Announcement + Cover Reveal of The Colonel!!!

May 1, 2019 • Author Features • 43 Comments

Hi dear friends! I’m so excited to take part in this special announcement today!  I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Beau North, but I especially adored her soul-stirring and poignant love story Longbourn’s Songbird – which was one of my Favorite Reads of 2016 and one of my Top Ten Favorite Austenesque Retellings, but more importantly this title won a Silver IPPY award in 2017 (so very deserving!!) Longbourn’s Songbird is beloved by many Austenesque readers and I’m so thrilled that Beau is giving us more!!

~ From the Author ~

Thank you, Meredith, for hosting me today! As some of my readers may know, I’ve been planning a follow-up to my first novel, Longbourn’s Songbird, for…well, since before I wrote Longbourn’s Songbird, to be honest! And now, after many years of working in fits and starts, I can finally say that The Colonel is ready to meet the world!

This story takes place both concurrently with and after the events of Longbourn’s Songbird, and follows the story of Richard Fitzwilliam, from his life before WWII, his adventures in New York in the 1950’s to the California coast in the 1960’s. We are seeing his story unfold through the eyes of his adult son, Ben, who in 2002 has decided to write a book about his father and the Fitzwilliam/Darcy/DeBourgh family. Readers will see characters from Longbourn’s Songbird, including Anne and Charlotte, Georgiana, Jane and Bingley. There will also be new characters like Maggie and Tom Darcy, the grown children of Will Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet as Richard and Ben seek to find meaning in some of the most tumultuous times in American history. This book is a labor of love, my longest and most personal to date.

~ Book Description ~

1950:

After letting his chance at love with Elizabeth Bennet slip through his fingers a second time, Richard Fitzwilliam loses himself in women, whiskey, and war as he tries to forget what he left behind. Putting oceans, continents, and decades between himself and his heartbreak, Richard seeks his future, only to be pulled back to the past again and again.

2002:

Shaken by recent events, Ben Fitzwilliam has left everything familiar behind, walking away from his relationship, his Manhattan apartment, his career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist to return to his family home in Annapolis, Maryland. Struggling to navigate a world that makes less and less sense, Ben finds purpose where he least expected it: in his father’s private letters. With the help of Annapolis PD Officer Keisha Barnes, Ben attempts to uncover his father’s secrets, heal the rifts those secrets caused, and find the answers he seeks on far shores.

~ Expected release date July 2019 ~

And without further ado….here is the big reveal!!!

How about the flip-side?

Wooooooot!!! Isn’t this such fabulous news?!?

I am so loving the style of these covers – I love how they tie into the setting and their elegance and subdued tones.

And I adore the authenticity of the old photos on the back, it definitely feels like we will be diving into some family history and memories!

What do you think of this cover?

~~~

~ Prologue from The Colonel ~

This isn’t a love story, but the end of one. The story of two ships forever passing in the night. This is the story of my father and the woman he spent most of his adult life loving, a woman who was never really his.

You can never really a know a person, no matter how much you think you might. I never presumed to really know Richard Fitzwilliam. My father loved me, and that was always enough for me. He taught me how to play baseball and how to write a check, how to open doors and say “please” and “thank you.”

When I was seven years old I fell on the ice in Central Park and broke my ankle. My father picked me up and carried me the eight blocks to St. Luke’s. Later, when my mother demanded to know why he didn’t just get a taxi, my father would shrug and say he was faster than the Manhattan traffic. That was the man he was.

He was a man who sacrificed pieces of himself for his country twice over, earning not one but two battlefield promotions for his quick thinking and reckless bravery. Colonel Fitzwilliam was a man who didn’t just dance with death but wined, dined, and outright romanced it.

In his youth, a bon vivant and connoisseur of bad habits. He loved extravagantly, and often unwisely. But I’m getting ahead of myself now.

I’ve told stories before. War stories, political stories, all the news that’s fit to print. This is my first time trying to tell a love story.

But like I said, this isn’t a love story.

But almost.

I hope that’s enough to reel you in, but if not here’s some of the promotional art I’ve been crafting from day one. These instagram stories have helped me connect with the book and served of visual reminders of what this story has meant to me. I hope you all love reading this book as much as I have loved writing it.

Oh my goodness, Beau, it is already heartrending! I like that it is “almost” a love story and I like that we are learning about things from Ben’s perspective!! Cannot wait to learn more about him! 😍

What are your thoughts about The Colonel, friends?

Have you read Longbourn’s Songbird? 

