Booklog 22/2021: Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Connie Brockway: The Lady Most Likely – Lady Most #1

Subtitled A Novel in Three Parts and written by three authors, this didn't quite work for me, but I admit that I don't know whether I'd have thought that if I'd believed it to be all the work of one author.

Hugh Dunne, Earl of Briarly, needs a wife, or more importantly he needs an heir, but all his passions are with his horses. He cares for nothing except the breeding and training of his Arabian racehorses. Despairing, his sister arranges a house-party and invites a host of eligible females, and men to balance the numbers. Hugh has a list, but if he's not quick of the mark it seems likely that his friends will lay claim to brides of their own. So this is three romances in one book. The stories are all interconnected. I understand that each individual author took point on each of the three romances. The stories are sweet but forgettable, though Hugh does end up with the woman who was under his nose all along. In a book of this length there simply isn't time/space to develop the characters, so I'm afraid that it was a bit disappointing.

Booklog 23/2021: M. Verant: Miss Bennet's Dragon - Jane Austen Fantasy #1

This is a fantasy version of Pride and Prejudice and to a large extent treads the same path: five unwed sisters; a pushy mother; new neighbours (Bingley and his snotty friend, Darcy); Bingley and Jane's attraction; an entailed estate due to pass to Mr Collins unless…

And that's where it changes because the gentry, specifically their wyves, if they are lucky, bind a dragon-like creature on their wedding night with the aid of gold and passion. Draca, no larger that a modest sized dog, and sometimes barely bigger than a wyrm, are a status symbol. The Bennets have a firedrake (high status) and though it's bound to Mrs Bennet, it's Lizzy that forms an affinity… with the firedrake and all draca. She can speak with them telepathically, but naturally hides this ability.

England is at war with Napoleon and the French are trying, without success, to use draca as war beasts, and to this end (while Lizzy and Darcy go through the well known steps of their relationship, and Lydia runs off with Wickham) there is a French plot striking into the heart of Pemberley.

I wasn't sure about this at first (having not made it past the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) but once I got into it I enjoyed it. Unlike Jane Austen, M. Verant uses the war with Napoleon to furnish plot, and also has characters condemning the slave trade which is fine, but unfortunately sometimes in terms which come straight from the 'woke' 21^st Century. As the book progressed it diverged further from the P&P plot line. The ending was not really an ending. It simply stopped. This I presume is because there are two more books to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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