Secret Arrangement

A Pride and Prejudice Variation

De: Deborah Ann Kauer

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

With an infant ward, Fitzwilliam Darcy needs a wife. How hard can it be to find a wife? Fitzwilliam Darcy needs a mother for his infant ward and a wife. Because of a death bed promise, he will only marry a lady who will unconditionally love the infant and whom he can love. However, in his past searches, Darcy found most society ladies saw only his wealth, connections, and property. How is he to find a lady who sees past what he has and loves who he is? Elizabeth Bennet wants to marry only for love, and of one thing she is absolutely sure, she loves Mr. Darcy’s infant ward. The question is, can she love the man as well. If she does choose to marry, she does not want her mother planning a lavish, overly embellished wedding, so how can she thwart her mother’s plans — through a secret arrangement. Besides the issue of love, what other problems could occur? A mother who will take control of the engagement and wedding arrangements, another lady's jealousy, and a grandmother who wants her infant granddaughter to disappear. Will Elizabeth and Darcy find love and happiness?

Okay

I don’t think Lady Katharine nor Caroline are punished sufficiently for their kidnapping crime. Hope went from a tiny baby to getting married.

Needs editing

I liked the story more than I expected to and realized it was all because of the baby. Without Hope it would have been kinda boring to me. I think the story took a long time to tell. Darcy and Elizabeth don't even meet it seems until forever into the book. And by the point we see they can become a couple, I saw that I still had 6 hours to go in the audiobook and I wondered what the rest of the book could possibly be about.
But I loved the tenderness that people had with the baby. We saw a whole new side to Darcy. Sweet, comfortable, and tender with her. The Bennet sisters all loved the baby and Lizzy spent many hours with her just because she wanted to. And Mrs. Bennet! Oh Grandma Bennet is a whole new person along with Darcy. And there is a twist for one more person toward the end of the book to show sweet concern and tenderness for Hope. No spoiler. There are some crazed women in this one. Way more extreme than their canon versions.
I think the story could have been shorter and better edited. Either the virtual voice reader was really bad with mispronouncing words or there were a lot of typos and wrong words used in the book. And after reading a few other reviews I have to believe it is the latter.

Sweet and slow romance

Familiar characters in a differently paced arc. The romance between ODC was almost too slowly developed, given that they were not separated. Lots of internal musings. The story is good but could have been edited or tightened up for a more pleasing pace. AI reader adequate.