Cake and Courtship by Mark Brownlow

 

What is your favorite kind of cake?  I love cake.  My favorite cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting or German chocolate cake with the coconut frosting. With that being said, I don’t think there is a cake that I don’t like to eat!

Cake and Courtship is the first book in the Mr. Bennet’s Memoirs series.  Cake and Courtship is the January pick for the JASNA Northwoods Book Club.  We’ll be discussing this book this weekend.

Mr. Bennet is the unhappily married father of five daughters in Regency England.  He served in the army in the conflict in America and the son of his best friend that he served with, John Barton, has returned to England after a long stay in Vienna.  Unfortunately, John’s father is not responsible with his money and John is trying to tidy up affairs.  When he is in Bath, he comes across a woman that he falls immediately in love with.  Without family or friends in England, how can he pursue her?  He turns to the one person he does know and trust, Mr. Bennet.  Mr. Bennet feels like he is the last man to give advice on love, but he wants to help out the young man.  He turns to his friends at the Meryton Natural History Society to help him advice.

I loved this novel.  It was a fun Pride and Prejudice variation with a unique point of view.  I’ve never read anything from Mr. Bennet’s point of view, and it left me excited to read the second book in the series.  I’ve always thought Mr. Bennet has a funny wit throughout the original novel.  Author Mark Brownlow perfectly captures Mr. Bennet’s voice and keeps the ironic humor in tack.  I also loved finding out about Mr. Bennet’s own lost love and his youth.  I also liked that Mr. Bennet wasn’t too hard on Mrs. Bennet.  The story of Pride and Prejudice seemed to be happening in the background of Mr. Bennet’s story and I thought it was fun.  I laughed out loud more than once reading this novel.

Favorite Quotes:

“Books are the one luxury I deem a necessity. If my purchases lead us into poverty, then at least we will be well-read paupers.”

“I passed the evening with a glass of port and the rare self-satisfaction of a husband in possession of precious gossip before his wife.”

“Toke’s sermons were the Russian winters of ecclesiastical discourse—rather unpleasant, far too long, and likely to darken the spirits of all who survived them.”

“He was a man of indefatigable charm and wit, and thus worthy of immediate suspicion.”

“Within minutes of his arrival, Mr. Collins described himself as a tool of God. I could well believe it. The good Lord had clearly sent him to test our fortitude.”

Book Source: Purchased this copy from Amazon.com.  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.