Wow this week’s reviews are rough.  Kind of like the day I had.  Ok! this book is supposed to be a sequel to Pride & Prejudice.  Lizzie and Darcy have 7 children; the book only features the 5 daughters- Letitia, Camilla, Georgina, Isabelle, and Alethea.  Letitia is a blend of Mary and Jane Bennet.  Camilla is a carbon copy of Lizzie.  Georgina and Isabelle are reincarnations of Kitty and Lydia, and Alethea is the female form of her father. 

Darcy’s fortune has increased tremendously since Pride and Prejudice with the discovery of coal on his property.  Each daughter has a fortune of 50,000 pounds.  The daughters are sent to spend the London season with Col. Fitzwilliam while their parents are in Turkey. 

The Darcy ladies go from one scandal to the next, the most infamous of which is when Letitia unknowingly become engaged to a “queer.”  Georgina and Isabelle manage to get into more trouble than even Kitty or Lydia (though the extent of Georgina’s disgrace is never known outside the family).  All ends well because the girls end up married well. 

You know when you write an Austen sequel, you have a lot to live up to.  Ms. Aston failed miserably.  I was quite surprised.  Jane Austen was such an apt reader of human character.  Aston is definitely not.  Most readers will remember that the Bennet girls turned out the way they did due to parental neglect.  Lizzie was acutely conscious of this.  Seeing how she and Jane regularly tried to curb the behavior of their sisters, one would have to imagine that she would be vigilant with her own children. I just don’t see Darcy or Lizzie being such negligent parents that they would raise two morally bankrupt daughters as Georgina and Isabelle. 

If for some strange reason, you feel the need to read this book, please get it from the library.  Don’t waste $14.95.