Review: Pemberley: Mr. Darcy's Dragon by Maria Grace

Whew! It's been a hot second since I did a real one of these reviews, hasn't it? Like, a whole month! How did that happen? Okay, you're probably not here for my musings on why time feels like it goes so quickly, so...moving on.

So, I heard about this book from Jenelle, and was intrigued--I actually already had a P&P with dragons that I loved, Heartstone, but I was not opposed to finding a new favorite! Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to my expectations...

England is overrun by dragons of all shapes and sizes. Most people are blissfully unaware of them and the Pendragon Treaty that keeps the peace between human and dragon kind. Only those born with preternatural hearing, like Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are able to hear and converse with dragonkind.

When the first firedrake egg laid in a century is stolen from Pemberley, the fragile dragon peace teeters on collapse. Darcy has no choice but to chase down the thief, a journey that leads him to quaint market town of Meryton and fellow Dragon Keeper, Elizabeth Bennet.

Elizabeth shares a unique bond with dragons, stronger than anything Darcy has ever experienced. More than that, her vast experience and knowledge of dragon lore may be the key to uncovering the lost egg. . But Elizabeth can’t stand Darcy’s arrogance and doesn’t trust him to care properly for a precious baby firedrake. After all, he already lost the egg once. What’s to prevent it from happening again?

Can he win her trust and recover the stolen egg before it hatches and sends England spiraling back into the Dark Ages of Dragon War?

Worldbuilding/Writing Style

So, the worldbuilding was interesting. I really enjoyed many aspects of it--the various types of dragons, and they way they work, the estate dragons, the treaty between dragons and humans. I loved all the hatching parts! And Lizzie's many interactions with the dragons! However, I thought that many parts of it were not sufficiently explained. Why is there still an entail, if the dragon-keeper job passes only to people who can 'hear'? Also, why is 'hear' not capitalized, so it doesn't seem like the author/characters is/are implying that anyone who can't hear dragons can't hear at all? XD

In terms of writing style...this irritated me. A lot. In many, many places (read: probably every five pages or so, if not more frequently), the author literally lifted dialogue straight from P&P, sometimes even excising pertinent bits of the dialogue from the middle of the parts she used, so that it no longer entirely made sense. And as much as I love P&P, I loathed this. It felt like plagiarism, and worse, like cheating. If you're doing an adaptation of P&P with dragons, write your own dialogue so that it makes sense with the dragons, and matches your other dialogue! (Obviously, this is just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.)

And to make matters even worse, amid this very Regency dialogue were included very modern-YA introspections from various characters, and the exclamation "gah" was used liberally, in addition to other modernisms. I cannot approve of such mixing of time periods in a writing style. I simply cannot.

Plot
The plot is basically the plot of P&P, mixed liberally with dragons, of course, up to right after the Netherfield Ball. 

There was a lot I liked about the slow pace of the plot. There was more time to explore, more time to insert dragons, etc. The fact remains, though, that it was a slow plot. 

There were things I really disliked about how the plot was done. For instance: chalking up Jane's cold to dragon persuasion. Why not just have her catch a cold from the rain?? There were things that seemed too contrived. 

In addition, it wasn't my favorite that I would have to read the entire trilogy to get all of Pride & Prejudice...

Also, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are thrown together way more than in the book (which is not a problem, independently), but they don't talk! They don't share information! Pertinent information, like who actually stole the dragon egg, which Darcy knows. You'd think that would be something that would be important, especially since that person ends up being important to Lizzie's story as well. This. Drove. Me. Nuts.

I did like the bit right before the ending (I think that's called the climax? Come on, Samantha's brain. XD) quite a lot.

Characters
Lizzie was very Lizzie, I will say. The author did a good job with that! (I loved how confused she was about Jane & Mr. Bingley. XD)

I liked Mary having a more active roll! And seeing the Gardiners more, as well--I liked all of them very much.

Mrs. Bennet was Mrs. Bennet enough to suit even the pickiest reader. (AKA me. XD)

Oh, but Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy. It seemed like the author was trying to have two reasons for his pride/rudeness? One of simple pride, and one of overstimulation in a social environment? And that's fine...it just seemed a little strange in places. The overlap was weird, and didn't quite work. (But still. I love Mr. Darcy. And I loved him here.)

Mr. Bennet, though. I abhorred the depiction of Mr. Bennet. He's like someone took Mrs. Bennet, Lady Catherine, and Mr. Collins, mixed them up, and then made them Lizzie's dad. And as an avowed Mr. Bennet fan, I cannot approve whatsoever. 

I liked Pemberley very much. :)

Romance
Very little--just some unsubstantiated stuff between Jane & Mr. Bingley.

Content
Some scary stuff with dragons, but I think that's it...very clean book. :) 

Overall Rating
I'm on the fence about rating, because I did really like the worldbuilding with dragons, and Lizzie, and I almost wanted to read the next one, so I thought about three stars...but there was a lot that irritated me, and I'm trying to be more hardcore about my book reviews, so I think I'm going with 2.5 for this one.

Reminds me of...
Heartstone by Elle Katharine White, a favorite of mine, as I've mentioned. It's also a Pride & Prejudice with dragons, but a much more creative one, in my opinion. In addition, it's a trilogy, but the first book is a complete retelling of Pride & Prejudice, and the other two books are simply a continuation of the story of the characters. This means that the first one can be read as a standalone, which is really nice! 

Have you ever read a Pride & Prejudice retelling? Do you like fantasy with dragons? What's your favorite retelling of any story?