Worth A Read Meh
Length 240
Quick Review Darcy Fitzwilliam returns to Pemberley, Ohio for Christmas when her mother gets sick and meets her childhood nemesis Luke Bennet.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has provided inspiration for readers and authors alike, inspiring retellings and fanfiction. Melissa de la Cruz joins numerous others in reworking the classic to fit into the modern world for a contemporary audience. Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe is a unique adaptiation.
Darcy Fitzwilliams comes from money, but she made her own when she took on New York City. After eight years away, she returns home to Pemberley at Christmas time after her mother has a heart attack. There’s family and romantic drama galore.
de la Cruz is inventive with character names, genders, and sexualities, which adds diversity to the classic. Instead of focusing on the traditional Elizabeth Bennet character, it is told from the Darcy perspective, who is now an influential business woman with a gay best friend, cue Bingley.
I like the reinvention happening in Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe, but it falls into the same traps many retellings do. Insult to injury, all the problems plaguing Christmas Hallmark movies are seen within the pages. Mistletoe is completely devoid of societal critique let alone the sharp with Austen is known for. It waters down a classic romance to nothing more than a shallow love story. The narrative can’t even rely on clever language; at the best of times, the syntax is clunky and highly repetitive. de la Cruz is spoon feeding emotions, plots, personalities, and how-to-feels to the reader like a Christmassy treacle.
Darcy is supposed to be a strong independent woman but plummets into the anti-feminist and problematic ideology of “boys will be boys, and they’re mean to girls they like.” I don’t believe a woman with her drive, career, and education would act or react in any of the ways the character does in Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe. They’re unrealistic throughout, but the last quarter is bullshit. In the original, Darcy never leads anyone on, where as this version leads on a genuinely decent man, and she’s just mean.
Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe was made into a Hallmark movie, and I can see why. It supplies all the romance people love to see during the holidays without any real substance.
Memorable Quotes
n/a
bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna
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Title: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9781250189462