Customer Reviews

My BFF

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In this updated version of "Pride and Prejudice" Fitzwilliam Darcy is the billionaire CEO of The Darcy Company, who many years ago made the mistake of giving his heart to the wrong person. Now seven years later, his mistake still haunts him and he lives his life unattached, taking part in meaningless sex with models (only to satisfy his baser needs), and vowing to never love again. His younger sister, Georgiana, is soon to be attending the prestigious Longbourn School for the Arts in New York City. Darcy and his cousin, Geoffrey Fitzwilliam, travel to the university, not only to help Georgiana settle in there, but to meet with a Professor Bennet and discuss the possibility of collaborating on a project that will expand music education opportunities for underprivileged children. When he meets Professor Elizabeth Bennet, Darcy finds he is immediately attracted to her, but unfortunately in typical Darcy fashion he has already insulted her.

Professor Elizabeth Bennet, was a child prodigy in the field of music and now has achieved outstanding accomplishments in several academic areas. Being a gifted and talented child has prevented her from having a normal childhood, and because she has been too busy with a performing career she does not have a lot of experience in the relationship department. Even though Elizabeth feels an intense attraction for Fitzwilliam Darcy, she's seen his picture in the tabloids with his arms draped around scantily-clad models to know that he is not the type of person she has been saving herself for.

Darcy and Elizabeth acknowledge their passionate attraction for each other but because of their past experiences and lack of trust for others, they decide that the best thing for them to do is to be friends with each other, nothing more... (This reminds me of the movie "When Harry Met Sally," Billy Crystal's character believes that men and women can't ever be friends "because the sex part always gets in the way"). Despite Billy Crystal's sage advice, Elizabeth and Darcy become the closest and most connected of friends. They are closer to each other than they are to their friends and family, the tabloids think they are engaged, and their friends are bewildered by their resistance of a more romantic relationship. How long will it be before one of them breaks down the walls around their heart and let the other in???

I was "excessively diverted" with this "Pride and Prejudice" adaption and read it with a perpetual smile upon my face. Ruth Phillips Oakland's tale of Elizabeth and Darcy finding friendship and fighting falling in love was filled with clever and entertaining twist. I laughed out-loud at the witty dialogue, ironic situations, and her use of tabloids' headlines at the beginning of each chapter. The supporting characters in this novel were delightfully and amusingly portrayed, I enjoyed seeing Charlotte Lucas as a clothing designer and characters like Lydia Bennet, Caroline Bingley, and Lady Catherine were very true to their personalities. In this novel, Ms. Oakland incorporated the names of characters from other Jane Austen works, such as: Mr. Harville was the name of one of Darcy's bodyguard, Dr. George Knightley was the name of one of Darcy's friends, and Lucy Steele was the name of a porn star mentioned. However, I would have loved this aspect of the book more if the author used more than just the characters' name, and made these characters more distinguished and developed.

My one small quibble, and the reason I am giving this book 4.5 stars and not 5, is the depiction of a morally bankrupt Mrs. Bennet. In this adaption, Frannie Bennet was Elizabeth's overtaxing and greedy stage manger, but because of a car accident a few years ago, she has lost the ability to tell right from wrong. Now she behaves immorally, unscrupulously, and wantonly; Elizabeth has not seen or spoken with her mother in over six years. I enjoyed the part with Mrs. Bennet being a pushy parent (that is very real in today's society), but sometimes she was a little too vulgar and obscene for my tastes.

I recommend "My BFF" to anyone who enjoys reading modern adaptions of "Pride and Prejudice," and doesn't mind alterations in the plots and characters of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." In addition, I would recommend this book for mature audiences only and for readers who don't mind reading a few love scenes. I greatly enjoyed this fun and new spin on "Pride and Prejudice" and I savored each minute I spent reading it.

Austenesque Reviews

I love Jane Austen and enjoy retellings, updates and even satire of the characters I so enjoy. I thought aspects of this novel were quite clever, but all-in-all I'd say this failed both as a pastiche of Austen's masterwork and as a novel in and of itself.

This is the tale of the British billionaire Fitzwilliam Darcy and the woman he meets in Manhattan, his sister Georgiana's mentor, musical prodigy and professor Elizabeth Bennett. In general I enjoyed the updated personae of P&P characters (as well as several from other Austen novels, though these are just name-dropped, not fleshed out at all), but a few were rather bizarre; in particular Mrs. Bennett, who is not just an obnoxious busybody here, but a sociopath who offers her daughter up to her boyfriend to be raped! That, and South American drug dealers and kidnap plots send this novel out of the reach of rational readers, but it is the "normal" situations and writing that I found most objectionable, dear reader. The sex is fairly juvenile, adult in nature but awkward and implausible, as well as sometimes downright obnoxious. We are told several times that Darcy's trousers tighten uncomfortably when he sees Elizabeth, and there is a running joke about his needing to buy bigger containers of personal lubricant. Yuk. We're also treated to not one, not two, but even more masturbatory episodes by both principles, bodily fluids and all. Again, yuk. This type of material has been handled by more talented writers, and to greater effect.

Another reviewer mentioned the odd footnotes. Yes. What a strange choice, dozens of footnotes -- telling us what multiple sclerosis is, Casablanca, a district attorney, a taser, the dimensions of a fencing match area, the Twilight Zone, the Mile High Club -- the oddest assortment of definitions and info, as if it will be read by aliens. There are also a few text messages written out. It's a bit of a mess, with no clear image of the audience. Elizabeth calls Darcy "Baby", and she does it way too much. And the term "spunky" is actually used. ouch.

On the positive side, the friendship between Darcy and Elizabeth is nice, and the updates of most characters are clever and interesting. There seems to be a writer here, buried under awkward and juvenile devices, but where was the editor? At nearly 400 pages this was a tough slog and I cannot recommend it to those who love Austen. On its own merits, apart from being a P&P homage, it is more successful, but not really worth the effort.

