Sophia Rose Reviews - Mr. Darcy Likes It Wild by Beth Massey, narrated by Benjamin Fife

 

Mr. Darcy Likes It Wild by Beth Massey, narrated by Benjamin Fife

Historical Romance

Publisher:  Beth Massey

Published:  4.29.26

Time:  11 hours 6 minutes

Speed: 1.2x

Rating:  4.5 stars

Format: audio

Source:  Author

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads 

GoodReads Synopsis:

What if Elizabeth Bennet's father insisted she marry Mr Collins? Would she be a dutiful daughter and submit to save her mother and sisters? Or would literature's favourite 'headstrong girl' do all in her power to find an alternative to a life of misery shackled to a ridiculous man?

'Mr Darcy Likes it Wild' blends elements of several classic road comedies to tell the tale of Lizzy's decision—the silliness of Billy Wilder's 'Some Like it Hot,' the classic gender reversal comedy of Shakespeare's 'As You Like It,' the hilarious dialogue of Georgette Heyer's 'The Corinthians' combined with Jane Austen's iconic story of mismatched lovers searching for understanding and joy in Regency England. Fitz and Eli's trip to happiness is filled with laughter, miscommunication, disguise of every sort, stolen passion and great adventure.

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

What if a father refused to support his daughter when she declined marriage to an imbecilic, sycophantic man?  Beth Massey explores this idea in her steamy, madcap Pride & Prejudice variation tale.

 

Fitzwilliam Darcy is back in London after spending his fall in Hertfordshire.  He should be relieved to have gotten himself and his friend away from the ineligible Bennet sisters, but instead, he is unsettled and unable to get Miss Elizabeth Bennet off his mind.  He is also experiencing guilt for the obvious pain he saw in her sister, Miss Bennet, when Miss Bingley’s harsh way of repudiating the country friendship and his part in that.

But then he goes from distracted to shocked when the unknown gentleman in his library come to call on him is none other than Elizabeth Bennet disguised as a man.  She tells him she knows he doesn’t like her, but she believes him honorable enough to assist her in her plan to get far away from the reach of her father and Mr. Collins.  Darcy is appalled to learn her father was planning to force her to marry his heir to safe the family when he dies.  Elizabeth is a beautiful, witty treasure and Collins is a swine who is the sycophantic parson to Darcy’s aunt.

He can’t possibly go along with Elizabeth’s plans to catch a ship to Canada and find a new life there.  He will be daring to help her, but he has an alternate plan of getting her to Pemberley and to a friend who can find her a place in Ireland, if necessary.  But first, he will work to bring Bingley and Jane together and hope this marriage will cease the pressure on Elizabeth to marry.

So, against all his reason, Darcy embarks on an adventuresome road trip north in the company of his young friend ‘Eli’ and, of course, nothing goes smoothly or to plan including his wayward heart.  How will this pair ever stand a chance when scandal rides right along with them?

 

Mr. Darcy Likes It Wild is a frolicking good time and somewhat bawdy along the vein of the classic Tom Jones and the classic movie, Some Like It Hot.  I loved that this had a good cross-dressing, road-trip adventure at its heart which tossed Darcy on his head as he fought and failed to resist the sparkling, sassy, and very adventuresome ‘Eli’.  A woman in a man’s world and no shrinking violet, but one who appreciates the freedom she finds there and Darcy realizes that he doesn’t want to stifle this, but applaud it after a great many struggles.  I thought the epilogue was just the right cap to the story.

 

Benjamin Fife is long-time known to me narrator whose prodigious talent make a good story even better.  I was already excited to listen in to Beth Massey’s older story now on audio, but got down-right giddy when I knew who was narrating.

 

All in all, this was spicy hot entertainment and made me remember what I enjoyed about this author’s writing from my earlier experiences with her print works years ago.  One must be fairly open to a wild and woolly variation and open-door sexy romance action to appreciate this forced proximity Regency romp, Mr. Darcy Likes It Wild.

 

Author Bio:

Beth Massey lives in Chicago high above Lake Michigan with her husband of forty plus years. They have been activists in the struggle against war, racism, sexism and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender bigotry for even longer than their marriage. Now that she and Bill are retired, Ms Massey spends her early mornings writing and the rest of her day in the company of her well-informed best friend and partner.

Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

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