Austen lovers beware. This is NOTHING like Jane Austen. In fact, there's no story in this story. If you like reading about sexual encounters in every way, shape and form this book's for you.

Don't get me wrong - I like a good juicy sex scene in a book. Maybe two or three. However, the characters in this book are nothing like our beloved Darcy and Elizabeth. They've been reduced to characters in a soft porn film. Let me give you an example: Shortly before a ball during which Elizabeth is to be introduced as the wife of Darcy at Pemberly, Darcy enters her dressing room and gives Elizabeth a fine diamond necklace. Immediately after her expression of gratitude, he picks her up by the armpits, plops her on the dressing table and has his quickie. His sweet nothing in her ear is something to the effect of "Do not bath yourself. I want to know that when I look at you, my seed is trickling down your leg." Her only thought is to wonder how sticky the dancing will be.

I got about 1/4 of the way through the book, before giving up on it (I had hoped for improvement). If I took the time to count the sexual encounters between the Darcy's within those few pages it would probably add up to about 15. (Her second after her wedding night has Elizabeth straddling him like a horse in their private carriage on the way to Pemberly. Not bloody likely in Austen's world!)

Lastly, I would like to comment on the vocabulary throughout the book. If I were paid a dollar for every "herwith" and "betwixt" I'd be rich. The authur said it took her four years to research this book. I imagine it took her one year to write it in modern English and three years of scouring through dictionaries and thesaurus' to convert 99 percent of the words to 18th Century English. How's this one for you - "devirginate." According to Rogert's, its main word association is "rape" meaning "assualt." According to Dictionary.com it is c.1470 - a little to early for Austen's time. This was used to describe the recently wedded "devirginated females" Jane and Elizabeth.

Shame on Berdoll. She should stick to bodice rippers in the cheapest sense and leave literature to the truly talented.

Oh how I wish that somebody had torn the first 200 pages out of this book! They were just trash and should have been tossed directly into the recycle bin. It really is such a shame, because the rest of the book was (mostly) well written and very enjoyable! How many people gave up (and rightly so!) too soon and did not get to enjoy the rest of Berdoll's tale? I almost did! But I finished the darn thing. It's not that I'm against sexy stories... in fact I want to see Elizabeth and Darcy have a wonderful and loving marriage... it's just that I don't want Elizabeth turned into a whore, and Darcy a sex maniac! Within the first 24 hours of their marriage, the couple have 7 (!) sexual encounters, one of them with Elizabeth mounting her new husband in the carriage as they drive home. Come on! The author finds in necessary to say that Darcy kindly offers Elizabeth a pillow for her tender rear-end after the 6th encounter... but really she would need more than a pillow, she would need chap-stick! It was WAY over the top!

This book was hideous!!! The characters are nothing like the originals. The writing is awful... the grammer and vocabulary suck. It sounds like someone got ahold of theasaurus and just went to town without regard to rhythm or flow. I've read reviews on here saying that it is "written in the style" of Jane Austen... I assure you, she is spinning in her grave at that. The style of this book is smut using big words with no regard for character or plot development. Whether you are looking at the characters, conversation, or environment, there is NO beauty in this book. Jane Austen knew what it was to draw the reader in and make them want to learn more about her characters and see them develop. Berdoll only knows how to make you keep turning the pages to see how many more times your favorite characters can be turned into sex-craved idiots. Or worse, simple-minded women (like she turns Jane into) and cheating husbands (as she does to Bingley). AWFUL!!!

I absolutely hated what was done to the original story. I had hoped it would be a story that kept with the spirit of the original, but all that happens is that we get an insight into EVERY bedroom thought that the book's characters have. Don't get me wrong, I love eroticism in books, but just not this one. It just doesn't fit with the world Miss Austen created and then this Berdoll person bastardizes. Maybe the story gets better, but I am not going to waste my time finding out when there are books out there that are interesting within the first ten pages. I'm not going to wade through trash to get to some mediocre ending. Austen lovers beware!

*EDIT: Okay, I just picked this book up again after 6 months of being distracted by other books. Every single page I read, I felt like saying to the author, "Lady, step AWAY from the thesaurus!" To wit:

"Even as her umbrageous aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, had suffered a rather vociferous conniption (one that was but partially vented by throwing both shoes and an empty pint of Geneva at the parlour-maid) over teh match, to Georgiana, her brother and his opinions were infallible. Above and beyond that, Elizabeth's obvious adoration of Darcy was reason enough to inflate Georgiana's esteem of her to the seraphic." (p. 175)

Honestly, it's like Mr. Collins took up a quill and tried to vent an ongoing crush on cousin Lizzy by writing a romance novel about her married life.

I'd like to think Jane Austen would have giggled, then said something appropriately witty and cutting about this book.

One star for effort, and amusement factor.

I hated this book. If you want a fantastic book about Mr. Darcy, consider An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan and the other books in that series...

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife is rather smutty and after such a long and polite coutship in Austen's original, I find the character's action unbelievable and in poor taste.

