A Spring Society: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation

Apologies if there are spelling errors in this review; I'm just so upset that I wasted time on this series that I'm not going to take the time to proof read it, which I almost always do. This is the sixth book in the series and they were all increasingly frustrating and bad. Halfway through the series I thought of stopping but figured they're not expensive and they're not very long so why not finish the series since this is the last book. Well I did only to find out that Elizabeth West decided to continue to drag it out to yet another book (which I don't think has been released yet). The mind boggles at how she came up with the truly bizarre character plots and story twists. Every character that frustrated and annoyed you in the original P&P are back and they're far worse than they ever were. With an added Uncle Darcy who is a rogue and was banished to India when Darcy was young. He's back and it turns out he's Wickham's father! Yes, there will be spoilers in this review if only to save anyone from having to go through it. Lydia, Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine are even more annoying and infuriating than the original book. And, while there are 1 time when Darcy puts Mrs. Bennet in her place, it's not satisfying at all and all to no avail as she goes right back to being flighty, ill bred and ill mannered. And she gets duped by not one, but two men who keep taking all her money while she drinks, gets drunk and lets them into her bedroom every night. Darcy's Matlock Aunt and Uncle start out as supportive characters only to turn into meddling and clueless people who it turns out spend way too much money and are broke by the end of this book. There are many couplings and marriages in this series; one strange one is that Kitty catches the eye of Colonel Fitzwilliam's (Richard) brother, Robert (who will inherit his father's title but is undisciplined and spoiled and part of the reason why the family loses their fortune). He tries to woo Kitty but she won't have it. You think that she doesn't respect him because of his gallivanting and that he'll eventually straighten up to prove himself to her and all will be well. Well he doesn't. He whines and blames his father for losing their money, the father is constantly indignant and takes no responsibility until finally Lady Catherine, out of desperation, drags Ann to Pemberly to insist that Robert marry her. He enlists Darcy for help and you think maybe now everyone in the household will be put in their place and Darcy will tell them that Robert loves Kitty but... not so much. Darcy turns on him and says it's the only way to save the family fortune and Robert and Ann's engagement is announced at the ball that Elizabeth insisted on having even though she was 8 months pregnant and ends up going into contractions in the middle of it. Bingley is an idiot and never marries Jane, she goes off to Scotland to be there when Lydia has Wickham's baby since he's run off and didn't marry her.These are just some examples of the the strange decisions made in this book. Elizabeth and Darcy let everyone walk all over them and all they do is keep making allowances and taking deep breaths and counting to 10 so as not to give everyone a good telling off and kicking them out of their house (because everyone descends on Permberly and sponges off of them for months). In addition, whoever proofed these books needs to have another look because the grammatical errors had me shaking my head. And the spelling of the names keeps changing! Sometime Aunt Gardiner is Madeline, sometimes she's Madeleine. And in one of the books one of the characters is about to cry real tears only to have it described as "big crocodile tears ran down her face..." Umm...crocodile tears are fake tears. And the character was definitely crying in earnest. Darcy does give his horrible uncle Darcy and uncle Matlock a telling off at the very end but it really doesn't sink in and they no doubt will keep being idiots in the next book. Needless to say I will not be waiting for the SEVENTH book with baited breath