Happy Monday, readers! I’m so excited to kick-off the week with a special cover reveal of Don Jacobson’s long-awaited final installment in The Bennet Wardrobe series – The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy!!! If you are new to this series, it is a series that focuses on the Bennet family, who have the ability to travel forward in time through the mystical properties of the Bennet Wardrobe! So far, this series has taken members of the Bennet family to various different time periods where they encounter not only famous historical figures, but also beloved characters from other novels!
And here is the final installment! The concluding chapters of this encompassing saga! 🙌🏼
~ Book Description ~
“You must throw away notions of what you want.
Only then will you be free to accept what you need.”
—The Brown Guide to
Fitzwilliam Darcy, 1840
Long has the amazing Bennet Wardrobe involved itself in the affairs of Longbourn. Where before its actions have been cloaked in mystery, its purpose now becomes clear. The fey cabinet has molded the universes to strike a balance that can be achieved only by saving the greatest love story ever told.
Follow the paths taken by Pemberley’s master and mistress after their children are grown. See Elizabeth Darcy struggle to rekindle the love glow that has dimmed after a quarter century. Grasp the unaccountable pain her departure levels upon the entire Derbyshire family. Watch Fitzwilliam Darcy learn that which he must in order to become the best version of himself: worthy of his Elizabeth.
The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy closes out the Bennet Wardrobe series. The disparate threads spun by the remarkable women born to a Hertfordshire couple of insignificant fortune are woven together. These lives have become the tapestry that records the destiny of Jane Austen’s lovers, immortal in any here/now or where/when.
~ From the Author ~
The Bennet Wardrobe series has been about Home, that safe harbor that allows our hearts and love to grow. Beginning with the first volume—The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey—the Wardrobe novels link together to build an alternate future. I hope that my interpretation of the lives of the five Bennet sisters provides a satisfying portrait and denouement for each.
I strove to create three dimensional personalities for the “Original Five” to help realize my creative vision for the entire arc of the Series. No longer plot devices, they are allowed to blossom into recognizable persons. Even Mrs. Bennet, Caroline Bingley, and Mr. Bennet have their time on center stage! All move through a universe in which Austen’s work is treated as fictionalized biography rather than a story cut from the whole cloth. Neither Mrs. Bennet nor Lydia was pleased with Austen’s characterizations of the family!
That cosmos is powered by Love as articulated by C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves) and amplified by three others that I uncovered. All creation is overseen by a nearly omnipotent being who existed from the before times. The Wardrobe is this sentience’s doorway into the universe created when Jane Austen set pen to paper. “The Old One,” as Mrs. Bennet called him, can use the power of love, but ultimately must bow before Love to set right the greatest love story found in any where/when.
The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy is the culmination of the series where final threads are woven into the tapestry and where earlier themes are brought together. In this eighth volume (about 132,000 words), readers will discern how the previous books interconnect to lead to the most desired outcome. In the end, each of the Bennet sisters—and their friends, partners, and descendants—find their way Home. These sentences from the series’s next-to-last paragraph articulate the path followed for more than six years.
“Mary looked down upon the countryside stretching away from the base of Oakham Mount. The terrain was gently creased and softened by the ages in its cradle found in the bend of the Mimram. While there were houses and roads, the land was essentially unchanged from her girlhood. This place remained eternally Home.”
And without further ado….here is the big reveal!!!
(expected release date: February 14th)
So lovely! I can easily believe the woman in this painting is Elizabeth Bennet out enjoying a summer stroll. 🖼
I must also compliment the design and cohesion of all the covers of this series – I love the artistic uses of these various paintings. 🎨
I wonder where Elizabeth Darcy is – or should I say when she is? 🕰
It sounds like Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s relationship will develop in new ways with the conclusion of this series.💕
What do you think, friends? 🤔
Excerpt from The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy
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This scene is found in Chapter 31 of “The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy” and is set in June 1840. Madelyn Darcy Johnson, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy’s daughter and the young wife of the Johnson heir, encounters his widowed mother Caroline Bingley Johnson. Maddie has been walking the rose beds behind Miami House, the Johnson estate outside of Cincinnati. She is unsettled because Darcy will fight a duel to protect Caroline Johnson’s honor.
