Lady Bridget’s Diary by Maya Rodale (Cavendish #1)
Releases: February 23, 2016
Historical Romance
Avon
Reviewed by Mandi
Based on the title of this book, I assumed we would get some Bridget Jones’s Diary references – it’s a movie I adore and I had never read Maya Rodale so I decided to try it.
What this book turns out to be is more of a retelling of Pride and Prejudice (PP) with Bridget Jones’s Diary (BJD) and Mean Girls thrown in. (And I realize the similarities between Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice to begin with).
Our hero is Lord Darcy – and he is exactly like the Darcy in PP and BJD. Wealthy, broody, and at first sight, hates the heroine. In this case, Bridget, her brother and her two sisters move from Maryland where they are horse breeders when her brother inherits a dukedom. These Americans come traipsing into London society, and the ton is out to judge them. Darcy first meets Bridget at a ball – where he immediately places her in a lower class beneath him, yet can’t stop looking at her. There is even the scene where he refuses to dance with her. Darcy’s brother Rupert, is a very fun-loving, warm, kind man who Bridget finds extremely handsome. Yet Rupert has gambling debts and Darcy has known him all his life and Rupert falls in love with someone else, breaking Bridget’s heart (similar to Wickham from PP).
Bridget is a head-strong girl, who tries to fit into London society, but honestly doesn’t care all that much. She is close with her sisters and brother and finds herself a little more forward than the other women. There is a ‘mean group’ of girls, one who thinks she is destined to marry Darcy. When they see the way Darcy looks at Bridget, they decide Bridget is their enemy, but they should keep their enemies close. They fake-friend her and the mean girls demand Bridget wear pink on Wednesdays when they meet (Mean Girls movie reference).
There is a scene in the water when they are reading poetry and fall in the lake (like in BJD).
A Mr. Collins appears who is supposed to inherit the dukedom should Bridget’s brother decide to move back to Maryland, and he courts Bridget and tries to get her to marry him (like in PP)
At this point I stopped reading. The references were too much like the movies. I don’t mind subtle winks to movies or whatever, but reading scenes that I know from the movies over and over was too distracting for me.
Grade: DNF at page 200.
Sounds tiresome!