Carole's Review Sunday: The exploits and adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy - Elizabeth Aston

Author: Elizabeth Aston

Title: The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy (Darcy #2)

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 368

First Published: 2004

Where I Got It: Borrowed from library

The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy takes readers back into the imagined family of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Their musical daughter Alethea makes a disastrous marriage to a man whose charming manners conceal an unpleasant nature. Flinging caution to the winds, she flees her marital home, masquerading as a gentleman, and accompanied only by her redoubtable maid, Figgins, she sets off for Venice to take refuge with her sister Camilla. But events -- always dramatic and sometimes dangerous -- conspire to thwart her plans. Before she can meet up with Camilla, chance and her love of music lead her into the world of Italian opera, while her encounter with the aloof and difficult Titus Manningtree, in Italy to pursue a lost Titian painting, is to change her life -- although fate has several more tricks to play before she can find happiness. 

Once again...I find myself picking up the second book in a series. I feel like it is a curse of mine. Sighs. Good news, though, this does well as a stand alone. Each book is about a Darcy daughter and there is one about the son later on. Of course Lizzie would produce many daughters and only one son. Darcy lucked out on that one XD

ANYWAYS...I digress....

Alethea...Titus....Figgins...Camille....Norris Napier? Ridiculous names for the time period. Please point me to someone in the 1800s with the name Titus. Names like Elizabeth, William, Collin, and so forth were the names of the time. So silly. That was honestly my biggest compliant I believe with the book.

Second, Alethea needed a slap in the face. How did Darcy and Lizzie create such a dimwit daughter? Why the heck would they allow her to marry Norris so quickly after her heartbreak with another character with a ridiculous name (it started with a P, I honestly forgot). Then the guy turns out to be abusive and controlling and all that. She has enough and runs away dressed as a man to go to her sister or her parents. 

Events unfold and then she comes across Titus who she meet a couple years ago. Of course he recognizes her as a woman RIGHT away. Really? He literally walked in the room and was like "oh that's a woman - she kinda looks familiar, but meh...I'm too concerned for my little broken heart right now." After a bit he realizes that its Darcy kid and then suddenly he cares and wants to help. 

So yes, the beginning was meh. It got interesting in the middle, and the boring again. I really didn't like any of the characters. Alethea reminded me too much of Lydia and Titus was a sad version of Darcy mixed with Bingly. I am SUPER glad that it took forever for Alethea and Titus to get together. I feel like it wasn't really a "romance", so that was a nice change. There was love, but it took forever for them to actually get together. 

In the end, this was a meh bordering on okay. The middle was interesting and I was curious to see how everything would end. I pretty much called what would happen to Norris. I wasn't a fan of any of the characters. Yes, I felt bad for Alethea for being abused, but she was an idiot and her parents should've never let the marriage happen in the first place. Ugh...the names killed me. I would like to read the first one at some point or another book by the author. In the end, I shall stamp this with 1 star. I am for sure having a mini-slump right now. Boo. I need a good P&P variation to help with this slump. ;) hehehe