“Oh, Mother Caroline, my troubles boil down to one word…men! They must be the most obtuse, stubborn, and contrary race on the face of the planet.
“Your son is fully formed in so many ways. Papa would never have agreed to our marriage so readily if Tom had been otherwise. I suspect Pemberley’s master saw a kindred spirit lurking beneath the long-boned features of my dear man.
“Yet there are moments when I despair of Tom ever growing into his body. My husband acts as if he is a young rooster fresh out of the coop, displaying his plumage and testing his voice. I lay some of the blame at my father’s feet. Whatever occurred at the club would not have begun if the cock-of-the-walk, Fitzwilliam Darcy, had not given permission for it to proceed.
“And Thomas has been less than forthcoming when I asked him what happened.”
Caroline paused, reached overhead, and carefully snipped a particularly beautiful specimen of rose: a blood-red Lizzy’s Own. Her eyes softened in remembrance. “Consider your father as if he were a rosebush. He can brighten a garden with stunning colors and aromas. However, like this patch, if allowed to go wild, his yield will become ever weaker as his strength is sapped by first one and then a dozen competing canes. Too soon, these glorious plants will revert to their native ways. Like them, Darcy needs the touch and the eye of a master gardener to prune away that which detracts and to cultivate that which does not.
“Your mother was that genius who brought out the best in Darcy. Under her tender hands, your father set aside his dour and withdrawn nature in favor of the open happiness that you, but never me, thought was the way he always had been. I knew what he had been like…before.”
Maddie looked at her in surprise. “Before?”
Caroline nodded. “Yes, dearest, I first met a different Darcy back in the year seven. He was but a few years away from having lost his father. His healing was day to day, often set aside in favor of duty. My close friendship—well, perhaps if you ask Darcy, ‘close’ would have been an optimistic yearning of mine—with him was cut short on his wedding day when I suffered a nervous collapse. His transformation at your mother’s hands had only begun.
“Once I had sufficiently recovered, I left for America and did not again encounter your father until that Christmas Day four years ago. The man I saw before me was akin to the one with whom I had sparred back in the year eleven: dark of countenance, raiment, and spirit. All the good your mother had accomplished through twenty-five years was swept away with her departure.”
Madelyn exclaimed, “And now he is moving through life, seeking to master his pain, that agony I know he feels every waking moment, by trying to control everything around him. I remember seeing Mama squeeze his arm when he would throw back his shoulders and harden his face, and say, ‘William, dear, ask yourself if any of this will matter forty years hence when you are lying flat on your back counting the threads in the canopy?’
“But if I tried that, he would look at me as if I were six years old!”
Snorting, Caroline nodded. “And if he has thoroughly regressed to the Darcy of old, he would not countenance my injunction with much more than a narrowing of his eyes and a loud intake of breath.”
“Then, Mama Caroline, what are we to do?”
“Through all my years of marriage to my Mr. Johnson, I learned that there is precious little that a woman can undertake to hold back a man determined to make a fool of himself. Sometimes we must wait for him to come home from his adventures, knees skinned with his shirt muddied and torn. Then we will settle him on a kitchen bench, wipe away his tears, tell him how brave he has been, and ply him with well-sugared tea and a lemon bar or two.”
The image of her husband being ministered to by this wise woman tickled Maddie’s heart. “Or in the case of Papa and my Tom, perhaps some of your fine bourbon would serve instead of the confection.”
“Madelyn, my child, you have much to learn. I have yet to find the man who turns away a lemon bar, especially one served up by his dearest lady, be she cook, nanny, mama, or wife!”
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Connect with Don
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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
Meryton Press is generously giving away 2️⃣ ebook copies of The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy for me to give away to 2️⃣ lucky winners!
To enter this giveaway leave a question, a comment, or some love for Don below!
- This giveaway is open worldwide. Thank you, Meryton Press!
- This giveaway ends February 14th.
The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy is available for Preorder NOW!
My gratitude to Don Jacobson, Janet Taylor, and the lovey people at Meryton Press for putting this post together!
The cover is a beautiful closing to a very engaging series. Thank you for sharing your creativity.
