Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe - Melissa De La Cruz
Book Synopsis: Darcy Fitzwilliam is 29, beautiful, successful, and brilliant. She dates hedge funders and basketball stars and is never without her three cellphones—one for work, one for play, and one to throw at her assistant (just kidding). Darcy’s never fallen in love, never has time for anyone else’s drama, and never goes home for Christmas if she can help it. But when her mother falls ill, she comes home to Pemberley, Ohio, to spend the season with her family.
Her parents throw their annual Christmas bash, where she meets one Luke Bennet, the smart, sardonic slacker son of their neighbor. Luke is 32-years-old and has never left home. He’s a carpenter and makes beautiful furniture, and is content with his simple life. He comes from a family of five brothers, each one less ambitious than the other. When Darcy and Luke fall into bed after too many eggnogs, Darcy thinks it’s just another one night stand. But why can’t she stop thinking of Luke? What is it about him? And can she fall in love, or will her pride and his prejudice against big-city girls stand in their way?
Taking Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and trying to insert it into the modern world is difficult to say the least. A few novels have succeeded in that vision, while others have miserably failed. This is one of those instances of a major faux pas.
Melissa De La Cruz did her own spin on the classic novel and created her own gender-bent characters based on Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy... the result will leave readers saying no, no, a thousand times no.
Let's do a quick breakdown of the two main characters. Starting off with the lead, Darcy Fitzwilliam. What is there to say about Darcy? I did not like her at all, she was one dimensional, whiny, self-absorbed, and selfish. Darcy has nothing to complain about in life, she's filthy rich, she's successful, she's got a family that loves her, and she has not one, but two guys showing interest in her. Then we move onto Luke Bennet, another poorly written love interest. All Luke did was toy with Darcy's emotions, yell at her, and be a pretentious prick pretty much the entire novel.
Needless to say, I did not enjoy this novel one bit. Nothing flowed nicely or made much sense. I was almost relieved when it was over. My advice, don't mess with the classics.
It has recently come to my attention that there is going to be a Hallmark movie starring Lacey Chabert that is based on this book. Here's to hoping that the film is nothing like the ill-contrived novel.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Update: Just saw the Hallmark movie starring Lacey Chabert, and I just want to add my extra two cents in. I loved it much more than the book, it was a better experience and I'm glad that I watched it as opposed to the whole book fiasco. I would not read that book again!
Rating: ★★★★★