"The Darcy Legacy" Blog Tour ~ Guest Post & Giveaway!

Hello, my friends! I'm delighted to be part of The Darcy Legacy Blog Tour! Joana Starnes is here to share a little about her new book and to give us a peek with an intriguing excerpt! I hope you enjoy! Be sure to enter the giveaway! Details are at the bottom of the page!   

Thanks, Candy, for having me as your guest today, on the blog tour for my newest book, The Darcy Legacy.

I must confess that I can’t have enough of Pride and Prejudice. I’ve been writing variations on this delightful theme for six years now, and I still can’t have enough of that either. So beautiful and poignant, to imagine Elizabeth and Mr Darcy falling in love over and over again!

My readers know that I sometimes like to make their journey to their happily ever after more fraught than the original – or at least fraught in other ways. For instance, I can’t bear to write about Wickham and Lydia’s elopement and its atrocious timing. It’s so upsetting to think of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy missing that beautiful chance to rekindle their relationship at Pemberley.

Likewise, I often wonder how they would have fared were it not for the ‘tolerable, I suppose.’ In my latest novel, I chose to explore that angle. Oh, fear not, Mr Darcy does blunder. He blunders on the night of the Meryton assembly (and he also blundered on the previous day). Not grievously, though. He didn’t injure Elizabeth’s pride on either occasion. His faux pas was something that Elizabeth, with her wonderful sense of humour, actually found rather amusing.

So their acquaintance doesn’t start on the wrong foot. But is it any less fraught for it? Hmm, who am I kidding? Anyone who has read one of my other novels knows by now that the answer is ‘Probably not.’

So, would you like to drop in at the Meryton assembly? Mr Bingley’s party had arrived to awe the neighbourhood with the ladies’ elegance and Mr Darcy’s ten thousand a year. True to form, Mr Bingley lost no time in joining the dance and managed to secure the company of the most beautiful lady in the room – we know who that is, don’t we? As for Mr Darcy, despite his reluctance for the amusement, he resigned himself to standing up at least once with Mrs Hurst and once with Miss Bingley. All well and good so far. Or is it?

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     Darcy caught his friend’s glance as Bingley skipped by on a jaunty tune, hand in hand with his partner. A disarming grin was also cast in his direction and Darcy returned it, rolling his eyes upwards in amused exasperation. Pleased as Punch, Bingley shrugged and continued on his way.

     When the eager dancers began to gather in new pairings for yet another set, Darcy reluctantly acknowledged it was time to do his duty by his friend’s sisters. He was about to give precedence to Mrs Hurst, in recognition of her seniority in both age and status, but at his approach, Miss Bingley was prompt in coming forth and intercepting him.

     “How are you bearing up, sir?” she asked, casting a disdainful glance around her. “The nothingness, and yet the self-importance of these people! I despair of my brother, urging us to attend such an insipid gathering. No refinement, no fashion and no taste.”

     As he caught sight of a couple of young women giggling inanely, each displaying a set of most unfortunate buck teeth, Darcy felt inclined to add ‘no sense and no beauty’ to the charge, but thought better of it. Encouraging Miss Bingley in venting her frustrations would do nothing for his humour, and besides, the two ladies in question presumably could not help their inborn lack of sense any more than their dentition. Disinclined to tax himself with seeking a civil way of moving past Miss Bingley to give due precedence to Mrs Hurst, he addressed his question to the younger sister.

     “May I request the favour of your hand for the next set?”

     An unappealing sort of satisfaction overspread the lady’s countenance, vying with surprise at his readiness to dance in such a setting. Yet Miss Bingley did not remark upon the latter sentiment. She took possession of his proffered arm with a distinctly proprietary gesture, and tilted her chin upwards as they joined the end of the set.

     Eventually, Bingley did likewise, the lateness of his arrival a consequence of his reluctance to remove himself from the fair-haired beauty. Yet he had at last performed that feat, and was now escorting a very slight young woman whose countenance might have been pleasant enough, were it not for the surfeit of freckles. As if they had been holding back, waiting for him – which they might well have been – once Bingley and his new partner had lined up, the musicians struck the opening notes with gusto.

     Darcy was relieved to find that the first dance was a reasonably dignified quadrille. The second was in a longways set but, praise be, neither a reel nor a hornpipe. Merely a country dance with the customary assortment of figures. Nothing stately about them, but no unseemly bounding either, so he resigned himself to the slow progression towards the top of the set, while the head couples were making their way in the opposite direction.

     Across from him, Miss Bingley glided and twirled with studied grace. To Darcy’s right, Bingley was still chatting with his partner. That he should find quite so much to say to a complete stranger was very like him, but no less mystifying. As was the fact that he could natter incessantly and not misstep, Darcy inwardly scoffed.

