Darcy By Any Other Name Review, Guest Post & Giveaway

Darcy By Any Other Name was the best surprise I had this year when it comes to reading. I didn’t know the author and the premise led me to believe this would be a funny easy read perfect for the summer time. But the book is much, much more than that and it turned out to be one of my favorite books this year!

Laura Hile drove away from canon and created the most humorous variation possible! What if Mr. Darcy and Mr. Collins swapped bodies after getting hit by a lightning? How would each of these man react when placed in the others shoes? What about the people around them? How would they view each man if their actions were different from what was expected?

When waking up in Mr. Collins body, Mr. Darcy learns a valuable lesson: humility. But that is not all he learns in this book as we go from a diverting humorous story to a romantic subplot and an adventure which will keep us holding our breaths until the end. Mr. Darcy is forced to see how other people’s lives are, and not just Mr. Collins, but also the servants life. He is forced to see how his life was easy compared to others, and how privileged he was for being born in such a situation in life. This new perspective starts to change him and the way he acts towards others but always remaining faithful to his old self.

The greatest surprise for me in Darcy by Any Other Name was the romance. This book made me laugh from the beginning until the end, but it was not just humorous! It becomes romantic and passionate with Mr. Darcy being everything he should be: intelligent, honorable, romantic yet guarded, fervent, flirtatious but firm and strong in his ideals and convictions.

The first kiss we see between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth is so perfect that I could not put the book down after that. I stayed up reading until 4h in the morning and I just wanted more and more!

But if you’re used to reading my reviews, you know there is something that always makes me completely and utterly in love with a book, and that is angst! Now, I would never believe this book had so much angst but it is full of it. So much that it made my heart ache to the point I wanted to tear it out! Well, that or kill Mr. Collins and get over with it, because along with the angst, comes the hate for Mr. Collins. What a lying coward that man turned out to be! I just wanted Darcy back to his own body, happy with Elizabeth by his side and Collins long gone, but of course that would take all the fun of the book, so my only choice was to avidly read every single page to finally reached the HEA.

But don’t be put down if you’re not so much into angst as I am because you will have a lot of romantic moments, in fact, the complicity and intimacy Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth share is so beautiful that we can feel true love blossoming I their hearts. I love books that allow me to see the love between these two characters grow and that is precisely what happens in Darcy By Any Other Name.

I loved this book from the first page to the last and no matter how much I praise it, I don’t think it will be revealing of how much joy it gave me to read it. I obviously recommend this to anyone in need of a beautiful love story between Darcy and Elizabeth.

You can find Darcy By Any Other Name at:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

 

Curious about this novel? Do you wonder what it was like for Darcy to swap bodies with Collins? Well, you have an opportunity to know all about it in first hand as Mr. Darcy himself decided to share with my readers what this experience was like for him 😉

 

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Ebenezer Scrooge had it Easy!

A guest post by Fitzwilliam Darcy

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The life of the fictional hero is fraught with difficulty. Let me tell you, I know all about it. How we suffer at the hands of writers!

Our authors give reasons—plausible-sounding rationalizations!—that are all of them base and self-serving. “Without conflict there is no story,” the writers bleat, as if this is an adequate explanation. Please. Even more contemptible is this whopper: “We women love seeing a handsome, desirable man writhing in the throes of love.”

Writhing? Lovely.

Truly, I do not understand women. We men find no joy in seeing them thwarted in love. No, men relish the thrill of the chase–a literal chase, such as horses racing or devious espionage with gunshots. For us a gripping tale involves the conflict of sport or hard-won victories on the battlefield (or the trout stream). And at the end of a successful endeavor, a kiss from the beloved heroine.

Writers also enjoy being “inventive,” and this is the most galling of the authorial excuses. I thought Ebenezer Scrooge had it bad when Dickens invented ghosts with which to plague him. Ha! Laura Hile went exponentially beyond that when she made me switch bodies with Collins.

You read that right, with Mr. Collins—that podgy, pompous, prosy blighter who can empty a room simply by opening his mouth! Moreover, Hile had me switch places with Collins at the time he was a guest at Longbourn. My bedchamber was three doors away from adorable Elizabeth Bennet’s, for pity’s sake!

Woo Elizabeth? Forget that! As Collins I hadn’t a chance. For two hundred years women have been shuddering at Collins’ courtship techniques. The man puts the “ick” in “romantic”!

Poor Scrooge had to look on as he was shown Christmases past, present, and future, but I had a harder road. I had to endure Collins’ foolish past decisions, walk through his reprehensible present, and look forward to his baleful future. Even worse, I had to watch Collins attempt to fill my shoes—as Fitzwilliam Darcy. It was beyond galling—and once I stopped laughing, I took Hile sternly to task.

She gave me a pitying look and kept writing. Confound the woman, she even had Collins (as me) propose to Elizabeth! This bit of information is, I believe, called a spoiler. You’ll have to read the book to see how that turned out—but not while you’re swallowing hot coffee, I beg you.

Hile went on to sweeten the pot. She promised me that I could kiss Elizabeth (or at least give it a go), and this stunner caused me to reconsider. After all, I would never have the chance to kiss her as myself, not at that point in Pride and Prejudice. And then Hile told me I would be crossing swords with my Aunt Catherine, giving a set-down to Caroline Bingley, and rearranging George Wickham’s face. Yes, blood would be involved. Yes, Wickham would scream like a girl. Oho!

My response was instantly transformed from tacit cooperation (“Oh, very well”) to heartfelt enthusiasm (“Tally-ho!”).

Darcy By Any Other Name turned out rather better than my best expectations—although I do wish it was my face, not Collins’ mug, on the cover. You will sigh, cry, laugh, and cheer me on when (as Collins) I kosh George Wickham. And don’t forget that promised kiss…

Give this book a go. You won’t be disappointed.

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***It’s giveaway time***

This excerpt took me back to the pleasurable moments I spent reading Darcy By Any Other Name! This Darcy is just irresistible, but now it’s giveaway time!!!

Laura Hile would like to offer one of my readers an e-book copy of Darcy By Any Other Name, all you have to do is comment this post and share with us your thoughts on this story.

The giveaway is international and is open until the 10th of September.

Good luck everyone!