The Second Ending by Riana Everly ~ Guest Post, Excerpt, & Giveaway!

Hello, friends! Riana Everly is here with her third book in her new series Austen Echos! How lovely, these books came out so quickly! One a month! Nice!

Thanks so much, Candy, for letting me stop here today to talk about my new book, The Second Ending. This is the third and final book in my Austen Echoes series of contemporary Austen retellings, all centred around members of a concert choir in my home city of Toronto. This book, just released a couple of days ago, is inspired by my favourite of Austen’s novels, Persuasion, and trust me, you’ll love it!

One of the fun challenges about re-setting a Regency-era novel into the present is how to make the characters keep up with the times. For the most part, women today just don’t sit at home and sip tea while waiting for their heroes to come dashing across the fields on a jet-black horse. A modern heroine needs a modern life, and that is probably going to involve a career of some sort.

Likewise, the men need new lives as well. Even if I were to keep Austen’s military characters in that field, times have changed. Naval captains now draw a salary, rather than keeping a chunk of loot from whatever foreign ships they capture. It’s a different world, and our characters need to reflect that.

When I began thinking about this contemporary take on
Persuasion, I knew right away that Ashleigh Lynch (my modern Anne Elliot) would be a lawyer. It’s a career acceptable to her snooty family, but it also lets her be a helper. Just like Anne Elliot is the one helping her sister Mary with the children, taking care of packing up Kellynch hall after her father and sister Elizabeth take off to Bath, managing the crisis when Louisa has her dreadful accident in Lyme, modern Ashleigh is the one helping as well. She takes legal aid cases, working with people who can’t afford to pay a lawyer from their own pockets, helping abused women escape their tormenters, assisting families get new starts in life. 

It’s not the sort of career to make someone rich, since legal aid rates are far below what a lawyer can charge private clients, but it’s the sort of career that suits someone like Ashleigh, who wants to make a difference for people who need her.

What about Marcus, my modern Frederick Wentworth? He had to come from a place that’s absolutely unacceptable to
Ashleigh’s family. He had to start off with a job that the Lynches would hold their noses at, but that would also give him the possibility of doing extremely well for himself. Here, I decided to put him in the trades.

Marcus Fredericks met Ash when he was a construction worker, and she was a university student. But in the years since they broke up, he took his uncles small business and turned it into a huge success, building a development corporation that made the construction worker into the CEO. 

When Ash and Marcus cross paths again, eight years after her family managed to break them up, they’re very different people from who they were back then. Or are they?

Do these new interpretations work? Do these careers suit a modern take on Austen’s wonderful characters? You’ll have to read the book and decide that for yourself!

To give you a taste, here’s an excerpt from The Second Ending: A Modern Austen Persuasion Improvisation.

*** 

Still, law had been a good choice for her. She’d excelled at her classes and passed her exams with ease, and discovered that, all stereotypes aside, there was a great deal of good she could do in her profession. It wasn’t all money laundering and overcharging clients, but instead, it was a way to help people out of bad situations. Whether that meant supporting a small business
owner in a lease dispute or advocating for a new immigrant with little English when his employer decided not to pay him, she found she went to bed each night with the sense of having made a difference in someone’s life.

Law had also engendered in her a passion for helping others, something that had not been part of her rather pampered childhood. Her father was, as she joked, a poor trust-fund baby. The family once had quite a lot of money. Some forward-thinking grandfather had put it all into reasonable investments, and the interest was enough to live on more than comfortably.

One of those investments had been a house in Rosedale, where Ashleigh’s father had lived since he was a baby. Living there, in that most prestigious part of town, an enclave of old money and new sports cars, Walter Lynch could consider himself part of Toronto’s elite. He was certainly well-connected, having been to the right schools and having made the right contacts, and if his wealth didn’t quite extend to summer homes in the south of France, it was enough to keep up appearances without having to resort to actually having to work.

Because Walter Lynch, for all his insistence that his daughter train for a suitable career, had never worked a day in his life. Ashleigh suspected her parents would be quite horrified at what she really did with the precious law degree they had insisted so vehemently that she achieve.

Ashleigh sighed as she glanced around her slightly tatty flat once more. Oh, her father would have a fit if he saw it. Her sister would drag her to the nearest real estate agent in seconds, and her mother would smile in her absentminded way and say, “It’s not very fancy, is it, dear? Wouldn’t you prefer something nicer?” As if wishing would make it so.

She had, once, had something nicer, back eight years ago, when her life was full of promise and when the future looked wonderful. When she was still with Marcus.

