29-year old Emily Albright is a manager in an independent bookstore in New York City. After one disastrous date after another, her best friend decides to book her on an 18-30 tour in Mexico in order to meet new guys. But Emily, determined to escape that Mexico tour, booked herself a Jane Austen book tour in England.

However, the book tour is not what it seems: it's filled with pensioners, except for one journalist named Spike, who goes about interviewing people about why they think Mr. Darcy is the ideal man.

Until one day, during the tour, Emily meets the real Mr. Darcy.

Thoughts:
Hmm... Initially, I thought "Okay. This seems like an interesting book to read." It is a chick lit that deals with a Pride and Prejudice character -- Mr Darcy. I got it from BookMooch and read it as part of our October Book Club, where we have to read Pride & Prejudice and an offshoot book.

Anyway, lets now go on to my thoughts. First off, I really got confused with the story. Seriously. I had a few moments where I would scratch my head and go "What happened?" and "How did that happen?" Especially in parts where Mr. Darcy would magically appear out of nowhere.

Granted, there were dragging parts every now and again, but some parts were just sooo boring and full of useless details [at least for me], that I had to force myself to go read the next few pages of the book.

Character-wise, Emiy is portrayed as a romantic, idealistic girl, who had no fashion sense whatsoever. But the way the author described how she packed her things as she was leaving New York for London seemed unreal. I mean, packing a lot of books instead of clothes? Come on! That is so unreal. Bookworms usually pack around 3-5 books per trip and if they need to read some more during the trip, they head off to the airport bookstore or any other bookstore they could get their hands on, not pack everything that they have in the closet.
As for Spike, well, he was inconsistently described in the book. He's blonde and a bit dishevelled, but you don't have to go bashing him about saying he's got a potbelly or something.

There's also some characters that don't need to play a supporting role but is wildly described in the story. I don't need that much information, right?

Location-wise, I think it was well-researched, as the places described in the book are existing and do tie up to what is in Jane Austen's novels and/or screen adaptations! I know because I googled them myself too. :) Classic example: Sham Castle in Bath! I've been to Bath [well, for only a few hours] but never knew there was a Sham Castle that existed in the first place!! However, one thing that isn't feasible? The coach picking up all the tour participants in the airport. Of all the tours I've known, they normally pick up the people in their respective hotels or at a bus stop! It isn't feasible to be in an airport!

Plot-wise, It lacks originality. There are some parts which were just a modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice, albeit different circumstances, character names, and jobs. It does have some fantasy elements in it though [what with Mr. Darcy popping up every now and again and blank pages of a book] but definitely not enough to capture my attention.

Overall, I'm a bit torn on whether I liked the book or not, so I'll probably give this a rating of 2.25/5.
I'm surprised that for a chick lit book, the heroine was not funny enough for me, and the scenes between the hero and heroine lacked to give me that fluttery feeling in my stomach that I get whenever there were sweet and cute moments happening between them.

Oh, also don't be surprised that some of the spellings are different -- the author is based in the UK.

Read it if you're a Pride & Prejudice fan who wants to read the story told in a modern point of view, who wants to have a feel of how it would be like to have Mr. Darcy pop up in the modern view, and well, just want to read a chick lit book.

Book Details:
Published: 2007
Source: Bookmooch.
Final Rating: 2.25/5

One of the classic books from Jane Austen. The last time I actually read this book was in high school, for a book report from school.

And so I took out my old book from the shelf at the basement, and decided to re-read it for the October book discussion of my book club [well, the book discussion was postponed until November until further notice]

The basic plot of the book is simple: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl rejects boy because she thinks him to be a pompous man, girl then thinks that rejecting boy was stupid, boy does everything to make it right for girl, girl realizes she loves boy, boy and girl meet again, confess their true feelings and live happily ever after.

Such is the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth is the second of five children, all girls, whom their mother has no real dreams but to have all five of them entered in suitable marriages with husbands that are rich, or have enough money on them. Mr. Darcy is born in high society, Elizabeth was just a simple girl who believes in falling in love before getting married. See the prejudice in the two different circles where Elizabeth and Darcy belong to.



It is such a quintessential fairy tale but is one of the most romantic love stories of all time. It's book has been in circulation for nearly two centuries already, could you believe it? In my book it says that its first printing was in 1813! My gosh. And it still continues to delight readers until today.

But honestly, it was one of the most boring books I've ever read. Ugh. Maybe it has got something to do with the "Old" English writing. The author tends to overexplain everything and was written in such a minute detail that it was enough to bore me to sleep not just once, twice, but many times as well. Oftentimes, I find myself being sleepy or drowsy just after reading 5 pages of it. It was such a painful book to read. *sigh*

But nevertheless the book has its ups as well, there were moments that were so sweet you couldn't help but ooooh and aaaahhh and imagine what is happening between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth at the time. I especially loved the scene at Pemberley! *sigh* Those are page-turners on my book!

This book has been translated in the book screen a few times already, but the only one I've seen was one where Elizabeth was played by Keira Knightley. If you found the book too painful to read as well, might as well watch the movie as it stayed true to the book and at least there, the visuals could help you imagine what's it like back in 1800s England, where there were no mobile phones, no airplanes, and each "love" would almost necessarily lead in a proposal.

Some of the characters are very, very irritating. I especially hated the character of Mrs. Darcy and Lydia. Ugh. Could anyone be more whorish? I couldn't believe that their mother would also go so far as to yak her way in influencing her children and who they should marry. Ugh. Such pretenses.

And yes, Mr. Darcy is the quintessential guy that every girl would like to be with forevermore. No wonder there are so many spinoff books that are coming out with Mr. Darcy's character in it [oh, which reminds me, the next book I have to read [aside from the review ones] should be a spinoff book]. My next read would be Me & Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter. Watch out for my review here once I've finished the book. I looooove Colin Firth's portrayal of Mr. Darcy in Bridget Jones' Diary! [I have to read that book as well].

Overall, I'll rate this book 3/5.
I would have rated it a 4/5 but the "Old" English really irked me off! There are some words I just don't understand [then again maybe my vocabulary isn't that vast?]

Read this book if:
1. You're curious about 1800s England and would want to know how people amuse themselves back then and how people courted each other then.
2. You're a masochist who wants to read novels in "Old" English [like me!]
3. You want to relive your grade school or high school days where you were forced to read classical novels in your English class and have to review them or answer guide questions to pass.
4. You're in for a good love story and want to dream of your own Mr. Darcy or Elizabeth Bennet
5. You have to read it for a book club
6. You're interested in where the spinoff books or movies got their inspiration from.


On other notes, you can win a book from me here: http://rubylovesadventure.blogspot.com/2009/10/book-giveaway-kissing-games-of-world.html
US addresses only, sorry!