Hi friends! Today I am thrilled to welcome back my favorite dynamic duo of authors – Jessie Lewis and Amy D’Orazio. 🎉

This pair just celebrated the release of their new collaboration – a Pride and Prejudice variation titled – Room for Improvement!  ✨

And it sounds like this very original variation takes Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy to Brighton – without Lydia and Wickham! How ideal! 🏖️

Jessie and Amy are here to share an excerpt from Room for Improvement – we hope you enjoy! 

~ Book Description ~

Only imagine a summer by the sea. Perhaps you will meet the love of your life.

When Elizabeth Bennet inherits a crumbling seaside mansion in Brighton, she expects renovation headaches but not romantic chaos. All plans for a peaceful restoration are shattered when the Viscount Saye rents the property before it’s even remotely habitable and arrives to stay with his cousin Mr Darcy in his party.

Mr Darcy, his pride wounded from Elizabeth’s rejection in Kent and his cousin’s insinuation that heartache has made him stout, hopes a seaside escape will do him good. But when his new land lady is revealed to be the woman who spurned him, it soon becomes clear that the house is an apt metaphor for his own romantic aspirations. Every repair reveals a new disaster, every encounter with Elizabeth leads to a heated argument—or a stolen kiss—and no amount of fresh plaster can cover the cracks of their passionately volatile relationship. But there is always room for improvement.

With their undeniable attraction brewing and a house quite literally crumbling around them, can two stubborn hearts find their way to happiness amid the rubble?

Room for Improvement is a low angst, novel length Pride and Prejudice variation set by the sea in Brighton. It is a romantic comedy (RomCom) enemies to friends to lovers variation with a love triangle and a heroic Darcy as well. Content is closed door.

Forced Proximity—Second Chance Romance—Sudden Wealth/Inheritance— Jealousy/Green-Eyed Monster—Love triangles—Misunderstandings—Trapped Together—Protective Hero—Independent/Strong Willed Heroine

~ Excerpt from Room for Improvement ~

When the Gardiners’ carriage crested the South Downs and Elizabeth saw Brighton—and the sea beyond it—both sparkling in the sun, she could not help but gasp. She sent a prayer of thanks to her aunt. To think that she owned property in such a beautiful part of the world was almost beyond belief.

They passed some of the regiment’s encampments as they neared the town—an eye-opening experience. Row upon row of tents and swarms of raucous redcoats spread out as far as the eye could see. After that, the town itself was revealed to them, and Elizabeth was enraptured. It was bustling and bright, with handsome buildings surrounding large open parks where people meandered arm in arm. It all looked so very new and smart that it seemed more like theatre scenery than a real place.

Mr Gardiner pulled down the carriage window. “Take in a lungful of that sea air, Lizzy. Tell me what you think.”

Elizabeth leant as close to the window as was possible with her young cousin Timothy on her lap and inhaled deeply. The air was salty and unfathomably fresh. “Heavenly,” she said with a sigh.

“’Tis even better down on the beach,” Mrs Gardiner said. “But we shall have to wait a little longer to explore that. Mrs Millhouse’s home is farther away from the centre than yours.”

At long last, after a quiet luncheon with the Millhouses, the time came for Elizabeth and Mr Gardiner to wander down through the town and survey her house. It was about a half an hour’s walk, and Elizabeth’s anticipation mounted with every step. They passed through an open grassy area, which her uncle informed her was called the Steyne, and down onto the seafront, where a pebbly beach stretched out as far as the eye could see on either side, while ahead, the sea glistened all the way to the horizon. The seafront properties stood far back from the beach, a wide promenade separating the two, along which fashionably dressed men and women proudly paraded.

It was quite unlike anything Elizabeth had imagined: neither quaint, like Lyme Regis, where she had visited as a girl, nor busy, like London’s ports, nor rugged, like the pictures she had seen of other coastal towns. It was open, elegant, and grand. As though someone had scooped up Mayfair and deposited it by the sea.

She let out a long, disbelieving sigh. “I never truly understood the rage about Brighton until now. What a place!”

“Indeed,” her uncle said with a knowing smile. “Marine Parade is this way, I believe.”

“Are you sure?” Elizabeth asked. “These houses seem awfully large.”

“You remember the sum I mentioned, I trust? You have not inherited a fisherman’s cottage, Lizzy.”

Nevertheless, she continued to think her uncle must be mistaken as they passed example after example of glorious architecture. From the descriptions in the legal papers, she had expected a dilapidated shell of a property, but the buildings here could not have been grander. Connected in a long terrace, they were all four stories tall apiece, with bay windows and wrought iron balconies looking out to sea. She began to think that even if her property was completely derelict, she would not complain at such a delightful situation.

This was a fortunate conclusion to have come to before they reached the house, for it saved her from being utterly crestfallen when they eventually came upon it. There was no mistaking it; the smashed window on the third floor rather gave it away, as did the rusty railings, the cracked stucco, and the bird’s nest on one of the higher windowsills. If those had not been indication enough, there was the heap of smashed roof tiles at the foot of the basement steps, the dirty sheet hanging across the large bay window next to the front door, and the paint that was flaking off every window frame.

For a moment, she could do nothing but gape at it in shocked silence. Her voice quavered a little when she did speak. “I—I suppose it is not so very bad.”

“I know you are being brave, but believe it or not, I agree,” her uncle replied. “Shall we have a look inside, see what we are really dealing with?”

With a nervous nod, Elizabeth climbed the front steps. The key fitted and the handle turned, but the door would not budge; Mr Gardiner was required to barge it open with his shoulder to get it wide enough for them to squeeze inside. The impediment turned out to be a roll of carpet, but Elizabeth paid it little heed as she stepped over it. Her attention had been stolen by the scene before her as she passed through into the vestibule.

The space was far larger than she had guessed from the front elevation. Alabaster pillars supported an arched entrance into a sun-drenched atrium, around which wound a stone staircase that seemed to climb all the way to the heavens as it wound upwards out of view. Sculpted plasterwork blanketed the ceiling and surrounded the doorways. All of it was damaged, but one could still see what the effect must once have been.

“This must have been spectacular in its heyday,” she said with awe, twirling slowly as she took it all in. It was necessary for her to twirl slowly, for there was otherwise a high risk of tripping over the rubble of broken furniture, crumbled plaster, abandoned tools, and smashed ornaments.

Something crashed loudly behind her. With a yelp, she whipped around—duly tripping on a toppled bust—to see her uncle holding a door handle. The door to which it had been attached moments before was now lying flat on the ground before him, small plumes of dust rising up around its edges.

He winced contritely. “I do apologise. I did not realise it was only propped up.”

Elizabeth laughed lightly and shook her head. “It looks as though quite a lot of things are only propped up.”

As my little corner of North Carolina is preparing for “snowmaggedon,”  a summer seaside romance sounds like the perfect way to stay warm! ☀️

I am so eager for both the house improvements and relationship improvements we will see in this tale! 👏🏼 

In my best Lydia voice… “Ooohhh! I want to go to Brighton!” 🌊

~~~

GIVEAWAY TIME!

In conjunction with this lovely blog tour, Quills and Quartos will be giving away  ebook copies of Room for Improvement to three lucky reader who comments on this post.

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment, question, or some love for Jessie and Amy below!

• This giveaway is open worldwide! Thank you, Quills and Quartos.
• This giveaway will end January 31st.

Room for Improvement is available in paperback and ebook!!