Dating Mr. Darcy

In order to promote her fashion line Emma decides to apply for the new television dating show ‘Dating Mr Darcy’. She has no expectations at all, but during the filming of the show she forges new friendships, gains enemies and falls in love with said Mr Darcy… but can she win his heart?

I remember years ago I watched a reality tv show called ‘Outback Jack’. All those women competing over 1 man… They were vicious and mean to each other, but some were really nice. And you know what? The man playing ‘Outback Jack’ married the winner and they started a family (still married I believe). So I know it is possible, but I never watched shows like this again.

In this story we have Emma and Sebastian, who both have their own reasons to be in the show and no, it is not finding love.
I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more of this author. (2020)

A pretend Mr Darcy enters a TV show to find a wife hoping to make enough money to save his home in England. Rich woman was hoping to win him, but he fell in love with a poor girl. A cute story with all happily ever after.

Dating Mr. Darcy is an enemies-to-lovers rom com that had me laughing out loud and swooning, all at the same time.

A hilarious romp from Texas to the English countryside, from Southern drawls to proper British accents, this contemporary romantic comedy mixed Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice with a Bachelor-style, dating reality TV show. It was right up my alley. I read it in one sitting.

I would have given it 5 stars for the story, but the few curse words, the continual drinking, and a couple of inappropriate descriptions of body parts was not only unnecessary but offensive enough to drop it down a star rating. There were also a few typos, not many, but a few.

The snarky voice of the heroine was great (except for the cursing), and the world-building was excellent. The secondary characters were all fleshed out and interesting and memorable. The twist was realistic but totally took me by surprise. (I knew some obstacle needed to happen at 85%, but I didn’t see that one.) And, of course, I loved all the allusions to Austen’s original.

Favorite quotes:
“Is it a truth universally acknowledged, that a girl must compete on reality TV to win a modern-day Mr. Darcy’s heart? Of course not. That would be totally, off-the-charts insane, right?” (chapter 1, p. 5)

“He has a drink in hand, a relaxed smile on his undeniably handsome face, and every eye in the room is trained on him. My bet is it’s pretty darn good to be Sebastian right now.” (chapter 3, p. 36)

“With his Henry Cavill good looks and his air of cockiness, it’s so obvious he doesn’t need a TV show to find love. Which begs the question: why is he here?” (chapter 3, p. 38)

“I’m being ridiculous. Put one costume on me and I turn into a little girl, fantasizing about another life, another time.” (chapter 7, p, 74)

“Part of me wants to go. No question. And the other part? That’s the part of me I’m keeping hidden from everyone, the part of me that’s changing in an unexpected and alarming way. It might be small, but it’s the part of me that wants him to ask me to stay.” (chapter 12, p. 127)

“With my favorite pastime I like to call ‘breathing’ severely restricted, I reply, ‘I don’t need my ‘puppies to pop,’ as you put it, but I would like to avoid a trip to the ER.’” (chapter 15, p. 151)

“’He lives a different life from us, that’s for sure.’ A life I know I could never be a part of.” (chapter 19, p. 196)

“Why does he have to stand so close, smelling the way he does, with that impossibly sexy voice of his? It’s making it hard … to … concentrate …” (chapter 21, p.214)

“Neither of us went into this thing looking for the other. But somehow we found each other, and suddenly the prospect of being here to the end, knowing Sebastian and I can be together, has me grinning from ear to ear.” (chapter 21, p. 221)

“I feel as though I just dodged a missile, intended to make me break down in a sobbing, hysterical mess. So, really, just your average day on a reality TV show.” (chapter 23, p. 235)

“’First the kissing and now longing gazes? Could you get any cuter? And when I say cuter, I mean vomit-inducing, of course.’” (chapter 25, p. 253)

“And yes, I know I’m taking this whole Pride and Prejudice thing a little far. I blame Kennedy for putting the idea in my head.” (chapter 25, p. 255)

“I know nothing can stand in our way. Any doubts I may have had have well and truly disappeared.” (chapter 25, p. 256)

“I’m not going to chase after him. I might not have much, but I have my pride.” (chapter 27, p. 272)

Came to Love the Romance, But…

I have read several books by this author before, and I generally enjoy her romantic comedy style. So, when I saw this book with its Pride and Prejudice theme (which I adore), although it was based around a reality television show—I never read novels about those!—I wanted to give it a try. Before I go into my list of quibbles, I have to say that I did enjoy the romantic aspect of the book in the last half when the hero and heroine were more open about their feelings for each other.

Now, on to the quibbles. The author is from New Zealand, but the book takes place in the United States at first, and all the contestants are American. Therefore, I found UK/NZ/AU expressions used by the characters rather jarring; we don’t talk like that! I’m an American, and we don’t use “whilst” or “spanner”–amongst other words–nor do we use phrases like “pulling a face” (we say “making a face”), so it was strange to hear these words in conversation, descriptions, or in mental musings. Pulling a face really drove me crazy, because it was used often. I’m not sure about the rest of the US, but here in the Pacific Northwest, we don’t use the “_____ much?” expression, like “Cheesy much?” as used in the book. I have no problem with someone outside of the US writing books with American characters, but I just think that the authors might want to run the book by some US people to make sure that idioms are correct.

More bothersome to me, perhaps, because I’m such a Regency lover—it is my preferred sub-genre of romance—were the Regency errors. In the game show, the contestants have to dress as if it were 1812 or 1813. But I was shocked when the costumer put a spencer over a petticoat and sent the girls out—no dress! Petticoats went under dresses, even if the bottom sometimes showed a bit with certain other dress coverings. A Regency woman would have never just put on a chemise, stays, a petticoat, and a spencer—and go about her day. It would be the Regency equivalent of us putting on our standard bra and undies, throwing on a short jacket… and heading out. Even if a petticoat is pretty, it is not a dress! Regency ladies wore day dresses in the earlier part of the day and other types of gowns for dinner and evening entertainment. But she never would have gone out and just a petticoat and spencer.

There was one other Regency dressing issue, too. The author has the contestants wear bloomers. This is anachronistic. The idea for bloomers wasn’t even around until 1849 when it was mentioned in one magazine, and all women certainly did not wear them as standard undergarments at that time. Scholars aren’t quite sure what Regency women wore for what we call underwear, but most believe that they wore nothing whatsoever… no knickers or drawers! And they certainly would not have worn bloomers because those did not exist yet!

Despite these issues, I did enjoy the story for the most part. I wasn’t wild about the heroine; she felt a little 2-dimensional and perhaps a little simple to me to accurately reflect a contemporary woman, especially one responsible for the business end of her entrepreneurial partnership. She, also, was too judgmental at the beginning. She went into the contest with a poor attitude toward the hero before even meeting him; I would have preferred to see her develop such an attitude about him because of their interaction rather than her just coming in with a preconceived notion. I didn’t like, too, how she always seemed to lie about everything. She rarely told the truth to anybody about anything. I didn’t think the author adequately developed her “other side of the tracks” mentality before making it a problem. There was a lot of repetition about the way the heroine thought and felt about different things. The author didn’t show natural progressions. I didn’t like the way the hero handled the dark moment that has to happen in every romance—not very hero like.

The book did have some good humor—some of which made me chuckle and snicker—as I have come to expect from this author, and I will admit to getting a little misty-eyed at the end when everything came together as it should. I understand the next books in the series continue the story of this couple, and I’m actually looking forward to seeing how things work out between them—despite the problems.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.