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The Darcy and Elizabeth Collection
American Edition - American SpellingThe entire Darcy and Elizabeth Series is now available in one volume as The Darcy and Elizabeth Collection. This volume is made up of three short prequels and three novellas. Enjoy this sweet Regency romance series featuring Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet as they meet, enter a courtship, and find their happily ever after in spite of the problems they encounter along the way. But will the Bennet family's reputation survive the heartache that strikes their loved ones? Find out in this Pride and Prejudice variation that goes beyond Jane Austen's original masterpiece.The Women of Longbourn is a short story prequel that depicts Elizabeth Bennet’s journal entries from a se’nnight before the Meryton Assembly and with a slight overlap with Darcy Chooses—The Complete Novel.Attending a Ball is a prequel that recounts the three days before the beginning of Darcy Chooses from Elizabeth Bennet's perspective and portrays Elizabeth and her friends, Charlotte Lucas and Melanie Farrington. It also gives extra insight into the Bennet family members.Darcy Chooses - The Complete Novel is the pinnacle of The Darcy and Elizabeth Collection. It contains the short story prequel Darcy and Bingley and ‘Parts 1 and 2’ of the original Darcy Chooses.Elizabeth’s Choice is the novella-length sequel to Darcy Chooses - The Complete Novel and recounts Darcy and Elizabeth’s honeymoon to Ireland and their growing love for one another. But will they survive an encounter with an old enemy?
667 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 5, 2018
13 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Gianna Thomas
29 books51 followers Gianna has been in love with Historical Romance/Mysteries, and especially Regency Romance, for many years. But it wasn’t until 2013 that she started writing in this genre.
Gianna discovered Pride and Prejudice, and its many variations, what ifs and fan fiction. She was totally fascinated by the variety of plots that eager authors had utilized. After reading several of these fascinating books, she realized why others loved them and Jane Austen’s books so well.
Gianna was aware of the storyline of Pride and Prejudice after reading it many years ago and seeing the 1940’s movie as well as the 2005 movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen. She loved the 2005 movie and the musical score. Yes, the movie wasn’t 100% accurate, but isn’t the goal to entertain and touch the heart? And this movie touched her heart and helped her to appreciate more the talent of Jane Austen.
Rereading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has given her greater insight into Ms. Austen’s genius in depicting different personalities and situations and the society of her day. As a mature adult, Gianna sees much more in her books now than ever before.
After reading nearly 200 variations and fan fictions, Gianna now had P&P plots running through her head. She finally decided that they needed to be put to paper (today, on the computer), to see how they would develop. She is having an absolute ball in writing about Darcy and Elizabeth and is pleased with how things are developing. Her goal is to entertain and touch hearts. Hopefully, with her first rendering 'Darcy Chooses', she achieved that goal and touched your heart also.
More recently, Gianna started looking beyond Pride and Prejudice, with her first foray into Regency Romance generally, with The Four Lords’ Saga Series.
Gianna Thomas is a ghostwriter of poetry and e-books who became a widow after twenty-two years with her very own Mr. Darcy, who was her second husband. She lives a quiet life in a small Illinois town with her cats and loves to read regency romance, Jane Austen’s works and the many variations done by other lovers of Pride and Prejudice.
Learn more about Gianna and her Historical Romance writings on her website at www.giannathomasauthor.com and on her page at Amazon Author Central at https://www.amazon.com/author/giannat....
Gianna discovered Pride and Prejudice, and its many variations, what ifs and fan fiction. She was totally fascinated by the variety of plots that eager authors had utilized. After reading several of these fascinating books, she realized why others loved them and Jane Austen’s books so well.
Gianna was aware of the storyline of Pride and Prejudice after reading it many years ago and seeing the 1940’s movie as well as the 2005 movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen. She loved the 2005 movie and the musical score. Yes, the movie wasn’t 100% accurate, but isn’t the goal to entertain and touch the heart? And this movie touched her heart and helped her to appreciate more the talent of Jane Austen.
Rereading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has given her greater insight into Ms. Austen’s genius in depicting different personalities and situations and the society of her day. As a mature adult, Gianna sees much more in her books now than ever before.
