Hi readers! I am so happy to welcome back the lovely Cat Andrews to Austenesque Reviews today! Cat is on tour celebrating her newest release – Dance the Tide! I am so looking forward to reading this modern Pride and Prejudice adaptation! I cannot get over how gorgeous this cover is, can you? 😍 If you know me at all, then you know that will be bringing this book to all my favorite beaches this summer while I read. 🏝📘 I will have to imagine the beach is Cape Cod though, but I’m sure that won’t be too hard to do!

Cat is here to share a deleted scene (I love these, don’t you?) from Dance the Tide. We hope you enjoy! 🐚🙌🏼

Thank you, Meredith, for welcoming me back to Austenesque Reviews, just two weeks after the amazing cover reveal for Dance the Tide. I’m pleased to be here again, and happy that this time around, I get to share a deleted scene.

Dance the Tide represents my very first foray into the world of Jane Austen Fan Fiction. I’d discovered JAFF a few years before, and was utterly consumed by it, devouring everything I could on the fan sites I regularly visited. A story began to take shape in my mind, and when I decided to actually take a stab at writing it, it grew and grew and grew…and the end result was the original Dance the Tide, as posted on those fan fiction sites—a 525,000 word monstrosity of a story. When I began self-publishing a few years ago, I shied away from Dance the Tide, knowing full well it would have to be drastically cut, and feeling as though I wouldn’t be able to do it justice.

When I finally felt brave enough to tackle it, I focused on cutting the alternative points of view of the secondary characters. It lowered my word count tremendously, but in doing so, it also presented the challenge of how to incorporate what those characters had been thinking and/or saying when the spotlight was taken from them. I think I managed—and if I did, my success is due in no small part to my editor, Sarah at Lopt & Cropt Editing. But I missed including those viewpoints, especially from the antagonists—namely, Caroline and Wickham. They had some juicy scenes, and I was sad to see them go! So for today’s blog visit, I decided to resurrect a small scene told from Caroline’s point of view.

I think Dance the Tide sports a rather typical Caroline; I just took her Canon personality and amplified it. To set up this scene, it takes place early on in the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Will Darcy. They’ve only been dating for about a week, and Elizabeth, Will, Jane, Charles, and Caroline have all had dinner together at Charles’s apartment in Boston. The following morning, Caroline joins Elizabeth and Jane for a trip to a farmer’s market. By this point, Caroline has witnessed a few instances of overt affection between Will and Elizabeth, and this scene delves into her thinking after they’ve left the farmer’s market. I hope you enjoy it!

*Deleted Scene from Dance the Tide*

Caroline’s mood was considerably dark, and she could pinpoint the exact moment it had become as such; last night, at Charles’s little dinner party, when she saw that nobody, that no one, kissing William. The memory of it, of watching that little display of affection…it made her nauseous.

She’d tried to play it cool, tried not to let her shock and horror show, and hoped she’d pulled it off. How could he flaunt someone in front of me like that? Oh, she’d seen him with other women, but never ever had she seen him as he was last night: smiling, relaxed, attentive…dare she say happy? Happy with that mouse of a girl? And what had he called her? A hidden treasure? Hmph. A hidden trap is more like it. Hopefully, he was only amusing himself for the time being and would eventually come to his senses.

But if you can’t beat them, you join them, right? She’d tried to be friendlier today, tried to actually sound interested in anything about Elizabeth, when really, she couldn’t care less about the chit. But she realized that in order to stay close to William, she would unfortunately have to align herself with Jane—and with Elizabeth. Her reason would be foolproof; Charles was dating Jane, after all. Jane could very well end up a member of the Bingley family. At least that idea was somewhat palatable. Caroline’s long-held dream of her brother marrying Georgiana Darcy was becoming more far-fetched as time went on. They would never be together.

Knowing this, Caroline realized she would have to deepen her relationship with Jane and become a trusted confidant. By doing so, she could further her acquaintance with Elizabeth, and keep William within reach. Eventually she would pull them apart, bit by bit.

A plan began to formulate in her mind, but she would need Jane to make it work. As much as she liked Jane, she wouldn’t hesitate to use her if it would help to successfully turn Darcy away from Elizabeth.

She cringed as she thought back to this morning and her apology to Elizabeth, and hoped it sounded believable. She’d been gritting her teeth the entire time, holding back the bile threatening to rise into her throat. I must have come off as incredibly snobby. Ugh! The fact that she even had to utter those words was appalling and embarrassing.

She would need to act soon, while the relationship was still new and the lovebirds were still getting to know each other. She was sure that William was too much of a gentleman to talk about his past dalliances with other women, so she would have to take advantage of that and put it to good use.

She knew what was at risk if William, or Charles for that matter, found out what she was up to. They wouldn’t see it was all for the best, that Elizabeth couldn’t possibly fit into the sphere of society that the Darcys and the Bingleys enjoyed. And William certainly didn’t belong on Cape Cod, living the life of a beach bum with that wild-haired girl.

She had to crush this little flirtation. Now.

Caro, Caro, Caro…you just won’t ever learn, will you? I look forward to seeing what machinations Caroline uses to  sabotage William’s and Elizabeth’s relationship. 

And that is some daunting editing tasks to tackle, Cat! Well done! I’m so happy we get to see a little taste of Caroline’s POV. Thank you for sharing! All the best with your release of Dance the Tide! 🤗

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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

In conjunction with Cat’s lovely visit, she is giving away 1️⃣ ebook copy of Dance the Tide to 1️⃣ lucky winner!!

To enter this giveaway leave a comment, a question, or some love for Cat below!

• This giveaway is open to US residents.  Thank you, Cat!
• This giveaway ends June 27th