Hi friends! Please help me in extending a warm welcome Hazel Hatman, who is a new Austenesque author, to my blog today! A few months back Hazel celebrated the release of her debut novel – The Darcy Dilemma! And I’m especially excited about this release because it is a contemporary Austenesque tale ✅, involves filming of a fictitious Pride and Prejudice adaptation ✅, and is the beginning of a series ✅! 

Hazel is here to share an enticing excerpt from The Darcy Dilemma, we hope you enjoy! 🙌🏼

Dear Readers,

It is a pleasure to talk to you all about my novel, The Darcy Dilemma. I have been a Jane Austen fan ever since I stumbled across Pride and Prejudice as a teenager. For years I lived in the next door village to Chawton and spent numerous afternoons poking into the nooks and crannies of Jane Austen’s cottage or sitting in the kitchen garden of Chawton House (the grand home of Jane’s brother, Edward Knight) drinking tea on a sunny day. So when I finally wrote a book, it was no surprise that I looked to the wonderful Jane for inspiration. What, I mused, might Pride and Prejudice look like if Jane were writing today?

So many things have changed. Younger sons of the nobility can no longer buy commissions in the British Army and anyone experienced enough to make the rank of Colonel will definitely have a head full of grey hair or no hair at all. The younger son of a baron is more likely to choose commerce than the church, and clergymen in the UK are as poor as their proverbial mice. Education has evened out many class differences – in Austen’s time, nearly two-thirds of women were illiterate, as were most of the lower-class men. Gentility had as much to do with education as with manners.

It may or may not shock you to learn that amongst my research into the many cultural shifts the UK has seen since the Regency Era, class stood out as a prominent and persistent factor. But in the UK today (more than two hundred years after Jane was writing), the class into which you are born is the greatest determinator of your life. It trumps race, gender, and disability – and still, the best way to achieve social mobility is to marry well.

Eleanor Mortimer, the heroine of my novel, is not a direct copy of Lizzie Bennet, but Lizzie’s there, in the embers of her character. She’s there in Eleanor’s meddlesome and matchmaking mother – Mrs Bennet became markedly more sympathetic to me once I had children of my own – and there in Eleanor’s four sisters. Each of these will eventually get their own book and have their stories told (each inspired by a different Jane Austen novel). But where Lizzie finds her estate entailed away from her and her sisters, Eleanor is instead faced with being saddled with hers, a stately home that’s more of a money-sink than it is a grand fortune to inherit.

That estate is Larkford Park, Eleanor’s home, and the chosen filming location for a TV serialisation of Pride and Prejudice. Eleanor is looking for a soulmate and finds a few potential suitors amongst the cast – the wealthy actor playing Mr Darcy, and the bad boy playing Mr Wickham. Then there’s our counterparts for Colonel Fitzwilliam – downgraded to a non-commissioned officer, and invalided out of service, otherwise he wouldn’t get much time before being deployed once more – and Mr Collins – summarily upgraded to a cute, dedicated clergyman, as he’d hardly be in it for a comfortable living in these days.

With all my cast – Eleanor’s sisters, her mother and father, her many suitors – assembled, I held them close, and then let them go. Let them choose. The result was The Darcy Dilemma. I hope you all enjoy it.

The next book in the series, featuring the middle sister (modelled on Mary Bennet) and inspired by Persuasion, is underway. Hindsight should be published late this year, if all goes well.

 

~ Excerpt from The Darcy Dilemma ~

Peregrine Mortimer, the current baron, in an understandable reaction to his own dour upbringing, had married an effervescent beauty, whose ability to convert even the humdrum to fun he had found irresistible. It remains her chief attraction today, now that age has lined the smooth skin of her face and weight has reduced the sharpness of her cheekbones. It is her good fortune. For many of her friends, once-radiant beauties but lacking a Pillar of Fire and thus forced to endure the attrition of time, have found themselves divorced, replaced by younger look-a-likes. “Character lasts, beauty doesn’t,” as Eleanor’s Aunt Mary is fond of saying. “If his greatest compliment is how pretty you are, make certain there is a marriage and no prenup.” It is a truth Aunt Mary herself discovered through unfortunate experience.

For all that, Lady Larkford is still a fine woman, aided by a careful application of expensive cosmetics each morning, a cultured voice, and graceful manners. Although, after four full-term pregnancies, it would take a miracle or an obsession for any woman to retain the shapely figure of their youth, and Sarah Mortimer is flighty by nature. The kindest description of her now would be matronly, but Lady Larkford has always understood the importance of clothes in disguising one’s shortcomings. Dresses in fine fabrics that fit well take years off a woman. Early on in her marriage, lacking the budget for haute couture, she had identified a decent dressmaker in the local town and has had her outfits made for her at the fraction of the cost of a named designer.

