Book picks similar to
Celestial Persuasion by Mirta Ines Trupp


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The Forgotten Sister: Mary Bennet's Pride and Prejudice


Jennifer Paynter - 2012
    She retreats to her room to read and play the pianoforte and, when obliged to mix in society, finds it safer to quote platitudes from books rather than express her real opinions. She also finds it safer to befriend those who are socially “beneath” her. When wealthy Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley glide into her sisters’ lives, Mary becomes infatuated with an impoverished young musician, the son of her old wet-nurse, who plays the fiddle at the Meryton assemblies.It is only after her sisters tease her about her “beau with the bow” that Mary is forced to examine her real feelings and confront her own brand of pride and prejudice.An elegant accompaniment to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, The Forgotten Sister plucks the neglected Mary from obscurity and beautifully reveals her hopes and dreams.

Reputation


Lex CroucherLex Croucher
    A classic romcom with a Regency-era twist, for fans of Mean Girls and/or Jane Austen.Abandoned by her parents, middle-class Georgiana Ellers has moved to a new town to live with her dreary aunt and uncle. At a particularly dull party, she meets the enigmatic Frances Campbell, a wealthy member of the in-crowd who lives a life Georgiana couldn't have imagined in her wildest dreams.Lonely and vulnerable, Georgiana falls in with Frances and her unfathomably rich, deeply improper friends. Georgiana is introduced to a new world: drunken debauchery, mysterious young men with strangely arresting hands, and the upper echelons of Regency society.But the price of entry to high society might just be higher than Georgiana is willing to pay ...

Sorrow and Second Chances


E. Bradshaw - 2019
    In this adaptation, the Bennet family are afflicted with grief following a sudden death in their family, and as a consequence, the fate of the whole family is changed forever. Fitzwilliam Darcy, who has been filled with regret and deep remorse ever since his last encounter with Elizabeth Bennet, realises that – in this time of great sorrow – he might just have a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the woman he loves. Told predominantly from the viewpoint of Mr Darcy, who has been left broken-hearted by Elizabeth Bennet’s rejection, this Pride and Prejudice variation tells the story of what happened next between these two much-loved characters. ‘He could easily see that he had astonished her, and he knew very well that he was skirting well over the line of acceptable conduct with his close proximity and with his use of her Christian name – but he felt that they had travelled well beyond the realms of proper conduct a long time ago. Somewhere between their heated argument at the Hunsford Parsonage and their private conversation in the dark of her bedroom, they had crossed an invisible line. They could never return to holding polite, stilted conversations about music or politics, or the state of the weather, when they had already bared so much of their inner souls to one another. Let other people conduct their courtships in such a way, he thought determinedly to himself, but he could remain silent no longer. If he had felt less for her then he might have been able to restrain his candour, but he knew he was well beyond that now.’

Letters from Pemberley: The First Year


Jane Dawkins - 1999
    Fitzwilliam Darcy and mistress of Pemberley, finds herself in a very different league of wealth and privilege. Writing to her beloved sister Jane, she confides her uncertainty and anxieties, and describes the everyday of her new life. Her first year at Pemberley is sometimes bewildering but Lizzie's spirited sense of humor and satirical eye never deserts her.Incorporating Jane Austen's own words and characters from her other works (who appear here with different names, either associated with Austen's life, borrowed from another of her novels or are a wordplay on their original name), Jane Dawkins pieces together a literary patchwork quilt to tell the story of Lizzy's first eventful year as Mrs. Darcy.

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba


Chanel Cleeton - 2021
    When Grace Harrington lands a job at Hearst’s newspaper in 1896, she’s caught in a cutthroat world where one scoop can make or break your career, but it’s a story emerging from Cuba that changes her life.Unjustly imprisoned in a notorious Havana women’s jail, eighteen-year-old Evangelina Cisneros dreams of a Cuba free from Spanish oppression. When Hearst learns of her plight and splashes her image on the front page of his paper, proclaiming her, “The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba,” she becomes a rallying cry for American intervention in the battle for Cuban independence. With the help of Marina Perez, a courier secretly working for the Cuban revolutionaries in Havana, Grace and Hearst’s staff attempt to free Evangelina. But when Cuban civilians are forced into reconcentration camps and the explosion of the USS Maine propels the United States and Spain toward war, the three women must risk everything in their fight for freedom.

