Victoria Kincaid's Chaos Comes to Longbourn - Revew

My thoughts

Pride and Prejudice, with a twist.

Wow. What if Mr. Darcy was mistakenly thought the man who compromised Lydia Bennet, and was forced to enter into an engagement with her to protect her honor? What if this led to a string of catastrophic events regarding all the P & P players and their engagements? Well, in this book, it happens.

Kincaid cleverly manipulates the original storyline of P & P and entertains with a funny, yet distressing story for those of us who love Jane Austen's stories. She takes some of the fringe characters, like Mr. Collins, Lydia, Charlotte Lucas, and delves more deeply into their moral character and mannerisms.

Lydia, ever irritating in the original, is so much more in this book with her tittering, her exclamations of "La!" and her incessant habit of getting the name of Pemberley wrong at every turn. In this version, one almost feels sorry for Wickham in the end.

I liked the fact that she made the characters of Mr. Collins and Charlotte come across as more passionate (toward each other). Mr. Collins was a little less irritating. Only a little.

Kincaid obviously knows her Jane Austen. She constructs a story here that ultimately stays true to the original, but throws in a nice twist to the plot that gives Austen fans a chance to enjoy Pride and Prejudice again, only in a more roundabout way. If you like retellings or variations of Jane Austen novels, then you will be a fan of this book.

About the book
This humorous Pride and Prejudice variation begins at the Netherfield ball. While attempting to suppress his desire to dance with Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy flees the ballroom only to stumble upon a half-dressed Lydia Bennet in the library. After a shrieking, nerve-stricken Mrs. Bennet discovers them in this compromising position, Darcy is forced to make Lydia an offer of marriage.

A few weeks later, Bingley returns from London to discover that a heartbroken Jane has accepted an offer from Collins. Bingley instead proposes to Elizabeth, who accepts with the hope of reuniting him with Jane. Now Darcy must cope with jealousy toward Bingley and a fiancée who longs to get her hands on the grand estate of “Pembleton” (or is it “Peckersly?”). Lydia, in turn, is jealous that Wickham has proposed to Charlotte Lucas—who (much to Wickham’s dismay) does not find red coats nearly as appealing as clerical collars.

Although Darcy yearns for Elizabeth, he feels honor bound by his promise to Lydia. Elizabeth has also developed feelings for the master of Pemberley, but he has never seemed so far out of her reach. How can Darcy and Elizabeth unravel this tangle of hilariously misbegotten betrothals and reach their happily ever after?

About the Author

The author of numerous best-selling Pride and Prejudice variations, historical romance writer Victoria Kincaid has a Ph.D. in English literature and runs a small business, er, household with two children, a hyperactive dog, an overly affectionate cat, and a husband who is not threatened by Mr. Darcy. They live near Washington DC, where the inhabitants occasionally stop talking about politics long enough to complain about the traffic.

On weekdays she is a freelance writer/editor who specializes in IT marketing (it’s more interesting than it sounds) and teaches business writing. A lifelong Austen fan, Victoria has read more Jane Austen variations and sequels than she can count – and confesses to an extreme partiality for the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice. Visit her website. View her blog, visit her on Facebook, GoodReads, and on Amazon.

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