Thank you so much! This is the book that unifies the previous seven. I do hope you enjoy it!
Ooh this looks intriguing! Cannot wait.
Intrigue…although these book is less about that and more about resolving the unresolved. Hope you enjoy the culmination of the arc!
Congratulations, Don on the release of book 8! I look forward to reading it. Thank you for the giveaway.
I look forwars to your thoughts on my vision of all of the characters.
What a beautiful cover! In preparation for this last-of-the-series book, I’m re-reading the entire Bennet Wardrobe series (Meryton Press). I just started book 5, The Exile. I do so appreciate the depth of character development Mr. Jacobson has brought to our beloved P&P family (actually in all his books).
Oh, Maddy, thank you so much for your kind words. I try to make each of the characters (even those who only make a brief appearance) as real as possible. I hope readers will think “Wait, I know someone like that!”
I need to do that, also…reread.
Congratulations and best wishes for your new release, Don! The cover is stunning, and the story sounds wonderful! 🙂
Hi Kelly, Thank you for your kudoes. The story has many layers, and I hope the readers will find each thought-provoking and engaging.
What a beautiful cover! I can hardly wait to read this one!
You will not have long to wait for this volume which ties together the previous seven.
I can’t wait. I love this series.
Coming soon to a Kindle near you! Also, as with each of the books, the print version is stunning.
Congratulations on this book and the completion on this series. I have enjoyed reading the books of this series. I look forward to ODC reuniting.
Shhhh…no spoilers now, although each has ,much to go through (and I do feel for all who screamed at the idea of Elizabeth’s “death” because I never said that overtly…departure, leaving…not death.
What a lovely cover! So reminiscent of Elizabeth. I can just imagine Darcy reverting to self without his beloved wife beside him, keeping him joyful. I do hope she finds her way back to rescue him once again?
Now the series is complete I will definitely be reading it so thank you.
Hi there…Volume One is “The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey.” By my rough calculation, the entire series is about 750,000 words.
That cover goes so well with the rest of the series. It’s fantastic. Now I hope you have instant success with the book, Don. Thanks for posting, Meredith.
S–Thank you so much. I hope that readers discover the truth flowing thorough all of the books. Each one does, in my opinion, offer an authentic portrayal of the Wardrobe’s Universe and how it shaped the characters.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Meredith and Austenesque Reviews not only for hosting this cover reveal, but the previous as well. Your support of this alternative consideration of the story of the Bennets allowed me to explore themes and uncover truths to have blossomed into the universe of the Bennet Wardrobe.
Beautiful cover. I have read part of this series. My problem is that the space between releases with so many books that I read, I can’t remember the details of the ones I have read. I do mean to get back to them some day. Thanks for a chance to win a copy of this one. Good luck with the release.
Sheila…I do hope you read the entire series as some of your pointers early on helped me focus my thoughts.
The last book in this series – I cannot wait to read it! I have read and/or listened to all of them. Has Elizabeth left or has she passed away? The cover is beautiful and does complement the previous covers. Your inspiration for The Bennet Wardrobe has been intriguing and fascinating to read. I found it interesting that you alluded to C.S. Lewis as The Bennet Wardrobe reminds me of Lewis’ famous book. Thank you for the excerpt and giveaway.
Elizabeth has left this world…departed…gone on. I derived inspiration from Lewis’s Wardrobe as well as other forms of magical transport. Also, Lewis’s Four Loves augmented by the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh power the Wardrobe’s universe. Look forward to your thoughts!
Thank you for hosting Don’s cover reveal, Meredith! It is an honor. Don, I have always been fascinated by this series and your plans for it. As I have said from the beginning, it was brilliant. How you kept it all in your mind was amazing. I enjoyed the excerpt and the Madelyn’s description of her father. I had to laugh… cock-of-the-walk, Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Janet…thank you and the entire production team at Meryton Press. Your dedication to producing the best and most innovative Austenesque work made this a wonderful process.
Congratulations on finishing this remarkable series, Don! I marvel not only at your talent but especially your imagination. You give a whole new meaning to the word Variations. Love the colors in the cover.
Thank you so much. It has been a labor of love. The new Meryton Press editions simply blow me away!