(not that I don't believe Elizabeth and Darcy wouldn't have a fantastic love life, it's just that I think it's better left to the imagination... and that's where this author should have left it...)

This book should be considered porn....I could not read it at all. In fact you can't read it past the first 5 pages. This book is NOT for Jane Austen lovers at all. It totally ruined my whole thinking on Pride and Prejudice.

This book is sooooo cheaply written...you could have put it next to the cheap Wal-mart "Novels".
Not a recomended read

After finishing Pride & Prejudice, I was very nearly depressed that there was no more of the wonderful story to be told. Jane Austen had succeeded in drawing me in so deeply that no other book could measure up. Of all the sequels out there, this one had received the most positive reviews, and in researching the author, I found that I've passed her home and family's business at least a hundred times over the years, so if I was going to read any of the sequels, it should be the one written by my neighbor.
The first few pages made me miss P&P, as this was definitely no Jane Austen book. But then I wasn't expecting it to be. I simply wanted to know more about Darcy & Elizabeth's happily ever after, and I was not disappointed. I do not agree that the characters are mere caricatures of the originals. In fact, I found Elizabeth & Darcy exhibited all the traits Austen gave them, and Berdoll simply expanded upon their complexities. If anything, she added both the realistic and romantic elements of life after "I do," and provided a satisfying end to the captivating story Austen began.
And now I can give the book the best compliment I know, as this is one of the few modern books I will allow to stay on my bookshelves, otherwise filled with nothing but the most well-regarded classic literature.

My complaint about this book is not the sex (although some of it is rather silly). My main complaints are 1) The author totally changes the characters and 2) the author abuses a thesaurus abominably.

Clever and kind Lizzy becomes ditzy and intolerant - to the point of extreme rudeness - of her ridiculous family members (in P&P she is annoyed by them but is not unkind). Reserved and honorable Darcy turns out to have a scandalous past. Others behaved very uncharacteristically, some to the point of having nothing in common with the originals but their names.

I will echo another reviewer by saying that if I had a dollar for every "betwixt" and "howbeit" in the book, I would be a rich woman. It seems Berdoll used many obscure words just for the sake of using them.

Most new characters and plots were uninteresting to me, so I did a great deal of skimming as I ploughed through the book (I was determined to get to the end, although I can't explain exactly why.). I don't recommend it.

Linda Berdoll has written two books (this, and the equally terrible "Days and Nights at Pemberly") that prove two things: first, that she knows nothing about the characters Elizabeth and Darcy, and second, that she is egocentric enough to claim (multiple times) on the jacket covers that she has acheived something Jane Austen hadn't -- showing us that Darcy and Elizabeth can have sex.

And sex they have -- again, and again and again. At one point Darcy claims "I am a beast to be at you this way, Lizzy." And "Pray, forgive me, Lizzy, I fear I must have you again." Mr. Darcy certainly does 'take' his wife. Ad nauseam.

After "christening" all 200 rooms in Pemberly, the reader gets sick of it too, believe it or not. Darcy adopts the annoying habit of calling her "Lizzy" only when he wants to bed her, and Elizabeth is so overcome with passion that she starts to secretly fear her master will determine she is a common street trollop. (This is where we learn -- definitely too much information -- that Darcy is schooled in the street language and sexual habits of the London common man -- referring to a certain sexual position as a "thrup'ence upright" and the vernacular "dip your wick.")

Even worse is the time Darcy and Elizabeth ride off from a hunting group while at Pemberly to have sex in the woods, and upon their return one of the older married women of the group shouts in front of all prim English society, "You are plowing the fields often enough, Darcy, you should get a good crop soon." Ugh. It is also inferred that Elizabeth likes for Darcy to read the smutty parts of Shakespeare to her, but only after Darcy warns her Shakespeare is not for ladies.

The writing style is atrocious, with Berdoll preferring a bizarre method of using flashbacks to the point of delirium. The reader finds herself introduced to the "aftermath" of something at the chapter's start, and is soon tumbled backward in time to get to the heart and understanding of the matter -- and if one is REALLY lucky, the author will treat you to a flashback-within-a-flashback, which leaves one dreading a third-generation flashback is just around the corner, and I can't say that doesn't emerge at some point . . .

But WORST of all, is the author's complete and total disregard for the very nature of Darcy and Elizabeth. Elizabeth, one of the strongest female characters in English literature, is portrayed as meek and careless, including angering Darcy once by contradicting him in front of his head servant. Always a lady, Elizabeth would never commit such a social gaffe. And Darcy! The worst of Berdoll's ignorance of nature is left to him.

**SPOILER ALERT (to end of paragraph)** It is not only implied that Darcy was a frequenter of a London upper-class prostitute (including fervently bedding her just before returning to Elizabeth to propose for the final time in "Pride and Prejudice," in one of Berdoll's ever-present flashbacks) but it is also heavily insinuated that Darcy impregnated a young Pemberly chambermaid when he was 16, all the while the maid was also servicing Wickham, which leads to the introduction of a young man who comes to work in the stables at Pemberly. This boy of 13 or 14 yrs old just happens to look SO much like Darcy that Elizabeth casually comments upon it, and the paternity of said young man is never firmly revealed.

