Leasing Longbourn

A Sweet Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Victoria Lynn

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

What if there were no entail? When Mr. Bennet dies, the Bennet ladies are given a new home at
their Uncle Gardiner’s estate, Netherfield Park. When Mr. Bingley looks to lease an estate close to
London, Longbourn seems the perfect solution.
And he brings with him his best friend Fitzwilliam Darcy, along with Miss Bingley, Mr. and Mrs.
Hurst, retired Col. Fitzwilliam, and the longtime mentor of Darcy and Fitzwilliam, Mr. Wickham.
Lady Anne Darcy, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and other family members plot against our favorite
couple. Will they succeed in their efforts to compromise Miss Darcy?

Wickham a good guy? Really?

Overall, I liked it. Fun twist on some of the characters. Not so fun on others. The villains were dastardly. The virtual voice killed it though. It’s always hard to tell when one character stops talking and the other begins.

Refreshing.

No tolerance of bad behavior for the excuse of "propriety". Honestly, I can't imagine that more people in Regency England didn't hold others accountable for bad behavior. This was a refreshing read.

AI reading or robotic, reading or whatever this is, makes it awful

The story is OK. I loved the ending, but it isn’t one of my favorite variations, but it was OK. No doubt I would’ve enjoyed it more. If it wasn’t some voice generated narration, the human voice is much better. This generic narration from a computer voice does not have the same effect, and it took away the enjoyment of listening to an audiobook.

Too much long conversation

First of all, the virtual voice reading is just not satisfactory. The cadence is the same with each sentence, 'Rosings' is mispronounced with every P&P variation that's read by virtual voice, and other mispronunciations that spoil the narrative. This particular variation is pretty boring storytelling by the author. There are new plot developments, and major changes, as well as complete alteration of some of the original character's original personalities, which makes for variety. But there are so many long, long conversations that tell backstory, and plot movement seems very slow.

Bingley gas backbone, Darcy open and caring

I tried another virtual voice, I’m not to keen on the sound. I did enjoy this story line. I loved how strong the Bennet girls are and how open and caring Darcy and Fitzwilliam are. Some of the relationships are incredible and very well thought out. Enjoyed this

I love retribution

This book contains very different roles and locations for my favorite P&P characters, which I found fun and entertaining. Bingley is leasing Longbourne while the Gardners have purchased Netherfield. Mr and Mrs. Bennett are evil people and parents. Lady Katherine and Ann Darcy are also evil. But all works out fine.

Not a fan or AI narration

if you are going to use the AI voice, then program it to say the names right. Darcy must be hard for it to pronounce!

Cliff Notes - Mom didn't love us!!

Spoiler alert - the Cliff Notes version of the book is "Our mothers don't love us, so we're going to tell them off and lock them in their rooms for the rest of their lives."

Yep, you can now happily skip this one. Seriously, I understand that 12-step programs are incredibly helpful and healing for many people. I'm not joking about that. Hats off to all the great healing work that people do in the "rooms." But do I want to read about Al-Anon shares in a Jane Austen fan-fic book? Oh, Lordy, NO! In case I ever wanted to know an author's personal baggage and stage of childhood wounding recovery, now I have it. The entire story is a series of "poor me, I'm a victim! Mom never loved me!" conversations combined with "Oh, you're a victim, too, great, let's get married!", combined with "Let's scold, lecture, and lock up all our mean relatives!" Wow. Seriously, this author has some serious fantasy wish-fulfillment needs that would have been better off staying in her personal recovery journal. Yikes. Thank goodness this was a free/included with membership title that I don't have to try to get a refund for.