Stars Over Pemberley

A Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Marie Green

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

What on earth has happened at the Parsonage? Mr Darcy is shocked to find Elizabeth by the stables, in distress, unable to speak and covered in blood. What he discovers leaves him with no option but to care for Elizabeth, to make her presentable and to protect her from scandal.
His aim to hand her the letter he has laboured over for hours, is forgotten as he must face the horrors of what he finds in the house before anyone sees Elizabeth in such a state.
But what he wishes most, to keep her with him and help her, is not possible. He must act on the doctor’s advice. Miss Bennet must return to her family, where it is hoped that she will regain full health and her memory of the events in Hunsford.
When details of what happened reach Meryton, Elizabeth becomes the target of gossips and a possible scandal.
Mr Darcy steps in, with love and devotion he hopes to help Elizabeth back to the person he knew, no matter what she thinks of him.
Although the story includes descriptions of the terrible event at the Parsonage, it is a gentle story of care and devotion with very little angst.
It is April 1812.

Interesting ideas for a book but....

3.5 stars
This was an interesting idea for a book but needed better execution. I read a number of reviews and all of them mentioned that they were confused by the events at the parsonage. Even by books end it had not been explained well enough. My thoughts there are that the jumbled memories projected Elizabeth's injuries onto Charlotte. I'm just not sure if the author did it on purpose or accidentally. Did she mean to say Charlotte when it might have been Elizabeth it happened to? Or was Elizabeth just too scrambled to remember it correctly? We may never know.
I question Caroline's sources for gossip since she apparently made no friends in Meryton.
I loved Darcy's tender care of Elizabeth in the immediate moments after the tragedy as well as as time went on. And I was grateful that Elizabeth regained her memories and was able to see clearly how she really felt about Darcy in the present rather than relying on her memories of anger.
I liked Miss Darcy even though we didn't spend much time with her. And I liked Anne. I always like when authors give her some health and some backbone. And I was happy about her love match. She was kinda mean to Caroline which was humorous to the reader and characters who really knew the situation but Caroline more than deserved her treatment. It is ironic that Caroline didn't like how Anne treated her but then treated Elizabeth even worse. I sure would like to see Darcy stand up to his Aunt C instead of ignoring her idiocy. And I'd like him to shut Caroline up too.
There were mistakes in this virtual voice audiobook but after reading some reviews I think it was probably in the writing and not just the voice that made them. Virtual voice is never my favorite but it can only do what it has been given.