Blog Tour: My Mr Darcy and Your Mr Bingley by Linda Beutler - Vignette and Giveaway

 Today I have the pleasure of hosting the last stop on the blog tour for Linda Beutler's latest book, 'My Mr Darcy and Your Mr Bingley'. I had the pleasure of hosting the cover reveal, which I shared with the lovely Rita of the 'From Pemberley to Milton' blog. The reason that there was a joint cover reveal is that both the front and back covers have a story to tell. To finish the tour off nicely, this last stop has a lovely vignette that refers to the item on the back cover of the book, the infamous wine container. This is a real item that was lotteried off. You can read more about it on one of Linda's previous posts. Now, firstly I'll share the book blurb and then I'll hand over to Linda for her vignette. There is also a giveaway associated with this post - see below for details!

Front Cover Reveal - My Mr Darcy and Your Mr Bingley by Linda Beutler

Today I have the honour of joining one of my favourite bloggers in sharing with you the cover of Linda Beutler's upcoming new story, 'My Mr Darcy and Your Mr Bingley'. I'll be sharing the front cover, and Rita, of 'From Pemberley to Milton' will be sharing the back cover.

I am pleased to be able to bring you news of Linda's new story. She's visited the blog before, as the author of 'The Red Chrysanthemum', 'Longbourn to London', 'A Will of Iron' and as a contributing author to the 'Sunkissed: Effusions of Summer' anthology.

Firstly, let me whet your appetite by telling you a little bit more about the premise of this story...

Winner of 'A Will of Iron' by Linda Beutler

Last week Linda Beutler dropped by with a very informative guest post on the legalities of wills back in the 1800s as part of the blog tour for her new book 'A Will of Iron'. This book has particular focus on Anne de Bourgh, who manages to make some ripples from beyond the grave via her will and the observations of the people around her that she's recorded in her diary.

The kind people at Meryton Press offered to give away an e-book of 'A Will of Iron' to one of the commenters on the post. The winner, drawn at random, is....

A Will of Iron Blog Tour - Guest Post by Linda Beutler and Giveaway

Today I have the great pleasure of hosting a stop on the 'A Will of Iron' blog tour. Author Linda Beutler has written us a guest post on the legalities of wills. I suggested the topic because I know the novel centres around the repercussions of Anne de Bourgh's will and the legal side of it is a bit of a grey area in my understanding. I am guessing that may well be the case for other people too. I hope you find Linda's post as informative and entertaining to read as I did!

There is also giveaway associated with this post, an ebook of 'A Will of Iron', courtesy of Meryton Press. Without further ado I'll pass over to Linda.

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Sunkissed: Effusions of Summer by Various Authors

A while ago, Meryton Press (who publish mainly Austen-inspired fiction) ran a short story competition. The story had to be romantic, and have a flavour of summer. The four stories judged best would be included in this anthology, along with four stories by some of Meryton Press’ established authors, J Marie Croft, KaraLynne Mackrory, Linda Beutler and Karen M Cox. This review is a little long, as I have done mini reviews of each story.

Cover Reveal - Sun-Kissed: Effusions of Summer from Meryton Press

You may remember, a while ago, that Meryton Press had a short story competition. The four stories deemed best by the judges would be included in a summer anthology. The finished book is due to be released sometime in June so to whet your appetite for it, here is the cover and a bit more information on the authors:

Blog Tour - Review - Longbourn to London by Linda Beutler

I'm so pleased to be part of the Longbourn to London blog tour celebrating Linda Beutler's latest book release. Today I am sharing with you my review of the book. At the bottom of the post you can find links to other stops on the tour where you can read more about the book and the author, and even win yourself a copy. There are both ebook and paperback versions up for grabs. 

Longbourn to London isn’t a variation or a sequel per se, but instead looks at a part of the story that Austen skims over pretty quickly, the betrothal period of Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. This book picks up a week into the betrothal of our beloved couple and follows them through to the first week or so of their marriage, so it spans around 6 weeks:

“...which to some might appear uneventful. These weeks were, in fact, full of countless small adjustments to their understanding of each other.”

I’d read a book by this author before, The Red Chrysanthemum (you can see my review of that here), which is an Austenesque variation where we see a different type of courtship between the couple, followed by their married life with a particular focus on Elizabeth’s sexual awakening, so I was expecting a sexual element to the book, but it’s actually the key theme of this book. Here Elizabeth grapples with the feelings that Darcy incites within her, and frets about her ignorance of marital relations, a fear which is fuelled by vulgar Aunt Phillips:

“I do feel especially sorry for you Lizzy, as I think Mr. Bingley can be managed, but how you are to control a man who looks at you as Mr. Darcy does, well I am sure I do not know.”

There are a number of additional social engagements due to the betrothals and Elizabeth and Jane find themselves beset by local matrons trying to frighten them with stories of how the marital bed will be for them. After one of these events, where Mrs Bennet does nothing to protect them, Lizzy is unable to sleep. Realising the source of her distress was a lack of knowledge, Lizzy wonders how she can learn of the facts rather than continue to worry in her ignorance and remembers some books she found, years ago in a drawer in her father’s study that she was forbidden to look into. Creeping down to study the books in the middle of the night she is found, but luckily only by Jane, who decides that she is going to try not to worry about things and trust that Mr Bingley will be kind to her. Unfortunately that passive course of action doesn’t recommend itself to Elizabeth, and she decides that she will make a study of the books. She even frankly informs Mr Darcy of her fears, and the books’ existence the next day. Unable to dissuade her, Mr Darcy instead informs Mr Bennet of the issue and Mrs Gardiner finds herself in receipt of several letters all asking for help with Lizzy.

