the original, and she even shoulders the responsibility for others, particularly the Darcy siblings. Bingleys is wonderful, Lady Catherine unchanged, as is Miss Bingley. Wickham, well you will just have to read it to see, but here is a Major character. Most of the other original characters have minor or benign roles.
p.s. To the author, Doctors without Borders received another donation today.
Oh, but there is the Meryton assembly, Netherfield ball, Ramsgate, Hunsford, and Pemberley.
I remain a fan of Mr Underwood's delightful retellings of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This story only strengthened my love of his writing. It is masterfully plotted, paced and completed. I highly recommend this book.
As always, Darcy is a man of honour, strength, and boundless responsibility for the welfare, faults, and even debts of others. Not the least of whom is his deceased father. He, as in Canon, it's unreservedly fond of Wickham, but there the similarities stop. He is a fop of the highest order.
Elizabeth Bennet is not as orifice as in the original, and she even shoulders the responsibility for others, particularly the Darcy siblings. Bingleys is wonderful, Lady Catherine unchanged, as is Miss Bingley. Wickham, well you will just have to read it to see, but here is a Major character. Most of the other original characters have minor or benign roles.
p.s. To the author, Doctors without Borders received another donation today.
Oh, but there is the Meryton assembly, Netherfield ball, Ramsgate, Hunsford, and Pemberley.
May 16, 2016
Darcy's Debt and Deliberations
I enjoyed this variation. And I like the way Mr. Underwood writes. The premise is an interesting one, not often explored. Just negate that line in P&P about how good his parents were ... and then it's off to the races. There are so many deviations from canon that the story is quite fresh compared to so many others, these days. This Bingley makes one believe there's a good basis for the close friendship. The Colonel's role is equal in input to the original and though this Darcy deals with many trials, the author explores his character thoroughly in these strained circumstances and brings forth a realistic portrayal. Only Elizabeth strays furthest from JA's heroine, and comes a bit too close to Jane Bennet at times, but glimpses throughout and eventually, the impertinent Miss Elizabeth shines forth. Could have been a bit edited for length in the middle, and a scene or two of mature content would not have been gratuitous, but all things being equal, a darn fine read. Well worth the donation :)
I enjoyed this variation. And I like the way Mr. Underwood writes. The premise is an interesting one, not often explored. Just negate that line in P&P about how good his parents were ... and then it's off to the races. There are so many deviations from canon that the story is quite fresh compared to so many others, these days. This Bingley makes one believe there's a good basis for the close friendship. The Colonel's role is equal in input to the original and though this Darcy deals with many trials, the author explores his character thoroughly in these strained circumstances and brings forth a realistic portrayal. Only Elizabeth strays furthest from JA's heroine, and comes a bit too close to Jane Bennet at times, but glimpses throughout and eventually, the impertinent Miss Elizabeth shines forth. Could have been a bit edited for length in the middle, and a scene or two of mature content would not have been gratuitous, but all things being equal, a darn fine read. Well worth the donation :)
April 27, 2016
Although Mr. Darcy's internal struggle went on and on, I did really enjoy this book. It took some different and unexpected turns, but of course came to the right conclusion.