Seeing him again today had disturbed all the ghosts, bringing long-buried memories flooding back. Her mind replaced the faded paint and worn furniture with the sweet place they had shared for not nearly long enough. She recalled the butter-yellow walls, the deep burgundy curtains, the lovely long couch that one of his friends had found for them, the comfortable chair, the elegant dining room table… 

Did he still have them? Or had he burned everything after she’d walked out? 

She let out another deep sigh. Probably, by the anger he had vented then, and by the hard expression he’d borne today when he had seen her for the first time since their awful break-up, he’d burned them, then burned the ashes, and then buried them. Like her heart.

Because that was the second time her family had destroyed her dreams.

The Second Ending

A Modern Persuasion Improvisation

by Riana Everly

Blurb:

The last person Eglinton Echoes member Ashleigh Lynch expected to see across the table from her was her ex, Marcus Fredericks. Eight years ago when they were in love, she was a law student and he was a construction worker, not nearly good enough for her elitist family. But times have changed. Now she’s a lawyer, and he owns the development company threatening the playing fields she’s been engaged to protect. 

Her family managed to crush her dreams and her confidence back then, and seeing Marcus again has rocked her to the core. But as talks over the playing fields continue, they are forced to confront each other again and again, and even the hardest hearts aren’t always impervious to old, tender feelings. 

But rekindling their romance won’t be easy. They are on different sides of a dispute, and Ashleigh has caught the eye of a charming guy from the city’s planning department. When the development project is threatened and Ashleigh discovers who her real enemy is, her very world begins to crumble around her, and not even her precious music is safe. Can she find the inner strength to deal, at last, with an old threat and reclaim the happiness that was ripped away from her eight years ago? 

This musical reimagining of Jane Austen’s beloved Persuasion will have you cheering the characters on, pulling you into their world and into their hearts.

 

Buy: Amazon (paid link)

Add to Goodreads

All The Wrong Notes, Book 1 (paid link)

The Matchmaker's Melody, Book 2 (paid link)

FTC Disclaimer: Links to Amazon. I am an Amazon Associate. I will receive a small commission (at no cost to you) if you purchase a book through the link provided. Thanks!

About the Author

Born in South Africa, award-winning author Riana Everly has called Canada home since she was eight years old. She proudly boasts one husband, two grown(ish) children, three degrees, four recordings, five instruments (of varying proficiencies), six languages (also of varying proficiencies), and thirteen novels (and growing). She also can’t count very well.

When not indulging her passion for Jane Austen, Riana loves cooking, travel, and photography. She’s a historian and trained classical musician, specialising in viola, and is delighted to be able to combine her love of writing and music in her novels. 

She now lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband, a secret stash of chocolate, and far too many books.

Connect with Riana Everly

Website • Blog • Facebook • Amazon • Instagram

* * * GIVEAWAY* * *

Riana is hosting a giveaway! Here's a message from her:

I’m delighted to be able to offer a giveaway of an eBook at each stop on this blog tour. I will randomly select one person who comments on the post here through random.net. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win! I will take comments until midnight, North American Eastern time, five days after the blog post goes live. Good luck everyone!

Congratulations, Riana, on the release of The Second Ending! That's awesome! Also, many thanks for visiting with us and offering one of my readers a chance to win an eCopy of The Second Ending.

Preludes by Riana Everly ~ Blog Tour ~ Guest Post, Excerpt & Giveaway!

 Hello, my friends! Riana Everly has another new book out! Preludes: A Modern Persuasion Improvisation - yes, you read that right, a modern Persuasion! And look at that lovely cover!  

Please welcome Riana as she shares about her secondary characters. There's also an excerpt to read, plus Riana is giving away an e-copy of Preludes to one of my lucky readers! Details are at the bottom of the page!

Preludes

A Modern Persuasion Improvisation

by Riana Everly

Blurb 

A heartfelt and absorbing modern interpretation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. 

Eight years of heartache… 

Anne Elliot is a successful composer, a shining light in the world of music. But her heart still aches for the man who left her eight years ago when she was persuaded to put her career above her heart. 

Eight years of anger... 

Fred Valore has found fame and glory as a brilliant orchestra conductor. He has studied in Europe, travelled the world, but cannot forget how Anne rejected him eight years ago. And now he’s coming home. 

Suddenly, Fred and Anne are living in the same city again, and forced to work with each other. Old feelings are hard to ignore, but now Fred is waltzing about town with an attractive musician, and Anne has caught the eye of a handsome businessman. 

When a whirlwind of misunderstandings gets in the way of a tentative reconnection, is their long-lost love doomed to remain a thing of the past? Or can they somehow find a path back to each other to make beautiful music once again? 

