This trilogy is an interesting take on Pride and Prejudice. It’s really only the first book that follows Austen’s story. For the next two, the story is just about how those characters act in this fantasy world.
What I find interesting is how many people complained because it went dark. I’ll be honest – I didn’t find this particularly dark, as “battles against evil” fantasy stories go. People die. I do understand being annoyed with particular characters that we’re very invested in a happy ending die, but I feel like this series established pretty early on that this was not a happy world we were dealing with. I really wonder if the author should have tweaked the names a little more to obscure their origins (a bunch of them are already tweaked enough) and just put the story out there. I don’t necessarily think you need to own up to inspirations when you’ve gone in such a different direction. People will complain less if they’re not invested in the story going in certain ways.