January 13, 2017
M.D.. Darcy's Vow: A Pride and Prejudice Story
This story if littered with anything that could go wrong will go wrong. Fitzwilliam Darcy's father was not a sensible man. He believed he was gentleman; therefore, he was allowed to live his life without any thought to his family's heritage, Pemberley. Darcy inherited the estate when his father was killed while racing Wickham, his partner in debauchery. He also inherited upwards of £90000 that his father borrowed from the estate. Darcy's Vow was that he would get the paid off by the time he was in his mid-thirties. To add insult to injury, Georgiana eloped with George Wickham and they want her dowry of £30000. When Lady Catherine finds out that he's broke, he is no longer a candidate to marry Anne. Bingley invites him to Netherfield, to ease his mind over all his troubles. Darcy and Elizabeth are drawn to one another very quickly, but when she hears his tales, she realizes he must marry someone with a hefty dowry. Darcy fights with himself over marrying Caroline for her £20,000 dowry to help pay off his debt, but Elizabeth makes him see how miserably that match would become after debt was accomplished. He leaves Netherfield wishing that Elizabeth had a dowry. Bingley knows that he loves Elizabeth and that Elizabeth loves him. He comes back for Bingley's wedding and he even showed Elizabeth more notice. She confronts him in the garden, tells him that they love one another, but he leaves her again vowing to marry someone with a healthy dowry. They meet again at Hunsford, and Darcy can no longer fight his vows to marry for money. Enter Lady Catherine and Lord Matlock. Matlock informs his sister that Darcy is pulling in £8000/annum so he decides that he is good enough for Anne even though the scandal of Georgiana is still whispered about. He refuses to be pushed into marriage with Anne. Elizabeth argues with Darcy about marriage to Anne, but he will marry no one but her. She lies and tells him that she hates him and will not marry him and let him break the vow he made to himself to save his legacy. He's crushed, and she's angry not at him, but his aunt and uncle. When she arrives at the parsonage, they are waiting for her. Lady Catherine starts in and Elizabeth hurls words back at her. Lady Catherine is lost words and when Matlock stickers, Elizabeth tells him what for also. Back at Rosings, Lady Catherine is fit to be tied, but Matlock tells Darcy if he's going to let her go, he was going to make a move. He repeats often, "What a woman!" He and Elizabeth head for Longbourn. Mr. Bennet has been waiting for this day for a long time. There is a lot of background reading about the Wickhams. Elizabeth is one smart cookie when dealing with Wickham. Georgiana and their children a lot of time at Pemberley. Wickham was too busy gambling, gets in deep trouble, and in the end was welcomed at Pemberley. Anne marries also, and she, her husband and children visit Pemberley too. Lady Catherine sits at Rosings. She never forgave any of her relatives.
This story if littered with anything that could go wrong will go wrong. Fitzwilliam Darcy's father was not a sensible man. He believed he was gentleman; therefore, he was allowed to live his life without any thought to his family's heritage, Pemberley. Darcy inherited the estate when his father was killed while racing Wickham, his partner in debauchery. He also inherited upwards of £90000 that his father borrowed from the estate. Darcy's Vow was that he would get the paid off by the time he was in his mid-thirties. To add insult to injury, Georgiana eloped with George Wickham and they want her dowry of £30000. When Lady Catherine finds out that he's broke, he is no longer a candidate to marry Anne. Bingley invites him to Netherfield, to ease his mind over all his troubles. Darcy and Elizabeth are drawn to one another very quickly, but when she hears his tales, she realizes he must marry someone with a hefty dowry. Darcy fights with himself over marrying Caroline for her £20,000 dowry to help pay off his debt, but Elizabeth makes him see how miserably that match would become after debt was accomplished. He leaves Netherfield wishing that Elizabeth had a dowry. Bingley knows that he loves Elizabeth and that Elizabeth loves him. He comes back for Bingley's wedding and he even showed Elizabeth more notice. She confronts him in the garden, tells him that they love one another, but he leaves her again vowing to marry someone with a healthy dowry. They meet again at Hunsford, and Darcy can no longer fight his vows to marry for money. Enter Lady Catherine and Lord Matlock. Matlock informs his sister that Darcy is pulling in £8000/annum so he decides that he is good enough for Anne even though the scandal of Georgiana is still whispered about. He refuses to be pushed into marriage with Anne. Elizabeth argues with Darcy about marriage to Anne, but he will marry no one but her. She lies and tells him that she hates him and will not marry him and let him break the vow he made to himself to save his legacy. He's crushed, and she's angry not at him, but his aunt and uncle. When she arrives at the parsonage, they are waiting for her. Lady Catherine starts in and Elizabeth hurls words back at her. Lady Catherine is lost words and when Matlock stickers, Elizabeth tells him what for also. Back at Rosings, Lady Catherine is fit to be tied, but Matlock tells Darcy if he's going to let her go, he was going to make a move. He repeats often, "What a woman!" He and Elizabeth head for Longbourn. Mr. Bennet has been waiting for this day for a long time. There is a lot of background reading about the Wickhams. Elizabeth is one smart cookie when dealing with Wickham. Georgiana and their children a lot of time at Pemberley. Wickham was too busy gambling, gets in deep trouble, and in the end was welcomed at Pemberley. Anne marries also, and she, her husband and children visit Pemberley too. Lady Catherine sits at Rosings. She never forgave any of her relatives.
April 19, 2025
This could have been a good story but it was not an easy read. The plot regarding Darcy’s and Lizzy’s on again, off again ‘romance’ dragged on for far too long. It ends up that Darcy has been agonising over a situation that doesn’t truly exist and everyone around him simply follows along without questioning the validity of the circumstances. Everyone looks so foolish. As a reader, I realised that life was actually looking more than manageable after his meeting with the steward, the lawyer and the housekeeper. Everything after that made no sense.
