Happy Monday readers!

A new book by Grace Gibson is almost here! 😮

Did you hear me?

I said a new 🙌🏼 book 🙌🏼  by 🙌🏼 Grace  🙌🏼 Gibson 🙌🏼 is 🙌🏼 almost 🙌🏼 here!!! 🙌🏼

Wooooooo Hooooooo!!!!! 🥳

The author of the brilliant and beloved favorites Silver Buckles, Old Boots, and The Last House and Lambton is about to delight us with another new offering – The Zephyr! 📖

And today she is sharing the most beautiful of covers with us! 😍

We hope you enjoy!! 🤗

~ From the Author ~

Hi Meredith! Thank you so much for having me today. I am so excited for a chance to introduce your readers to my latest story, The Zephyr. It is always a privilege to be featured on your blog and even more of a treat to be here for a cover reveal. Austenesque Reviews is the perfect place to show off yet another gorgeous cover by Pemberley Darcy. This beautiful image is an irresistible invitation to peek behind the cover, isn’t it? I certainly think so, and I am very grateful to my editor and friend, Debbie Styne, and all the wonderful people at Quills & Quartos who have helped make this story come to life for readers who love Elizabeth and Darcy.

~ Book Description ~

WHEN MR FITZWILLIAM DARCY RETURNS to Hertfordshire a year after last seeing Elizabeth Bennet, he is surprised to find that she has taken up careering around the countryside in a brand new curricle. Even more surprising is the manner in which their verbal sparring turns to good humor, banter, and flirtation. So much so that her neighbors begin to wonder if their attachment is more than just friendly.

WHILE ELIZABETH BENNET IS ENJOYING the freedom that her little Zephyr brings to her, another young lady is not so fortunate. Bound by the strictures of an unforgiving society, the lady is helpless…at least until Elizabeth’s tender heart demands that she provide aid to the hapless miss. When an impulse of compassion turns into another dreadful secret and places her squarely in trouble’s way, she is forced to drive as if her life depends on it, and her last, best hope lies in Mr. Darcy’s willingness to help her through the adventure of a lifetime.

~ Excerpt from The Zephyr~

What an uproar my winning the Zephyr had caused! But just as I was imagining dashing past the young sprig of Lucas Lodge on the false flat leading up to the Lea bridge, I was pulled roughly out of my little dream.

“I had been wondering when you had learnt to whip.”

He spoke in a low grumble to match his frown.

“Had you? I wonder that you have thought of me at all, Mr Darcy.”

I was watching with delight as his jaw hardened when he suddenly turned upon me. “When last I was here, you were frightened of horses and did not even ride. You can be nothing other than a novice! What were you thinking to be careering around the countryside at such speed?”

“Thinking!” I exclaimed. “My word, who thinks when they are racing a curricle? I was merely trying to out-pace someone unknown to me who seemed in hot pursuit. How could I have known you were not a dangerous criminal?”

“Oh, I see. There are so many highwaymen who drive a curricle and matched pair,” he said drily.

“Well,” I said with a sniff, “anything is possible. It is not uncommon for a criminal to steal, is it? Besides, I did not precisely turn around to take your likeness for a portrait. I saw someone careering, as you say, towards me, and I used a bend in the road and a cut through the woods to evade capture.” I paused to look appraisingly at him. “How did you make up so much ground, I wonder? By rights I should have beaten you to the fork in the road.”

“I thought the horses pulling the curricle in front of me were out of control and perhaps whoever was driving it,” he said, aiming a stabbing look down upon me, “had lost hold of the reins.”

“Oh, in that case, I owe you an apology, sir. I did not know you were on a mission of rescue. If I had known that, I would have done a better job of pretending distress, so you could have come to my aid. You must have been quite put out with me when I pulled around you on that rise up to the bridge.”

“You will never do so again, for now that I know what is ahead on that route, I shall plan my strategy accordingly.”

“Are we to race through Lindbury Wood again?” I asked in an accent of exasperating delight. “I am in alt! Perhaps this time—”

“There will be no next time,” he declared. “I refuse to be party to you breaking your neck.”

“Oh, very well,” I said with a sigh of dejection.

In truth, I enjoyed little more than teasing Mr Darcy into speaking candidly of his monumental disapproval of me. But he had had enough apparently, for he unclasped his hands and stalked away from me as if for good.

A tormenting fate would plague him, however, for Lady Lucas had stupidly placed him next to me at dinner. Typically, I sat in the hinterlands of the dinner table at Lucas Lodge, but without Jane, I was now given the place at the table usually reserved for Miss Bennet of Longbourn, and I took advantage of my placement over the course of the next hour by throwing polite enquiries at Mr Darcy’s stoic profile.

“How is Miss Darcy faring, sir? Is she still in town or at Pemberley?” and a bit later, “What is the weather in Derbyshire in summer?” followed closely with, “What plays have you seen during the Season? Did the opera produce Figaro again? I had heard they might do Ophelia instead.”

This was the sort of chatter Mr Darcy seemed to despise, and he replied in clipped tones and abbreviated sentences meant to depress my aspirations for a true conversation. Miss Bingley, sitting at his other elbow, vied meticulously for every other opportunity to question him, thus we took turns peppering him with our inane enquiries.

Mr Darcy, his head swivelling from left to right as though he were in the audience of one of the Regent’s tennis tournaments, struggled to find a pause in which to put the next bite of food into his mouth.

Eventually, I tired of plaguing him. Besides, Miss Bingley was better at it, and I left her to it entirely when she began to question him about his rose garden.

“Are you growing any new varietal roses at Pemberley this year, sir?” she asked sweetly.

“I am sure we are.”

“How divine! I have heard there is a new white rose that is extraordinarily fragrant. I believe it is called the Lily of Avalon. Perhaps you should look into it.”

“Perhaps,” he said with a faint sigh of resignation, “although I believe my mother planted that rose in our garden a decade ago.”

As amusing as this forced exchange had been, I turned to speak to Mr Graves, the curate, and heard no more from my right side until the main course was removed and replaced with the cheese board.

“Did you swallow a chicken bone?” Mr Darcy asked me in a low aside, pulling me away from attending to the conversation at the far end of the table.

“What?”

“You became rather silent. Should I be concerned?”

“Oh, I thought perhaps I should allow you to eat.”

He grunted before changing the subject. “When next will you be terrorising Hertfordshire in your curricle made of matchsticks and glue?”

I turned to look directly into the gentleman’s eyes out of flat curiosity. “I go whenever I can, sir. Why? Did you wish to be forewarned?”

Something amazing then occurred, for Mr Darcy’s lips almost curved into a faint smile. “Something like that,” he said.

 

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

(expected release date: March 17th)

Such an idyllic vision of Spring. Please transport me here. Right. Now. 🌷

Everything is stunning, and I love the details – the garden fixtures, the flowers, the delicate print of her dress. I need that dress.🪻

I love that Elizabeth is a daredevil adventuress – this will be so fun to explore! I’m eager to see what new course this takes the story on. 🐎

The banter Grace Gibson creates between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy is masterful – I cannot wait to witness more of it! 🗣️

What do you think, friends? 🤔

~~~

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

The lovely people at Quills and Quartos are offering  3️⃣ ebook copies of The Zephyr to  3️⃣  lucky readers who comment on today’s post!

To enter this giveaway leave a question, comment, or some love for Grace below.

• This giveaway is open worldwide. Thank you, Quills and Quartos! 
• This giveaway ends February 28th. 

 

You can preorder The Zephyr now!

My sincere gratitude to Grace and the wonderful people at Quills and Quartos for putting this special post together!