Darcy swings back and forth between his stoic, prideful nature that had cooled Elizabeth to him in the original book (that she was supposed to have cured him of - DUH, Ms. Berdoll!), and his feverish desire to bed Elizabeth at every opportunity. Elizabeth is part trollop and part idiot -- worrying at one point that Darcy will divorce her because he refers to her (ugh) 'nether-regions' as "small." Of course, in Berdoll's graphic, sex-filled Pemberly, this euphemism is meant by Darcy to be a complement to his virile manhood and the "snugness" he finds within his wife . . . however, Elizabeth is relegated to acting the part of idiot as she answers him by saying "I am stunted, and you must now find a woman more suited to the wifely duties you require." What nonsense.

Darcy and Elizabeth, at their hearts, are two characters who changed each other's lives in Pride and Prejudice. Some things Berdoll got right -- **SPOILER ALERT (to end of paragraph)** like the fact that Darcy and Elizabeth choose to share a marital bed (which I think is a breach of convention at the time that they would choose to do) and Darcy allows Elizabeth to nurse her own babies instead of employing a wetnurse. However, allowing Darcy to regularly slip back into his stoicism and prideful nature (the one Elizabeth's love broke him of in "Pride and Prejudice") and then constantly treating the smart, witty, outspoken (yet always ladylike) Elizabeth as a feeble-minded nit wit who constantly defies convention in ways that are a potential embarrassment to Darcy, is simple unacceptable.

Trust me, if you wish to read erotica about Darcy and Elizabeth, pick up a book with some good sex scenes in it and then insert the names "Elizabeth" and "Darcy" and you will get the same satisfaction this book garners. From the ridiculous to the impossible --**SPOILER ALERT (to end of paragraph)** an illegimate son, a kidnapping of Elizabeth by a sex-crazed madman, Darcy's cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam falling in love with Elizabeth (WHAT?!), Lydia and Wickham popping out babies left and right (including Wickham visiting Elizabeth at Pemberly when Darcy isn't there, and Elizabeth keeps it secret from Darcy -- which would NEVER happen!), Elizabeth's near-death after a stillbirth, the introduction of the French prostitute Darcy had favored as she returns to their lives . . . it just seems as though Berdoll will do anything she can to invent reasons to keep the reader reading, when actually it just shows her desperation.

A massive disappointment.

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TRASH! If someone is going to write an extension of Austen, the least they could do was not make it a high-class smutty romance! I read the first few chapters and was so disgusted that I returned it to the library and was stunningly grateful I hadn't wasted money on it. Sure, I should have been forewarned by the trashy looking cover, but I had hoped that a book of mild popularity regarding an Austen novel would read better than the average Harlequin. Pride and Prejudice has not continued, but instead got into a fiery car crash where all the good parts (like actual romance and manners - the whole point Austen) got burned up.

Quite a fun and SAUCY ride... not for young readers...
Plot is intricate and well thought out...
Seems like the intimate details of an Elizabeth and Darcy we already know...

Heartbreaking and heartwarming.
Couldnt put it down - and had to run and look for the next ...
The sequal is just as strong.

You gotta get past all the "HONEYMOON"... to really enjoy the plot.

This novel is a belabored, poorly edited attempt to write a sequel for Pride and Prejudice. I have never seen so many parentheses inappropriately used before. And the author seems to favor the term "howbeit", since it is used on almost every page, which I find peculiar, since it not a phrase favored by Jane Austen. At approximately 500 pages, I was disenchanted after the first twenty. While the interaction between Elizabeth and Darcy is adorable at points, the rest of the "plot" will bore the reader to tears.

I sooooo appreciate it that we have these reviews, because I am a BIG Austen fan and I always wanted a sequel, but due to the VERY helpful reviews, I will NEVER lay a finger on this book!!!

This continues Pride And Prejudice perfectly. Darcy and Elizabeth continue to have that same love they did in Jane Austin's classic. You will fall in love with Darcy all over again.

That's pretty much it. A fairly decent story got lost in the bedroom antics of the newlyweds. So you read for a while and skip the gratuitous sex, read for a while and skip the gratuitous sex. I felt the author had read too many of those bodice rippers and not enough Austen.

I liked the treatment of the other personalities, and they all have strong personalities, but even for a woman as healthy and accepting as I am, I would have prefered a little less in the bedroom and more in the drawing room.

Really enjoyed this one.

This book is alright- it sort of is great in the beginning and then dies somewhere in the middle-

I thoroughly enjoyed this continuation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." Though significantly 'spicier' than P&P, I felt the author stayed true to Austen's characters and the subsequent events were believable.

Very humorous and entertaining follow-up to the real Austen novel. Lots of steamy Regency sensuousness.

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