After reading nearly 200 variations and fan fictions, Gianna now had P&P plots running through her head. She finally decided that they needed to be put to paper (today, on the computer), to see how they would develop. She is having an absolute ball in writing about Darcy and Elizabeth and is pleased with how things are developing. Her goal is to entertain and touch hearts. Hopefully, with her first rendering 'Darcy Chooses', she achieved that goal and touched your heart also.
More recently, Gianna started looking beyond Pride and Prejudice, with her first foray into Regency Romance generally, with The Four Lords’ Saga Series.
Gianna Thomas is a ghostwriter of poetry and e-books who became a widow after twenty-two years with her very own Mr. Darcy, who was her second husband. She lives a quiet life in a small Illinois town with her cats and loves to read regency romance, Jane Austen’s works and the many variations done by other lovers of Pride and Prejudice.
Learn more about Gianna and her Historical Romance writings on her website at www.giannathomasauthor.com and on her page at Amazon Author Central at https://www.amazon.com/author/giannat....
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 21, 2020
One plot event after another
The breath of this book is large. Besides the original P&P story threads their are lots and lots of action plot threads. One or more plots are always starting or ending all the time.
You can read bits and pieces at a time and make it last a week. Or you read a story snd come back to the next som other time.
I recommend this book.
The breath of this book is large. Besides the original P&P story threads their are lots and lots of action plot threads. One or more plots are always starting or ending all the time.
You can read bits and pieces at a time and make it last a week. Or you read a story snd come back to the next som other time.
I recommend this book.
August 25, 2023
I only read the epic novel "Darcy Chooses" since the introduction told me that the prequel short stories were incorporated in the novel and, after reading the novel, I couldn't take any more of this writing style, so I didn't attempt the sequel novellas. I'm not a sequel person in any case. The novel was one of the most tedious undertakings of my reading history, but I got through it, which means it wasn't all that bad. If I had quit reading, that would have said it was a bad read. The book was merely full of redundancies, side stories that didn't support the main story arc, and editing errors that pulled me out of the reading enjoyment experience. I would have given the story itself four stars, but I was generous in giving three stars due to the writing and editing problems.
I write technical reviews in which there is no synopsis and little in the way of subjective analysis in favour of a nit-picking analysis of the details that most reviewers overlook, yet readers find these items annoying enough to drop a star or even drop reading. Unfortunately, this will be a long list. I usually have less than one page of notes for a novel; this one had four.
-The plot was a good idea if it weren't bogged down with repeats and side plots: Caroline deceives everyone with two lying letters instead of one. For the repeats, the author should trust that the reader remembers. For the side plots, the author should keep their pet projects for another full plot entirely and not try to "slip it in" where it doesn't fit. The book would have been far too long if stripped of these in any case.
- The flow was straightforward but dreadfully slow due to too much narrative. I struggled to stay with it and nearly stopped reading just after the point of the elopement. It was too much of the same thing.
- Due to the slow pace, dramatic tension was low and never really ramped up to give any angst, even when intended to do so. Of course, there was violence that was supposed to make us gasp, but by then, we were tired of this book.
- Head-hopping abounded in this third person multiple point of view book. In some cases, more than one point of view existed in the same paragraph. The slowness of the book was also due to sharing each person's perspective of an incident: redundancy.
- A "telling" mode predominated, with filter words such as "hoped," "wondered," "heard," "saw," and "felt" for the POV character. Reading is much more interesting with "showing." Numerous instances were seen of the POV character "seeing" their own faces turn red, far more than in any other book I've read.
- Passive voice was found frequently.
- Language was proudly stated as being the "British" version, and with the use of slang from Grose's dictionary, an attempt had clearly been made to "sound" Regency. But with 7 Americanisms (double the norm) and 32 non-Regency words (5x the norm for a JAFF novel), this was a certain failure. Of course, the book was longer than the average JAFF novel, but still, the author needs to get a good editor and a British beta. In addition, 11 words were misused or misspelled, and 442 contractions were used. Most JAFF novels have less than ten contractions, and Jane Austen used only eight in Pride and Prejudice, and those were used for silly or low class characters. This was an annoyance to me, because in one paragraph, the author said "I'm", and in the next, said "I am," indicating a capability of Regency-speak.
