Tag: historical fiction

#BookSpotlight #Extract Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Alice McVeigh @astmcveigh1

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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
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#BookReview The Binding by Bridget Collins

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About the Book

Imagine you could erase your grief. Imagine you could forget your pain. Imagine you could hide a secret. Forever.

Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice – but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse.

He will learn to hand-craft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.

In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, row upon row of books – and memories – are meticulously stored and recorded. Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of them has his name on it.

Format: Hardback (448 pages) Publisher: The Borough Press
Publication date: 10th January 2019 Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Find The Binding on Goodreads

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My Review

Although I’m not often drawn to books with a fantasy element, the inventive premise that unpleasant memories can be erased by being bound within the pages of a book kept me captivated for the first section of the story. The book is set in an undisclosed period that at times, with its talk of persecution of bookbinders, conjures up the feel of 17th century England and at other times seems set much later, perhaps in the 19th century. It didn’t really matter because both had a great sense of atmosphere.

I liked the way, in this imagined world, books are a not just a repository of memories but also become manifestations of power – as a means to erase evidence of abuse or crime, for example – or as a way to exercise control. They are also items of value, collected or traded by wealthy individuals. Playfully, in this world novels are regarded as ‘fake’. As one character observes, ‘They’re not real books. They’re written, like magazines. They’re not actual people, or actual memories. They’re invented.‘ Another character wonders who would write a novel: ‘People who enjoy imagining misery, I suppose. People who have no scruples about dishonesty. People who can spend days writing a long sad lie without going insane.’ Ironically, for some people bound books have become a source of titillation with readers meeting in secret to consume the dreadful experiences of others. Some are even copied and openly traded.

All this was brilliant but I confess as the plot became more of a romance – and a young adult romance at that – with a bit of mystery thrown in, I began to lose interest especially as this is a long book and events move quite slowly.

The Binding is a dark story in places with scenes that may be upsetting for some readers. I liked that it ended on a hopeful note even if I wasn’t completely engaged by the romantic storyline. However, the author is clearly a great storyteller and there are some brilliantly eccentric secondary characters who introduce elements of menace, magic or humour to the storyline.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of The Borough Press via NetGalley.

In three words: Imaginative, atmospheric, romantic

About the Author

Bridget Collins trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after reading English at King’s College, Cambridge. She is the author of seven acclaimed books for young adults and has had two plays produced, one at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Binding is her first adult novel. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

Connect with Bridget
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