In He Taught Me to Hope, Elizabeth marries a young man of a wealthy family. Only a month after the wedding, Elizabeth is a widow. Thankfully, in that short time together, she has conceived a child and gives birth to a beautiful baby boy, Ben. Elizabeth continues to live with her father-in-law until his death. Then she and Ben return to Longbourn to live. Sadly, Mr. Bennet, never approving of Elizabeth's marriage, treats her like a stranger.
To secure the future for her mother and sisters, as well as for Ben, Elizabeth agrees to marry Mr. Collins. It is an arranged marriage, but Liz felt it would be good for her and Ben. Then one night, at the Meryton Assembly, she sees Mr. Darcy for the first time. As he is walking through the crowd their eyes meet, and Lizzy feels as if she were staring into the eyes of her soul mate. The attraction is just as strong for Darcy, and he is enchanted with Elizabeth.
I love how Darcy is trying to woo Elizabeth away from Mr. Collins. He is hoping she will see how they are meant to be together and how wrong Mr. Collins is for both her and Ben. He has a strong ally in Ben, who loves Darcy!
Ben is adorable! Darcy and Ben meet in the woods. Ben introduces himself as Sir Lancelot and believes Darcy is King Arthur. I love how Darcy treats Ben. He lets Ben be imaginative, and doesn’t try to stifle that. I also love that Darcy falls in love with both Elizabeth and Ben before he finds out that Ben is Elizabeth’s son.
I wasn't happy with Jane in this story. She is not the positive, “seeing only the good in everything” person she usually is. She is afraid for her future, afraid she’ll never find a husband and is bitter toward Elizabeth and all her suitors. I would have liked to see Elizabeth's and Jane's relationship restored. It felt incomplete.
He Taught Me to Hope is a fun Pride and Prejudice adaptation! I loved the whole King Author aspect.
3.5 stars out of 5.
I won my copy of He Taught Me to Hope from Mary Simonsen's blog.
Buy a copy here.
About the Author:
P O Dixon writes Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice adaptations with one overriding purpose in mind—falling in love with Darcy and Elizabeth all over again. Her initial exposure to Pride and Prejudice was in 2007. After watching the 2005 film at least two times a day for as many weeks, she determined she needed to know much more of the story's hero. After reading the novel, along with several excellent ‘what-if’ books that told the story from Mr. Darcy’s perspective, she came across a link to the online Jane Austen Fan Fiction community. Her life has never been quite the same.
She lives in North Carolina with her husband and preteen daughter, Elizabeth.
Connect with P O Dixon Online:
Twitter: @podixon
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/podixon
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/podixon
Website: http://podixon.com
Email: podixon@podixon.com
I enjoyed seeing all the connections to Arthurian legend. Little Ben has to be one of my favorite original characters. I just got a copy of The Mission, P O Dixon's accompanying Christmas vignette to HTMTH. Hopefully, I will have time to read it this holiday season!
ReplyDeleteHi Jakki, Oh, I didn't know about this Christmas vignette! I would like to read that! Thanks for letting me know!
Deletei always enjoy Dixon's books - I"m hoping to read the new one this winter!
ReplyDeleteHi Angie, yes, me too! Dixon's books are one of my favorites to read. I still need to read A Matter of Trust, plus this Christmas vignette! Looking forward to those. :)
DeleteI enjoyed this one. I agree with you, little Ben is very sweet although probably a bit spoiled by the standards of the times, Lizzy's parenting is more like modern parenting than Regency parenting I suspect. I also agree with you re. Jane being bitter, and quite jealous too. I get the impression that P O Dixon is not a Jane fan as I've thought that Jane is not drawn as kindly as in P&P when reading other books that she's written.
ReplyDeleteTo prevent your readers being scared off this book I would like to point out that the Mr Collins that Lizzy is due to marry isn't the awful Mr Collins from P&P, but his brother, who is much more acceptable, although no Darcy, of course!
Hi Ceri, haha, thanks for the warning about Mr. Collins. :) Yes, I liked this Mr. Collins much better than his brother. Sometimes I'm not sure how much to tell in my reviews. I tossed this fact around a bit. I'm glad you liked this story too! It's always fun to see how Dixon is going to spin it!
DeleteI look forward to reading this one. Nice review, Candy!
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia Rose! I hope you enjoy it, too! Thanks for stopping by!
Delete*sigh* Mr. Darcy's and Ben's relationship just melts my heart! I love how Pam portrayed those two together! Lizzie must be beside herself with happiness witnessing their love for each other, I know I would be!
ReplyDeleteHi Meredith! I couldn't agree with you more! I loved that about this story!!
DeleteI have this and the Christmas vignette but haven't read them yet - hopefully soon. I am already anticipating loving Darcy and little Ben's relationship. I'm so curious about Jane and also what happened to Lizzy's husband. Sometimes I like when Jane is a little bit out of character because she's so often written in fics as this perfect angel with no personality. It's sad to think of the sisters (and Mr Bennet) being estranged. Definitely need to bump this up in my reading order.
ReplyDeleteHi Monica! Darcy and Ben's relationship is definitely the best! Yes, you should bump this up, but if your like me you have so many good books to read on your TBR list! :D
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