Entailed To Heirs Female
by Victoria Lynn
Genres: Regency Romance
Release Date: June 21, 2022
Pages: 335
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
In this low angst, a sweet retelling of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet is not just idle, he is actively cruel. And Mrs. Bennet, while still uneducated, must do whatever she can to protect her daughters from their father.
Mr. Darcy’s epiphany comes much earlier than in canon and it changes his relationships not only with the Bennets but with his sister, his cousin Anne, and Bingley.
When the Bennet matriarch moves to an estate outside of Bath with her daughters, Bingley follows and so do both Darcy siblings.
Review
**Please be aware, this review contains spoilers.**
It was nice to read a variation with an excellent Mrs. Bennet and a terrible Mr. Bennet; this is the first time I’ve seen this twist.
The main thing that keeps me from rating this higher is that we don’t get to see the resolution to the conflicts.
We don’t know how Lady Catherine feels about life in London. Her family theorizes that she’ll hate her diminished consequence and want to return to Rosings, but it’s just speculation. And we have no idea how she reacts to learning that Rosings is being used to care for disabled veterans.
The result of Wickham’s trial isn’t shared. We are to assume he is tried, convicted, and hanged, but that result isn’t guaranteed, so it would have been nice to get confirmation.
We never find out what happens with Caroline. She starts on the road to improvement, but who knows if she follows it. Perhaps she falls back into her supercilious ways. Or maybe she actually sticks with her new path. We don’t know.
Nor do we know how Louisa’s pregnancy goes. Does she safely deliver a baby? Does Bingley make it back to Bath for the birth of his nice or nephew?
We never find out if Lydia improves. All we hear of her is that she has written at least one letter to Catherine complaining about her school. I expected to hear more of her, at least in the epilogue.
And, speaking of the epilogue, we don’t ever find out Mr. Bennet’s ultimate reaction. We get to see a little, namely, how he reacts to the changes in Meryton, but we don’t know what he does after finding out his daughters have married well. Given his propensity toward maliciousness, I can’t imagine he just sits back and says, “oh well.”
I realize that the conflicts aren’t major. They don’t pose any real threats to the main characters. However, to leave those story lines unfinished is annoying. It’s not like we’re being set up for a sequel. These are story lines that are almost finished, then abandoned.
I give credit to Ms. Lynn for her original character, Lady Kirkwood, as she is interesting. But I would have liked to see the effort that went into her go into the story as a whole. And into proofreading. While there weren’t quite enough errors to make me knock off a star, there were several, mostly missing words and typos.
About the Author
Victoria Lynn is a professional in the transportation industry and a part time author
As a voracious reader her whole life with a penchant for period pieces, her literary background is vast.
Her first published work, Netherfield’s Duchess Book 1 is a new take on Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice with all the characters you know and love (and a couple of new ones) in different circumstances. Book 2 should be out before mid summer.
Author links: Amazon Author Page
NOTE: This review is based on an eBook I borrowed from Amazon on [date] as part of the Kindle Unlimited program.
