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Mr Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston

I am a big fan of these modern follow on novels and was excited to receive this from Bookmooch. The eponymous Mr Darcy and his lovely wife Elizabeth do not appear at all, having been dispatched to Constantinople. The action is focussed on their five daughters who have been sent to London in their absense and proceed to misbehave in such a way I cannot believe possible of children raised by the strict Mr Darcy. The book begins well, introducing the daughters and gently establishes some love affairs for the two eldest. This is where it all starts to go wrong in my opinion as the story starts to go beyond the realms of reasonable possibility. Suffice it to say there are several elopements, lots of scandal, a sodomite and a conclusion that is evident from at least the first quarter of the book. Usually I can put up with even the most ridiculous of storylines but in this case I feel there could have been some restraint and also some more 'filler' between the 'excitement'. The first half of the book is slow and leisurely and then BAM, BAM, BAM, the naughty stuff starts and it left me feeling breathless and like I had read two different books joined together. The characters themselves are thinly drawn and very much like simple caricatures based on the original book. Sad. I wanted so much to love this book, at best it is merely good; at worst, definitely mediocre.