Sharon Lathan
Author of Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy
About the Author
Sharon Lathan is a native of California. Besides writing the popular Darcy Saga, she is a registered nurse specializing in Neonatal Intensive Care. She is married and has two children. (Bowker Author Biography)
Series
Works by Sharon Lathan
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Lathan, Sharon
- Birthdate
- 1962
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Bakersfield College
- Occupations
- registered nurse
novelist - Organizations
- Romance Writers of America
Yosemite Romance Writers
Jane Austen Society of North America
Austen Authors
The Beau Monde chapter of the RWA
Hearts Through History chapter of the RWA - Agent
- Scott Eagan (Greyhaus Literary Agency)
- Short biography
- Sharon Lathan is the bestselling author (over 200,000 copies sold through) of the Darcy Saga sequel series to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Her novels include Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Loving Mr. Darcy, My Dearest Mr. Darcy, In the Arms of Mr. Darcy, The Trouble With Mr. Darcy, A Darcy Christmas, Miss Darcy Falls in Love, and The Passions of Dr. Darcy. She and fellow novelist Abigail Reynolds formed the Austen Authors blog where over 20 published writers share their love of Jane Austen. In addition to her writing, she works as a Registered Nurse in a Neonatal ICU. She resides with her family in Hanford, California.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA
- Places of residence
- California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
This title never appeared in the library's system, and I intended to read it in a bookstore sometime until I decided a root canal justified an indulgence. For all its reasonable cover, it is pretty much porn. The only thing there's more of than coitus is adverbs. I'm not as deadset against them as, say, Ernest Hemingway or E.B. White, but damn. So the prose was amusingly appalling. So was the story. Except there wasn't a story: no plot, no development, only telling and description, nothing show more but sex and expenditure.
Aha, a new Jane Austen title: Sex and Expenditure. It's not as good as Taxi and Taxidermy or Cunning and Cunnilingus, but it's pretty good.
I was sure Lathan was a fundy Christian before she declared herself one in the acknowledgments (placed at the end): Darcy's a virgin, his Anglican chapel is staffed by a devotee of John Wesley (who founded Methodism), and Elizabeth refers a possible pregnancy as a "blessing." Although Lathan details, with Jean Auel's thoroughness, the physical acts, and describes her characters as wantonly passionate and uninhibited, she avoids any oral-genital contact, and she calls the fucking "loving," as in, "they loved for hours." Yeah, and for the other 21 hours of the day they didn't love each other? Okay, the Darcys wouldn't use coarse language, but Lathan confuses her own religion with theirs.
It's all tell tell tell, and telling with redundancy, wordiness, misspelling, and bizarre, sloppy, and incorrect grammar. They tell each other they love each other, they fuck, and they buy each other stuff, but Lathan gives them no wit, nobility, devotion, or any other characteristic from their source. Instead she gives the reader morsels such as "Bingley nearly was required to physically restrain me"; "in the short time of their acquaintance"; "pausing momentarily"; "usual wont" (my especial favorite); "free reign"; information having "disseminated" (an intransitive verb since when?); "You are from Hertfordshire, I am taken to understand?"; and "[f:]or the subsequent five days, Lizzy slept interminably." Adverbs and redundancy: "Marguerite calmly turned toward her mistress, her face a study in serene indifference, intoning unemotionally ... (96)." Marguerite is "Madeline" once, but goes back to being a daisy before endangering her appendix.
The usual textual inaccuracies and anachronisms: "Darcy House" in London doesn't have the "flamboyant embellishments" Pemberley has. Darcy's father's name is James. Elizabeth calls Darcy "William." Darcy refers to Lady de Bourgh as "Aunt Catherine" (he does not address her). Darcy does address Georgianna as "Georgie." "Georgie" plays "'Ode to Joy' by Beethoven" at Christmas 1816.
Worst of all, the author wrote a sequel not to the novel but to the cinematization with Keira Knightley. She admits as much, and she refers to Elizabeth's visit to Pemberley and Darcy's second proposal as they happened in that film. In which case I wonder she didn't just film a porno instead of writing one. show less
Aha, a new Jane Austen title: Sex and Expenditure. It's not as good as Taxi and Taxidermy or Cunning and Cunnilingus, but it's pretty good.
I was sure Lathan was a fundy Christian before she declared herself one in the acknowledgments (placed at the end): Darcy's a virgin, his Anglican chapel is staffed by a devotee of John Wesley (who founded Methodism), and Elizabeth refers a possible pregnancy as a "blessing." Although Lathan details, with Jean Auel's thoroughness, the physical acts, and describes her characters as wantonly passionate and uninhibited, she avoids any oral-genital contact, and she calls the fucking "loving," as in, "they loved for hours." Yeah, and for the other 21 hours of the day they didn't love each other? Okay, the Darcys wouldn't use coarse language, but Lathan confuses her own religion with theirs.
