The Other Mr. Darcy
This is yet another sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. This one picks up after the wedding of Elizabeth Bennet and the well-worn hero, Mr Darcy. However, to make this slightly more original, this book concerns his American cousin, Robert Darcy, but we read it through the eyes of Caroline Bingley. Caroline was not a favoured character of Jane Austen’s book but she redeems herself by the end of this novel and becomes a likeable heroine meeting the very likeable Robert Darcy. It is an enjoyable read, nothing too heavy going and, while it is not a necessity to have read Pride and Prejudice beforehand, it does help. Like her predecessor, Fairview’s characters often come out with little echoes of Jane Austen truisms. It is amazing how a novel can spawn so many sequels, this one being better than most.