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A review by kberry513
Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de la Cruz
3.0
I think I liked this retelling better than Pride.... which I admit is slightly problematic as this one definitely could have used an editor. Half way through, her dad's name changed from John to Don, and there were several things that didn't make any sense, really. There was a lot of wishy washing on her end, and her relationship with her family/brothers wasn't consistent. The blurb claims that Luke is one of five slacker brothers, each one less ambitious than the last ... Except there are only four brothers, Luke owns his own carpentry business and Jim is an eighth grade teacher, and the younger two are twins in high school, so idk what about makes them unambitious slackers. She had the explanatory conversation where she makes up with her dad twice....but all that being said, this one was described as being essentially a Hallmark movie in book form and that's exactly what it is.
One thing I will say is that, at the end, when she gets all psycho about how he called her a selfish snob and then Bingley gets her to realize she isn't one, but just has extremely high self esteem....I disagree. She was definitely on the selfish snob spectrum. She didn't even know her assistance had been hand making her Christmas presents every year bc they "would get lost" amongst the hordes of other presents she received from clients, which means she either doesn't bother opening them or doesn't bother to read the cards; either way that is not the result of just having high self esteem. Part of the point of the original Pride and Prejudice is that both Lizzy and Darcy have flaws and grow as people, particularly when the other points it out for them before they end up together. The Darcy here has her flaw pointed out, sort of kind of addresses it, then gets mad he thought she was flawed bc it was really a positive self esteem thing, and then has her love interest back track and explain that he only said that bc his ex fiance made him... Ok.
Plus she absolute was being selfish and snobby when she briefly got engaged to the other guy and just threw money around while deciding on wedding plans. And was a huge snob about the Bennett family in general and the teenage brothers in particular.
Also in the "we saved up 8 years of Xmas for you that are both super thoughtful and expensive" scene, the fact that she hadn't even been sending her family Xmas presents from NYC is extremely self centered and selfish, but also had not bought them anything this year either is ridiculous. And she's shocked that they have any clue as to things she may like, clearly bc she hasn't ever bothered to think of what to buy them is more proof that she doesn't just have an abundance of self esteem.
I also don't love the ending. It's not totally clear, but Luke moved to NYC to be with her (what happened to the plot line where she was quitting?) and gave up being a carpenter to be a somehow successful personal chef (?) within two years. Plus they got engaged, married, and popped out a baby immediately, don't love since she wasn't totally into the idea. They could have had time to themselves first. And finally, they have to name their baby for her assistant bc Darcy had no female friends and apparently have never met any female people or heard of looking at a list. Seems dumb.
That being said, it was a quick and fun read and I enjoyed it.
One thing I will say is that, at the end, when she gets all psycho about how he called her a selfish snob and then Bingley gets her to realize she isn't one, but just has extremely high self esteem....I disagree. She was definitely on the selfish snob spectrum. She didn't even know her assistance had been hand making her Christmas presents every year bc they "would get lost" amongst the hordes of other presents she received from clients, which means she either doesn't bother opening them or doesn't bother to read the cards; either way that is not the result of just having high self esteem. Part of the point of the original Pride and Prejudice is that both Lizzy and Darcy have flaws and grow as people, particularly when the other points it out for them before they end up together. The Darcy here has her flaw pointed out, sort of kind of addresses it, then gets mad he thought she was flawed bc it was really a positive self esteem thing, and then has her love interest back track and explain that he only said that bc his ex fiance made him... Ok.
Plus she absolute was being selfish and snobby when she briefly got engaged to the other guy and just threw money around while deciding on wedding plans. And was a huge snob about the Bennett family in general and the teenage brothers in particular.
Also in the "we saved up 8 years of Xmas for you that are both super thoughtful and expensive" scene, the fact that she hadn't even been sending her family Xmas presents from NYC is extremely self centered and selfish, but also had not bought them anything this year either is ridiculous. And she's shocked that they have any clue as to things she may like, clearly bc she hasn't ever bothered to think of what to buy them is more proof that she doesn't just have an abundance of self esteem.
I also don't love the ending. It's not totally clear, but Luke moved to NYC to be with her (what happened to the plot line where she was quitting?) and gave up being a carpenter to be a somehow successful personal chef (?) within two years. Plus they got engaged, married, and popped out a baby immediately, don't love since she wasn't totally into the idea. They could have had time to themselves first. And finally, they have to name their baby for her assistant bc Darcy had no female friends and apparently have never met any female people or heard of looking at a list. Seems dumb.
That being said, it was a quick and fun read and I enjoyed it.