I heard about this from Jane over at the Greenish Bookshelves and I love Pride and Prejudice so I headed down to the library for this the first chance I had. This is a Pride and Prejudice retelling, diverging from the book at Darcy’s original proposal. Instead, the story looks at what might have happened if Elizabeth had accepted Darcy back then.

To be honest, it was pretty easy for me to tell whether I would like the book – the minute I bought Elizabeth’s acceptance of Darcy (given that it seemed so unlike her), I knew that Darcy and Elizabeth were in the hands of a skilled writer. Ormiston weaves an enchanting story that made me fall in love with the characters of Pride and Prejudice all over again.

The language here was fantastic and felt completely true to the original. It really felt as though I was reading Austen at times. Of course, I don’t even need to talk about the characters because they were completely true to the original. Darcy is definitely a bit sappier than in the original, but he’s still proud and he doesn’t act like a lovesick schoolboy throughout the story. It was really fun seeing Darcy unbend and Elizabeth slowly rid herself of the negative image she had of Darcy.

There was also a really tender moment that humanised the people of Longbourn as well. I won’t spoil it, but it made me melt and gave a new dimension to the people of Longbourn, who were never much more than background characters to me before that. Plus, it really helped with Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship and I think I’ve already reread that scene a couple of times because it’s just so good.

I read the prologue, which mentioned that this was originally published as fanfiction. And to be honest, I could have told even without reading that because I had a ridiculous grin on my face while reading (which isn’t the best thing given that I read this during my commute). But then again, the best fanfiction makes me smile like no other so I shouldn’t have been surprised. If you’re interested in reading more, there’s a short story called The Wedding Day, which takes place after Unequal Affections. I also really like this story called Bingley’s Blunder, in which the careless words spoken by Charles Bingley leads to the misunderstandings about who Darcy’s fiancee is.

Obviously, I loved this book. It was such a fun read and it let me re-experience the magic of Pride and Prejudice through a whole new storyline. This is definitely one of my reading highlights for the year.