Hi friends! I’m excited to welcome debut author Caroline Cartier for her first visit to Austenesque Reviews!! 🙌🏼

Earlier this month, Caroline released her first Pride and Prejudice variation titled – Not Without Affection! And it sounds like it is a story with a lot of tension and turbulence as the untenable happens…Elizabeth is forced to marry Mr. Collins! 😱 Poor Lizzy!

Caroline is here to share an excerpt from Not Without Affection. We hope you enjoy! 🤗

~ Excerpt from Not Without Affection ~

Even while avoiding Hyde Park to elude gossip, it was impossible that London would not notice that Mr Darcy of Pemberley in Derbyshire was seen in a different location in London, walking and talking in a close manner with the same young lady each day. Eventually, the matrons and ladies left in town began to talk, and their tattle was not always pleasant. One day the ladies were at Gunters, enjoying an ice after a final fitting at the modiste, when Caroline Bingley swept up to their table.

“Georgiana, what can you be doing here with your brother’s — friend?”

“I am not certain I have the pleasure of understanding you, Miss Bingley,” Georgiana said uncertainly. Charlotte was frowning at Miss Bingley. She knew that Caroline knew who she had married, she had heard of a few unkind remarks the woman had spread about when she had become engaged. For the woman to approach and engage Georgiana without extending a greeting to either of them was bad manners indeed.

“Georgiana, I do not know how you came to be in Eliza Bennet’s company, but it is inappropriate for you to be seen in company with your brother’s — friend. Their meetings are being discussed across London. You do not wish to have your name associated with this woman,” Caroline explained as if Georgiana was a child.

“Miss Bingley, let me understand if I have this right; you have heard that Mr Darcy has been seen in perfectly acceptable public locations, escorting many women, while in close conversation with Mrs Collins, and have deduced from that information that not only is she his ladybird, but that somehow I, his cousin, have unknowingly brought his sister into the company of Mr Darcy’s mistress?” Charlotte interrupted with an edge to her voice.

“I did not say unknowingly. You and Eliza were as thick as thieves in Meryton. I highly doubt you would see anything wrong in it, but I assure you, for all Mr Darcy’s admiration of her fine eyes, he would be greatly angered if he knew you brought Eliza Bennet into his sister’s company,” Caroline declared as if in a delusion.

“Does he think my eyes are fine?” Elizabeth asked innocently.

“Oh, I could never break my brother’s confidence.” Georgiana played along impishly.

“Indeed, I can! Mrs Collins, my cousin writes poetry about your eyes. Bad poetry,” Anne giggled.

“Anne! We promised never to tell!” Georgiana objected, laughing heartily now.

“In all seriousness, who am I addressing? I have some concern I might be addressing someone very high indeed, considering the disrespect you have paid my cousin and the rest of us since you approached us quite uninvited,” Anne inquired.

“Mrs Fitzwilliam, may I introduce Miss Caroline Bingley? Miss Bingley I present that rare and delicate blossom of Kent, Mrs Fitzwilliam of Rosings Park, the daughter of Sir Lewis and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and the niece of the Earl of Matlock?” Elizabeth made the introduction mischievously, knowing that Anne knew much of Miss Bingley.

Anne shot Elizabeth a frightful look for her little joke, with which she teased Anne quite frequently. “Miss Bingley! The tradesman’s daughter who is always presuming on my poor cousin’s invitations to his friend? How interesting. My cousin has told me of you, Miss Bingley. You and that seminary that taught you how to catch husbands. Did they teach you anything else, such as how to greet your betters?”

“I beg your pardon!” shrieked Caroline, outraged, as Mrs Hurst began to attempt to persuade her to leave, before anyone else noticed the scene she was creating.

“No, we beg your pardon, Miss Bingley. Mr Darcy has been seen with Mrs Collins at appropriate entertainments, such as the museum. You may not be aware of this, Miss Bingley, but one day, if a man ever wishes to court you, he is very likely to invite you to attend such delights,” Charlotte said icily.

“I know what courting is!” exclaimed Miss Bingley, outraged.

“Are you being courted? How lovely, Miss Bingley, what is the gentleman’s name?” asked Georgiana sweetly.

Miss Bingley’s mouth opened and closed in shock at Georgiana’s impertinence.

“Good day to you, Miss Bingley. Perhaps you should go with your sister before you cause yourself any more embarrassment,” advised Charlotte. People nearby had thankfully missed the beginning of the exchange and Miss Bingley’s appalling claim of Elizabeth’s respectability, but they were beginning to take note of her humiliation now.

Miss Bingley was incandescent with rage at Charlotte’s slight. Caroline Bingley did not care if Charlotte Lucas had married a Duke. She was the ape leader daughter of a shopkeeper who did not marry until twenty-eight, and beneath any recognition or civility, as far as Caroline was concerned. How dare she tell her to leave! She was stammering in anger, or at least attempting to, when Anne said sharply, “Miss Bingley, we said good day.” The group of ladies closed ranks, shifting their chairs about to pointedly turn away and ignore her.

Caroline Bingley would not take this lying down. She paid four calls to the nastiest titled women that she had attended school with, and by the end of the day, the tale that the Viscountess Fitzwilliam, the crude uneducated daughter of a shopkeeper, was exposing her young cousin to the company of her good friend Mr Darcy’s mistress, was adding to the mostly harmless tattle that was already circulating London’s drawing rooms.

Oooh! Sounds like there is about to be a showdown!! 🥊 I wonder what Elizabeth will do… I wonder what Mr. Darcy will do?!? Caroline cannot be allowed to get away with this! 😡

Thank you so much for sharing, Caroline! Congrats on your release!

~ Connect with Caroline ~

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~ About Caroline ~

Caroline Cartier is an anglophile in her early forties, living out her happily ever after in New England with her very own Darcy. She is mom to an extraordinary young woman who is an English major, two cats, and a spaniel (co-author) named Belle.

Having cut her teeth on the Tudors and Mary Queen of Scots with the historical fiction of Jean Plaidy and Victoria Holt at sixteen, Caroline read her way through the histories of the Monarchs of England and France, settling into an abiding love for Regency fiction in her twenties.

Her first Jane Austen Variation was Mr Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange. Several years later, a free trial of Kindle Unlimited opened a whole new world of Austenesque fiction. After reading what feels like hundreds of variations, Caroline began her first writing project in 2021, The Victorian Vagaries, a Victorian Pride and Prejudice Quartet that will be published in 2024.

Having been a gushing member of many fandoms in her time, Caroline takes great enjoyment in historical fiction, fantasy, and YA fiction, and enjoys the works of Rick Riordan, Angie Sage, James Patterson (the Max Ride series), Stephanie Meyers, Suzanne Collins, J K Rowling, L M Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, and of course the father of fantasy, J R R Tolkien.

She takes her inspiration for writing from the wonderful authors of Austenesque literature and the romance series of Stephanie Laurens, Julia Quinn, and Lisa Kleypas, in addition to other historical romances and television period dramas.

~~~

GIVEAWAY TIME!

To celebrate her release of Not Without Affection Caroline Cartier has SEVERAL goodies to give away!!! 🙌🏼

• 2️⃣ ebooks of Not Without Affection
• a $25 Amazon Gift Card

To enter this giveaway leave a question, comment, or some love for Caroline below and fill out the rafflecopter form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• This giveaway is open worldwide. Thank you, Caroline!
• This giveaway ends February 29th.

Not Without Affection is now available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.