Darcy denying himself basic necessities, like clothing, is ridiculous. His endless sense of doom and gloom becomes irritating. So many situations became so protracted that the ‘VOW’ itself became blurred and nonsensical.
Elizabeth’s part in this laughable. This character who is normally strong and intelligent suddenly behaves like a vacuous twit!
The parts involving Wickham all the way to the end really bothered me! He ends up a reformed man and an ideal husband?????? There was not enough story to support that.
Most of all the grammatical errors and the flood of Americanisms in the book were frustrating. I highlighted all of them and there are many. I will not bother to list them all but I will say that the word “SNUCK” does not belong in these stories. You would have to be a time traveller to use that horrible word in the Georgian or Regency periods of ENGLAND! Grammatical errors are an ongoing issue in Underwood’s books.
Another scene which made me want to scream is the night before Bingley’s wedding where the DRUNK men set up a ‘target’ on the grounds of Netherfield and have target practice with real guns loaded and reloaded by servants!!! THEN as a toast to the wedding, bride or whatever, they all fire their pistols into the air! This all happens late at night while their female guests are sleeping inside!!!!!! Were they pretending to be cowboys??????? OMG
Darcy denying himself basic necessities, like clothing, is ridiculous. His endless sense of doom and gloom becomes irritating. So many situations became so protracted that the ‘VOW’ itself became blurred and nonsensical.
Elizabeth’s part in this laughable. This character who is normally strong and intelligent suddenly behaves like a vacuous twit!
The parts involving Wickham all the way to the end really bothered me! He ends up a reformed man and an ideal husband?????? There was not enough story to support that.
Most of all the grammatical errors and the flood of Americanisms in the book were frustrating. I highlighted all of them and there are many. I will not bother to list them all but I will say that the word “SNUCK” does not belong in these stories. You would have to be a time traveller to use that horrible word in the Georgian or Regency periods of ENGLAND! Grammatical errors are an ongoing issue in Underwood’s books.
Another scene which made me want to scream is the night before Bingley’s wedding where the DRUNK men set up a ‘target’ on the grounds of Netherfield and have target practice with real guns loaded and reloaded by servants!!! THEN as a toast to the wedding, bride or whatever, they all fire their pistols into the air! This all happens late at night while their female guests are sleeping inside!!!!!! Were they pretending to be cowboys??????? OMG
January 26, 2025
Angsty and Satisfying
In this excellent variation, Mr. Underwood posits a scenario in which Darcy was not in Ramsgate to prevent Georgiana's elopement with Wickham. The backstory, though, is even more significant. George Darcy, unlike canon, was a spendthrift owner of Pemberley, leaving the estate upon his death with an enormous amount of debt, and apparently infecting the young Georgiana with his tastes as well.
Darcy's reputation has been mostly ruined between the scandal of his fifteen-year-old sister's elopement with the fortune hunter Wickham and his own ascetic habits designed to repay debt as quickly as possible. His difficult financial situation, of course, was greatly exacerbated by having to pay out 30,000 pounds to Wickham, money he needed to borrow, much of it from Bingley.
Which brings the reader to the classic meet-not-cute first encounter (and insult) between Darcy and Lizzy. Lizzy is immediately taken with Darcy, and he does apologize, but Darcy is obsessed with repaying the estate's debts as quickly as possible. The titular vow relates to his determining to never be like his father, and so every time he decides to marry Lizzy (out of love and lust), he pulls back out of financial prudence, "knowing" that he must marry an heiress to compensate for the loss of Georgiana's dowry. He even almost offers for--horrors--Caroline Bingley.
Delightful and frustrating encounters with Wickham, Lady Catherine, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Lord Matlock illuminate Lizzy's clear superiority and innate understanding, but frustration and yearning for the HEA that the reader expects to--eventually--take place.
In this excellent variation, Mr. Underwood posits a scenario in which Darcy was not in Ramsgate to prevent Georgiana's elopement with Wickham. The backstory, though, is even more significant. George Darcy, unlike canon, was a spendthrift owner of Pemberley, leaving the estate upon his death with an enormous amount of debt, and apparently infecting the young Georgiana with his tastes as well.