~~~

Disclaimer: The Amazon links used in this post are affiliate links. 

43 comments

  1. Thank you SO MUCH for hosting me and being a part of this announcement, Meredith! I hope your readers enjoy The Colonel’s story, it’s one that has stayed close to my heart for a long, long time. I actually started writing this book BEFORE I wrote Longbourn’s Songbird!

    Reply

    1. My sincere pleasure, Beau! What an exciting thing to celebrate – I am very honored to take part!! I am sure such a heartfelt story cannot help but be beloved by your readers!

      Reply

  2. Absolutely loved Lonbourn’s Songbird! I will be almost first in line to purchase the sequel

    Reply

  4. Whew, I am near tears just reading these comments/excerpts. I loved Longbourn’s Songbird and know that this will also be heart rending…almost…that alone makes me sad. The Colonel deserves his HEA and it doesn’t sound as if he got it from that word alone.

    Reply

    1. Sheila it’s so difficult not to comment in a way that will spoil the book for you, haha! I think people that love this character as much as I do will walk away feeling satisfied. I hope, anyway!

      Reply

  7. I can’t wait for this to be ready to publish. I have had the privilege to read excerpts of this along the way and now am honored to finally be a part of her project, and I can tell you this: THIS is Beau’s finest work yet! She had me in tears a number of times, happy tears too, and the dialogue is smart and well-intended, so honest. The scenes with Elizabeth and Darcy are electric and when Richard is with them…you can feel the dangerous, loving undercurrent that just “is” between the three. But this masterpiece, and I can honestly and confidently call this a masterpiece, is so much more than a romance or fan fiction. Readers bemoan they want something new while still being familiar, that they want something more. This definitely answers that call. Be prepared to have your socks blown off by this sweeping novel.
    “Think: if Jane Austen and William Martin collaborated, this novel might be their love child.” XO

    Reply

    1. Thank you for being my cheerleader from day 1! Your support and encouragement means the world to me!

      Reply

  8. Love the cover (front and back). It’s as if he refuses to look back and things will get better once he gets over that hill…again. Just love the old photos as I have some of my parents old ones like this. Well time to do a re-read of one of my favourite novels. Just the other day, I was wondering how you were coming along on the next book. Was I ever thrilled today to hear it is almost here. I also think I need to have both books in paperback. That will be my Amazon order for May! Congratulations and my heart is already aching…

    Reply

    2. So well said, Carole!! And definitely a lovely treat for yourself. I think I’d like to get the newer edition of LS for myself as a treat as well! 😉 (Have to have both covers matching!!)

      Reply

  10. My first thought was,wonderful a book about the Colonel, my favourite male character from P&P, then Elizabeth’s name was mentioned. Oh well.

    Reply

    1. Ha! Don’t worry about Darcy and Elizabeth. No crimes have been committed against our dear couple. XO

      Reply

  11. This post made me rush to buy Longbourn Songbird, and before even reading it, I’m eager for the second book. Usually I don’t like nonRegency JAFF or stories following up with he next generation, but these two novels seem so powerful and compelling, and I’m already looking to recommend them to friends not obsessed with P&P. This is all very uncharacteristic behaviour for me.

    Reply

    2. Yay! Happy reading and you are absolutely right – LS is wonderful for both fans of P&P and those that aren’t. as you put it “obsessed with P&P.” 😉

      Reply

  13. Oh my glands, yes!!!! I require this book and am so happy for Beau, but selfishly more happy for me. Perfect match on the cover!

    Reply

  14. Oh my goodness! I’ve been anticipating this book since I heard you were going to write it. Can’t wait to read it as well as re-read Longbourn Songbird! Congrats on the upcoming release!

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  17. I absolutely adored Longbourn Songbird, it was such a wow moment foe me, and by the sound of it this is going to top that! Can’t wait can’t wait can’t wait! Thanks for this gorgeous post, Beau and Meredith, and huge congrats, Beau, for another winner!!

    Reply

  18. SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!! I’ve been waiting for this story for YEARS and it simply does not disappoint. The cover is stunning and the scope of the novel is ambitious but beautifully executed. I can’t wait for it to drop so I’ll have more people to cry and laugh and rage with. Brilliant work, Beau.

    Reply

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