It's all tell tell tell, and telling with redundancy, wordiness, misspelling, and bizarre, sloppy, and incorrect grammar. They tell each other they love each other, they fuck, and they buy each other stuff, but Lathan gives them no wit, nobility, devotion, or any other characteristic from their source. Instead she gives the reader morsels such as "Bingley nearly was required to physically restrain me"; "in the short time of their acquaintance"; "pausing momentarily"; "usual wont" (my especial favorite); "free reign"; information having "disseminated" (an intransitive verb since when?); "You are from Hertfordshire, I am taken to understand?"; and "[f:]or the subsequent five days, Lizzy slept interminably." Adverbs and redundancy: "Marguerite calmly turned toward her mistress, her face a study in serene indifference, intoning unemotionally ... (96)." Marguerite is "Madeline" once, but goes back to being a daisy before endangering her appendix.
The usual textual inaccuracies and anachronisms: "Darcy House" in London doesn't have the "flamboyant embellishments" Pemberley has. Darcy's father's name is James. Elizabeth calls Darcy "William." Darcy refers to Lady de Bourgh as "Aunt Catherine" (he does not address her). Darcy does address Georgianna as "Georgie." "Georgie" plays "'Ode to Joy' by Beethoven" at Christmas 1816.
Worst of all, the author wrote a sequel not to the novel but to the cinematization with Keira Knightley. She admits as much, and she refers to Elizabeth's visit to Pemberley and Darcy's second proposal as they happened in that film. In which case I wonder she didn't just film a porno instead of writing one. show less
This book was pure sugar, and I don't mean that in a good sense. It got tiring to read after a while - it was predictable, redundant, and not always historically accurate. There were certain terms and phrases used that would not have been heard in the time period. I found quite a few typos too, which is also distracting. But most of all, I got so sick of the neverending sex scenes, which were ALWAYS perfect, blissful, raptorous, etc. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Not show more that Darcty and Lizzy in love isn't a nice thing to read about, but there was so much other character development or other plots that could have been expanded upon. A mediocre book that had promise, but lost it miserably. I'm glad I only paid $1.29 for it, because otherwise I would have been much more disappointed. show less
In the characteristically romantic style of author Sharon Lathan, Georgiana Darcy's story feels nothing like a departure from our most famous Darcy couple, but feels more like a beautiful continuation within the family. For fans of Pride and Prejudice, I think that most readers will agree that we want to see Georgiana happy in love someday, especially after all that she endured with George Wickham. Now as an adult, and seeing the wonderful relationship of her older brother with Elizabeth show more Bennet, nothing could be better than to see Georgiana equally as happy in love.
Picking up where The Trouble With Mr. Darcy left off, we follow Georgiana home through Europe. Focusing less on the travel aspect, and more on character development, we meet friends of the Darcys such as with Sebastian Butler. Sebastian is not an ordinary character for his time, in that he is not necessarily aloof or terribly complicated. That does not mean that he was not interesting. His sweet character was kind and generous around others, but it was his passion for music that lent him that certain cluelessness that we love in Austen's men. Sebastian, in all his gentleness, has made fast friends with Georgiana and shared a real passion for music that bonds the two. Their friendship was sweet and delectable. As for Lord Caxton, who comes along to complicate it all, he seemed more like the villain than the possible love interest, which made it all the easier to love Sebastian and root for his awakening to what he had with Georgiana.
Sharon's novels do contain sensual scenes, that are grippingly romantic. If that is not your scene, let me warn you now. I wouldn't say that this novel is nearly as sensual as previous books though. I get that some people do not enjoy having a romantic interlude spelled out for them, but I can't say that is a reason to completely denigrate an author's story. Sharon's writing has never felt overplayed, in my opinion, and her writing style has this period feel to it that is stunning. As readers, we not only get swept away in the beauty of her writing, but we also develop a greater interest in her characters. In every way, these characters feel real and applicable to us, with their dreams and emotions spelled out on the page. Mixing the period with the timelessness and complications of romantic love, I simply can't get enough of the romance Sharon writes. Beyond being a fan of all things Austen and loving this period to begin with, Miss Darcy Falls in Love is a delectable and delightful romantic romp back to a time when men and women held back on saying what they felt, yet showed it in a number of reserved, romantic ways. Although the sixth in the Darcy saga, Miss Darcy Falls in Love can be read as a stand alone. And for cynics of romance, which I would usually count myself a part, these books make me want to believe! show less
Picking up where The Trouble With Mr. Darcy left off, we follow Georgiana home through Europe. Focusing less on the travel aspect, and more on character development, we meet friends of the Darcys such as with Sebastian Butler. Sebastian is not an ordinary character for his time, in that he is not necessarily aloof or terribly complicated. That does not mean that he was not interesting. His sweet character was kind and generous around others, but it was his passion for music that lent him that certain cluelessness that we love in Austen's men. Sebastian, in all his gentleness, has made fast friends with Georgiana and shared a real passion for music that bonds the two. Their friendship was sweet and delectable. As for Lord Caxton, who comes along to complicate it all, he seemed more like the villain than the possible love interest, which made it all the easier to love Sebastian and root for his awakening to what he had with Georgiana.
