Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart
by: Beth Pattillo
Genre: Chick-Lit
Rating 2 stars
Summary:
Claire Prescott is a sensible woman who believes in facts and figures, not fairy tales. But when she agrees to present a paper to a summer symposium at Oxford on her ailing sister's behalf, Claire finds herself thrown into an adventure with a gaggle of Jane Austen-loving women all on the lookout for their Mr. Darcy. Claire isn't looking for Mr. Anyone. She's been dating Neil -- a nice if a bit negligent -- sports fanatic. But when a tall, dark and dashing stranger crosses her path, will the staid Claire suddenly discover her inner romantic heroine? Her chance meeting with a mysterious woman who claims to have an early version of Austen's Pride and Prejudice -- in which Lizzie ends up with someone other than Fitzwilliam Darcy -- leads to an astounding discovery about the venerated author's own struggle to find the right hero for Lizzie Bennett. Neil's unexpected arrival in Oxford complicates Claire's journey to finding her own romantic lead.
While reading this I wondered if Patillo had actually read Austen. The impression I got was that she had simply watched the movies and not the good ones. All of the obvious Pride and Prejudice plot points were there only the characters were so underdeveloped that I really couldn't possibly care less about what happened to them. Clair was irritating and her "budding romance" with James was not at all believable.
The worst parts were the little bits of "First Impressions" that Pattillo tried to pass off as Austen. It was obvious there that Pattillo had never really studied Austen and that's what truly made me question if she had read it. You may try to defend her by saying it was her mimicking the Authoress before she became a good writer. That won't work. Jane Austen has a very distinctive writing style and whatever Pattillo was doing it wasn't this.
Pass on this one, it will save you a lot of time.
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