Due to an argument with her husband, Mrs Bennet practically washes her hands of Elizabeth and is pretty unkind to her at every opportunity. This is a fairly harsh portrayal of her, which I always think is a shame, as in Pride and Prejudice I always got the impression that although Lizzy challenged her mother and was her least favourite child I never doubted Mrs Bennet’s love for all her children. I also think that since Lizzy had made a stellar match that Mrs Bennet would be anxious to stay in her good books, as Lizzy would be in a better position than Jane to save Mrs Bennet and any unmarried daughters should Mr Collins turn them out into the hedgerows! I enjoyed the portrayal of Mr Bennet in this story as a loving father to his Lizzy, telling Darcy tales of her childhood, and watching them together to reassure himself of their compatibility.

Although the change from maiden to wife is a big jump Elizabeth is not only going to be doing different things physically, but will be expected to take on the role of being mistress to Darcy’s country estate and town house, both of which would be much larger than what she was used to. In addition to this, she would be changing her social circle not only because she is going to live in a different area, but also in a different social sphere, knowing that some people will be less than welcoming to her. Although I don’t see Lizzy as a character particularly prone to worrying I think it’s likely that if she were to worry about the unknown she would have worried about or at least considered all of this, but in this book her focus is solely on the upcoming changes to their physical relationship, it seemed a little imbalanced to me.

Lizzy and Darcy’s relationship grew really nicely in this book, it was lovely to see how close they were. From the beginning Lizzy was confiding in him, and he was open with her as well. This is just how I see them as a couple, they had already had experience of sharing their secrets regarding Wickham so they had already shown a high level of trust in one another and I think that they would have been very close. The author makes the argument in her foreword that Mr Darcy is just as much of a tease as Lizzy, as evidenced by their repartee when Elizabeth was staying at Netherfield, amongst other times. It also seems likely that he had a good sense of humour, as a humourless man wouldn’t have been attracted to Elizabeth unless he was entirely oblivious to her character, like Collins! I really liked Darcy’s humour in this book, as we got to know him better:

“It makes proposing much easier, I find, if one’s aunt has revealed that one will be accepted in advance of taking the risk.”

If you prefer your Austenesque reading without sex scenes I think you may struggle with this one. The sex scenes are not that graphic, but there are quite a few of them, and there is a level of sensuality though the book, even the parts with no sex scenes. I would say the main theme of the book is the transformation of maiden to bride in an emotional but also in a physical sense which is the type of thing that some readers prefer to avoid. However, if you don’t mind sex scenes and the heavy emphasis on the sensual side of Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship then perhaps you should give this one a go. I find this author’s style is very readable, and I enjoyed the book, although I would have preferred it to focus on a wider range of the changes to Elizabeth’s life rather than just in the bedroom (or in several of the bedrooms as it turns out!).

I received a copy of this book (which by the way is a gorgeous slinky matte version) from Meryton Press via Leatherbound Reviews for my honest review as part of the Longbourn to London blog tour. Thank you so much for letting me take part!

Would you like to win a copy of Longbourn to London or read an excerpt or guest post more from the author, Linda Beutler? Of course you would! So make sure you check out the other stops on the blog tour.

Past Stops:

• Interview and double giveaway - My Jane Austen Book Club
• Excerpt and giveaway - More Agreeably Engaged
• Guest post - Laughing with Lizzie
• Review - Wings of Paper
• Interview - Little Munchkin Reader
• Excerpt and giveaway - The Calico Critic
• Review - Diary of an Eccentric
• Guest post and double giveaway - My Kids Led me Back to Pride and Prejudice
• Interview and giveaway - The Darcy Obsession

Upcoming:

• Guest post - My Love for Jane Austen
• Review - Songs and Stories

Would you like more info on this author? You can connect with Linda Beutler here:

Author Blog - Facebook - Twitter

The Red Chrysanthemum by Linda Beutler

This is a 'what if' variation on Pride and Prejudice.  The story begins at Lambton when Mr Darcy goes to see Lizzy.  In P&P she's just finished reading a very distressing letter from Jane, but in this book the letter doesn't contain any alarming news and Mr Darcy gets the opportunity to speak to Elizabeth. She and the Gardiners are invited to Pemberley, get to know Mr Darcy and Georgiana better and Mr Bingley is made aware of Jane's feelings towards him.

One of the big themes in this book is the language of flowers.  Each flower has a meaning, and Darcy and Georginana prepare a nosegay for Lizzy that would hint to Darcy's continuing feelings for her.  In return, Lizzy leaves a floral message for Mr Darcy which is a bit more coy, but the centre of it is a red chrysanthemum, which means 'I love'.  Unfortunately, the stem is cut too short and it falls out of the arrangement so he doesn't see it at the time. Lizzy knows that Darcy has feelings for her but feels that she can't expect a man she rejected so vehemently to propose again, and Darcy knows her feelings have softened somewhat towards him but can't trust that they've changed enough to risk a second proposal. Some things are too important to leave to the language of flowers...

I enjoyed this romance although I felt that the characters were more open with each other than I felt was likely - Georgiana's near elopement was known by pretty much everybody rather than being the closely-guarded secret that it was in Pride and Prejudice, and the characters were also more touchy-feely than I felt was likely. I also felt that it was unlikely that after so much encouragement on both sides that either Elizabeth or Darcy would have doubts in relation to the other's feelings. Aside from these quibbles I found the characters amusing and engaging.

I would add in a warning for those people who don't like sex scenes, the last section of the book following the wedding deals with Darcy's lustful thoughts and Elizabeth's sexual awakening in some detail, so for those people I'd advise skipping the last 60 pages or so and going straight to the epilogue.