Any Fair Interference

A Pride & Prejudice Variation

De: Nan Harrison

Narrado por: Lauren Aycock

To be a fool is one thing, to be a fool for love is something else altogether.

Shortly after the precipitous departure of Mr Bingley and his party from Netherfield Park, disaster strikes Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s family. Not only is Mr Bennet ill, Longbourn and indeed all of Meryton is struggling through one of England’s worst winters. Elizabeth draws on every strength to care for her family, but faces the alarming prospect of losing both her father and her home. Her lonely struggles lead her to revise her opinion of a certain gentleman, and she finds unexpected solace in dreams of Mr Darcy.

Fitzwilliam Darcy believes he can escape his attraction to Elizabeth by leaving Netherfield. He soon finds himself snowbound at Pemberley, where forced isolation compels him to contemplate his duty, and contrast it with dreams of his heart’s desire. No matter how he considers it, though, he feels he cannot have Elizabeth, the one he truly loves.

Fortunately Darcy's friends and his family–Georgiana, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and the Hursts–feel far differently than he, and soon even the most unlikely allies have come together to help him see that happiness is the highest consideration of all. But will he and Elizabeth find the courage to follow their hearts before it is too late?

Any Fair Interference is a Pride and Prejudice variation.

©2022 Nancy Narigon (P)2022 Quills & Quartos Publishing

3.5 to 4

the first three quarters of the book was very good I found it fascinating but I could see why Jane Austen herself didn't write romance per se because the last quarter was very treacly and read like a Harlequin romance. I'm not into that.

narrator was good except.for the unpardonable sin of pronouncing Longbourn as Long burn. you would think someone would have caught this since the word is repeated often

Love this story

Very well written. All was happy all around except Caroline should have been made to get her own place...lol.
The narrator I didn't car for but was ok. I wished more of the variation could be read by Arthur Rowan

Reread it :)

Great story. I read it first and listened to it after. Both good ways to enjoy a book. This was a well written with a Darcy that pursues Elizabeth for a long time. Determined. Great Jaff.

Enjoyed the story...however

Interesting and wonderful new and familiar characters. The Hurst's improved, marriage with Caroline out of the house. The constant mispronouncing Longbourn as LongBURN? Made me frustrated and cringe, it's unacceptable, in a P&P variation.

Very Interesting Version

I was a little confused at first by the time given to the Hursts rather than the focus being Darcy and Elizabeth or even Bingley and Jane, but it was, I suppose, the setup for introducing Louisa and Gilbert Hurst as a more prominent couple in this variation. I enjoyed their story. Mr Bennet, not altered from Austen’s characterization, was given a good ending scene with Jane and Elizabeth. Lydia, Kitty and Mary — improve. Anne de Burg has a small but choice role. The Colonel and Georgiana are themselves. So is Mrs Bennet. Darcy dithers over social expectations, as usual, but also with his desire for Lizzy. And there is a side story involving a Baroness, her elderly husband, her lover and her friends drawing in Caroline Bingley - the relentless social climber - to use her as a smokescreen to cover the Baroness’ love affair. The Gardiners and the Matlocks are included and even Mrs Hill is given a little cameo role involving Darcy and a pillow. I enjoyed this story. The narrator was good enough, but she mispronounced a lot of words, not just LongBURN. I was interested enough in the story to let it go.

This one has it all!

This story gave me all the things I like to see. Bingley to the rescue! Darcy screwing his head on straight without any help (well, maybe Georgiana's). A reformed Mr. and Mrs. Hurst. A better Lydia too, and an epic Caroline takedown! Too bad someone has to die.

Any Fair Interference

Third time to listen to this delightful story. Love the PILLOW! Feel such pity for Caroline Bingley’s maid; especially towards the end when Ms B insists on wowing everyone at the funeral dinner! Too many great parts to list, just buy the audiobook! Ignore the “Longburn” if it bothers you. You’ll love this audio version. 💙💙💙💙💙

Loved the Hursts

After listening and paying close attention throughout this audiobook, and after reading the book previously when it was first released, I still can’t figure out for the life of me what Baroness Riverton’s goal was with respect to Caroline.

The narrator, Lauren Aycock has a very pleasant and sweet voice, which serves well for the female characters, however, her performance of the male characters in such a sweet voice doesn’t fit so well. The narration is pretty much a straight reading of the book, which she does very well, but I prefer a change of voices and tones for the different characters when I listen to an audiobook. My favourite part of this story was two-fold: the different storyline for the Hursts who were very likeable and well portrayed, and Darcy and Elizabeth’s love story once Darcy decided to let his pride go. I appreciated Mr. Bennet’s last conversations with Jane and Elizabeth, and the changes in Lydia, Kitty and Mary. I also loved how, albeit unknown by them, ODC receive a little help from their friends. I wanted to hug Mrs. Hill.

Complete and fully realized story, such a dream!

Oh I was sad to see this one come to an end! Where do I begin? The plot was so fun and fleshed out with lots of supporting characters that were given more time and fully realized personalities than in the original. Some of these characterizations are strikingly different from P&P but the author does a nice job of working that into the plot.

I thought the pacing of this was very good and my only complaint might be that ODC spends a large portion of the story apart. The author more than makes up for this later!

One of my favorite aspects of this story is that nothing is skimmed over. I hate when you're reading a story and there's a line like "they walked together and had the most delightful conversation and fell more and more in love" without any insight into what actually transpired between the characters. This story does not skip any of the important conversations that form the foundation for the characters actions and feelings.

The peripheral characters take more of a central role here and are all fun and unique in their characterization. It was such a joy to discover the larger world of Pride and Prejudice.

I will note that the narrator makes some odd choices with pronunciation choices, most notably pronouncing Longbourn as LongBURN. But over all her delivery is transporting. Occasionally I had a hard time deciphering that she had switched from voicing one character to another but this confusion never lasted long and did not diminish my enjoyment.

This went to the top of the list of my favorite Pride and Prejudice variations and I am sure I will return to it again and again in the future.

Very good story, Nice twists. Lovely Mr Darcy.

For a first published work I’m encouraged that we have a new JAFF author to admire now, and hopefully the future. I loved the story of the Hursts and their friendship with the Gardiners. This was definitely a P&P story but more of it was focused on the characters of Louisa and Gilbert Hurst, Jane and Charles, and the female Bennets dealing with Mr Bennet’s illness and death. Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s story took place mostly in their heads until far into the book. However, at least with this fact the author took a respectable and satisfying time with the couple meeting and getting to know one another better before the proposal.

The narrator mispronounced several words but in general I enjoyed it from that perspective.

I recommend this to JAFF fans especially.