Book 671: Dreaming of Mr. Darcy (Austen Addicts #2) – Victoria Connelly

Coming hot on the heels of A Weekend with Mr. Darcy, I of course had to read the follow up novel since the library just happened to have a digital download with no wait. What is that you’re whispering, “Self restraint?” Unfortunately, that’s not in my vocabulary—especially when it comes to books and explicitly when it comes to Jane Austen.

Book two of Connelly’s Austen Addicts series focused more on Persuasion than Pride and Prejudice, although there were plenty of Darcy references. This pretty much solidified that I’ll take my copy of Persuasion (where I’ll be when this posts).

Just like in A Weekend with Mr. Darcy we get a two-for-one romance in this novel, but they’re not as equitably balanced. Honestly, the one felt wedged in, almost like Connelly should’ve written a companion novel because there was so much that must’ve happened off the page in order for one of the stories to be successful that I definitely did a double take when what I assumed would happen did happen.

This book is set in Lyme Regis where they’re filming a new adaptation of Persuasion and all of the meet-cutes and various comedies of errors happen here. I’m not sure how realistic most of it was having seen a film set at one of my previous jobs and the second I stop to ask practical questions (i.e. Who the hell is paying Kay and how much are they paying her for gatecrashing her newly purchased still under renovation B&B?) I’m pulled out of the story.

I again appreciated the Brontë shout out (this time for Emily), the knitting of one of the female protagonists, Gemma, and the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies mention.

“There was something so special about Austen’s heroes that had never been matched in other fiction. Kay had once—very briefly—gone through a Brontë faze [sic], but pulling your lover’s hair out and then digging up her grave wasn’t really the mark of a hero, was it? You wouldn’t get Mr Darcy prowling around graveyards in the middle of the night.” (8)

“It just wasn’t her. She was more of your sit-at-home-with-a-good-book-and-a-cup-of-tea sort of girl. And then there was the knitting…Gemma needed her knitting. Not only was it her passion, but it also calmed her down. The click clack of the needles was mesmeric, and her work in progress took her mind off things…” (62)

Unlike Gemma, Kay annoyed the hell out of me with her day dreaming and that’s really saying something because I am the king of ridiculous when it comes to day dreaming. There were numerous occasions I had to stop reading for a few minutes because I got so mad at Kay. I mean how dense can you get?! Even through the end of the novel I was like WTF is wrong with you. And although you should have this a little bit in a romance novel, it shouldn’t be that frequent and it really was the reason I lowered the rating on this one.

Where Connelly continues to excel is portraying the various types of Austen lovers. You’ve got the film obsessed, the emasculating haters, and the realists who question it all.

“‘You have Captain Wentworth fever?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘It’s like Mr Darcy fever, only slightly less acute, and that’s only because poor old Wentworth’s never had a wet-shirt moment. Not yet, anyway.'” (91)

“I tried once, but it bored me to tears. It’s so slow! I think you have to be a woman to get that sort of thing. Or gay.” (158)

“Did Jane Austen ruin lives by giving people false expectations about love? Were her heroes just too good to be true? Could a real man of flesh and blood ever hope to live up to such paragons? And were books with happy endings cruel? Did they give their readers a warped view of the world and what they could expect from it?” (238)

But, honestly the only reason I kept reading the book was Nana Craig, one of the main male protagonists’ grandmas. She told it like it was and gave zero f*cks. I mean she basically stole the book for me and this line sealed that

“Adam rolled his eyes. ‘Do you want another cup of tea?’ ‘I want some great-grandchildren—that’s what I want.’ ‘Yes, but I’m offering you a cup of tea,’ Adam said. Nana Craig sighed. ‘If that’s all that’s on offer, I guess I’d better say yes.'” (323)

I seriously read that quote a few times because of the chuckle I got out of it and even laughed when I reread it typing it in here. It’s a total grandma thing to say and I’m pretty sure my grandma threw the same shade at me this past Thanksgiving. Since we spent more time than usual and just had time to chat about life and stuff without the normal holiday chaos, to be fair she threw shade at a lot of people including many democratic presidential candidates and locals I knew or knew of, so yeah total grandma thing to say.

Recommendation: This one wasn’t as good as the first in the series (A Weekend with Mr. Darcy), but it wasn’t without its charm. I would rather have spent more time with Gemma or had someone slap Kay and wake her up from her daydreams earlier, but neither of those happened so it was a bit meh by time I got to the end. If Persuasion is your favorite Austen I’d say this is a must read, if not it’s more of a why not read but don’t go out of your way for it.

Opening Line: “Peggy Sullivan leant forward in an attempt to get the pillows behind her just right.”

Closing Line: “Kay shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I know you’ll catch me.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Dreaming of Mr. Darcy
“How callous time was, she thought. It hadn’t stopped to mourn the passing of a dear friend but had marched onwards with ceaseless optimism and dragged Kay along for the ride.” (12)

“…and she knew she had to learn how to control it, because daydreams—as harmless as they might seem—had a way of disappointing the daydreamer by not coming true.” (53)

“He smiled to himself as he saw a row of jewel-bright Regency romances by Lorna Warwick. Hadn’t the author recently been revealed to be a man? Adam was sure he’d read something somewhere.” (87)

“‘Why should things match? Matching’s highly overrated.’ ‘I agree,’ Kay said. ‘Who wants order, when disorder is so beautiful?'” (102)

“Why did we always fall for the one who wouldn’t even notice if we stopped breathing?” (124)

“Why did so much of a woman’s life revolve around men? It was the same in Jane Austen’s time, but surely things had moved on since then. After all, a woman didn’t need a man anymore. She could make her own way in the world now, so why did modern-day heroines insist on finding a hero? Couldn’t a girl be happy on her own?” (268)

“They’d shared only a single kiss, but she was already planning their honeymoon and had named half of their four children. Wasn’t that always the way with women? Wasn’t there a wonderful quote from Pride and Prejudice? ‘A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.’ Kay knew it was certainly true of herself.” (279)

“‘Anyway, I fictionalised Oli. I turned him into a hero that he clearly wasn’t. Or at least, he wasn’t my hero. I don’t know—I seem to have spent my life fantasising about fictional men. But I want something real now. I want something—’ She paused, but she never got the chance to finish her sentence, because Adam stepped forward and took her face in his hands and kissed her.” (348)