Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: My Darcy
AUTHORS: Lily Morton
NARRATOR: Joel Leslie
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 1 hour and 41 minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2024
BLURB:
Freddie Evans is flamboyant, funny, and a lifelong fan of Jane Austen’s love stories which is how he ended up as a guide on a tour bus. He firmly believes in happily ever afters and would love to find his own with his best friend, Darcy.
Driving a Jane Austen tour bus isn’t the most exciting side job in the world, but to Darcy Griffiths, it represents precious time with his best friend Freddie, who’s the guide. He’s loved him since they were teenagers but has never had the nerve to tell him.
Secrets and feelings become revealed as Freddie and Darcy deal with overly amorous newlyweds and arguments over seat allocations. What will Freddie do when he finally realises his very own Mr Darcy is right under his nose?
This novella originally appeared in the Heart2Heart charity anthology, and no new content has been added.
REVIEW:
Back in 1991, Sir Anthony Hopkins famously won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the movie Silence of the Lambs even though he appeared on screen for just a little over 16 minutes. This riveting, disturbing movie is perhaps the antithesis of My Darcy, Lily Morton’s sweet, low-key Pride and Prejudice-based novella, so you may find my mention of it here to be unexpected or even perplexing. But it serves as an illustrative comparison to what Lily Morton and Joel Leslie accomplish in less than two hours of airtime on the My Darcy audiobook: making major impact in minimum time.
Indeed, in My Darcy, there is a whole lot packed into so little time and space. Morton accomplishes lots of yummy, gooey, salty-sweet goodness in just 70 pages. Then Leslie gets ahold of it and an hour and forty minutes becomes a full-length audio experience with a fulsome romance and highly satisfying conclusion.
You don’t need to love Jane Austen or Pride and Prejudice to love this novella. It’s cosplay Regency-style with a bus trip and a host of colorful, well-meaning, nosy tour passengers who thankfully help our lovely main characters, Freddie and the titular Darcy, see what’s right in front of them – that they love each other more than as BFFs and belong together, HEA. This is a best friends-to-lovers trope done adorably, with a hefty side of Morton’s trademark snark and witty banter. But what stands out in the audio is how Leslie lifts these characters from the pages, creating action and events around us. And all the delicious accents … I could listen to him all day.
Leslie only needs mere minutes to pull you in, keep you there, and make you never forget. The My Darcy audiobook with Leslie at the mic is immersive, impactful, and truly the best way to experience this fabulous romance – or really any of Morton’s romances, no matter the length.
RATING: 
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