Pledged to Mr. Darcy: a Pride and Prejudice variation


Valerie Lennox - 2019
    Moments later, Mr. Darcy arrives and asks for her hand in marriage. Thrown by the dreadful news she has just received, Elizabeth cannot respond to him. Once the sickness that claimed her father has finished raging through Hertfordshire, Elizabeth’s family has been decimated, only leaving behind herself, Jane, and Lydia. Numb and aggrieved, Elizabeth agrees to become pledged to Mr. Darcy, but asks that he wait for her period of mourning to be over before they wed. Together, they set off for Pemberley, where Elizabeth must face Lady Catherine’s disapproval, Georgiana’s painful shyness, and the sudden appearance of Mr. Wickham…

The Footman and I


Valerie Bowman - 2020
    So, while drunkenly jesting with his friends in a pub one night, he has an idea—what if the ladies of the ton didn’t know he was a wealthy earl? All he has to do is pose as a servant at his friend’s summer country house party and make sure the guest list is full of beautiful, eligible debutantes. What could possibly go wrong?May the best footman win.Miss Frances Wharton is far more interested in fighting for the rights of the poor than in marriage, but her mother insists she attend a summer house party—and find herself a husband. Frances would rather wed a goat than the pompous man her mother has in mind, so in order to dissuade the would-be suitor, she vows to behave like a shrew. The only person she can be herself with is the kind, handsome footman she runs into at every turn. Their connection is undeniable, and the divide between them is no match for the passion they feel. But what will happen when Frances learns that the footman she adores is actually the earl she despises? In a game where everything is false, can they convince each other that their love is true?

Miss Bingley's Revenge


Wendy Soliman - 2013
    Darcy, Lizzy is determined to prove her detractors wrong by throwing a magnificent house party at Pemberley. The smallest details have been worried over for weeks; nothing can possibly go wrong, can it? Lizzy starts to wonder about that when a distraught Lydia descends upon Pemberley on the eve of the party. Wickham has quit the army and gone to London to resurrect his career in the law.Miss Bingley is quite determined to rescue Darcy from his reckless marriage, convinced he must now regret it. She finds an unlikely ally in George Wickham, both of whom wish to avenge themselves on Lizzy, albeit for very different reasons. If Darcy were to find his ‘fine-eyed’ wife in a compromising position with Wickham of all people, he would surely never forgive her.Lizzy finds herself in a desperate fight to save her marriage, but can only do so by exposing Miss Bingley’s evil machinations. What damage will that do to Jane’s happiness with her Mr. Bingley? And what of Lydia? Even if Lizzy can prove to Darcy that she has been manipulated, how can she protect her sister in the face of Wickham’s desperate and despicable actions…A sparkling continuation of Pride and Prejudice.

Death of a Fop


Sarah J. Waldock - 2011
    Jane Fairfax expected an idyll in marriage to Frank Churchill, but things have not turned out that way. When Frank is murdered, Jane joins forces with Bow Street Runner, Caleb Armitage, to find out who might have killed Frank and why.

Her Summer at Pemberley


Sallianne Hines - 2020
    Longbourn holds no hope for that. She must escape the shadow of her wild sister Lydia to re-establish her own reputation as a respectable young lady. A summer at Pemberley would do the trick. But to Kitty’s surprise it takes more than a new location—she must learn who she is without Lydia, and what she wants in life beyond swaggering officers and pretty bonnets. Kitty’s defiant passion for riding horses connects her with enigmatic Lady Drake and creates a bond with Mr. Darcy. A dashing geologist and an inscrutable horseman catch her eye. New friendships, the power of legends and stones, and a journey to the royal mews in Windsor bring heartache, insight, and delightful unforeseen richness during her life-changing summer at Pemberley.This "Pride and Prejudice" sequel is a Regency coming-of-age adventure/clean romance that includes some of literature’s most beloved characters, along with a new cast of friends, young and old.

A Happy Accident: A Pride and Prejudice Variation


Amelia Wood - 2019
    And only the understanding that he is away from home allows her the freedom to explore the peaks around Pemberley, his magnificent estate in Derbyshire. But as Elizabeth as navigating the treacherous ground on her return to Lambton, she and Darcy come upon one another unexpectedly. Her shock caused Elizabeth to lose her footing and stumble. Darcy never thought he would have a greater shock than seeing Elizabeth Bennet exploring his lands only weeks after she broke his heart. That was until he had the shock of seeing her lose her footing and stumble from his sight. While Darcy cares for Elizabeth’s injuries at Pemberley, the two tentatively grow closer as they explore the misunderstandings and the growing feelings between them. But not everyone is pleased by Elizabeth’s stay at Pemberley. And they are prepared to do all they can to keep them apart. Even if it means corrupting their own honour and destroying the happiness of Elizabeth and Darcy forever. A Happy Accident is a Pride and Prejudice variation novella of approximately 30,000 words.

