The Darcy Legacy Review & Giveaway

 

Good evening everyone,

I am the last one reviewing The Darcy Legacy on its blog tour and as I am sure you’ve noticed by now Joana Starnes is one of my favourite writers, so I believe it comes as no surprise that her latest book is a 5 star read to me. I am not saying that because I have loved the authors previous books I will automatically love all her future books, but one of the aspects that makes me love Joana Starnes’s books so much is her writing style, the ability she has to touch my heart with every sentence and to feel absorbed by the book, and no matter what the plot is, she will always carry with her those characteristics because they are part of who she is as a writer and this book proved just that.

Another aspect I love about Joana Starnes’s books is the angst she brings to them,  but this time she decided to do something different, and you will find little angst in The Darcy Legacy. You will see the angst was replaced by humour and a little touch of the supernatural, which is also a favourite of mine 😉

If I would have to choose the one thing I loved the most in this book I would have to say it was the characters. Joana Starnes always portrays very realistic characters with qualities but also flaws, and she did that once more. I hate to read stories with perfect Elizabeth’s and even worse, perfect Darcy’s, and that is definitely not what you will find in this book. These characters are as true to Austen as they are realistic.

The secondary characters were also an incredible addition to The Darcy Legacy. The author brought some humanity to Lady Catherine, and once more made her a believable character with a deep affection for her daughter, even if not shown in the best of ways. I mean, why does Lady Catherine always has to be such a villain? I don’t believe that’s how Jane Austen saw her. An arrogant member of the aristocracy yes, but not a conniving villain. She believed herself better than other people, but let’s face it, that was the way of the world and even if we can criticise that attitude I think we cannot go so far as to make her a one-dimensional character with a propensity to evil. Joana Starnes excels at portraying characters exactly as they were developed by Jane Austen, no more and no less, and that is remarkably visible in this book.

Anne was definitely a favourite character for me and I liked to see that she was entitled to her own story,  Colonel Fitzwilliam was hilarious and Mr. Darcy senior and Mrs Darcy were also characters whose company I enjoyed in The Darcy Legacy. It was lovely to see how they finally learned to understand each other in the afterlife even if the love and tenderness for one another was already there.

In this novel Darcy’s love for Elizabeth is strong and intense and I confess I adored the chapters before and after their first kiss! I loved everything about this part of the book, the dialogues, the characters, the intensity it had, the romance, and even the tenacity of both characters.

I don’t usually care much about humour in a book, but I have to say that Joana Starnes’ venture into it was very successful, especially when the ghosts were involved (this is really no spoiler as you’ll know there are ghosts in the first scene of the book). The last chapters with the additional new characters and their interactions were also incredibly funny and added an interesting twist to the story.

The only quibble I might have with this book is that it is slow-paced compared to the authors other novels, especially in the end, but that also gives us more time with all the characters we love, so who can complain? This book is definitely different from Joana Starnes’s previous works but just as good and I highly recommend it to all Janeites.

You can find The Darcy Legacy at:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

 

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Joana Starnes lives in the south of England with her family. Over the years, she has swapped several hats – physician, lecturer, clinical data analyst – but feels most comfortable in a bonnet. She has been living in Georgian England for decades in her imagination and plans to continue in that vein till she lays hands on a time machine.

She is the author of eight Austen-inspired novels: From This Day Forward ~ The Darcys of Pemberley, The Subsequent Proposal, The Second Chance, The Falmouth Connection, The Unthinkable Triangle, Miss Darcy’s Companion, Mr Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter and The Darcy Legacy, and one of the contributing authors to The Darcy Monologues, Dangerous to Know and the upcoming Rational Creatures (due in October 2018).

You can contact Joana through the following social media:

www.joanastarnes.co.uk

www. facebook.com/AllRoadsLeadToPemberley.JoanaStarnes/

www.facebook.com/joana.a.starnes

www.twitter.com/Joana_Starnes

Joana’s books on Amazon.com

Joana’s books on Amazon.co.uk

Joana’s books on Goodreads

 

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Joana is offering 10 copies of The Darcy Legacy, 20 audiobook codes, each one is good for one of her audiobooks and a $25.00 Amazon gift card. The giveaway runs until midnight, July 16, 2018 and to enter it all you have to do is comment on this post and click here.

Good Luck everyone!