Disenchanted by Kara Pleasants

About 10 years ago, my boyfriend at the time tried to talk me into watching a movie by promising it was a story about Mr. Darcy becoming the new Defense Against The Dark Art teacher at Hogwarts. Sadly for me, that story does not exist.

Disenchanted, by Kara Pleasants, is pretty close though.

The beginning of the book is a beat-for-beat Regency retelling, with magic. Mr. Darcy is a talented mage, Bingley does plant and garden magic, a perfect match for Jane Bennet, a healer. Most people can do simple cantrips. But Mr. Bennet and his second daughter, Elizabeth, have shown no magical skills at all.  The author uses some dialogue from the original, but adds  magical elements to familiar scenes. It was just so much fun to read about Lydia and Kitty enchanting themselves to be more attractive, or about Elizabeth knocking off Darcy’s constant anti-tripping spell. Although easy to overlook, Elizabeth’s power is actually the most powerful one: the ability to disenchant and break spells.

The second part of the story turns to a magical adventure, starring our favorite Austen characters. Enchanted Pemberley was awesome, of course. I had so much fun seeing how these familiar characters handled magic. The mystery turns far enough away from the original P&P to have suspense, as the characters team up to fight the power-stealing evil Necromancer.

There’s a throwaway line about Lydia not being allowed to go off with her friends, which would be the trip where she and Wickham elope. So glad this Lydia isn’t forced to marry Wickham the jerk, as the only logical and honorable conclusion to her teenage crush!

Such a fun book, a great time for fans of magic and Jane Austen.

I received a copy of this book to review. Opinions on my blog are my own, as always.