The Last Man in the World by Abigail Reynolds

One thing I did enjoy was uncovering some of the secrets in both Elizabeth and Darcy’s families. A whole new world is described and while I might like a tighter focus on Darcy and Elizabeth other readers may revel in the additional depth and breadth of the story. For me, it was that the story was so much wider than Darcy and Elizabeth so they were more part of an ensemble cast than having the starring roles. Later on, the book’s focus moves out much wider and while it was still good, and kept my attention I didn’t enjoy that part quite as much. I thought the construction of the different types of magic was interesting and well-explained and I loved all the Darcy and Elizabeth time, as she realises how wrong she has been in her perceptions of him and her perceptions of how he considered her. I really enjoyed the first part, which saw us in Rosings and later in the fae world.

Elizabeth will also learn that she has been mistaken in some of her judgements, and uncover some of the darkest secrets of her own family. Running away, she stumbles into a faerie ring and transports to the land of the fae, where she learns that there are even bigger problems, in terms of a looming war between the fae and mankind. When Elizabeth decides to out herself in order to save another’s life she risks not only her mind, but her family’s respectability and her whole life as she knows it. Darcy being tied to such an organisation is yet another reason for Elizabeth to despise him. His uncle, the father of Colonel Fitzwilliam, is a very senior member. The spell to lock up women’s minds is carried out by the Collegium of Mages and Darcy is a member of this. Therefore, as a woman who not only can practice magic, but actually does, in order to help people, Elizabeth has a good reason to be pretty wary of Darcy. This is a pretty terrifying thought, that a part of you will be, in effect, killed off. Actually, though, only men are allowed to practice, it’s not only frowned upon for a woman to do magic, but punishable, by a spell which changes the woman’s mind. Mr Darcy’s Enchantment picks up the story in Kent, when Elizabeth visits the Collinses, so you can assume the previous parts of P&P have already happened, but there is obviously a major change in the fact that people can do magic. Although I know that there are a few others out there which meld magic with P&P I haven’t read any published ones, which was another good reason to give this a go. Abigail Reynolds is one of my favourite writers of Pride & Prejudice variations so I was very keen to give this one a read.

The Last Man in the World by Abigail Reynolds