Fitzwilliam Darcy has never met a woman like Elizabeth Bennet. He finds her fascinating, irritating, compelling, inspiring, maddening, and absolutely beautiful. If he didn’t know better, he would think he was bewitched.Bewitching Mr. Darcy is a paranormal variation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It is a novella. It was previously published with Jane Grix as author.
P&P meets Bewitched
When reading this story by Cass Grix [Jane Grix], I am reminded of the 60’s TV series ‘Bewitched’ staring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and/or Dick Sargent. Younger readers may be more familiar with the ’05 movie with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. You have the same components with the exception of time and place. Our story is Regency and our characters are Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Let’s just say, this was cute. It moved quickly like most novellas so you have to imagine that DVD on fast forward. We are in a scene and then it moves on. I would have like them to have been fleshed out more. But, it was not to be. You will just have to have that rushed/clipped feeling in regard to what was happening with our characters.
We are dealing with a magical family in England. Mr. Bennet was magical and Lizzy [his favorite daughter] takes after him. No other magic has been demonstrated within the other sisters. Nor has Mrs. Bennet shown any magical powers.
We quickly move through Jane’s illness at Netherfield. Elizabeth, bored and a little taken aback with Darcy’s rude comments about her, places a spell on him. Several days later, she repents and removes the spell. We have the arrival of Wickham with the militia, his lies and sorry tale, the Netherfield Ball, the dance and argument between ODC, and the removal of the Bingley party, along with Darcy, to London, with indications never to return.
Christmas arrives, along with the Gardiners, and Jane is whisked to London so she can recover from her broken heart. Moving quickly along, we are at Easter and the disastrous proposal. An aghast Elizabeth politely refuses his offer of marriage, reveals being a witch along with her confession of having placed a love spell on him. She politely apologizes, releases him from his proposal, and suggests his feelings were not real. He does not believe her and she demonstrates by levitating items on the table. Just like in the movies, Darcy is not amused, then shocked, and then, in anger, he quickly leaves her at the Parsonage.
The rest of the story deals with Darcy trying to come to grips with his true feelings, what he thinks of Elizabeth, and how can he ever forget her. He apologizes to Bingley for interfering with Jane. As Darcy continues in his struggles, he wonders if he might be mad.
We then travel to Derbyshire with Elizabeth and the Gardiner’s and the meeting at Pemberley. Then, of course the letter regarding Lydia. Lawd, that girl was a piece of work. This was really an exciting time as Elizabeth went with Darcy to confront Lydia and Wickham. Here the resolution of the elopement was a bit confusing. We have a breach in propriety of the grievous kind and it seemed to have been swept under the rug. What happened? The resolution was choppy at best.
There were a few new characters… one in particular, Lord Langdale. I really liked him and his attention to Elizabeth was especially infuriating to Darcy. What fun, I wanted to have more about him. I wonder if this would be a series. Several threads were presented that would be most excellent in an additional story. I would love to know more of Bingley and Jane. What happened to Lord Langdale? I would like more information on his and Bingley’s friendship. What about Mrs. Myatt? What happened to her? More please…. Oh, and that big reveal at the end…OMG!!!! I did not see that coming. What a surprise.