Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de la Cruz

 Title: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Length: 225 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Classification: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Retelling, Holiday-Christmas
Release Date: October 17, 2017
Source: Library Book
Read: January 2018

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe, from New York Times bestselling author, Melissa de la Cruz, is a sweet, sexy and hilarious gender-swapping, genre-satisfying re-telling, set in contemporary America and featuring one snooty Miss Darcy.
Darcy Fitzwilliam is 29, beautiful, successful, and brilliant. She dates hedge funders and basketball stars and is never without her three cellphones—one for work, one for play, and one to throw at her assistant (just kidding). Darcy’s never fallen in love, never has time for anyone else’s drama, and never goes home for Christmas if she can help it. But when her mother falls ill, she comes home to Pemberley, Ohio, to spend the season with her family.
Her parents throw their annual Christmas bash, where she meets one Luke Bennet, the smart, sardonic slacker son of their neighbor. Luke is 32-years-old and has never left home. He’s a carpenter and makes beautiful furniture, and is content with his simple life. He comes from a family of five brothers, each one less ambitious than the other. When Darcy and Luke fall into bed after too many eggnogs, Darcy thinks it’s just another one night stand. But why can’t she stop thinking of Luke? What is it about him? And can she fall in love, or will her pride and his prejudice against big-city girls stand in their way?

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Okay, so I have never read Pride and Prejudice. I know, I really should and one day I probably will. But since I haven't my knowledge of Pride and Prejudice comes from the 1995 BBC TV Mini-Series and the 2005 Movie. So I am not a Pride and Prejudice expert or anything. But I was really excited to read this retelling. This is the first book by Melissa de la Cruz that I have read. My daughter has read (and loved) the first three of the Descendants book series. 

I had really hoped that Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe was going to be a "me" book and that I would fall in love with the story. I started reading the book in December. But ended up not getting very far into the story due to traveling and spending the holidays with family. Then I picked it back up and restarted it in January because even though the story didn't exactly pull me in the first time (I had only read a few chapters) I still wanted to read it. 

Unfortunately, I didn't fall in love with the story or the characters. I really wanted to, but it didn't happen. I don't think the book is completely terrible, I'm sure there are people out there that will read it and enjoy it. But it was just an okay book for me. One that I could have not read and been fine with that. I just found it to be, meh. 

I did like the gender swap of Darcy. It was interesting to read Darcy as a female character. But sadly, I didn't really like her character in this story. I thought she was a bit immature at times, shallow, and very dramatic. Luke was an okay character. But I didn't really connect with him either. And since I didn't love either of the main characters, it made it difficult for me to really care about their romance. 

The timeline of the story felt rushed. But overall, I found parts of the story and dialog to be a bit boring. There were several times while reading when I considered DNFing (Did Not Finish) this book. Which probably means that I should have. But I continued reading because it was a quick read. And I was kind of hoping that I would end up liking it more the further into the story. But I didn't. I ended up sighing and rolling my eyes several times while reading. 

My Recommendation:

Honestly, I didn't really like the book that much. It didn't exactly make much of an impression on me other than, I could have skipped reading it and been fine. I didn't fall in love with the characters or the story. This was just a 'meh' read for me. I even thought about putting the book down and not finishing it, but I finished reading it. But I still didn't love it. In my opinion, I would skip reading this one, but if you are really wanting to read it, I would just borrow it from the library. 

My Rating: