I've never been a huge fan of Mr Darcy. I'm more of a Knightly/Tilney girl. Above all, though, I'm an Austen girl and will gladly pick up just about anything that pays homage to my beloved Jane -- even if the main focus is Darcy. Typically I'll put them down again with a shake of the head and a disgusted "how could they do that to my characters?!?" sort of angst (this happens especially when I pick up a 'reimagining' of Austen's works, but that's another gripe for another time I'm sure).Ashlinn Craven's Building Mr Darcy has been sitting on my Kindle cloud for over a year and I'm glad that I finally opened it up. Sure, I still would have rather Building Mr Tilney, but I think here Darcy was the perfect choice.
Zoe Bunsen and Max Taggart are working on building and perfecting an artificial intelligence version of Fitzwilliam Darcy. Zoe is very much an Austenite (she even wears a "Mr Darcy Ruined My Life" t-shirt to the office on her first day). Max knows nothing about Darcy, but is a whiz at the project management. She's full of exuberance ... he's, well, more like Darcy.
It's a light read and I grew to care about the characters and even the Darcy AI prototype (and what a character he ended being at times!). Sure, there were times when I shook my head and debated whether or not I was going to continue, but in the long run I'm still glad that I saw it through and would gladly pick up another of Craven's books.