Beautiful! Congratulations, Don! I am sorry to see this saga end for it is one that I love. You have breathed a whole new dimension into all of these characters. Thank you! Do not enter me into the giveaway for I will be buying the paperback!
You have been such an important part of this work. I cannot thank you enough for all of your support over the past six years!
Reading this wonderful excerpt makes me realize just how far behind I am on the series! I have only read The Keeper and The Exile. I recently won the audio version of The Keeper, so I plan to use that to re-enter The Wardrobe world and then catch up on the other books. I would love to win the one that pulls it all together!
Thank you for your thoughts! The books (the first seven and then Grail) all read better in sequence as they interlock and also build upon one another.
This is an interesting and different series. I think I have some on audio. 1840, wow! And Cincinnati! I live in Toledo.
Appreciate your thoughts, and I look forward to your comments on the final book that ties everything together.
Beautiful cover! Congratulations on the completion of the series!
Thank you for working your way through my imaginings!
I look forward to reading the conclusion of this series.
And, I am excited to get your reading on how it all wraps up!
I don’t know whether to sigh or cry. To finally learn all the answers and secrets the Wardrobe has always had will be a wonderfully satisfying experience. All the loose ends tied up. But it’s a bittersweet joy. The Wardrobe series has been such a pivotal part of my JAFF experience, an ingenious story arc and premise that, for me was the first to completely transport me into another Austenesque realm. Yeah, I really get that ‘into it’ when I’m reading one.
At the end of each book, I’m dying for the next one in the series but the wait has always been worth it. I just can’t help feeling prematurely sad over the fact that it’s the last one.
Congratulations Mr Jacobson. And here’s to astounding success for the last book’s launch and the entire series that will hopefully gain new interest with the series finish.
I know the feeling. I am experiencing some post-partum depression, too. I hope you will enjoy the final installment. You and the good captain played a role in Volume 4! Thank you again for all of your support over the years.
Beautiful cover.
Thank you. The art sung to me.
This sounds like a wonderful conclusion to the series. I look forward to reading it!
Volume seven is “fresh and hot.” Lydia has been out in her new Meryton Press raiment for a week!
I haven’t started this series yet, but I look forward to doing so. Thanks for the excerpt, and I hope the title means that Elizabeth will indeed be saved.
Hi there….thank you for your interest in the series. Volume 1 is “The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey.” Good luck on the drawing!
i am looking forward to reading this
Hi, If you have not yet begun the series, Volume One which explores the Wardrobe and begins to establish the underlying themes of the next seven books, is “The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey.” Look forward to all of your thoughts on the entire arc and how the Wardrobe saved the greatest love story in any where/when.
I’d love to dive in and explore the Don Jacobson experience!
I love the idea! Thank you so much. The final book in the series (The Grail, Volume 8 of the Wardrobe) releaases on Valentine’s Day. You will discover that the best way to experience the interlocking stories is to begin reading with Volume One…”The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey.”
Congratulations on winning the e-book for Volume 8. Remember that the story lines all begin in Volume One–The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey. That is the best starting point.
Congrats on the upcoming release of The Grail, Don! The cover is so beautiful to look at. Janet did such a terrific job with the design of all the books in The Bennet Wardrobe series. So how do you feel after the completion of an epic series? Relieved? Glad to have written all the stories that you want to tell?
How do I feel? There is a sense of relief that the stories led me to the end we all wanted…a Happily Ever After revealed through the Happily Ever Now. Is that not what life is really all about? The strongest feeling I have is the satisfaction that none of the players were left alone…even those who lived long to realize their destiny. Your tribute to Janet Taylor’s design genius is so well placed. Her deft touch brought the stories to life. I am a holistic writer in that I see the book in its complete package. That extends beyond the text. The full cover as well as the layout and type design (Ellen Pickels) are just as important as the content. This is rapidly becoming a purely content driven world. It is regrettable that visitors to the Amazon listing cannot experthe power of Janet’s back covers. I think a new blog post is needed just for that! Thank you for your kind words. Look forward to your review!
Such a lovely cover Thank you for sharing an excerpt and looking forward to reading this and learning about E & D.
Thank you for following the journey through the years.