Pemberley to Waterloo

Series: Pride and Prejudice Chronicles, Book 2

By: Anna Elliott / Narrated By: Mary Sarah

Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins

Soooo enjoyed this Listen—Now I reeeeally wanna get to the third installment of this wonderful series!

Have you listened to the first in this series? No?

Well then stop right here, go back and listen to Georgiana Darcy’s Diary, and THEN come back. Cuz it’s like this, see: Author Anna Elliott, crafting an entire character out of an original who was so shy she had few if any lines, reeeeally turned little Georgiana into a powerhouse. And this, Pemberley to Waterloo, has her all Uber-strong and In Your Face yet again. If you’ve not wet your toes in this Georgiana Is STRONG bit? Well, it might be a bit much to take.

Her story continues here as she and Colonel Fitzwilliam are most happily engaged. His PTSD from the Napoleonic Wars is ebbing a bit, and he’s off to getting on with his life, now openly adoring Georgiana.

All well and good until the dratted Napoleon escapes from Elba, and the Allies have to get together as he is now a renewed threat to all of Europe. Colonel FItzwilliam, now assistant to the Duke of Wellington, must leave England, leave Georgiana, and do his military duty. NATurally, the stalwart Georgiana is bereft until Fate intervenes, and she (And Kitty Bennet!) are given a chance to go to Brussels as pals to Harriet Forster (Verrrry young wife of Colonel Forster of the militia) and her grandmother.

I truly loved that history serves as the basis for this book rather than romance. Yes yes yes, there are dashing young men galore, going off to fight, bravely saluting lovely women as they trod off to war. So yeah, got my Romance Fix there. But MOSTly, herein lies just how horrific the Battle of Waterloo was. It’s really nice (And terribly convenient) that this is written in a Diary format cuz Austen NEVER would’ve been anywhere near as graphic as what-all Georgiana sees and does. Here we have the genteel Georgiana and the (Bit of a scapegrace!) Kitty seeing waaaay more than ladies of the Regency saw or even thought of. The two are moved to serve by Harriet’s grandmother, a brave woman who’s seen and done much in her eons on the planet.

It’s not all war, however, tho’ that does indeed make the majority of the work (And it CERtainly makes for the majority of the emotional intensity). There are relationships aplenty, and Elizabeth is pregnant with her and Darcy’s first child. Caroline Bingley is on the receiving end of Georgiana’s compassion and action in this book as Anne de Bourgh was in the last. I actually found Caroline’s metamorphosis into a decent human being believable as it was verrrrry slowly paced out. And of COURSE Wickham, back from fighting in the American Colonies, is sent to Waterloo and shows his true character in a bit of well-executed villainy.

Still, get ready for the horrors of war and (Some) men who thought battle should be glorious but who Now Know Better and are suffering from PTSD (Hmmm… Googled PTSD in the Napoleonic Wars, and there are only a few references, and it had no name. Unlike “soldier’s heart” of the Civil War which was the earliest coined term that I could find). And do expect to see Georgiana and Kitty Bennet rolling up their sleeves even as they gag and retch at sights, sounds, wounds that need to be attended to.

Mary Sarah as narrator for this book is absolutely perfect. There is no Georgiana-as-shrill-fishwife in this book; there’s only Georgiana as rock solid heroine. When she has to chew out the gravely wounded who spew venom at her, Ms. Sarah gives her tones that are necessarily harsh but emotional as all get-out at the same time. This is a Georgiana I came to dearly like! That said, p’raps I coulda done with a bit less of a sneer from Wickham as The Sneering Wickham is done to DEATH in all these sequels and variations. But oh well, I’ll live quite happily listening to George Wickham doing his usual jeering and taunting. Yup, very pleased with the performance here.

Which brings me to Kitty…

My FAVORITE audiobook in the series is up next now that I’ve tackled the first two.

Huzzah! Huzzah! HUZZAH!!!