Rating:  Summary: Pleasent and enjoyable! Review: Actually, I would give this 4 1/2 stars if I could, but I thought I would give it the benefit of 5 stars since so many others so strongly disliked it.
I found it to be a pleasent read. Was it Jane Austen? No, but it came pretty close.
It was a little lighter in the narrative than Austen. Which made it a quicker read than Austen's works.
It might have touched on subjects in a minutely more up-to-date manner than Austen. But, none felt out of place or inappropriate.
I felt Juliette Shapiro did a good job of bringing together both the original Austen work and the A&E 6 hour mini-series. She says that this was one of her goals in writing the book. When I read the book, I could really imagine Colin Firth saying those lines as Mr. Darcy.
Maybe some of it was a little contrived. Mary, Kitty, Maria Lucas and Georgiana all find husbands by the end of the book. But, as a hopeless romantic, I liked that. The story was optimistic and the ending saw a change in attitude in a key character (Austen's plot style as I recall).
It wasn't as heavy as Austen. You knew you where reading another author's work. I still liked it and felt Jane Austen might have been happy with the working of the characters.
If you really want something that reads like Jane Austen, I would suggest "Sanditon". Jane actually wrote the first few chapters and the author of the rest of the book (who remains anonymous), does such a good job with the rest of the novel, that you really can't tell where Jane Austen left off and the new writer started. I would give that one 6 stars. It's like having another Austen novel on my shelf.
Of the Pride and Prejudice sequels I have read, this is one I would like to have on my bookshelf and I wouldn't feel disloyal to Jane by putting it next to her novels.
Rating:  Summary: sequel Review: all in all i believed it to definately be along the lines of something jane austen would have written. i reccomend it for anyone who is a fan of pride and prejudice and is looking for a nice light read before bedtime.
Rating:  Summary: Excessively Diverted Review: As a Pride and Prejudice obsessee I absolutley loved this book. Shapiro remains faithful to the characters and lively spirit of Jane Austens original. The only faults I could find with the book were that it was a bit sickly sweet and it ended too soon. I wanted to hear about Darcy and Lizzy forever! A "must buy" for any true P&P enthusiast.
Rating:  Summary: Excessively dull Review: As an Austen fan I regularly read all sequels I can find. This one is mediocre at best. The subject is highly improbable (Mrs. Bennet as a scheming shrew, angelic Mr. Darcy, weeping Lizzy and repentant Wickham!). The author are fond of long sentences but quite forget about commas, so all heroes (including Elisabeth) are speaking without end and often without sense. The book is slightly better than "Duty and Desire" by Baders and Tennant's works, but far, far worse than "Letters from Pemberley" and "Bar Sinister". You may read it if you have much spare time and nothing to do.
Rating:  Summary: Exessively Pleased Review: Brilliant book, I have read a number of sequels and this one is one of the best I have read. The ending was a little disappointing as I felt it could be left open to write a follow up if need be. The story suprised me and I found all the characters were just as Jane Austen wrote in Pride and Prejudice. I have recommended this book to a number of my friends and they all agree with me it is not a disappointing read, as other sequels have been.
Rating:  Summary: Excessively confused Review: Excessively Diverted has a very interesting plot, I'll give it that. The author has lively creativity, and has formed a story completely her own... The only thing that really bothered me about this book was the ending.It seemed thrown together within the last five minutes, with everyone getting married or having children. In fact, the two major turning points in the plot are hardly resolved suitably -- along with nuptials and babies running rampant, everyone seems to turn unbecomingly sweet, as though ever since the actual Pride & Prejudice ended they've been stored in a siloh of sugar. Altogether I thought it was an intriguing book, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you were absolutely desperate for a continuation.
Rating:  Summary: Converted! Review: Having studiously avoided Jane Austen's literary efforts I fell into Excessively Diverted by accident and was immediately captivated by the author's enthusiasm and irrepressible sense of humour that continually bubbles up to the surface. I also loved the characterisation, the venom, and some captivating phrases e.g. 'like the barely audible breath before the scream of despair'. I relished the bite that emerged towards the end, detested Catherine de Bourgh who reminded me of someone I knew frighteningly well, and I actually cried at one point. In my opinion it is beautifully written, delightfully well observed and utterly enchanting from beginning to end. If Jane is anywhere near as enjoyable then perhaps I should relinquish my long held resistance and try and actually read some.
Rating:  Summary: Excessively poorly edited Review: I adored Pride and Prejudice, and tend to be fond of the various sequels. Alas, I found this sequel completely unreadable due to the truly terrible punctuation. Poor punctuation can be distracting, but this went well beyond that. There are two possibilities for the ineexcusable punctuation in this book. The first is that neither the author nor her copy-editor (if any) is capable of using commas correctly, with some effort apparently being expended in using them as incorrectly and obtrusively as possible. The other is that the author was endeavoring to use commas as she felt Jane Austen used them, in which case her efforts were for naught, as Jane Austen would never have used commas so ungrammatically. Indeed, the latter would be both an insult to Jane Austen's writing and a poor reflection on the intelligence of the author of this journey into grammatical unacceptability. If you want to learn how not to use commas, I recommend this book highly. If you are punctilious about comma usage, avoid this book, as you will not be able to enjoy it.
Rating:  Summary: Impossible to put down! Review: I am obsessed with everything Jane Austen. To think I was accually going to read a sequel to one of my most beloved stories. And by another author I might add. After reading other reviews I decided to give it a try. From the very beginning the story grips you. The characters are so true to what Jane originally conveyed, it was hard to remember that Juliette Shapiro wrote it and not Ms. Austen. After you finnish the book you feel a sense of closure that Pride and Prejudice does not give you. Finnaly the triumphant story ends with a huge smile and a face full of tears.
Rating:  Summary: Best Sequel Imaginable Review: I began reading this book thinking that an author would be a fool to even try to write a sequel to "Pride and Prejudice", the sprakling gem of the English literature. I was pleasantly surprised by Juliet Shapiro's style, attention to details, and doing of her research with respect to what Jane Austen related to her family (after publication of P&P in 1813) about what would become of some of the characters in Pride & Prejudice. I recommend "Excessively Diverted" to all Jane Austen's fans who are eternally fascinated with Pride & Prejudice.
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