I am always honest with my reviews and I am not going to change that, so to start with I have to pint out that I have really enjoyed the story of How to mend a broken heart; however there are a couple of scenes that I dislike due to the way they are written. I do not mind passion between Darcy and Elizabeth, but I do not like crude and a bit vulgar descriptions. In this book there are a lot of erotic/sexual innuendoes or descriptions but two or three of them I found them quite lacking.
Said that, I need to repeat that the story, the plot is really good. L. S. Parsons has made really intriguing twists on How to mend a broken heart where, obviously, Darcy and Elizabeth are the protagonist but we also see other Pride and Prejudice characters in a different light and she invents new characters who are key in this story.
What if Mr. Darcy is engaged when Elizabeth comes back to his life after three years of separation? What if Elizabeth has endured a horrible time with so many tragedies that she has decided not to marry at all? What if Elizabeth has he first season and her sponsor is Lady Matlock? What if Georgina becomes a non-shy girl anymore because she is in love and loved in return?
L.S. Parsons shows a desperate Darcy who proposes to an old friend because he has lost all hope to conquer Miss Bennet’s heart because she is nowhere to be found. Without talking to anyone, he proposes to Mrs. Wagstaff because he knows he needs an heir. Just a week after his engagement, he goes to visit his aunt to give her the news, Lady Matlock, to find Elizabeth living with her!
Darcy could do nothing but stare intensely at Elizabeth, though his agitation was noticeable to all by the tremor of his hand and the saucer clinking of his cup upon its saucer. (chapter 6)
When Darcy is able to return to his normal self and after not being able to believe his fate, he decides that he will improve Elizabeth’s opinion of him as he cannot win her heart anymore. Remember: Mr. Darcy is above all an honourable man and he will not disgrace his family breaking his engagement.
There is a tiny problem: his idea is to become friends with Miss Bennet but as the Spanish saying states “when there was a fire, embers remain” and Darcy is as in love with her as he was three years before when he proposed at the Hunsford Parsonage. Nobody apart from them two knows about that time together, so apart from, now General Fitzwilliam, everybody at the beginning think that he is being a gentleman when he offers to help his aunt to teach everything that Elizabeth needs to have her first season in London and to be presented at court.
Darcy’s betrothed is the widow of one of his friends, so you can imagine that after having had two sons, she is not a naive girl anymore, she wants to bed Darcy as soon as possible. Virginia, Mrs Wagstaff, is the opposite to a virtuous woman, she is provocative and she likes to have all men looking at her. Fortunately, Darcy is not complying and he actually has a good “excuse”: focusing on Georgiana who is having finally her first season. As usual, Darcy and Georgiana’s relationship is a nice as always but in this book we can read about a grown up Miss Darcy who becomes a woman.
Lady Matlock is suspicious and she finds Darcy and Lizzy almost kissing in public! Darcy was just comforting her after an encounter with Mr. Collins (I think you will hate him as much I do in this book). Lady Matlock talks to both and tries to put some sense on both heads, mainly in Darcy’s. However, Elizabeth’s feelings “had undergone so material a change” that it is also difficult for her to avoid him.
Mrs. Wagstaff dislikes the attention that his betrothed is paying to a “country chit” and she has her own “abilities” to get rid of the problem, but does she succeed?
You will see how the attraction between Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet grows and how Miss Bennet intends to go away from him but having him at the same time ❤
Will they find their happy ending?
