The Darcy’s First Christmas by Maria Grace

The Darcy’s First Christmas is the first book in the Darcy Family Christmas series following Darcy and Elizabeth: Christmas 1811: Pride and Prejudice behind the scenes (Darcy Family Christmas Book 1).

This second instalment is a short sequel to Pride &Prejudice that allows us to see the difficulties the mistress of Pemberley faces on her first Christmas. Maria Grace’s knowledge of regency manners and traditions is evident in this book where the characters doubts and struggles feel true and real. If people think being Mistress of Pemberley would be absolutely perfect, they are very mistaken because with a great estate and family name comes great responsibilities, and Elizabeth is put to the task.

I don’t usually love sequels because most of them lack the necessary conflict to make the story evolve, but that was not the case with The Darcy’s First Christmas. In this book the lack of communication between the newlyweds served the purpose of bringing some conflict to the story and also making the reader invested in it.

One of my favourite aspects about The Darcy’s First Christmas was the new characters in the book, particularly Darcy’s aunt once we understood her a little better. She is a character that is hard to get in the beginning, but as the story unfolds, and we know her real personality, we do appreciate all she has done and said. Georgiana’s character is not an original one, but I did love what Maria Grace did with her. It was completely unexpected and riveting. Her character development was probably my favourite aspect of the entire book. It may not be for everyone’s tastes, but I certainly enjoyed it.

In the beginning of the book it did not appear we would have a lot of romance, because the story was more focused on the adjustments to married life and having new responsibilities, but we do get some romance after all, and many readers will rejoice with the romantic scenes in this short story.

The Darcy’s First Christmas gives the reader a glimpse of what the Darcy’s first months of marriage were like, showing us the daily struggles of managing an estate and an household, and above all, how hard it is to manage family’s expectations. All this is done while creating a Christmas feeling that fits perfectly the book and makes it the perfect read for this time of the year.

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Elizabeth Bennet’s Level

There wasn’t any particular feature that stood out in Melissa Durbin’s narration, but there wasn’t anything I believe could be done better either. It was perfectly agreeable and the fact that I didn’t think about the narration, only meant the narrator was able to keep me as a reader focused in the book, which in the end is the main goal of a narrator.

 

You can find The Darcy’s First Christmas at:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

on Audible

and on Kindle Unlimited