~ ~ ~ 

Set in the vibrant and arts-loving city of Toronto, Canada, Preludes is perfect for Austenites and Contemporary Romance lovers alike.

 

Thank you so much for the opportunity for a stop here at So Little Time… on my blog tour for Preludes: A Modern Persuasion Improvisation. 

Preludes is a modernization of Jane Austen’s fabulous novel Persuasion, which (please don’t tell anyone) is my favourite, even more than Pride and Prejudice. I mean, it’s hard not to love Lizzy and Darcy, but there is something particularly heart-tugging about Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth’s eight-year separation, and the deep love they have that lets them find each other again with the maturity and commitment that the intervening years have given them. And that letter—we’ll forgive anyone almost anything if he can write a letter like that. “You pierce my soul…” How does one beat that?

I have moved the story into the present, and have given Anne and Fred new careers. Anne is a successful composer with a widely acclaimed move score to her name. Fred is an orchestra conductor who has an international career. Eight years after their break-up, Fred has just been appointed principal conductor of the orchestra where Anne is the composer-in-residence, and they must work closely together on some special projects.

But, of course, Anne and Frederick are only two characters in Jane Austen’s rich universe, and today I’d like to talk a bit about some secondary characters and how they appear in my book.

Admiral and Mrs Croft

In Austen’s novel, Admiral and Sophia Croft lease Kellynch Hall, the Elliots’ ancestral home. Mrs. Croft is Frederick Wentworth’s
sister, and when he comes visiting, he and Anne are thrown together again. The Crofts really take to Anne, and almost adopt her as a sort of cousin or niece, giving her more genuine affection than she receives from her blood relatives.

My Crofts are not related to Fred, but know him, and are instrumental in forcing our two star-crossed lovers together before their work commitments would require it. Sophia is Anne’s best friend, the one who drags her out of her cocoon and force-feeds her cheesecake and pulls out all those long-buried secrets. I’d love a friend like Sophia. Especially the cheesecake part.

Mr. Elliot

In Persuasion, William Elliot is Anne’s cousin, and heir to her father’s baronetcy. There is some bad history between him and
Anne’s father, Sir Walter, so it comes as something of a surprise when Cousin William starts playing nice right around the time Anne arrives in Bath. He is supposed to be courting Anne’s sister Elizabeth, but he is much more taken with Anne, it appears!

Again, I’ve changed William’s role a bit to fit in with the modern setting of Preludes. I’ve also changed his name, since he is not a cousin but a new acquaintance. But, in deference to the man who wants to be a baronet, I’ve named him William Barnett. Now he is a new member of the orchestra’s board of directors, a handsome businessman with a successful land development company and a passion for the arts… and artists! When he starts flirting with Anne, a lot of people start to see her in a different light.

Louisa Musgrove

In Austen’s novel, Anne’s sister Mary is married to Charles Musgrove. Louisa is Charles’ sister, and for a while it looks like she and Frederick will end up together. She is young and energetic, quite decisive and rather impetuous, exactly the things Anne was not, which led to the break-up eight years ago.

Once more, I’ve changed the nature of the relationships. Louisa isn’t related to Anne’s family at all, but she is a musician in the orchestra. She is attractive and spunky, with eye-catching earrings and jewel-toned hair, and she definitely has her eye on Fred. Anne is convinced they’re an item; after all, they’re photographed together all the time, their pictures in the newspaper and all over social media.

Captain Benwick

Another of Austen’s characters with a heart-breaking backstory
is Captain James Benwick, one of Frederick’s fellow naval officers. He was engaged to be married but wanted to wait until he earned his fortune so he could afford a family. In the meantime, while he was at sea, his betrothed took ill and died, and poor Captain Benwick spends a good deal of time moping around and reading melancholy Romantic poetry.

I admit to a soft spot for Captain Benwick, and my version of him is one of my favourites in my novel. I’ve renamed him Benjamin James, and his fiancée left him for another man. He is an investigative journalist and poet who comes to mope in his friend Fred’s apartment for a few months. As in the original, he and Anne hit it off, and Ben’s decisions change Anne and Fred’s future.

Intrigued yet? I hope so!

Here is an excerpt from Preludes, where Anne and Ben first meet.

~ ~ ~

Excerpt

Ben was waiting at the coffee shop when they arrived. He had taken a table in the far corner and sat with an empty cup in front of him, peering into his tablet. He turned the device off when Fred called his name and set it face-down on the table before standing up to meet Anne.

Fred made the introductions. Benjamin James was English, from York, and he sounded the part. If Anne were later asked to describe him, she would have fumbled for words, because physically, in almost every way, he was average. Average height, average build, neither pale nor dark, neither handsome nor plain, and with no distinguishing characteristics or marks. 

