In this sweet Pride and Prejudice-inspired romance, William Darcy has finally torn himself away from work to join his sister at their vacation house in the Florida Keys. There, he meets his sister’s new friend, Elizabeth Bennet, the housesitter staying next door.A light, fluffy, feel-good short story/novella. No graphic love scenes.
The Keys for Love
By wendisotis
“I only really and truly fully relax on my own. Give me a sun lounger, a pool and a sea view, and I’m happy.” Miranda Hart 3.5 stars round to 4-stars
I immediately began to relax when I realized the story was set in the Florida Keys. Oh, my tension just simply dissolved as the author described the white sandy beach and the caw of the gulls. There is something about a sheer curtain billowing in the breeze that unwinds me.
Fitzwilliam Darcy, head of the Darcy Corp. since the death of his parents, is a workaholic of the first order. He does not know nor understand the word relax, sleep, rest, and to him an eight-hour work day is an unknown concept. Imagine when his friends and family [Georgiana, cousin Richard, Mr. & Mrs. Reynolds, assistant Charlotte Lucas] attempt an intervention in order to get him to take a vacation.
Darcy traveled from his New York City residence to his home in the Florida Keys. Immediately he began to unwind. That is until he noticed the scantily clad woman sunbathing next door. The next day he found the unknown woman in his house with his sister Georgiana and Mrs. Reynolds. His over protective sensibilities went into high gear in trying to protect home and hearth from a fortune hunter. Georgiana and Mrs. Reynolds were furious at his rude insulting treatment of their friend.
Darcy immediately called Richard and requested a check on Elizabeth [Darcy owned the house next door making her an employee]. Richard reminded him of the background check on her employment records. Richard faxed the file to Darcy and he read the report from his uncle’s security firm [G.F. Security]. House sitter Elizabeth Bennet had a clean record and, according to the file, was more than she presented. Her credentials even surprised Darcy. He had insulted her for no reason.
This was a quick story and the action moved quickly. There were the usual P&P characters that ran fairly close to their canon behaviors.
Villains: We have the Wickham character, who made moves on Georgiana. Instead of Ramsgate, we have an interrupted elopement to Vegas. Collins was a toady associate to Darcy’s aunt Catherine Debourgh who ran the Rosings Co. with an iron fist. Collins and Debourgh had previous dealings with Elizabeth that did not go well. We were given a vague description of some of their harsh treatment of her, but nothing definitive.
The other characters were not given much page time; however, Darcy spent a lot of time on his phone talking to them. Charlotte Lucas worked as Darcy’s assistant and was best friends with Elizabeth. Richard Fitzwilliam was filling in for Darcy at HQ while Darcy was on sabbatical. Georgiana and Elizabeth had become best friends.
This was a cute story. It was a quick read and I felt like I had been on vacation after reading it. There was minimal angst. A lot of it was from Elizabeth herself. She had been worked over by Debourgh and villains and had confidence issues. Darcy was really quick in solving problems by buying his way out. He seemed to be paying for just about everything. I questioned that, but perhaps that was his way. Other P&P characters were mentioned but didn’t get page time. We were told about them and what they did off the page.