Sharon's novels do contain sensual scenes, that are grippingly romantic. If that is not your scene, let me warn you now. I wouldn't say that this novel is nearly as sensual as previous books though. I get that some people do not enjoy having a romantic interlude spelled out for them, but I can't say that is a reason to completely denigrate an author's story. Sharon's writing has never felt overplayed, in my opinion, and her writing style has this period feel to it that is stunning. As readers, we not only get swept away in the beauty of her writing, but we also develop a greater interest in her characters. In every way, these characters feel real and applicable to us, with their dreams and emotions spelled out on the page. Mixing the period with the timelessness and complications of romantic love, I simply can't get enough of the romance Sharon writes. Beyond being a fan of all things Austen and loving this period to begin with, Miss Darcy Falls in Love is a delectable and delightful romantic romp back to a time when men and women held back on saying what they felt, yet showed it in a number of reserved, romantic ways. Although the sixth in the Darcy saga, Miss Darcy Falls in Love can be read as a stand alone. And for cynics of romance, which I would usually count myself a part, these books make me want to believe! show less
Having read many different takeoffs and mash ups of Austen's novels, I continue to hold Lathan's at the top of the list. There is something so fanciful and romantic about Sharon Lathan's depiction of Darcy and Elizabeth that I can't quite get enough! I was happy to see that in this installment the couple have really settled into their roles as man and wife, and are letting go of previous insecurities they might have had previously. While they have settled into their lives together, their show more passion and love for one another have only deepened. Yes, we are privy to their passionate relationship as it continues to unfold, but it is done in a beautifully mature sort of way. Let's be honest here, who wouldn't want to continue to have a passionate relationship with the love of one's life? If one is willing to suspend a certain belief that this iconic couple have been cemented into the pages of Austen's novel, then these books will allow the couple to live and breathe on into a beautiful, complicated and lovely future.
Although the story mainly centers on Darcy and Elizabeth, we learn much more about the people in their lives, such as their single sisters and friends. Caroline Bingley makes an appearance in this installment and strikes out to find a match for herself. Honestly, I wanted to hear more about her search for love, not enough to fill chapters at a time, but was genuinely interested in her struggles enough so that a few more mentions of her would have been well received. I also was surprised at how much I wanted to read on about Darcy's sister Georgiana and Elizabeth's sister Kitty. Usually I'm annoyed when a writer takes away from our main characters, but I didn't feel this at all in this novel, partly because our time with them is so judiciously spent. I will say though that considering the turmoil that poor Georgiana experiences at the end of this installment, I have a feeling that more is to come for this sweet character.
As with each of Lathan's previous novels, the language and style of her writing has a melodic charm to it that carries you through each line and chapter. The sweetness of the writing adds depth to the story and leaves you wanting to escape into it more. There are still the characteristic meanderings, journeys, and felicitous lounging to please any lover of Regency style and romance. This happy, romantic couple is at no loss of love or happiness in the novel to keep any reader sighing along with them. show less
Although the story mainly centers on Darcy and Elizabeth, we learn much more about the people in their lives, such as their single sisters and friends. Caroline Bingley makes an appearance in this installment and strikes out to find a match for herself. Honestly, I wanted to hear more about her search for love, not enough to fill chapters at a time, but was genuinely interested in her struggles enough so that a few more mentions of her would have been well received. I also was surprised at how much I wanted to read on about Darcy's sister Georgiana and Elizabeth's sister Kitty. Usually I'm annoyed when a writer takes away from our main characters, but I didn't feel this at all in this novel, partly because our time with them is so judiciously spent. I will say though that considering the turmoil that poor Georgiana experiences at the end of this installment, I have a feeling that more is to come for this sweet character.
As with each of Lathan's previous novels, the language and style of her writing has a melodic charm to it that carries you through each line and chapter. The sweetness of the writing adds depth to the story and leaves you wanting to escape into it more. There are still the characteristic meanderings, journeys, and felicitous lounging to please any lover of Regency style and romance. This happy, romantic couple is at no loss of love or happiness in the novel to keep any reader sighing along with them. show less
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