Lady Sarah Cavendish was twenty-two when she had met her future husband at Ascot. Those were the last of the days where you didn’t have to pretend you worked, and you could merely exist, frittering your days away in idleness and pleasure. The youngest daughter of an earl, Lady Sarah had a traditional outlook on life: she wanted to marry an aristocrat; she did not want to work beyond instructing staff in their daily, mostly unvarying duties; and she wanted to produce a male heir.

Two out of three wasn’t bad. Each pregnancy raised new hopes and each time they were disappointed. After three girls, she and her husband had discussed whether to risk a fourth attempt. They’d rolled the dice and fate had answered with twin girls. Lord Larkford had drawn the line. No more. Even though she knows the sex of a child is determined by the sperm donated by the father, Sarah feels that in this, the most important duty of a Lady, she has failed – a fact that is often stressed by her mother-in-law.

But it is not in Lady Larkford’s nature to dwell on misfortunes, and she moves through her assigned life with a cheerful optimism that, somehow, all will work out because, in her personal experience, it always has.

After an abundance of aperitifs, she has been known to confide her hopes in her sister-in-law, Mary. “Eleanor is still young; Kate was a Middleton at her age.”

Mary wisely forebears to mention the long-term romance that preceded Kate Middleton’s nuptials and makes a vague noise of encouragement.

A Duke would be perfect, but there aren’t many of them under sixty,” Lady Larkford moans.

“Nor unmarried,” Mary reminds her.

“Pish! Divorces are so common nowadays. It’s just a shame she is not prettier. Still, she is clever.”

Eleanor, whose attention had flittered away from her book as soon as her mind had registered her name being spoken, feels she should remind her relatives of her presence.

“I am here, you know?”

Her mother ignores her. “Perhaps a politician would do – one destined for the highest office, of course.”

“Same problems there,” Mary commiserates. “And do any of them have money?”

“One or two of them must, surely.” Lady Larkford takes another sip of her sherry as she considers. “They do tend to drone on, though. Imagine having to eat your crème brûlée with someone waffling on about Environmental Land Management.”

“What’s that?”

“No idea. Something I heard Peregrine mention yesterday. I wasn’t really listening. But you are exactly right, Mary. They could be sixty and boring, but if they had money …” Eleanor’s mother shrugs almost spilling her re-filled glass.

“An entitled, rich politician then, Sarah?” her sister-in-law summarises, her head to one side.

“Never,” says Eleanor.

“The thought makes me quite giddy,” says Lady Larkford, lost in a dream of a grand cathedral wedding, attended by the great and the good – perhaps even a President.

Sarah’s matrimonial fantasies are doomed. Eleanor has always known her life will be dedicated to the preservation of her family’s heritage, and the protection of those who live and work in it. She long ago accepted the responsibility and reckons she has been adequately compensated by the understanding her life has purpose, something that she has watched her friends struggle to find. Affluence can produce meaningless lives wasted in drink and drugs. And she knows that in the mammoth undertaking that awaits her, navigating her little corner of England through the choppy waters of the future, she will need the support of a partner with whom she has the deepest understanding, the strongest of connections, and the greatest respect. Eleanor will not marry for rank or money. Eleanor will marry for love.

Such an excellent beginning!I appreciate that the story-line won’t be exactly following the course or P&P – that your Eleanor has “embers” of Lizzie Bennet’s character! I’m already intrigued and endeared to her. I cannot wait to meet your contemporary Mr. Darcy!

And how fantastic about this being a series! Thank you so much for sharing, Hazel! I wish you all the best with this book and your upcoming release!

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BOOK DESCRIPTION

It is a truth seldom acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a stately home must be in want of money.

This truth is so well-fixed in the mind of Eleanor’s mother, she is convinced Eleanor must marry a rich man. Eleanor, though, wants a soulmate. But when you live in the countryside outside of a small town, there aren’t many of either around.

Then one summer day, the cast of Pride and Prejudice descends on her home to begin filming and Eleanor is thrown into a world of intrigue, romance, and unexpected twists. Playing Mr. Darcy is the heir to a rich banking family, the son of her mother’s school friend. While her mother can’t believe their luck, Eleanor is not so keen. She knows him from old – he was her college crush, and that did not end well. Besides, there are some interesting new guys in town: a cute clergyman, a vexatious veteran, and the ultimate bad boy, Mr. Wickham.

Dating Darcy would certainly please her mother, but with a bucketload of history between them and a host of misunderstandings, should she give him a second chance? With a lifetime of happiness on the line, Eleanor has to decide: who is truly her Mr. Darcy?

In this modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, the beloved characters come to life on set, adding a new layer of excitement and intrigue to the story. The Darcy Dilemma is a witty and charming contemporary romance novel inspired by Jane Austen, with a sweet happily-ever-after. Perfect for fans of Curtis Sittenfeld, Jenny Proctor, and Mhairi Macfarlane.

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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Today Hazel brings with her  1️⃣  paperback copy of The Darcy Dilemma for me to give away to 1️⃣ lucky reader!

 

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

• This giveaway is open worldwide.  Thank you, Hazel!
• This giveaway ends May 26th!