wolfie0516 reviewed on 12/21/2010

Helpful Score: 1

I gave this book a 3 1/2, but only because I liked the last two stories. The funny thing is that I love the first two authors (Mary Balogh and Colleen Gleason), but I didn't care for their stories. I love Gleason's Gardella series, but I really didn't find much to like in her female lead. She was so silly, melodramatic, and immature that it was really hard for me to see the male lead developing any kind of interest in her, except as a scatter-brained pest. I did enjoy the last two stories by Krinard and Mullany, who I had never read before. For Krinard's story, it helped that I like Pride and Prejudice and the whole Darcy/Lizzy tension and storyline. The plot carried over well for this kind of redoing of the original story. Darcy being a vampire provided a good basis for the whole mystery surrounding him and his background; it also supported how quiet and serious and suspicious his character was. Mullany's story was a cute version of Emma reworked to include the supernatural. She was able to create likeable characters even in the short space of an anthology. Her story was good enough that I want to look up and read more of her books.

To be honest, although the anthology provided somewhat fun reading and was good enough to pass the afternoon, the stories really mean more if you are familiar with the original Jane Austen stories and can picture more of the backgrounds and plots of the stories. If you are not a fan of the original stories, you probably won't get much out of these.

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