Book Review: Building Mr. Darcy by Ashlinn Craven

Building Mr. Darcy

Author: Ashlinn Craven
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Published date: August 1st 2016
Kindle Edition, 256 pages
Rating: 4 Stars
★★★★☆
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Summary: It is a truth universally acknowledged...that Jane Austen set the bar for romantic male leads way back in 1813. What mortal man could live up to the gruff yet golden-hearted Mr. Darcy?

Now programmer Zoe Bunsen thinks she has the cure to two centuries' worth of female disillusionment: a new artificial intelligence program that looks, talks, and thinks like Darcy. No way will she let the chauvinistic atmosphere at her company nor her stuffy colleague, Max, get in the way of her wildest dream--creating the perfect man. Even if he isn't quite human...

Max Taggart, project manager extraordinaire, has crossed a continent to secure this high-profile position. His frustrating teammate Zoe may not know it, but everyone's jobs depend on not only the duo meeting the nearly impossible deadline but the new AI being a huge success. Mr. Darcy needs to sell, even if that means selling out a few literary details.

When the AI starts using its scary degree of emotional intelligence to reveal their individual secrets, Zoe and Max must rethink everything, and a surprising connection begins to develop. Will these two unlikely cohorts cling to their prejudices or toss pride aside and admit love is stronger than a fantasy?
Sensuality Level: Behind Closed Doors

Review: I love a good story about woman in STEM, and I'm going to go ahead and say female programmers totally count. Zoe Bunsen and Max Taggart are both programmers with very different approaches to programming. Zoe is way pumped to be put on a project for a new Mr. Darcy AI project because she's a huge Jane Austen fan. Max actually reminded me a lot of Darcy in many ways, with his very analytical approach and sensible level-headedness. Likewise, Zoe has some of Elizabeth Bennet's free-spirited character, and in some ways this is a sort of modern day Pride & Prejudice retelling that also talks about Pride & Prejudice in this crazy, Darcy-filled inception kind of way.

This was a really enjoyable read. I loved the interaction between Zoe and Max, and how they grow to learn more about each other and come to appreciate more of how the other works. I also love the party where Darcy does his oh-so-Darcy thing and advises against a certain match because one of the party's family is less than desirable. Oh Darcy, you never learn, do you? Even when you're a computer generated AI intelligence type of dealie-ma-bob. (Technical term there, dealie-ma-bob.) I'm only angry that the Kindle version of this book is NOT lendable, so I can't digitally thrust it at my friend to read.