- Another British error was to call people "nice." Brits would not do so. Things are "nice;" people are "kind." British people would say "set her cap at" not "set her cap for."
- "Loggerheads" means a violent dispute, not a quarrel.
- Over-used language included "they/she broke their/her fast" or "upon breaking his/her/their fast" an expression that's non-Austen: she said breakfast or breakfasted; "watering pot;" "tendre;" "all right," a non-Regency expression; taradiddle, one of the words chosen to show off the Regency word knowledge, and "disturb the brown trout."
- Readers should not have to look up words, e.g., taradiddle, bumblebroth, tickspittle, or simkin (the latter is not in today's dictionaries). It slows down the reading and distracts from the book.
-"elsewhere other than" is redundant wording. Use one or the other.
- Confusing use of "hospital" without "the" was probably intended to sound British, but was inappropriate usage in many places.
- Six extra commas were noted, balanced off by a missing serial comma as well as three other missing commas; there's a backslash by a set of closing quotes; two apostrophes for plurals; and a missing question mark. Mr. is used with no period; in the Regency, they used periods with these types of titles.
- Non-canon errors were de Burgh; Gretna Greene; Edward Collins instead of William Collins; Mary Jones instead of Mrs. Nicholls as the housekeeper at Netherfield Park; and Mrs. Gardiner having two daughters and one son only: canon has two younger sons.
- Non-Regency errors: Dance cards were not introduced until post-Regency; lavender gowns are for half-mourning; breeches and stockings were worn by men to a ball and not pants; there was no midday meal, and luncheon was a snack taken by hand while standing up during the Regency; due to the width of the roads, a Regency carriage is only 4'2" wide at most thus can only seat four; ivy grows wild in England, and one doesn't have to have it delivered from London; there was no such thing as a request for a courtship: the gentleman called to see the lady and that constituted the courtship, and that's why Darcy expected Elizabeth to be expecting his addresses after all his walks in the park at Rosings: he had been courting her; militia men don't have commissions to sell like those in the regulars; no one would ever transport a person with a broken leg or ribs a half day in a coach on the roads of that day; there is no evidence that anyone ever made an engagement announcement in the papers in the Regency; if Bingley owned a small estate in Scotland, he was a gentleman landowner and didn't need to buy Netherfield Park; the author constantly said "supper" for "dinner": dinner was typically at 4-5pm, not at 7-8pm as in the book, and supper was quite late and usually only at a ball or similar occasion; the author said "Aunt Catherine" where it should have been "Lady Catherine."
- Deviations for the fire as well as the subplot involving Melanie and the associated end note were unnecessary and added no value while adding pages in an already too-long book.
- An example of a scene redundancy is E&D kissing in the garden. However, most redundancies were reiterations of past scenes.
- Redundant thought tags with italics are used throughout. One or the other is needed, not both.
- A formatting problem was that chapters didn't break on a new page. Amazon doesn't allow this. In addition, there is a line spacing change for about 3/4 of a page at 26%.
- This book should have a trigger warning for violence, which I felt was over and above necessary. The strength of the violence didn't add value to the story, and the injuries dragged it out unnecessarily, another instance of how this story was slow.
- Tropes that were unnecessary included "mask," "hedgerows," and the flexed hand. These are silly. Authors, use your own concepts, not fanon, Davies, or Moggach.
- The author took advantage of good scene setting to ground the reader in the time and place.
- Sound characterization was evident throughout, including that for the new characters.
- The development of the romance had the right amount of tension and fit well with the story; however, there was a bit of redundancy, and some of the middle of the book could have been cut. Even the time up to the wedding after the engagement dragged with scenes that should have been on the cutting room floor.
- I don't think the cover is that special. It sure wouldn't entice me to buy the book. It's the same old blow-dried, polyester-wearing type of couple that's seen on many other Regency romance and JAFF books, though in a slightly different layout. What's good is that the layout looks balanced to me and the fonts are readable at Amazon scale. But I'd pass it by for a bright, new cover.