Faye, Faraway


Helen Fisher - 2021
    Every night, before she puts them to bed, she whispers to them: “You are good, you are kind, you are clever, you are funny.” She’s determined that they never doubt for a minute that their mother loves them unconditionally. After all, her own mother Jeanie had died when she was only seven years old and Faye has never gotten over that intense pain of losing her.But one day, her life is turned upside down when she finds herself in 1977, the year before her mother died. Suddenly, she has the chance to reconnect with her long-lost mother, and even meets her own younger self, a little girl she can barely remember. Jeanie doesn’t recognize Faye as her daughter, of course, even though there is something eerily familiar about her...As the two women become close friends, they share many secrets—but Faye is terrified of revealing the truth about her identity. Will it prevent her from returning to her own time and her beloved husband and daughters? What if she’s doomed to remain in the past forever? Faye knows that eventually she will have to choose between those she loves in the past and those she loves in the here and now, and that knowledge presents her with an impossible choice.Emotionally gripping and ineffably sweet Faye, Faraway is a brilliant exploration of the grief associated with unimaginable loss and the magic of being healed by love.

Susan, a Jane Austen Prequel


Alice McVeigh - 2021
    One is apt to expect that an impudent address will naturally attend an impudent mind – but her countenance is absolutely sweet. I am sorry it is so, for what is this but deceit?" (from Lady Susan, by Jane Austen) Sixteen-year-old Susan Smithson – pretty but poor, clever but capricious – has just been expelled from a school for young ladies in London. At the mansion of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, she attracts a raffish young nobleman. But at the first hint of scandal, her guardian dispatches her to her uncle Collins’ rectory in Kent, where her sensible cousin Alicia lives and “where nothing ever happens.” Here Susan inspires the local squire to put on a play, with consequences no one could possibly have foreseen. What with the unexpected arrival of Frank Churchill, Alicia’s falling in love and a shocking elopement, rural Kent will surely never seem quite so safe again.AUTHOR'S NOTE: This book is a prequel to Jane Austen's Lady Susan, in which a beautiful and manipulative young widow of 35 descends on her sister-in-law to escape the wrath of her lover’s wife, and almost succeeds in marrying the young heir of the household. The idea first occurred when I began to wonder what Lady Susan might have been like when she was only sixteen. I have set it five years after Pride and Prejudice and have – possibly rashly! – dared to ‘borrow’ several characters from P&P, including Lady Catherine and Mr Collins, plus Frank Churchill from Emma, which I hope is forgivable! I was frankly pretty overwhelmed to have received a rating of 10/10 stars for this book in Publisher's Weekly's BookLife Award competition. It has also been VERY kindly "recommended" by the US Review of Books, Indies Today and by all three editorial reviewers for Readers Favorite (all five stars). Susan will be released on June 30th. Grateful thanks to all of you here who have read it as an ARC, in advance of publication. AM

Another Woman's Husband


Gill Paul - 2017
    Divided by time. Bound by a secret...1911At the age of fifteen, carefree Mary Kirk and indomitable Wallis Warfield meet at summer camp. Their friendship will survive heartbreaks, separation and the demands of the British Crown until it is shattered by one unforgivable betrayal.1997Rachel's romantic break in Paris with her fiance ends in tragedy when the car ahead crashes. Inside was Princess Diana. Back in Brighton, Rachel is haunted by the accident, and intrigued to learn the princess had visited the last home of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, only hours before the crash. Soon, the discovery of a long-forgotten link to Wallis Simpson leads Rachel to the truth behind a scandal that shook the world...Richly imagined and beautifully written, Another Woman's Husband is a gripping, moving novel about two women thrust into the spotlight, followed by scandal, touched by loss.

A Constant Love


Sophie Turner - 2015
    Darcy, all while helping her shy new younger sister come out into society. Georgiana Darcy must deal with more suitors than she expected, when she fears nothing more than once again being persuaded to think she is in love with the wrong man.