This story has potential, but it really needs some help to get it to be a good read.

The author definitely has an imagination and I applaud her use of it, but there are some big no's for this one. The drug dealers and kindnapping really need a redo. I'm sorry but this whole part ruined the story for me. It just wasn't believeable. I felt I was reading a bad skit from Saturday Night Live rather than a Pride and Prejudice redo.

Also, the footnotes really need to go. If this were a technical manual, I would expect it. I read them and actually felt slightly offended. Does the author think we are so stupid we need explanations about things that most adults already know? Okay, so there were a few trivialities I didn't know, but I do know how to use Wikipedia. 99.9% of them were totally unnecessary.

The sex scenes in this story also need work. Too much information on things not needed and not enough on the things that are. I prefer sensual and not masterbation.

I could go on and on about the strange re-working of Mrs. Bennet, but I will just say the character is worked way over the top and not at all enjoyable.

There were a few very major grammar errors that stood out on the page and screamed. If anything, that got my goat the most. Typos I can handle, but not bad grammar.

If the errors are fixed, footnotes tossed, Mrs. Bennet re-written, the whole drug lord business tossed, the sex scenes made more sensual and less childish, then maybe it will work.

I hope Ms. Oakland does rework this story, because I think it can be truly a wonderful story; just not the way it is now.

My BFF is just an OK read. Characters are NOT realistic and the story moves along much too slowly.

To truly enjoy Austen re-tellings - especially those with modern settings - requires tremendous bravery on the author's part and complete suspension of disbelief on the reader's. While Ms. Oakland boldly updates "Pride & Prejudice," the vanilla sex is completely undermined by creepy and disproportionately brutal scenes of violence, most of a sexual and/or stalker-y nature. Ew.
I *really* wanted to like this version, but between the amateurish footnoting of well-known songs and expressions; bizarre re-imagining of Mrs. Bennet; and ridiculous sub-plot involving intelligence agencies and drug lords, I couldn't give in. [To be sure, I could easily overlook that Tom Cruise was the only American in a movie full of British Nazis.]
Also, it's fun to see characters share names from other JA books but not if they're so underdeveloped that I can't tell them apart.
Doesn't come close to these much better books, here ranked on the smut spectrum: "The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy" [high], "Impulse & Initiative: What if Mr. Darcy had set out to win Elizabeth's heart?" [medium], and Pamela Aiden's delightful "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" trilogy [low].

I enjoyed this book. I thought it was unique and I loved how the author updated charecters from not only Pride and Prejudice but from Ms. Austen's other works as well. I was never bored while reading this book and thought it was worth my while. Having said that, I also found that the South America/drug lord thing seemed to come out of nowhere and sounded implausible. Felt that should have been thought out some more, as well as Mrs. Bennett's charecter.

Other than that it was an enjoyable read.

"My BFF's" modern Fitzwilliam Darcy is every bit as haughty as his Regency counterpart. He lives a life that any man would dream of, dates models, runs his companies with a firm hand, has everything formulated for success. Then he meets Elizabeth Bennet, a former child music prodigy, who has reinvented herself to keep her secrets at bay. She doesn't fall for Darcy's take-charge attitude. There's an attraction that draws them together, however wary of what that attraction could do to them, they agree that friendship is all they can offer to each other. Being friends with someone of the opposite sex is unfamiliar territory so they make their own rules as the go along. In the midst of their growing friendship their secrets start to unravel.

I liked Darcy and Elizabeth, found them to be funny and warm, yet stubbornly true to character. Supporting characters were good, too. Georgiana, Jane, Bingley were traditional, but Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins and Wickham were redrawn. Even characters from other Austen books were called into play. I also like adventure in my stories. Some of the drug cartel dealings were a bit fantastical, yet served to move the story along to a crucial point. Once past their imposed friendship boundaries, our couple becomes determined to conquer their past and takes action to move their lives forward - together.

There is some graphic language and sex, which was fine with me. This book stands up well to rereading and I'm very happy to have it part of my eReader library.

This is not a really deep book. It takes a lot of liberty from the original story BUT its good. I read it in about a day by the pool, got a nice tan AND a good little love story at the same time. As far as modern takes on the Darcy/Elizabeth love story goes it isn't my favorite BUT its high in the list because the author really got the tongue and cheek banter between the two down. If you can't get enough P&P then this is worth the read...if its your first, start somewhere else and get hooked for you come to this one.

I loved this very fast-paced sexy modern adaptation of Pride & Prejudice! It is a lively & witty story with some unexpected twists along the way. Darcy & Lizzy have an instant attraction that stays just below smoldering while they embark on the best friendship either has ever had.Their attempts to resist falling in love are romantic and totally in vain. Very creative dialogue and exciting subplots make this a page-turner you won't want to put down.

I did not like this version of "Pride and Prejudice". There are several disgusting, downright creepy scenes and descriptions. And I'm still trying to figure out what these cheap, sex-crazed, immoral characters have to do with Pride and Prejudice. Not that I have anything against good sex scenes - quite the opposite. But in this book, there was no real love and passion between the characters. Nothing but lust. I never warmed up to this disgusting Darcy - a man who frequents prostitues IN MODERN TIMES is not a hero I want to read about. It's completely different in a regency where it was a common practice to visit the courtesans. Also, I did not like the unrealistic portrayal of Elizabeth. With all her talents, she seemed like superwoman. I'd prefer to read about more human characters. Darcy was way too tainted and Elizabeth way too virtuous. Something in between would have been nice. I have read many excellent modern adaptations of "Pride and Prejudice", but this one is not my cup of tea.