His Choice of a Wife

A Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Heather Moll

Narrated by: Katherine Anderson

Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

When a man’s honor is at stake, what is he willing to risk for the woman he loves?  

After a disastrous marriage proposal and the delivery of an illuminating letter, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet hope never to lay eyes on one another again. When a chance meeting in Hunsford immediately throws them in each other’s way, Darcy realizes his behavior needs correcting, and Elizabeth starts to appreciate his redeeming qualities. But is it enough to forgive the past and overcome their prejudices? 

Jane and Bingley’s possible reconciliation and Lydia’s ill-conceived trip to Brighton pose their own challenges for two people struggling to find their way to love. When scandalous news threatens their chance at happiness, will Darcy and Elizabeth’s new bond be shattered, or will their growing affection hold steadfast?

©2019 Heather Moll (P)2020 Heather Moll

Decent but frustrating

First, the narration is excellent.

I love P&P variations and vagaries, but this one is mediocre at best.

The characters... The best ones stay true in essentials to the beloved original characters. While this story is decently written, the characters are way off. They are not ridiculous caricatures, but completely morally and intellectually opposed to the originals. Their choices and actions are absurdly stupid. Lizzy and Darcy lack the depth of interior reflection and change that define their characters. Don’t even get me started on Bingley and Mr. Bennet.

The story... The plot is a weak “what if” theme with vague gratuitous sex scenes thrown in at odd moment. The writing isn’t bad, but a little superficial and tedious at times. Darcy following Wickham to Bath makes little sense in terms of it’s purpose and everything that follows. This is perhaps the stupidest scenario I have ever read in a P&P variation. Why why why?! This is SOOO NOT DARCY.

Uh, no thanks

Too much variation without creativity. The storyline, character integrity, and events strayed too far from canon without justification for me to enjoy this version. I was taken aback by the unexpected and random gratuitous scenes. I personally don't enjoy P&P JAFF that "anticipates vows." Not clean and not for teens. The best I can say about this audiobook is that it was free. I will not be listening again.

Very Dramatic

Overall I enjoyed this story. As per usual if Darcy and Elizabeth would have just talked to each other reasonably much of their angst would have been resolved earlier. Once it was they worked together to solve the many problems. Mr. Bennet was shown in a worse light than usual and Kitty and Wickam even worse than normal too.
I enjoyed the narration by Katherine Anderson. She portrays the characters very well and gives life to the story. This is not the first book I've listened to read by her and I won't hesitate to get others.
I was given this book at my request for an honest review.

Did not finish

I have read/listened to books by Heather Moll before and enjoyed them. This particular P&P Variation was not to my liking. I don't expect the characters to act the same in every variation, but so many people were unlikeable in this variation. Also, I don't mind sex scenes in a book, but these seemed kind of random but also the main focus of the book, if that makes sense. I didn't hate it, it just wasn't to my taste. I listened to more than half before deciding to move on.

That being said, the narration was good. I have listened to books narrated by Katherine Anderson before and believe she is consistently entertaining.

Very enjoyable from start to finish

Great story with strong narration. It kept me enthralled in the story! I’ll definitely listen to this often!

A new view

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The story is well thought out and well put together. One of my favorite parts is the ending heather gives to Wickham.
Katherine the narrator did a wonderful job bringing the book to life. I love her performance of the book.
If you would like a look at a different side to the beloved pride and prejudice characters then this is the book for you.

Great story

I have read it as a book and now listened to it as well. Great narrator as well. I highly recommend this book to a Jane Austen fan fiction lover.

Darcy and Elizabeth must overcome challenges

The audio book brought the story to life. The narrator was great.
The story is not whimsical but not overly dramatic as some variations can be. This story has challenges for OFC but as they grow in love they seem to deal with them. I will say this Bingley is a sop and does exactly what his sister says. Wickham is more depraved and vengeful. It does help the plot. It’s so worth the listen. Enjoy!

Villains Galore

The villains we know are worse than ever and they are joined by characters we’ve known and loved.

This couple struggles to get to their HEA and another couple sees their HEA crash and burn. With so many obstacles, the story is good, but it could have used a bit of editing. There are a few conversations that are circular and some that were not really needed to progress the plot.

Note for the narrator: I’ve listened to a couple of books narrated by Ms. Anderson and I respectfully request that someone help her with her pronunciations. For just a few examples; sycophant (sik e phant not PSYCO fant), fiend (feend not fi end), lineage (lin e age not line age) dilatory (dill a tory not dial a tory) and character (and all derivatives). Sorry, I can’t even come close to what she does with that word.

This is a PG-13+ version as ODC are very passionate and “anticipate” their vows.

Edit! Edit! Edit! UGH!

This story drag in so many places....just to postpone their wedding. I truly didn't understand why. THEN it edit in places where it should have explained more. How frustrating. About half way through the book I had to speed it up and listen at 1.70 speed. I would like to know of the P&P variation that isn't prolonging the marriage with stupid things. I don't think I can listen to thus again.

It isn't a bad book...

I want to start by saying that this really isn't a bad book. It is well-written and I do believe it keeps the overall tone of the Austen-verse. There were some subversions of the typical PP-fanfiction that I adored, which I will mention in the end of my review with a spoiler warning.

That being said, large parts of this book bored me. I found myself constantly wishing for it to pick up the pace, to move on, for SOMETHING to happen. I think the issue for me was that the overarching storyline could have been boiled down to 1/3 of the book's length, if not 1/4 - there was just soooo much unnecessary fluff. Especially the middle of the book just dragged on and on for what felt like forever.

There were some (possible?) flashback scenes interjected in the last third of the book that were confusing and not really well executed, but that was possibly due to the format, as I imagine a real book would have those in italics.

------ SPOILERS BEYOND -------

One thing that really bothered me about this book was Elizabeth's internalised misogyny. I get it, the time the book is depicting wasn't exactly female-friendly, but her panicking because she "ruined a decent man's self-resolve" by kissing him just made me really annoyed. It was a far cry from how I believe Elizabeth Bennet would have thought and acted in a similar situation. In fact, Elizabeth seemed to jump between an Elizabeth I recognised from PP and an imposter who borrowed her name.

One thing that I DID enjoy thoroughly and haven't seen other PP-fanfictions do, was to have Bingley abandon Jane. I feel like that was truly in keeping with his original character - as dreamy as he was made out to be, the man really didn't have a backbone, so I was pleasantly surprised (if you can say that about Jane's heartbreak) with this turn of events.