His garb and deportment, however, were another story. His hair was long, not quite to his shoulders, and loose, with a sweep that fell over his face. He would push it back with his whole hand, only to have it flop forward over his eyes again a moment later. He was wearing black jeans, despite the hot late summer weather, and a loose black linen shirt—almost a tunic—that was buttoned to the neck and at the wrists. There was something about the intensity of his gaze, the studied melancholy of his expression, that put Anne in mind of some tortured poet from ages past. Would he have been a Romantic-with-a-capital-R back in the nineteenth century? One of Lord Byron’s set, all angsty and passionate about passion, with a flair for the dramatic and an eye for the ladies?

Despite the air of gloom that hung over him, he was a personable enough fellow. He had studied both art history and international relations before moving into journalism as a career, and seemed ready enough to talk about his experiences.

“I spent some time as a foreign correspondent in South Africa,” he explained, “before moving to freelance. I do investigative stuff. You know, the sort where I follow a paper trail to its bitter end. There are a few politicians and businesspeople out there who do not like my name very much.” 

He pushed the curtain of hair out of his face again. “I was looking into some monkey business with an Italian company once a few years back and decided I liked the place so much that I wanted to stay. Since I’m not tethered to an office, I did exactly that. I stayed in Rome. My Italian is reasonable, good enough for the necessaries. Not as good as Frederico’s, mind you, but good enough.”

…

Anne asked after Ben’s poetry. Rhythm and cadence were part of both of their vocabularies, after all.

“I used to write about my travels, the places I’ve visited.” The gloomy face was back. “There is so much beauty in this world, but also so much pain. And too often, the two are juxtaposed rather too starkly for comfort. Recently, however, I find the words will not come. My talents were adequate for other people’s agony, but not, it seems, for my own. I am a poor sort of artist who cannot come to terms with his own psyche.”

Anne made a sound that she hoped was sympathetic and understanding. What was she to say? Fortunately, Ben did not need much encouragement to tell his tale of woe. This, at last, was what Fred had alluded to before.

“I don’t want to bore you with the details, but, well, I am not quite myself these days. You see, I was engaged to be married to a wonderful woman. At least, I thought she was wonderful. She was Italian, but had studied in Australia and had perfect English. She was beautiful, intelligent. She was my muse. Was she not lovely, Frederico?”

Fred murmured his agreement. “Indeed. Claudia was very attractive.”

“And smart and witty, and so funny.” Ben gave a great sigh that all but echoed off the coffee shop’s high ceilings. “She travelled with me for some of my assignments, where it was safe. She was everything to me.” He lapsed into silence. Anne could all but see the grey fog gather around his head.

She had to ask. “What happened?”

Another deep, shuddering sigh. “We were engaged to be married, as I said. Everything seemed perfect. Then I accepted a commission for a story in central Africa. It was riskier than anything I had done before, and I told Claudia I wasn’t comfortable with her joining me. She was an artist. I do have a thing for artists, I admit. She could work anywhere, and she begged to come along, but in the end I refused. I could not risk her safety. And so off I went.” The grey clouds above his head intensified with his long sigh.

“But while I was chasing my story, it turned out that she was chasing some new fellow who came into her gallery one day. And when I got back, she had moved out.”

~ ~ ~

Uh oh… is Ben going to turn his eye to Anne? Will Fred get jealous? And what about William, who is hanging around as well?

Their stories are all in Preludes: A Modern Persuasion Improvisation. I hope you enjoy my take on this classic novel.

Preludes is available for purchase at Amazon and is free to read on Kindle Unlimited. A paperback will be available very soon!

Buy: Amazon (paid link) • Books2read

Add to Goodreads

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

About the Author

Award-winning author Riana Everly was born in South Africa but has called Canada home since she was eight years old. She has a Master’s degree in Medieval Studies and is trained as a classical musician, specialising in Baroque and early Classical music. She first encountered Jane Austen when her father handed her a copy of Emma at age 11, and has never looked back. 

Riana now lives in Toronto with her family. When she is not writing, she can often be found playing string quartets with friends, biking around the beautiful province of Ontario with her husband, trying to improve her photography, thinking about what to make for dinner, and, of course, reading! 

Connect with Riana Everly

Website • Blog • Facebook • Twitter • Amazon

* * * GIVEAWAY * * *

Riana Everly is offering a gift copy of the eBook of Preludes to one of my lucky readers! She will randomly select the winner from people commenting on this post within five days of it going live. The last day to enter is midnight EST (North America) on October 11. 