     Yet no sooner had he so uncharitably reflected on his friend’s performance than he very nearly committed the unpardonable blunder of treading on the hem of Miss Bingley’s dress as she slid past him to resume her place. For, just then, his glance disinterestedly drifted towards the top of the set – only to be arrested by a familiar countenance he would not have expected to encounter in a ballroom. Not even at an assembly such as this, for one would imagine that socialising with those in one’s employ was as unacceptable in remote and unfashionable market-towns as anywhere else.

     He blinked. He was mistaken, surely. The lady’s apparel, while plain by the standards of the ton, bore no resemblance to that of a lady’s maid or a lady’s companion, and the same could be said of her unsophisticated but flattering hairstyle. The passing glance along the line of dancers must have played tricks on him. He must have been mistaken.

     The head couples cast off and moved down the set, while the second couples progressed upwards, and with the distance thus diminished Darcy was promptly disabused of the comfortable notion. He was not mistaken. Laughing dark-brown eyes met his, and he caught a fleeting glimpse of twitching lips as she curtsied – whether to her vis-à-vis, or in pert acknowledgement of his look of shock, he could not tell – and then, reaching for her partner’s hand, she turned away.

     Darcy did likewise. Unfortunately, he turned in the wrong direction.

     “The other way, Mr Darcy,” Miss Bingley belatedly supplied, just before he collided with her brother.

     Thus, his humiliation was complete.

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The Darcy Legacy
by Joana Starnes

Book Description: 

‘Pemberley’s ancient halls harbour many secrets. Which one will affect Fitzwilliam Darcy and the love of his life? How is Mr Bennet to enjoy the comforts of a well-stocked library, when his wife’s premature demise had left him with the task of finding suitable matches for their daughters? What of a misleading encounter on a muddy lane in Hertfordshire, that renders a country-town assembly rather more tolerable than some might have thought? 

Shades of mystery, meddlesome relations – not least a drenched Adonis – raillery, old errors and a very recent union make for a challenging courtship when Fitzwilliam Darcy is not on his own ground. Yet when love is the reward, challenges make it more worth the earning. “A fraught courtship? So, let it be fraught,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said with a nonchalant flourish of his hand. “A good challenge never hurt anyone.”’

Buy: Amazon US • Amazon UK
Add to Goodreads.

FTC Disclaimer: Link to Amazon US. I am an Amazon Associate. Should you purchase a copy of the book through the link provided, I will receive a small commission. Thanks!


About the Author

Joana Starnes lives in the south of England with her family. Over the years, she has swapped several hats – physician, lecturer, clinical data analyst – but feels most comfortable in a bonnet. She has been living in Georgian England for decades in her imagination and plans to continue in that vein till she lays hands on a time machine.

She is the author of eight Austen-inspired novels: From This Day Forward ~ The Darcys of Pemberley, The Subsequent Proposal, The Second Chance, The Falmouth Connection, The Unthinkable Triangle, Miss Darcy’s Companion, Mr Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter and The Darcy Legacy, and one of the contributing authors to The Darcy Monologues, Dangerous to Know and the upcoming Rational Creatures (due in October 2018).

Connect with Joana Starnes

Website • Facebook/All Roads Lead to Pemberley • Facebook/Joana Starnes • Twitter • Amazon • Amazon UK • Goodreads

Blog Tour Schedule

July 2 / Austenesque Reviews/Excerpt Post & Giveaway
July 3 / Diary of an Eccentric/ Guest Post & Giveaway
July 4 / More Agreeably Engaged/ Book Review & Giveaway 
July 5 / Of Pens & Pages / Guest Post & Giveaway
July 6 / So Little Time... / Guest Post & Giveaway
July 7 / My Love for Jane Austen / Excerpt Post & Giveaway
July 8 / Babblings of a Bookworm/ Book Review & Giveaway
July 9 / My Vices and Weaknesses/ Book Review & Giveaway
July 10/ Obsessed with Mr Darcy/ Book Review & Giveaway
July 11 / Pemberley to Milton/Book Review & Giveaway

* * * GIVEAWAY * * *

It's giveaway time! And what a giveaway it is! Joana is giving away: 

• 10 e-copies of The Darcy Legacy. 
• 20 audiobook codes, each one is good for one of her audiobooks. 
• A $25.00 Amazon gift card. 

That's amazing! Thank you, Joana! 

To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter below and leave a comment!

The giveaway is open internationally!

The giveaway runs until midnight, July 16, 2018 (midnight Pacific EST).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, everyone!

Many thanks to Joana Starnes for visiting with us today, and for her very generous giveaway! 

Also, thanks to Claudine @ JustJane1813 for organizing this blog tour! 

Joana adds, "Many thanks for stopping by, and I hope you’ll like The Darcy Legacy." 

So, what did you think about that excerpt?