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Review – The Hypocrite

Posted in Book Blogger

The Hypocrite

by Shana Granderson, A Lady

Genres: Regency Romance, Historical Romance
Release Date: November 5, 2020
Pages: 765 pages
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★☆☆☆

***PLEASE NOTE: This is a new and edited version of ‘The Hypocrite.’ The faulty manuscript has been corrected and replaced. I hope that you enjoy the updated and edited story.***

The Hypocrite is a low angst, sweet and clean tale about the relationship dynamics between Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet after his disastrous and insult laden proposal at Hunsford. How does our heroine react to his proposal and the behaviour that she has witnessed from Darcy up to that point in the story?

The traditional villains from Pride and Prejudice that we all love to hate make an appearance in my story BUT they are not the focus. Other than Miss Bingley, whose character provides the small amount of angst in this tale, they play a very small role and are dealt with quickly. If dear reader you are looking for an angst filled tale rife with dastardly attempts to disrupt ODC then I am sorry to say, you will not find that in my book.

This story is about the consequences of the decisions made by the characters portrayed within. Along with Darcy and Elizabeth, we examine the trajectory of the supporting character’s lives around them. How are they affected by decisions taken by ODC coupled with the decisions that they make themselves? How do the decisions taken by members of the Bingley/Hurst family affect them and their lives?

The Bennets are assumed to be extremely wealthy for the purposes of my tale, the source of that wealth is explained during the telling of this story. The wealth, like so much in this story is a consequence of decisions made Thomas Bennet and Edward Gardiner.

If you like a sweet and clean, low angst story, then dear reader, sit back, pour yourself a glass of your favourite drink and read, because this book is for you.


Review

I have to say, if this is actually a “new and edited version,” then I feel exceedingly sorry for anyone who attempted to muddle their way through the original.

I will acknowledge that The Hypocrite has promise. The underlying story is exactly what’s promised: “a low angst, sweet and clean tale.” The errors, however, are atrocious.

I didn’t keep count, but it felt as though I found a new error every couple of pages. If you can think of a type of error, The Hypocrite had it: misused words, grammatical errors, missing words or phrases, misspellings, the list goes on.

On top of this, the author inserts vocabulary that is either outdated or exceedingly rare in today’s world. This would make sense if the entire story were written in that fashion, but it’s only occasional, often closely followed by one or more errors, including misused words. It feels as though the author attempted to shoehorn elevated vocabulary into her story, but couldn’t be bothered to run a simple spelling and grammar check.

And, while I won’t spend much time on it, The Hypocrite would benefit from a story edit as well. There are places that drag on, and most building descriptions push the limit of suspended disbelief. I’m thankful I read this on a free Kindle Unlimited trial. I would have been angry if I’d actually spent money on it.


About the Author

I have three children and after a disastrous first marriage I found my soul mate who I thought that was lost to me over 25 years ago. I recently married the love of my life. I live with my soul mate in Australasia and have three pets, two cats, Darcy and Bingley and a golden lab, Honey.

Like many high school students, Pride and Prejudice was assigned to me in an English literature class. It was not my favourite book, but I read it as I had to. I forgot about the book until in my 30’s when I saw and fell in love with the 1995 Pride and Prejudice version made for TV in England, and purchased a copy of the DVD that is now much played.

The tipping point was the 2005 big screen adaption of P&P. Not long after seeing it I found and read the complete works of Jane Austen on Amazon, starting with Pride and Prejudice. The latter book is by far my favourite. After I read it three of four times over, I wistfully said to myself: ‘it is a great pity that Miss Austen never wrote a sequel to her seminal novel.’ One day I was searching Kindle books and for the fun of it I entered “Pride and Prejudice Sequel’ into the search not expecting any results.

The rest is history. I discovered the JAFF community and books. I became a veracious reader of JAFF books and once I had devoured all of the sequels and continuations that I could find, I read my first variation. I had been resisting variations wrongly thinking that I would not enjoy them as much as the sequels. Boy, was I ever wrong! Today I am the proud owner of well over 1,000 JAFF novels that I have purchased on Amazon. ‘A Change of Fortunes’ is my first book that I wrote. There are a number of others on the way.

Author links: Goodreads | Amazon Author Page


NOTE: This review is based on an eBook I borrowed from Amazon on February 27, 2023 as part of the Kindle Unlimited program.

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