Review copy was received from Publicity team. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Fearful Symmetry by Gailie Ruth Caress Published by Quills & Quartos Publishing on March 8, 2021
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 382
Format: eARC
Source: Publicity team
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Darcy had never known such a woman, one who could rush into an inferno and emerge as bold and brilliant as burnished brass, bright as any mirror.
FITZWILLIAM DARCY HAD PLANNED TO LEAVE NETHERFIELD PARK and all thoughts of the enchanting Miss Elizabeth Bennet behind him—until one night when he saw smoke rising from Longbourn and realised she was in peril.
ELIZABETH BENNET FOUND MR DARCY ARROGANT AND INSUFERABLE right up until he became her hero, pulling her and her sister from the fire that devastated their home, and could have claimed both of their lives. Seeing how he put his own life at risk to pull her from the fire, how could she help but change her opinion of him?
THROWN TOGETHER AGAIN in the refuge offered at Netherfield, Darcy and Elizabeth’s unexpected bond gains strength. But disapproval, debts, and doubts all arise when the costs in time and expense involved in rebuilding Longbourn threaten to widen the gulf in standing between Elizabeth and Darcy in the eyes of society. Amidst these perplexities of destruction and decorum, can love’s courage overcome calamity?
A big, suspenseful opening scene, full of danger and dark repercussions, captured my attention from the start and made me eager to see how this altered those first damaging impressions this pair formed of each other and how they would overcome this new devastating conflict.
As a lover of Jane Austen’s novels and other writings, as well as Regency era romance in general, I am always keen to come across intriguing situations to vary a classic story through new to me authors. In this case, the author jumps in with a horrendous fire burning down Elizabeth Bennet’s family home, Longbourn. She gets to see Fitzwilliam Darcy come down off his high horse and save lives, take on menial tasks, and give of his own time and effort to people he wasn’t connected to in the slightest. Her early impression of an entitled and arrogant man of wealth seems to be well off the mark.
Meanwhile, Darcy was prepared to leave the area to avoid the attraction he had for Elizabeth, whose family was beneath his in status, when he discovers a lot of what he thought was important simply didn’t matter once he was helping and protecting this needing family.
Fearful Symmetry began with a suspenseful first scene and the scenes following were about the aftermath of the fire and the moments of starting over with impressions and feelings for many of those involved. Without spoiling the book, I found that from that moment on, the book tended toward a more gentler pacing and tone. It had character-driven development and internal conflict, but it was fairly low-angst.
There are some milestone Pride and Prejudice famous moments, but the author cleverly placed them in different scenes or among different characters. Lady Catherine’s grand, blistering argument with Lizzy, Wickham’s insidious lies, and Caroline’s snobbish sneers kept things lively. What leaped out as fresh and engaging was a new side to the fluttering, silly Mrs. Bennet, a less stuffy Mary who stepped up when needed, and a bold correspondent in Georgiana Darcy who might have saved her brother’s love life from crashing before it barely got started.
As a result of the gentler pacing, it did take its time getting to where it was going, and lord, did Elizabeth and Darcy get me impatient for them to come to the point. But, eventually it got there for a sweet, heartwarming finish. I don’t think this book will be for everyone. The reader should probably have a love for classic variations, sweet historical romances, and a pace that is somewhat laid back.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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oops. This one went at noon instead of 7am. I’m glad this one worked for you. One of these days I need to reread the original as it’s been so long I barely remember the details to be able to compare with these new sort of retellings.
No worries! I don’t mind a later post. 🙂
Yeah, I have to do a re-read or re-listen now and then to keep the original fresh in my mind, too, because I love exploring variations.
What a great review Sophia. I know how much you love the Jane Austen retellings and happy to see that this one worked out so well for you.
Thanks, Renee! I do indeed. 🙂
Ah, another Darcy read. Can one really go wrong?
I know my mood will eventually change and I’ll not be into Darcy for a bit, but swoony stories like this one keep me coming back. 🙂
I just finished Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev, and I wish I knew the source material better so I could note the comparisons and contrasts. I really enjoy read your reviews and love for the Austin stories; you make them accessible even for those of us who really don’t know the originals!
Sonali Dev’s books are fabulous though I really didn’t care for the heroine and hero in the second book for the longest time yet I did like Austen’s original characters. Didn’t have that struggle with the pair in Incense & Sensibility. I can see Austen’s original story in the background influencing the plot, but Dev’s characters and plots are still very much her own.
As to this one, it was a heartwarming one with a few fun tweaks to the original story in a ‘what if’ a disaster interrupted things. How would the characters have reacted? I love exploring that sort of thing.