In a way this feels like a labor of love that's been years in the making, but at the same time, it reads fanfiction that was written and released serially. It started out a little slow, especially in the beginning when it was mostly just large chunks of Pride and Prejudice regurgitated but picked up nicely after the Meryton assembly.Īpparently Pleasants wrote this back in 2007 after the final Harry Potter book came out.

Darcy is powerful and Elizabeth's a muggle and there's an evil hooded villain on the loose. While Pleasants' writing doesn't quite live up to Austen's (though really, whose could?), it's not so bad it distracting from the narrative.

I tend to avoid Regency retellings because authors try to match Austen's style and tone and seem to get it horribly wrong. I didn't have high hopes for this, but I have to say, it was better than I expected. So glad this Lydia isn’t forced to marry Wickham the jerk, as the only logical and honorable conclusion to her teenage crush! There’s a throwaway line about Lydia not being allowed to go off with her friends, which would be the trip where she and Wickham elope. The mystery turns far enough away from the original P&P to have suspense, as the characters team up to fight the power-stealing evil Necromancer. I had so much fun seeing how these familiar characters handled magic. Enchanted Pemberley was awesome, of course. The second part of the story turns to a magical adventure, starring our favorite Austen characters. Although easy to overlook, Elizabeth’s power is actually the most powerful one: the ability to disenchant and break spells. It was just so much fun to read about Lydia and Kitty enchanting themselves to be more attractive, or about Elizabeth knocking off Darcy’s constant anti-tripping spell.

The author uses some dialogue from the original, but adds magical elements to familiar scenes. Bennet and his second daughter, Elizabeth, have shown no magical skills at all. Mr Darcy is a talented mage, Bingley does plant and garden magic, a perfect match for Jane Bennet, a healer. The beginning of Disenchanted is a beat-for-beat Regency retelling, with magic. This was such a fun book, a great time for fans of magic and Jane Austen.

Disenchanted by Kara Pleasants