See it is an assumption universally made that any beautiful, brilliant, single woman who is rich as hell will be in want of a husband.

Title: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe

Author: Melissa De La Cruz

Series: Standalone

Publication: October 17th 2017 by St. Martin’s Press

Pages: 240

Source: Publisher in exchange for a honest review

Summary from Goodreads:

Darcy Fitzwilliam is 29, beautiful, successful, and brilliant. She dates hedge funders and basketball stars and is never without her three cellphones—one for work, one for play, and one to throw at her assistant (just kidding). Darcy’s never fallen in love, never has time for anyone else’s drama, and never goes home for Christmas if she can help it. But when her mother falls ill, she comes home to Pemberley, Ohio, to spend the season with her dad and little brother.

Her parents throw their annual Christmas bash, where she meets one Luke Bennet, the smart, sardonic slacker son of their neighbor. Luke is 32 and has never left home. He’s a carpenter and makes beautiful furniture, and is content with his simple life. He comes from a family of five brothers, each one less ambitious than the other. When Darcy and Luke fall into bed after too many eggnogs, Darcy thinks it’s just another one night stand. But why can’t she stop thinking of Luke? What is it about him? And can she fall in love, or will her pride and his prejudice against big-city girls stand in their way?

Thoughts and Feelings:

I’m going to admit flat out that I am not the biggest fan of the original Pride and Prejudice to begin with. I think it’s silly when it’s praised as a beautiful romance, because it’s not – it’s a satire on Austen’s society cloaked within a romance because that was the only way she could get it published as a woman at the time. Mini rant aside, Pride and Prejudice is amazing as a satire – and I love it as such. Melissa De La Cruz has taken that satire and turned it into a satire of that romantic satire, and it’s great.

If you’ve seen “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” (I’m talking film, not the book), you’ll get where I’m coming from with this review. Both that film and this book take the ridiculous scope of these characters’ goals and motivations and make them ten times more outlandish by placing the characters in crazy circumstances. Zombies eating everybody? Check, but wait, I must find a suitable husband – lest the zombies eat my face off. Pride and Prejudice meets 10 Things I Hate About You? Check. Cruz has crafted a cute rom-com like book with the main beats of the beloved classic, and it’s fabulous.

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe has not only gender bent Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, but has also created a lighthearted, fun, and creative romance. Rather than sticking to the story we know, Cruz has re-imagined it with her own twists and turns and it turned out pretty darn good. If you’re a huge fan/stickler for the original, you probably won’t like this unless you can separate it in your head. You can’t read this and think Pride and Prejudice, you have to read it and think it’s Hallmark movie based on Pride and Prejudice. It’s great, it’s entertaining, and it’s fun – but it’s not the original, and I think that is what makes this a great retelling.

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