Pride and Proposals: A Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Victoria Kincaid

Narrated by: Erin Evans-Walker

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

What if Mr. Darcy’s proposal was too late?

Darcy has been bewitched by Elizabeth Bennet since he met her in Hertfordshire. He can no longer fight this overwhelming attraction and must admit he is hopelessly in love. During Elizabeth’s visit to Kent, she has been forced to endure the company of the difficult and disapproving Mr. Darcy, but she has enjoyed making the acquaintance of his affable cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam.

Finally resolved, Darcy arrives at Hunsford Parsonage prepared to propose - only to discover that Elizabeth has just accepted a proposal from the colonel, Darcy’s dearest friend in the world. As he watches the couple prepare for a lifetime together, Darcy vows never to speak of what is in his heart.

Elizabeth has reason to dislike Darcy but finds that he haunts her thoughts and stirs her emotions in strange ways. Can Darcy and Elizabeth find their happily ever after?

©2015 Victoria Kincaid (P)2018 Victoria Kincaid

Cute Story with a Very, VERY Melodramatic Narrator

This is not my favorite from this author, but it's a really decent one. It's an excellent example of the "Lizzie Marries the Colonel" trope among Pride and Prejudice variations, and Kincaid's stories are always a fun listen.

For me, however, the narrator was so over-the-top that it interfered with my enjoyment. Since these things are subjective and everyone likes different things, your mileage may vary. The narrator has a beautiful tone to her voice, and I never had any difficulty knowing which character was speaking. That said, she indulges in a slow reading with long, melodramatic pauses and a lot of them. In addition, the reading is very emotionally heightened. Think of a British female voice as the stereotypical impression of William Shatner. Now, turn the volume up on it. That's what you're dealing with. Everyone is constantly breathing heavily, exclaiming loudly, and basically behaving like actors in a penny dreadful with halting sentences and heaving emotions.

The ENTIRE book is read this way.

I found it so distracting that I really wish I'd gotten the Kindle version instead of the audiobook. Other people (given the ratings) clearly appreciated the performance, but it honestly made me roll my eyes and pause the story for a break pretty frequently.

So there it is. Great variation if you enjoy the Lizzie marrying Colonel Fitzwilliam stories. I found the narration cartoonish and extreme, but the sound was good quality and the narration was clear enough to understand every word. My advice would be to listen to the entire sample and consider if that's something you want 9.5 hours of. If it isn't, get the Kindle version.

Best wishes.

Took too long for Darcy and Elizabeth to unite

I was reluctant to listen to a story about someone other than Darcy being engaged to Elizabeth, but it was not as upsetting to me as I feared. Darcy was pitiful in his attempts to get over his loss of Elizabeth. Wickham was awful, as usual. Caroline was pretty rotten as well. The book was well written.

Ahhhhhh Darcy

Wonderful narrative of wonderful story. I love P&P retelling stories including this one. This is a wonderful story but Mr Darcy really aggravated me. I admired his determination to keep his feelings to himself while his cousin was still in the picture. Even though Elizabeth was grieving he could have been less aloof to aleast try to change her thinking about him. Because of his stubbornness he almost lost her. I loved his fierce determination to protect her even from his own "unwanted feelings" but by not making his true feelings evident, he was pushing her away. I was saddened by Richard's parents behavior towards her as well but all these elements made the story more complex and endearing once they were able to obtain their HEA.

The narration is truly awful!

While the story is good, the poor narration ruins the overall experience. Instead of flowing, there is an unnecessarily long pause between the sentences. The affectation of the narrator's voice is ridiculous!