One simple, uncharacteristic subterfuge leaves Fitzwilliam Darcy needing to apologize to nearly everyone he knows! When Charles Bingley reaps the sad repercussions of Mr. Darcy’s sin of omission, Elizabeth Bennet’s clear-eyed view of the facts gives her the upper hand in a long-distance battle of wills with Mr. Bingley’s former friend. By the time Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth meet (repeatedly) in the groves of Rosings Park, neither knows the whole truth except that somehow, someway, their future is inextricably linked to the courtship of Charles Bingley and Jane Bennet.
In this Pride and Prejudice “what-if”, the additional dash of backbone and “far-sighted” action to the character of Mr. Bingley begs the question: how is Mr. Darcy to impress Elizabeth Bennet if Bingley does his own matchmaking? And how is Elizabeth Bennet to trust Mr. Darcy when even faith in a most beloved sister falters?
One never quite knows where the inspiration will strike. For award-winning author Linda Beutler and My Mr. Darcy & Your Mr. Bingley, the moment of genesis arrived in a particularly contentious thread at the online forum A Happy Assembly. What is the nature of personal responsibility? Where do we draw the line between Mr. Bingley being too subject to Mr. Darcy’s “persuasion” and Mr. Darcy playing too heavily on Mr. Bingley’s “sensibility”? This is a conundrum guaranteed to raise even more questions.
What happens to the plot and character dynamics of Pride & Prejudice if Mr. Bingley is given just a dash more spine? Or if Jane Bennet decides enough embarrassment is too much? How does Mr. Darcy manage the crucial apology a more stalwart Mr. Bingley necessitates he make? What if Mr. Darcy meets relations of Elizabeth Bennet’s for whom she need not blush on their home turf rather than his? Suffice it to say, this is a story of rebuked pride, missing mail, a man with “vision”, a frisky cat, and an evening gown that seems to have its own agenda.
Blog Tour Schedule
5 April My Jane Austen Book Club; Vignette, Giveaway
6 April So little time…; Guest Post, Excerpt, Giveaway
7 April Half Agony, Half Hope; Vignette
8 April Obsessed with Mr. Darcy; Review, Giveaway
9 April My Vices and Weaknesses; Character Interview, Excerpt, Giveaway
10 April Austenesque Reviews; Vignette, Giveaway
11 April Tomorrow is Another Day; Review, Giveaway
12 April Savvy Verse and Wit; Guest Post, Giveaway
13 April Just Jane 1813; Review, Giveaway
14 April A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life; Guest Post
15 April Interests of a Jane Austen Girl; Character Interview, Excerpt, Giveaway
17 April From Pemberley to Milton; Review, Giveaway
18 April Diary of an Eccentric; Review, Giveaway
19 April Darcyholic Diversions; Author Interview, Giveaway
20 April Babblings of a Bookworm; Vignette, Giveaway
Author Bio:
Linda Beutler’s professional life is spent in a garden, an organic garden housing America’s foremost public collection of clematis vines and a host of fabulous companion plants. Her home life reveals a more personal garden, still full of clematis, but also antique roses and vintage perennials planted around and over a 1907 cottage. But one can never have enough of gardening, so in 2011 she began cultivating a weedy patch of Jane Austen Fan Fiction ideas. The first of these to ripen was The Red Chrysanthemum (Meryton Press, 2013), which won a silver IPPY for romance writing in 2014. You might put this down as beginner’s luck—Linda certainly does. The next harvest brought Longbourn to London (Meryton Press, 2014), known widely as “the [too] sexy one”. In 2015 Meryton Press published the bestseller A Will of Iron, a macabre rom-com based on the surprising journals of Anne de Bourgh.
Now, after a year-long break in JAFF writing to produce Plant Lovers Guide to Clematis (Timber Press, 2016)—the third in a bouquet of books on gardening—we have My Mr. Darcy and Your Mr. Bingley bursting into bloom.
Contact Info:
Facebook: Linda Beutler Author
Buy Links:
The eBook is available on Amazon. The Paperback should follow in two to three weeks.
Sheila L. Majczan
I did read this a.s.a.p. and loved it. It is one I will re-read in the future. I did not mind at all the both Jane and Charles were different in this story as it played out so amusingly. A well written but different twist I enjoyed. 5 stars from me.
Meryton Press
We’re glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for sharing what you loved about it!
Glynis
Ooh Linda I do like the sound of this the more I read about it. I have your other books (my favourite being Longbourn to London). I have this on my list and really look forward to reading it. I want to know how Darcy sorts that out!