Assumed Virtue

A Sweet Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Victoria Lynn

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

What if Mrs. Bennet is a well-educated tradesman’s daughter, Mr. Collins takes his parish duties seriously and Mr. Bennet overcomes his laziness? A clean reimagining of P&P, focusing on the gentlemen of our story.

Poor Darcy

I am generally not fond of variations figuring an unpleasant Darcy. The Darcy character in this book is unique and not in any good way. At first, I could not find an apt description- rude, boorish, churlish, arrogant, conceited? And then, it came to me. This is the first stupid and incompetent Darcy character I've ever met!

Darcy learns a very hard lesson

The virtual voice was not annoying but not perfect but I will get over it.
The story was not a light and pleasant one with Darcy having to learn a very harsh lesson as he really put his foot in his mouth. Caroline was the main cause with her gossiping false information. The wider character presence brought more to the normal retelling of p&p. I enjoyed it.

Easy listen

Low angst, good Bennets, good Collins. No real villains. I wish there was an epilogue. Jane ended up with Colonel Fitzwilliam, Charlotte with Bingley.

Really fun!

Colonel Fitzwilliam returns from the continent to realize that Mr and Miss Darcy, as well as the Bingleys, need to learn how to treat others with dignity in this reimagining of our favorite classic. Anne DeBourgh takes charge of her life and there is a shuffle in the marriage choices made by all characters except for D & E. I’d love to see this author write sequels showing the various weddings, newlywed lives, and the younger sisters’ seasons.
I didn’t want it to end!

Awesome,

One of the best JFF books I have ever heard. Actually the virtual voice rendition is not the best option but this reading was not too bad; However, the writing and the story are perfect. I did not want to stop and really did listen for 13 1/2 hours straight. I wanted it to go on and on because I was living the experience. There are only 3 really bad people, Wickham, Lady Katherine and Caroline Bingley. All the others characters are interesting and wonderful. All the Bennetts, even Mrs. Bennett, are intelligent kind and generous. This good characters include the Mattocks, Rev Collins, Col Fitzwilliam, and Charlotte Lucas, Darcy and Caroline teeter toward being bad people. The real hero, in my opinion, is Col. Richard Fitzwilliam. I truly enjoyed the fact that that the book revolved around the good people and that the bad people were properly punished. The story goes from Netherfield, Longhorn, Derbyshire, Kent and Bath. The author took the time to develop the story and the characters. She did a masterful job - extremely talented. I know I will listen to this book, or parts of it, over and over. Thank you Ms. Lynn.

Many Characters Learn to Change

So many characters were struggling with their behavior, Darcy chief among them. In this variation the Bennets and Collins were entirely estimable and instrumental in helping others amend their behaviors. There were many HEAs but maybe with a different partner than expected.

This was read by virtual voice and some pronunciations were difficult to hear (like Rossings for Rosings and my absolute cringiest thing Dacre for Darce). There is also an absence of emotional inflections but it’s actually not terrible…just different.

Good story and I recommend.

Really awful

The author infantilizes so many characters and over explains everything. There are bizarre twists and turns though possibly interesting they make no sense…. Like most virtual voice the narration is grating and awful.