Magical

A Pride and Prejudice Fantasy Variation

By: Elaine Burkett

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In a world where having magic is an overwhelmingly male trait, Elizabeth Bennet is an oddity. Not only does she have magic, but she can control three elements when controlling more than one is rare. She is semi-ostracized simply because no one seems to know how to treat her. That is, until Mr. Darcy comes to Hertfordshire.

Mr. Darcy has never met anyone, man or woman, who has as much control over their magic as Miss Elizabeth Bennet. As he begins to teach her more about magic, helping her to hone her skills, he comes to realize how very beautiful she is when her face and eyes are lit with interest and curiosity.

As the two of them work spells together, their magic begins to behave in strange ways, which pulls them ever closer. Their lives intertwine, and Elizabeth learns what it truly means to be a magician.

Low angst

Very charming story! I was hoping to see Mary get some justice though!
It would have been better if a real human was reading it.

P&P Comfort

3.5 stars. P&P re-imaginings are a bit of a fun/comfort read for me. So easy to slip into, as I am already familiar with the characters. Just seeing how another author chooses to tell the tale. Here, it was basically a similar setting (time/place) with a bit of magic added. I don't know how much I'll really remember of this story, but I enjoyed my time in it.

This did have the shift, that Collins and Mary got married ... that always seemed like a fairly obvious option to me (but straying from the original). Not nearly as much angst between Lizzie and Darcy, switching up their original meeting to a little earlier, him witnessing her magic, and being immediately interested. The scene where he offends Lizzie ALMOST happening, but when he realizes it's the woman he met earlier, he does want to dance. Caroline was much more likeable here. Bingley and Jane were on the back burner.

The kindle copy was available to me in Kindle Unlimited ... there was audio in AudiblePlus, clearly labeled with virtual voice. I know there is a lot of push back on virtual voice, but I think this is a perfect example of where it works. A book that otherwise would NOT have audio now does (it's not taking a job away from a narrator, I'm 99% certain this author wouldn't go to the effort/expense) and it wasn't bad at all. SO MUCH better than having Alexa attempt to read a kindle book (which I had just had experience with ... another book that didn't have audio, that I needed to finish for book club. Virtual Voice would have been SO much better than Alexa!)

Droning digital voice

I really don’t like the digital voice and will have to pay very close attention from now on to which titles use this kind of narration. Because of the voice, I missed half of the story.

Hated the computer narration.

The computer generated narration left much to be desired. It was an odd take on the story to begin with. Everything, including the genre, except the names was different. However, there was no difference in inflection in the narration, whether somebody was being severely beaten or asking for tea. If they’re going to use this type of narration, it definitely needs much refining.