Darcy's reputation has been mostly ruined between the scandal of his fifteen-year-old sister's elopement with the fortune hunter Wickham and his own ascetic habits designed to repay debt as quickly as possible. His difficult financial situation, of course, was greatly exacerbated by having to pay out 30,000 pounds to Wickham, money he needed to borrow, much of it from Bingley.
Which brings the reader to the classic meet-not-cute first encounter (and insult) between Darcy and Lizzy. Lizzy is immediately taken with Darcy, and he does apologize, but Darcy is obsessed with repaying the estate's debts as quickly as possible. The titular vow relates to his determining to never be like his father, and so every time he decides to marry Lizzy (out of love and lust), he pulls back out of financial prudence, "knowing" that he must marry an heiress to compensate for the loss of Georgiana's dowry. He even almost offers for--horrors--Caroline Bingley.
Delightful and frustrating encounters with Wickham, Lady Catherine, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Lord Matlock illuminate Lizzy's clear superiority and innate understanding, but frustration and yearning for the HEA that the reader expects to--eventually--take place.
July 5, 2023
I love Timothy's books, they tell amazing tales of strength and desire for our hero and heroine. This one did not disappoint in either! The tale was masterful in its premise and lovely in its execution. The cyclic denials. hers and his, beyond five, even six, was the only drawback. For things he already admitted did not matter at the beginning of the book. However, in between these many instances of their denials, were lovely stories for Georgiana, Jane, Anne. Additionally, the scenes with Mr. Bennet, Lady Catherine, and Lord Matlock were imaginative and wonderful to read!
October 28, 2024
Interesting story where very few characters are given much of the spotlight. Charles and Jane get a bit, as do Mr. Bennett, Georgiana, and Anne DeBourgh, but every one else is practically invisible. *shrug* A bit more "woe is me" than I prefer.
IMO, the continual back and forth of "I cannot marry you, kiss me, marry me, I cannot marry you" gets a bit strained but a good read.
IMO, the continual back and forth of "I cannot marry you, kiss me, marry me, I cannot marry you" gets a bit strained but a good read.
April 15, 2020
Once again I agree...
...with other reviews of this and other variations. Of this one I agree that Darcy is absurdly indecisive (to call him Hamlet-like would be an insult both to Shakespeare and to Austen), causing the story to drag interminably. But what insults me most is the use of completely inappropriate, uncalled for, and anachronistic obscenity. Please, the shock-value never saves a plot nor redeems bad writing.
...with other reviews of this and other variations. Of this one I agree that Darcy is absurdly indecisive (to call him Hamlet-like would be an insult both to Shakespeare and to Austen), causing the story to drag interminably. But what insults me most is the use of completely inappropriate, uncalled for, and anachronistic obscenity. Please, the shock-value never saves a plot nor redeems bad writing.
May 17, 2023
2.5/5
September 26, 2016
I really liked the premise for this book and I have read other books by this author and like his style. However, as the book went on the editing errors increased causing me to have to read sentences two and three times to get the proper meaning. Very distracting.
I did like the way Georgiana and Wickham were handled and that, though they have their difficulties, they are able to see their way through. There were times when I wanted Darcy and Elizabeth to just get on with it. Loved Bingley and the way he talked to Darcy.
I would probably have given a higher rating if it hadn't been for the editing errors.
I did like the way Georgiana and Wickham were handled and that, though they have their difficulties, they are able to see their way through. There were times when I wanted Darcy and Elizabeth to just get on with it. Loved Bingley and the way he talked to Darcy.
I would probably have given a higher rating if it hadn't been for the editing errors.
December 29, 2016
SO much angst
Some angst is needed to make it a good read but this was just too much. I still thought it was reasonably good but it would have been better if it had been dialed back a bit. The resolution to the Wickham dilemma was clever. I enjoyed Anne. I didn't like trying to wrap my head around a shabby Darcy though. It just feels wrong.
Some angst is needed to make it a good read but this was just too much. I still thought it was reasonably good but it would have been better if it had been dialed back a bit. The resolution to the Wickham dilemma was clever. I enjoyed Anne. I didn't like trying to wrap my head around a shabby Darcy though. It just feels wrong.
June 6, 2016
Loved it!
This has got to be one of the most enjoyable P&P book I have read, & I have read many! Turned the original on it's ear! Enjoy.....
This has got to be one of the most enjoyable P&P book I have read, & I have read many! Turned the original on it's ear! Enjoy.....
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