With an original plot, this book should have gotten at least four stars. But it was so bogged down with extraneous issues that should have been taken care of by the author and a good editor, it could never get more than three stars from me. I'd have a hard time recommending it without at least the contractions issue being dealt with. I can't see myself reading another book by this author seeing how seriously she takes her writing and editing.
Disclaimer: I'm a JAFF author, and some might think that this review is a conflict of interest. However, I was a reader first, and my reviews are honest and impartial. I write them for the benefit of both the reader and the author.
I write technical reviews in which there is no synopsis and little in the way of subjective analysis in favour of a nit-picking analysis of the details that most reviewers overlook, yet readers find these items annoying enough to drop a star or even drop reading. Unfortunately, this will be a long list. I usually have less than one page of notes for a novel; this one had four.
-The plot was a good idea if it weren't bogged down with repeats and side plots: Caroline deceives everyone with two lying letters instead of one. For the repeats, the author should trust that the reader remembers. For the side plots, the author should keep their pet projects for another full plot entirely and not try to "slip it in" where it doesn't fit. The book would have been far too long if stripped of these in any case.
- The flow was straightforward but dreadfully slow due to too much narrative. I struggled to stay with it and nearly stopped reading just after the point of the elopement. It was too much of the same thing.
- Due to the slow pace, dramatic tension was low and never really ramped up to give any angst, even when intended to do so. Of course, there was violence that was supposed to make us gasp, but by then, we were tired of this book.
- Head-hopping abounded in this third person multiple point of view book. In some cases, more than one point of view existed in the same paragraph. The slowness of the book was also due to sharing each person's perspective of an incident: redundancy.
- A "telling" mode predominated, with filter words such as "hoped," "wondered," "heard," "saw," and "felt" for the POV character. Reading is much more interesting with "showing." Numerous instances were seen of the POV character "seeing" their own faces turn red, far more than in any other book I've read.
- Passive voice was found frequently.
- Language was proudly stated as being the "British" version, and with the use of slang from Grose's dictionary, an attempt had clearly been made to "sound" Regency. But with 7 Americanisms (double the norm) and 32 non-Regency words (5x the norm for a JAFF novel), this was a certain failure. Of course, the book was longer than the average JAFF novel, but still, the author needs to get a good editor and a British beta. In addition, 11 words were misused or misspelled, and 442 contractions were used. Most JAFF novels have less than ten contractions, and Jane Austen used only eight in Pride and Prejudice, and those were used for silly or low class characters. This was an annoyance to me, because in one paragraph, the author said "I'm", and in the next, said "I am," indicating a capability of Regency-speak.
- Another British error was to call people "nice." Brits would not do so. Things are "nice;" people are "kind." British people would say "set her cap at" not "set her cap for."
- "Loggerheads" means a violent dispute, not a quarrel.
- Over-used language included "they/she broke their/her fast" or "upon breaking his/her/their fast" an expression that's non-Austen: she said breakfast or breakfasted; "watering pot;" "tendre;" "all right," a non-Regency expression; taradiddle, one of the words chosen to show off the Regency word knowledge, and "disturb the brown trout."
- Readers should not have to look up words, e.g., taradiddle, bumblebroth, tickspittle, or simkin (the latter is not in today's dictionaries). It slows down the reading and distracts from the book.
-"elsewhere other than" is redundant wording. Use one or the other.
- Confusing use of "hospital" without "the" was probably intended to sound British, but was inappropriate usage in many places.
- Six extra commas were noted, balanced off by a missing serial comma as well as three other missing commas; there's a backslash by a set of closing quotes; two apostrophes for plurals; and a missing question mark. Mr. is used with no period; in the Regency, they used periods with these types of titles.
- Non-canon errors were de Burgh; Gretna Greene; Edward Collins instead of William Collins; Mary Jones instead of Mrs. Nicholls as the housekeeper at Netherfield Park; and Mrs. Gardiner having two daughters and one son only: canon has two younger sons.
