out of character interpretations

The concept intrigued me, but Elizabeth and Darcy were very out of character. At first I was willing to accept it - thinking that the interesting plot and enough time would soothe the jarring of moments of "oh absolutely not. no way would (whoever) say that."

Unfortunately, by the time I got to chapter 9 it was just too much. I would get into to details for fear of spoilers, but both of them are far more emotionally expressive in this retelling than in the original work.

Listening to Liz have another emotional breakdown or Darcy carelessly fling around a potentially life-ruining and jealousy-based accusation for the 2nd or 3rd time was just too much. Maybe it eases up as the book progresses, but it was so overwhelming in thr first 8 chapters that I can't bring myself to spend the time finding out.

3 people found this helpful

Complex and engaging

It was a great idea to start listening to this book in the morning on my day off because I just had to finish it. The many plots and simultaneous narration took a moment to get used to, but I enjoyed how all the pieces were falling together. The original characters were very well written, the villains were evil and got their just deserts. I liked how Ann de Bourgh’s character was developed, she was her mother’s daughter after all.
The only thing I didn’t like was the initial treatment of Elizabeth by Darcy. I can never agree to him asking Elizabeth for less than her hand in marriage, but I can understand how trapped and powerless he felt in the web of his relations. He redeemed himself well enough and was again a Darcy I could love.
Stevie Zimmerman’s narration was as always extraordinarily. I love how she manages to bring characters to life and makes them easily distinguishable. Her portrayal of different personalities and display of emotions is superb.
Highly recommended.

3 people found this helpful

Excellent story! Ignore negative comments!

Very entertaining story! Of course Stevie Zimmerman always does an incredible job. Lots of characters but I found it very easy to follow. The myriad scene changes were very engaging and kept my attention easily. A very full and rewarding storyline. Definitely one to listen to more than once. After reading some negative comments I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it so much!

2 people found this helpful

A must have for my library

This is a sad story with redemption and reconciliation to most of the characters. The narrator was awesome.

It's. Just. So. Long! (and DARK)

While Stevie Zimmerman's performance was solid as always (though the Spanish accent trended to mirror the Russian), the text she was reading just went on and on and on. Too may characters going too many directions. The author introduced scads of characters that showed up for one party or one event and never returned. Names, descriptions, histories, the works. And what was with the princess? Seemingly unnecessary plot lines. It became too convoluted to keep track of. And why would you include a 2nd character named MARY? Why was that 2nd Mary even included in the story??
Dark, dismal, too many references to some thought or emotion twinkling, shining, burning, in someone's eyes. If the book had been 1/3 or more shorter, I wouldn't have noticed. But after wading through rabbit trail after rabbit trail, I started to notice the redundancies.
Also, Anne? Yuck. Why? Blecky!

Also, what the heck happens to Fitzwilliam? Epilogue should have just been the final chapter. Then epilogue 5 years later or something.

Furthermore, Darcy just keeps being drawn to his own physical desire and not to Elizabeth's nature. He comes across as a hormonal teenager. Shallow!

Parts of this story i did like, but i don't recommend it unless you really just have time to kill.

yipes

struggle to follow you need a scorecard to tell who's who laugh out loud haha

Taken

I think Stevie Zimmerman is the best narrarator. I can see everything in my mind that she says. Keep up the great work. More authors should use this great narrarator. Great story as well.

So confusing.

I love “what if” P&P FF but this one was all over the place. It was trying to do too much and left things completely unfinished. I had to borrow the Ebook because I thought I was missing things. No, they just didn’t finish that storyline. What was the point of part of the Matlock storyline? Or Wickham’s? The Russians’? Even Julian’s to some extent? I think a good editor would have tossed out a third of the book as not needed or handed it back to the author to resolve some loose ends.

Huge cast of characters, but worth the credit

Oh my, this was confusing to follow initially, but has since been added to my favorites list. (I may have actually recommended this book in another review.)

**Very Slight Spoiler to help you along**

The Bennett Family is different with the 3 younger girls being sisters and the two older girls being “cousins”.

Then Darcy’s Family is larger with aunts and uncles and cousins (be prepared for some to be more evil than usual )

Thank goodness Stevie Zimmerman is such a great voice actor with the ability to make each voice unique.

Only Stevie Zimmerman kept me listening

I struggled to get through the first few chapters, but the always fantastic Stevie Zimmerman got me through until it improved enough to tolerate. It took a long time for the circumstances to be fully explained and the whole thing pretty much resolved just over halfway through.

Nearly everyone was either out of character or such an exaggerated caricature of what they should have been that it was hard to like anyone, including Elizabeth and Darcy. Some were needlessly vilified before being lazily dumped after a couple of hours of nonsense that could (and should) have been left out since it had so little impact. The last 4 hours was a complete waste of time.

There are slight spoilers from here.

The author killed off their "villains" in lazy and unsatisfying ways. I was kind of hoping for the redemption of a particular character, and it seemed it was going that way for a while until the author, of course, got bored or something and unceremoniously disposed of them. Even Mrs Bennett was turned into a bad guy and used as a figurative punching bag through this book. It was ridiculous. It only gets 2 stars because of the narrator.