OK, so ... I do enjoy my non-fiction, but it's definitely slower going than a novel, and sometimes, I want something a little quicker and lighter. Ergo, I read Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One, by Sharon Lathan (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2009) one afternoon last week, when I wasn't quite up for Built to Last.
In a word, yawn. I'm usually a fan of new spins on old stories; two of my all-time favorites are The Red Tent and The Mists of Avalon, and I still want to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But Mr. & Mrs. was little more than vaguely naughty fan fiction -- very disappointing. Naughty is fine now and again; naughty and romantic is even more so, as it's a rare and underappreciated combination. But if you're gonna write a romantic naughty story, either write your own from scratch or, if you're starting with someone else's characters, at least bring something new to the party (and no, a smidgen of smut alone doesn't cut it).
The plot, such as it is, in a nutshell: The story begins immediately after Elizabeth's wedding to Mr. Darcy. The wedding night vastly exceeds either party's wildest imaginings, and most of the rest of the novel is devoted to how much Darcy and Lizzie love each other, how attracted they are to one another, and how tender and mutually satisfying all their many amorous encounters are. That's pretty much it; not much in the way of conflict or surprise here. Really, all the book has to recommend it are the steamy scenes -- which are OK, but not particularly compelling as the basis for an entire book.
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