- Non-Regency errors: Dance cards were not introduced until post-Regency; lavender gowns are for half-mourning; breeches and stockings were worn by men to a ball and not pants; there was no midday meal, and luncheon was a snack taken by hand while standing up during the Regency; due to the width of the roads, a Regency carriage is only 4'2" wide at most thus can only seat four; ivy grows wild in England, and one doesn't have to have it delivered from London; there was no such thing as a request for a courtship: the gentleman called to see the lady and that constituted the courtship, and that's why Darcy expected Elizabeth to be expecting his addresses after all his walks in the park at Rosings: he had been courting her; militia men don't have commissions to sell like those in the regulars; no one would ever transport a person with a broken leg or ribs a half day in a coach on the roads of that day; there is no evidence that anyone ever made an engagement announcement in the papers in the Regency; if Bingley owned a small estate in Scotland, he was a gentleman landowner and didn't need to buy Netherfield Park; the author constantly said "supper" for "dinner": dinner was typically at 4-5pm, not at 7-8pm as in the book, and supper was quite late and usually only at a ball or similar occasion; the author said "Aunt Catherine" where it should have been "Lady Catherine."
- Deviations for the fire as well as the subplot involving Melanie and the associated end note were unnecessary and added no value while adding pages in an already too-long book.
- An example of a scene redundancy is E&D kissing in the garden. However, most redundancies were reiterations of past scenes.
- Redundant thought tags with italics are used throughout. One or the other is needed, not both.
- A formatting problem was that chapters didn't break on a new page. Amazon doesn't allow this. In addition, there is a line spacing change for about 3/4 of a page at 26%.
- This book should have a trigger warning for violence, which I felt was over and above necessary. The strength of the violence didn't add value to the story, and the injuries dragged it out unnecessarily, another instance of how this story was slow.
- Tropes that were unnecessary included "mask," "hedgerows," and the flexed hand. These are silly. Authors, use your own concepts, not fanon, Davies, or Moggach.
- The author took advantage of good scene setting to ground the reader in the time and place.
- Sound characterization was evident throughout, including that for the new characters.
- The development of the romance had the right amount of tension and fit well with the story; however, there was a bit of redundancy, and some of the middle of the book could have been cut. Even the time up to the wedding after the engagement dragged with scenes that should have been on the cutting room floor.
- I don't think the cover is that special. It sure wouldn't entice me to buy the book. It's the same old blow-dried, polyester-wearing type of couple that's seen on many other Regency romance and JAFF books, though in a slightly different layout. What's good is that the layout looks balanced to me and the fonts are readable at Amazon scale. But I'd pass it by for a bright, new cover.
With an original plot, this book should have gotten at least four stars. But it was so bogged down with extraneous issues that should have been taken care of by the author and a good editor, it could never get more than three stars from me. I'd have a hard time recommending it without at least the contractions issue being dealt with. I can't see myself reading another book by this author seeing how seriously she takes her writing and editing.
Disclaimer: I'm a JAFF author, and some might think that this review is a conflict of interest. However, I was a reader first, and my reviews are honest and impartial. I write them for the benefit of both the reader and the author.
March 20, 2023
Very intriguing!
I was delighted with this collection. The complete novel of Darcy Chooses was the best part of it. Great story, enough intrigue to carry through to the end. The Women of Longbourn I could take or leave it; nice background material but definite not necessary to the main story. While the author only intended to write about the month-long honeymoon of Lizzy and Darcy in Elizabeth Chooses, I feel this could have been much more than what we got. I wish Elizabeth Chooses could have matched length with Darcy Chooses, since both characters are equally important.
However, don’t be discouraged by my wishes in this matter. This book is well worth reading.
I was delighted with this collection. The complete novel of Darcy Chooses was the best part of it. Great story, enough intrigue to carry through to the end. The Women of Longbourn I could take or leave it; nice background material but definite not necessary to the main story. While the author only intended to write about the month-long honeymoon of Lizzy and Darcy in Elizabeth Chooses, I feel this could have been much more than what we got. I wish Elizabeth Chooses could have matched length with Darcy Chooses, since both characters are equally important.
However, don’t be discouraged by my wishes in this matter. This book is well worth reading.
August 25, 2024
I liked the story, although I didn't realize how many points of view and different stories would be in this one book. I enjoyed the first story the most. I read all the stories but some parts seemed dull to me and I may have skimmed over some of the stories. They all were interesting and different.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews