08 June 2011
REVIEW: Memory: Volume 1, Lasting Impressions: A Tale of Pride and Prejudice by Linda Wells
Memory:
Volume 1, Lasting impressions: A
Tale of pride and prejudiceISBN #: 978-1-45-369838-9
Publisher Name: Create Space
Date Released: July 2010
Genre: Romance/Jane Austen Fan Fic
Book Format: Kindle Version
Pages: 512
Price: $9.99
BACK COVER BLURB:
In
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet meet
when their personalities are fully formed. Influenced by their experiences and
the people around them, they must endure a year of transformation to find their
love. What effect would the sight of their soul mates have upon Darcy and
Elizabeth if it occurred at a much earlier and vulnerable moment? How would
this shared memory change his advance into arrogance and pride, and her
sensitivity to the opinions of others? And ultimately, what will happen when
they finally meet somewhere beyond their imaginations? The Memory series is a
story of family, and how the love affair of one couple influences the lives of
everyone around them. Volume 1: Lasting Impressions begins on a fateful day in
Hyde Park when 15-year-old Elizabeth Bennet spies the handsome 22-year-old
Fitzwilliam Darcy. Instead of wondering over his status: bachelor, rich,
gentleman . . . all of the qualities she had been taught by her mother to seek
for her husband, she saw only the sorrowful man in need. Darcy heard laughter
and saw a girl and a smile. Both have much to overcome before they can be
together, but one thing is certain, they would have loved each other no matter
where or when they had met. The story continues in Volume 2: Trials to Bear,
and Volume 3: How Far We Have Come. These stories contain scenes of a mature
nature.
COVER SNARK:
Self-Pubbed. Boring.
FIRST LINES:
“Fitzwilliam!
Welcome home!” George Darcy stood from the chair behind his desk in the study
of Darcy House in London and greeted his son with a warm embrace.
LYNETTE'S TWO CENTS:
Linda
Wells along with Abigail Reynolds have become one of my favorite Pride and
Prejudice fanfic authors. Mostly because she usually has Darcy and Elizabeth
getting there groove on, and I also love how I can totally buy into how she
makes it so believable that Darcy and Elizabeth are fated and no one else can
do for the other.
In MEMORY, VOLUME 1, Darcy first spies the fifteen-year old Elizabeth in Hyde Park when Elizabeth and Jane are in town visiting the Gardiners. Darcy has just returned from his Grand Tour and has learned that his father is dying and he’ll be inheriting the responsibility to his family and family fortune. As he is sitting in Hyde Park overwhelmed by the news he hears the enchanting laughter of Elizabeth (who he assumes is older because she is “out”). Their eyes catch and they smile at each other, but are not introduced. For the next two years they spy each other at various places throughout town, but are never able to meet, just overhear each other’s conversations. Between each spying of each other, they each live with the memory of their previous encounter to get them through.
This
is different from other stories. Because they meet at such a different time,
Darcy hasn’t had the chance to become the man so full of pride that we see in
the original and Elizabeth hasn’t quite developed the self-confidence and umm .
. . opinioned nature that she had.
Because
of a previous suitor, Elizabeth learns at an earlier age how the disreputable
behavior of her family is ruining her and Jane’s prospects for marriage, so she
doesn’t have that naiveté that I found a little annoying in Pride and
Prejudice. I mean if I in my time can tell that your mother, father, and
sisters are annoying, you must have had seen how their public behavior is a
serious detriment to your marriage prospects?
I
also like the fact that she spends so much time escaping to the Gardiners to
get away from her family.
Jane
was an interesting character. She was written totally different than in most
adaptations. All of her life, Jane has been told how beautiful she was. That
all she had to do was be beautiful and smile to capture a man and save their
family from ruin. So she doesn’t understand how Darcy and other men look immediately
to Elizabeth and overlook her. She becomes jealous and does a lot of passive aggressive
crap to try to ruin Jane and even her own happiness because she expects that
because of her looks she doesn’t have to work for it. Although it was hard for
me to read about Jane in in this manner, and at first I didn’t like what the
author was doing to this beloved character, I thought it was plausible that
Jane is always instantly deluged with men wanting to dance with her and talk to
her at balls but never come calling the next day because all she does is smile
and never really put herself out there to reveal interest or deep opinions
about anything. I liked that at the end, she realized that she had a lot of
growing up to do.
Mr.
and Mrs. Bennet were also a departure, but to me this was a stretch. We know
that Elizabeth was her least favorite daughter, but totally disregard Elizabeth
like Mrs. Bennet does, was a little off putting to me. Mr. Bennet, while not
taking things seriously, I found it hard to believe that he would try to block
and sabatoge Elizabeth’s happiness. This is not the first book of Mrs. Wells
that I read that she has done this and I wonder if the author just does not
like Mr. Bennett as a character. If she continues to write Pride and Prejudice
fan fiction I hope she doesn’t use the same road she’s used for Mr. Bennet in
the past and give them a little more depth or make them a little more true to
life as they were in the original. The way Mr. and Mrs. Bennet were written was
pushing it a little to far for me, but that didn’t subtract to my enjoyment of
the story.
I
enjoyed the dynamics of the Fitzwilliam family. They were very fleshed out and
likeable despite the fact that I found it hard to believe that they would be as
accepting of Darcy making a match with a penniless Elizabeth.
The
rest of the cast is there, Mr. Wickham, Mr. Bingley, Miss Bingley, and Mrs.
Hurst as well as some interesting new additions. There were some cheesy scenes
with Darcy and Elizabeth’s journals and how after they are married how they
share them that I found myself rolling my eyes, but overall I would highly recommend
this volume.
WHERE PURCHASED:
Purchased
with my own money.
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3 people posted their 2 cents:
Hihi, sounds nice :D I would love to see how these two get together in this version
This whole series.There are three books are long, but I liked it alot. I just think she could've done better with Mr. and Mrs. Bennet they always seem to get a bad wrap from her.
You are seriously going to make me go on a P&P spree where I read nothing but P&P spinoffs/published fanfic. *runs to Amazon to buy this one as well* Brat.