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 prejudice
Linda Wells
ISBN #:  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.


RATING:










3 people posted their 2 cents:

Blodeuedd said...

Hihi, sounds nice :D I would love to see how these two get together in this version

Lynette said...

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.

MamaKitty said...

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.

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