Transforming Mr. Darcy

A Magical Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Melanie Rachel

Narrated by: Elizabeth Grace

Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

What if Elizabeth Bennet had a fairy godmother?

Elizabeth Bennet is envious of her sister Jane. Not for her beauty or her disposition, but because her fairy godmother is everything that Elizabeth's is not.

When Mr. Darcy insults Elizabeth's looks, Mildread Driftwort is incensed to hear her handiwork defamed. Now, instead of nursing the grievance herself, Elizabeth is forced to defend this conceited man who has no idea what he's done.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is scandalized to witness Miss Elizabeth Bennet speaking to herself at a country assembly. After refusing to dance with her, he begins to experience a variety of inexplicable illnesses. He can't sleep, he can't speak, he can't even walk. Then something worse befalls him - he discovers he is falling in love with her.

Despite Elizabeth's warning, Mr. Darcy commits blunder after blunder. Yet as she works to mitigate Mildread's wrath, Elizabeth realizes that Mr. Darcy is not the unmannerly oaf her fairy godmother believes him to be - and though she is certain nothing can come of it, she is falling in love with him.

As magic swirls and the couple faces impending disaster, Elizabeth finds that Mr. Darcy may not be the only one who is transformed.

This is a fluffy, silly, funny fairy-tale Pride and Prejudice variation novella of approximately 30,000 words.

©2021 Melanie Rachel (P)2021 Melanie Rachel

A fantasy filled P&P retelling that is filled with sweetness and a bit of magic

As a lover of both Austen retellings and fantasy novels, I was very eager to jump into Melanie Rachel's novella, Transforming Mr. Darcy! The story is narrated by the incredibly talented Elizabeth Grace, who is one of my favorites in the P&P landscape and always reads Darcy wonderfully.

This retelling which sees the Bennet daughters blessed with the presence of fairy godmothers, is a sweet and fun story that lets the reader imagine what might have been if there had been a little magical intervention to help Darcy and Elizabeth find their way to each other shortly after his initial slight at the Meryton assembly.

Elizabeth's fairy godmother uses her powers to get each of our main characters to see past their prejudices and pride by forcing them to work together against a spell that threatens to leave Mr. Darcy in a magical state for eternity. It is through their shared efforts that Darcy and Elizabeth come to realize the beauty of opening one's heart to another and the strength that comes from sharing one's burden with another.

I really enjoyed this quick read and the way that Melanie wove in a few different fairytale threads. Elizabeth's fairy godmother provided the perfect saucy foil for comedic relief at various points in our story. At the end of the day, the Darcy and Elizabeth who come out the other side of this ordeal are very much the characters we all have come to love and root for. Elizabeth Grace once again does a lovely job lending richness and vibrancy to these characters through her narration.

If you are looking for a heartwarming P&P variation with a bit of fancy and whimsy, then give this book a read

A GREAT unusual adaptation!

This was so different at first I thought I wouldn’t like it but as it progressed I got more and more hooked on it. It turns out I loved it and highly recommend it!

Great story

This magical what if story was a great read. The mix of all the old children’s stories with pride and prejudice was fun to read. Great Jaff.

An absolute gem

I found this to be a clever mash up of different fairy tales and references to the original story. The narrator was lovely to listen to. I enjoyed the length. It's a great one to enjoy start to finish on a Sunday afternoon.