Calling all fans of Jane Austen – in particular Pride and Prejudice – or Regency romance!
Today on What Cathy Read Next I’m featuring Darcy by Alice McVeigh, the third book in her Jane Austen ‘variations’. A ‘witty and imaginative’ re-telling of Austen’s classic tale’ with a new ‘Darcyesque’ slant and containing omitted scenes from the original – as well as an extra helping of humour – Alice describes her book as ‘a fresh new Pride and Prejudice with (wedding) bells on!’ (I must admit, I am rather swooning over the image on the cover.)
Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation is available to purchase from Amazon UK in paperback and as an ebook. And while you’re there, why not pick up the previous books in the series, Susan: A Jane Austen Prequel and Harriet: A Jane Austen Variation.
As every author knows, promoting your book to potential readers is a task that never ends. That’s where book bloggers come in so I’m pleased to be able to bring you an extract from the book that will, I hope, whet your appetite to click on that ‘Buy Now’ button.
About the Book
“Should she reject me again, I shall have to wed – as I swore I never would – for dynasty alone. I can only ever love Elizabeth Bennet.”
Love is put to the test in this fresh spin on Jane Austen’s starriest novel, entwining original and classic characters in a tale of passion and self-discovery. In a timeless story of love amid the clash of social classes, Darcy is faced with a terrible choice: to stay in London to force Wickham’s hand – or to go to Rome, to salvage his family’s reputation.
Find Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation on Goodreads
Extract from Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Alice McVeigh
As our visitors left, I chose to accompany the Gardiners and their niece to their carriage, taking the chance to thank Elizabeth. ‘It was very good of you to come.’
‘Not at all. Your sister is charming,’ said she. ‘How I long to hear her play!’
‘Thank you, but I hope to hear you play again, as well.’
‘I fear that would be only an embarrassment, as I have not touched an instrument this long age.’
‘But the voice can surely not have altered? Colonel Fitzwilliam said, only the other day, how it had brightened Rosings last Easter.’
She turned to look at me, as if contemplating some swift rejoinder, misjudged the depth of the marble step beneath, and slipped, with a little cry. Taking three steps in one, I caught her round the waist, secured her against the balustrade and released her. So strange a moment – locked close, a third of the way down the marble staircase – time itself suspended!
Her aunt, following, heard the cry and rushed to the head of the stairs. ‘Lizzy! What has happened?’
‘Why nothing at all! I fell, I cannot think how, but Mr Darcy caught me – for which I am most grateful,’ she said to me, with a private smile. ‘I am sorry to have alarmed you, Aunt, for I am rarely clumsy, as a rule.’
How I wished I could have prolonged that instant on the stair! I was then obliged to return to the saloon, where Miss Bingley was saying very spitefully, ‘How very ill Eliza Bennet looked this morning! I never in my life saw anyone so altered. She is grown so brown and coarse!’
I could not sleep that night, for recollecting that moment on the stair.
About the Author
Alice McVeigh was born in South Korea, of American diplomatic parents, and lived in Asia until she was 13, when the family returned to Washington D.C. She then fell in love with the cello, winning the Beethoven Society of Washington cello competition, and reaching the finals of the National Music Teachers Association Young Soloists national competition. After achieving a B.Mus. with distinction at the internationally acclaimed Jacobs School of Music, she came to London to study with Jacqueline du Pré and William Pleeth. Since then she has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique all over Europe, America and Asia.
Her first two contemporary novels – While the Music Lasts and Ghost Music – were published by Orion Publishing/Hachette in the late 90s, and her first play (Beating Time) put on at the Lewisham Theatre. As well as performing, Alice has ghosted or edited over 200 books. She has also scribbled a witty guide to the orchestral profession: All Risks Musical, cartoons by Noel Ford. Her speculative thriller, Last Star Standing, was published by Unbound Publishing under her pen name, Spaulding Taylor, on February 21st, 2021. It won a Kirkus-starred review and was runner-up in the Independent Press Awards in the Action/Adventure category. It is a finalist in CIBA’s Cygnus Scifi Award, the Wishing Shelf Book Awards (in adult fiction) and the Eric Hoffer Book Awards (in science fiction).
In June 2021, Warleigh Hall Press published the first in her series of six Jane Austenesque novels (Susan: A Jane Austen Prequel). An imagining of Lady Susan as a sixteen-year-old, Susan was a quarter-finalist in Publishers Weekly’s 2021 BookLife Prize, won First Place (historical) in the Pencraft Book Awards, won a Gold Medal (historical) in the Global Book Awards and the eLit Book Awards 2022, was honoured with an IndieBRAG medallion and was selected as one of Shelf Unbound magazine’s “100 notable Indies” of 2021. The second (Harriet: A Jane Austen Variation) was a bestseller in Amazon’s British Historical Fiction category and recently selected as Editor’s Pick (“outstanding”) on Publishers Weekly.
Alice is married to Professor Simon McVeigh, and lives in London. They have one daughter, who is doing a Master’s in Chinese Literature at Peking University (Beijing), and a second home in Crete. Apart from fiction, Alice’s greatest enthusiasms involve playing chamber music, tennis and the family’s long-haired mini-dachshunds.
Connect with Alice
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads | BookBub
What Cathy Read Next... 
Very grateful to you, Cathy – and honoured, too – that you fit my book into your busy schedule. Yours, Alice
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Well, I hope they measure up. So far all of the fan fiction books I’ve read of famous novels have fallen short.
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