An Affectionate Heart by Heather Moll - Excerpt and US Giveaway

Today I’m happy to be welcoming Heather Moll back to the blog with her latest book, An Affectionate Heart. The premise of this book is something I’m really excited about, as this book is based on Pride & Prejudice with flavours of one of my favourite books by another author, The Blue Castle by L M Montgomery.

If you are not familiar with that charming book, by the author of the Anne of Green Gables books, I’d definitely recommend reading it. It’s about a young woman, Valancy, who gets a diagnosis of a heart complaint and is told that she probably only has a short time to live. Valancy is nearing 30 and has never actually lived. She has always been well-behaved, always did what her family wanted rather than what she wanted and still never managed to please them. Now she is dying and, spurred on by compassion for an ailing former friend, Valancy decides the time to worry about what her family will think is gone. Valancy may not have much time left, but she is going to live while she can. It’s really a lovely story.

Now, how this meshes in with Pride & Prejudice in An Affectionate Heart, I am not quite sure, but I am assuming from the blurb that Elizabeth has a similar health worry and makes a similar decision to Valancy, to seize the day while she still can. Let’s look at the blurb and then I’ll hand over to Heather for an excerpt. There’s also an amazing giveaway, open to US readers.

Book Description - An Affectionate Heart

ARE LOVE AND AFFECTION ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THE PAIN OF GRIEF AND ANGER?

In the spring of 1812, Elizabeth and Lydia are the only Bennet daughters still unmarried after the death of their father. Elizabeth’s health and spirits worsen as she moves among relations as an unwanted, dependent sister. She returns to Mary and Mr Collins at Longbourn to learn that the neighbourhood gossip centres on the reclusive Mr Darcy.

Darcy and his sister live an isolated life in a small rented lodge near Netherfield after the events at Ramsgate. As Georgiana’s health is failing, Darcy has his own regrets to bear. He tries to keep them secluded, but a young woman arrives who is determined to befriend his lonely, ill sister.

When Elizabeth receives disastrous news, she makes a daring plan to find happiness for herself while she still can. Misunderstandings and secrets abound for them both but in the end, Darcy and Elizabeth will find greater strength together than they ever had apart.

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Excerpt from An Affectionate Heart, introduced by Heather Moll

Thank you for the warm welcome back to Babblings of a Bookworm! Today I have an excerpt from my The Blue Castle-inspired Pride and Prejudice variation An Affectionate Heart. You don’t need to know L.M. Montgomery’s novella to enjoy An Affectionate Heart. It takes key plot points from The Blue Castle, but this is a variation on Pride and Prejudice through and through.

This scene takes place early in the novel in the spring of 1812 where Elizabeth has met and befriended a very ill Georgiana Darcy. Darcy and his sister are–for some reason–renting a small lodge near Meryton and keeping a low profile. While Darcy was away on mysterious business in Ramsgate, Elizabeth visited her new friend…and Darcy’s not too happy to come home and find them not only together, but walking outside.

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When he entered the lodge that felt more like a prison than home and saw the empty sofa in the drawing room, Darcy’s heart dropped, and for a terrifying moment, he feared his sister had died while he was at Ramsgate. Within a moment, his rational powers were his own again, and he was on his way to Georgiana’s bedchamber when he caught sight of someone through the window. Darcy ran around the house to see his sister leaning heavily on the arm of another woman as they made their way through the sunny garden.

“Have you run mad?” he called to Georgiana, who started in surprise. He reached them in a few strides and put an arm around his sister, forcing the stranger to step away. “You will make yourself weary and strain your lungs.” He had not recognised Miss Bennet at first. “What to heaven are you doing here?”

Her eyes widened slightly, but she did not draw back. “You are abominably rude to your guests.”

“I am perfectly hospitable and generous to my welcomed guests, madam. Why are you here, and why are you provoking my sister?”

“She is not provoking me,” Georgiana pleaded. “She has kept company with me nearly every morning that you were away.”

“Then she ought to know, by now, what little strength you have.” He turned to scowl at Miss Bennet. “Can you not see how ill Miss Darcy is?”

“I can, and I also see that a little exercise will do her good. She chose to come out. A walk in the garden is not so violent or so long as to create exhaustion. And if she wishes to rest, she need only say.”

“If she wishes to rest or to walk, she has no need of your company. Good day, Miss Bennet.”

To his lasting shock, Miss Bennet did not return his curt bow with a curtsey and leave. She crossed her arms, arched an eyebrow, and her dark eyes struck him with a cold glare. “If exercise is solitary, it is generally attended with less advantage than when enjoyed with pleasant company–and your sister has assured me that she enjoys my companionship. I will not leave unless Miss Darcy sends me away.”

He looked at his sister, at her sunken eyes and pallid skin, but she was looking at Miss Bennet with an expression of longing he did not understand. “Georgiana, you cannot wish to suffer the disagreeable presence of this stranger?”

“Mr Jones said exercise should be out of doors and as regular as I can manage, and . . . and my spirits kept high, and being with Miss Bennet is a pleasure, not a task. Please, Fitzwilliam?”

While his jaw slackened, the interloper added, “And you have been gone for a week and left your sister friendless and abandoned.”

“I am returned now, and when Miss Darcy wishes to walk, she will do so with me.”

“And so Miss Darcy must forgo the advantage of fresh air and exercise when her brother is engaged or away on business or does not feel in the mood? I enjoy my conversations with–”

“Conversations! What empty, noisy, trivial chatter can the sister-in-law of a man too dull-witted to play whist and worth less than two thousand a year provide to Miss Darcy?”

“You do not improve on further acquaintance!”

“I do not want to further our acquaintance!”

“Your arguing fatigues me,” a voice murmured. “I should like us to return to the house.”

They turned in unison to look at Georgiana, and then back at one another. Her sharp eyes stayed on his, and Darcy did not so much as blink. An argument of a thousand words took place in a silence of two seconds. They would tend to Georgiana with all appearance of amicable friendship, but their dislike was mutual.

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Author Bio 

Heather Moll is an avid reader of mysteries and biographies with a masters in information science. She found Jane Austen later than she should have and made up for lost time by devouring her letters and unpublished works, joining JASNA, and spending too much time researching the Regency era. She is the author of An Affectionate Heart, Nine Ladies, Two More Days at Netherfield, and His Choice of a Wife. She lives with her husband and son and struggles to balance all of the important things, like whether or not to buy groceries or stay home and write.

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Buy Links

An Affectionate Heart is available to buy now in Paperback, Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. 

Some of Heather's other titles are available in audio, so let's keep our fingers crossed that this will make it to audio at some point.

• Buy Link • Add to Goodreads shelf

 

 

 

Giveaway Time!

Heather is offering a wonderful giveaway for US readers to accompany the blog tour.

One lucky winner will receive:

·       A signed paperback copy of An Affectionate Heart

·       Paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice

·       Paperback copy of The Blue Castle

·       Soap from Northanger Soapworks

 

Link to Rafflecopter 

The giveaway is open until 11.59pm Eastern Time on 8 April, for US entrants. To enter, please use the rafflecopter. The lucky winner will be announced by Heather on social media and her blog on 11 April.

Note about comments:  If you have any problems adding your comment please contact me and I will add your comment for you :)

 

Blog Tour Schedule

Heather is visiting a number of blogs with An Affectionate Heart. Please check out the other stops on the tour. 

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