Customer Reviews

Bargain with the Devil

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book was just plain bad even by romance-novel standards. The author decides to add a supernatural twist by having Caroline Bingley attempt to perform witchcraft on Elizabeth. The provider of said spell is none other than Ipswitch the good witch and the curse only works if the people deserve it. Oh, please. This book is a cross between a bad short story written by a fifth grader and a bad harlequin romance.

I always like a good steamy Pride and Prejudice story. So, when I saw this one here on Amazon and saw that it was a sensual version, I just had to buy it. Well, first off, the description is in name only. I say now that there are spoilers ahead:

The description leads you to believe that Darcy cons Elizabeth into becoming his mistress in payment for helping find Lydia and Wickham. The idea never enters his mind! It's Elizabeth who actually thinks that's what he wants. Instead, he just wants to spend some time with her to get to know her better. That was disappointment number one.

Number two was a stupid plot device. Darcy and Elizbeth were doing just fine and were going to get married when Caroline Bingley, jealous woman that she is, decides to use a voodoo spell to make Elizabeth turn into an insatiable sex fiend in the hopes that she'll have sex with any man she comes across thus ruining her chances with Darcy. Well that backfires since Elizabeth was sleeping with Darcy (before they were actually married) and therefore relieved her itch with him, quite happily on both their parts. When Darcy learned what Caroline had done, he worried there might be repercussions. I find it very hard to believe that Darcy, an educated man who took no nonsense from anyone, would believe Elizabeth had been bewitched. And then to top it off, they waited 6 MONTHS after they were married to find the witch who gave Caroline the spell ingrediants in order to thank her for all she'd done and yet find out if there were any problems. And not only did they wait but for some reason they had to go in disguise! That made no sense whatsoever except to give another reason to put Elizabeth in a young man's clothes and have a comedic conversation about her mustache getting in the way of their kisses.

The good parts were the sex scenes were quite good. The dialogue wasn't too bad and the first half of the story was decent. It's a short book (much shorter than I realized) and thus a quick read. The author also has a website dedicated to steamy P&P stories, some Regency era and some futuristic and some modern but all with a touch of sex, some more than others. She might have been better off submitting some of her other modern or futuristic works since they seem to have a better flow to them.

On the whole, this isn't a bad book and Pride and Prejudice fans who wish to read or own all re-writes and sequels will enjoy it for what it is but don't expect it to be some great piece of literature or even a great romance novel the likes of Catherine Anderson or Nora Roberts.

This was a cute little bit of fluff with just enough erotica to make it very spicy, and enjoyable. The plot was well thought out and flowed well. The only problem I saw was that it is too short; however, if the author every decides to take it to the next level and develop it into a novel, this will be a great story.

I recommend it for that little something extra often needed to flesh out your order. Add it to Moonlighting, another great story I am reading.

I SO wanted to love this book. The premise is very alluring, but the book didn't deliver. There is an excellent skeleton to work with here - but it needs some serious fleshing out. AND, Darcy needs to earn the title of Devil a bit more in my opinion. He wasn't nearly the rake I was expecting him to be.

Would love to see this book reworked and fleshed out a bit and then republished! As it is right now, it is a very expensive fanfic.

The story itself had so much potential, with a twist on the plot of the book. I think the author could have had more detail added to expand the characters and scenes. I was surprised how thin the book was when it shipped. You can read it in a few hours. It was a quick good read, but I was left wanting more.

I have read almost every continuation or sequel, and this one definitely was below par. There is a good premise there, but the execution doesn't hold up. The whole Caroline Bingley witch part was so far fetched it was ludicrous. I hope the author tries again. This book seemed like an outline with the sex parts left in.

Wow, is this bad! The title implies Darcy makes an improper bargain with Elizabeth in exchange for his help with Wickham, but that's not true. He simply asks that he be allowed to request something after he helps her. She implies it will be something improper, which he denies, so those who think this is about Elizabeth's being blackmailed into a sexual relationship will be disappointed. In fact, very little of this is different from the original book in important details. It is only very badly written, with some idiotic witchcraft tacked on at the end. There is some sex in the book (after things have been pretty much resolved) but it is clumsily handled and not very interesting. The entire book has both characters, who were intelligent people, behaving and talking like morons. I got this book for free, and knew it was only a glorified short story, but it was so bad I resent the time wasted. Don't waste yours.

From the description, and the first few pages, this adaptation sounded like a dark twist on the classic. I was completely intrigued by that idea. Unfortunately, this book does not follow through. This work is so disjointed it is difficult to follow, and it is far too short. The Sex isn't bad, and if that is all you are reading for, by all means go ahead. However, I would not waste money in this version, there is much better FanFiction available for free online.

If you don't have alot of time and want a quick read ... this is your book. Although it had the usual underlying passion, I found that there wasn't much depth to the plot that I am used to in the most of the sequels.

This was just plain bad. No other way to describe it. It was like the worst concepts in modern fan-fiction mixed together.