It is a truth universally acknowledged that people keep writing follow-ups to
Pride and Prejudice and you never quite know what you're going to get.
Fortunately this
is one of the better books (or at least less bad), partly because it focuses most on Anne de Bourgh and leaves Darcy and Elizabeth to
act as more minor characters, although they feature more toward the end of the book. In fact, Darcy wouldn't normally merit his name in the book title with regard to the amount of time we see him in the book,
but "Anne and Edmund" wouldn't tell readers quite what you're writing about.
Anne de Bourgh was always a somewhat indistinct character in P&P. Is she a mere shadow, willing to do her mother's bidding all the time? In this book, we see Anne coming out of her shell once she gets away from her mother. She begins to display her own character and interests and chooses a man who suits her rather than the ideas of society.
Although Darcy and Anne is a romance, the romantic plot
is rather minor overall as Anne and Edmund's love story seems perfunctory,
leading it to read more like a story of a young woman growing into herself and her character. The author is apparently English, although
the narrative still contains some odd Americanisms that I wouldn't have expected with an English author.
Overall it is a gentle, light, easy read, if a bit short.
The romance aspect perhaps disappoint, but at least the author doesn't do anything
too awful with the characters of Darcy or Elizabeth as we see them briefly in their marital home.