If you wish to participate, please make sure she has a way to contact you if you win.

Riana will give away one copy at each blog she visits until October 21, but she does not have all her blog tour dates yet. Keep an eye out for where she'll be next on her Facebook page!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, Riana! I loved this excerpt! You have definitely intrigued me. And thank you for offering one of my readers a chance to win an eCopy of Preludes. 

Readers, how about you? Intrigued? Please leave a comment or question for Riana below, and don't forget to leave a way to contact you! Thanks and good luck!

Find Wonder in All Things Blog Tour! ~ Guest Post with Karen M Cox & Giveaway!

Hello, my friends and Happy New Year! Wow! I can't believe how fast 2019 went by. For my first post of the new year, I have the lovely Karen Cox visiting! Woot! 

Karen is re-releasing a couple of her books this year, and the first and the one we are spotlighting here is Find Wonder in All Things. I've read this book and love it! (I'll put a link to my review at the bottom of the page)

Thank you so much for letting me stop in at So Little Time... to celebrate the re-release of Find Wonder in All Things! 

Several years ago, as I read my way through Miss Austen’s novels for the first time, I discovered marvelous stories that explored timeless psychological truths. As a modern reader myself, I could relate to those who might resist tackling the density of that 18th century prose, but a really interested reader might attempt it, like I did, if the story enclosed within intrigued her enough.
  
And Austen’s stories intrigued me. If I distilled each novel down to one “take-home” message or theme, it was always something I could relate to my own life. For example, Pride & Prejudice is about erroneous first impressions. Persuasion is about forgiveness, second chances and timing. 

Exploring these themes in other eras (specifically, different decades of the 20th century) has been an avid interest of mine since I first began writing Austen-inspired stories over ten years ago. In my debut novel, 1932, changing the setting and time period set Darcy and Elizabeth on an alternate path that made some significant changes to the story. 

With Find Wonder in All Things, a Persuasion adaptation, the story adhered more closely to the Persuasion canon. The major themes I addressed were forgiveness, second chances, and the importance of timing: Wentworth forgives Anne for rejecting him, Anne forgives Wentworth for his callous treatment of her when he returns, and they both forgive Lady Russell for her erroneous advice. Anne and Wentworth’s second chances had to be embraced by both of them to work. Each of them had to take a leap of faith. And the timing of that leap of faith was important: a marriage between a young Wentworth and Anne might have been a disaster, a possibility I believe Jane Austen saw clearly. Wentworth and Anne have a different relationship because they’re older. Another way timing informs the original Persuasion story is that Wentworth happens to return about the same time as William Elliot seeks reconciliation with Anne’s father, Sir Walter, giving the good captain some awareness of Anne—and maybe some competition he can’t resist :) These themes: forgiveness, second chances, and timing—are timeless because they are human and therefore, are still relevant today.


But…

Anne Elliot is an 18th century girl. The reality of that means she is a spinster at 27, past her prime, isolated, subjugated to the whims of her father and sisters, and part of a class system that is beginning to shift from aristocracy to more of a meritocracy (which I think Miss Austen approved.) Society prevents Anne from expressing her feelings to Wentworth the way a modern woman would. She’s a Cinderella with bad sisters, and a flawed fairy-godmother—in many ways unable to take charge of her own life.  

So, Anne Elliot sometimes reads as overly passive, in danger of being seen as pathetic rather than sympathetic to modern reader’s eyes. 

And that, my friends, was what I saw as the biggest peril of a modern adaptation of Persuasion. 

But, how to deal with it? 


After fretting and turning it over in my mind about forty different ways, I decided on this plan of attack:

1. I addressed Anne’s passivity by changing my modern heroine Laurel’s life from being driven by the macrocosm of society to the being influenced by the microcosm of her personality, her choices, her family dynamics, and her profession. 
2. I had to make it easy for Laurel to idolize her Wentworth (James Marshall) by making him romantic, dashing, sexy–and then keeping her in isolation for the ensuing years till he returns.
3. I had to make him unsuitable in her family’s eyes. We don’t have those 18th Century English class divisions, so I did two things to make him “dangerous” to the Elliots: one, I made him a musician (because, what’s more dangerous to a teenage girl’s parents than a musician, right?); two, I chose education level as the great divide between the Elliots’ values and James’s priorities. This take on James’s suitability also affected the characters of “Sir Walter” and “Lady Russell.” 
4. Finally, the advice Laurel received had to be faulty to modern eyes and based on recently outdated views of male/female relationships—but not too outdated, or it wouldn’t fit the time period. 

To make sure I kept the themes and character traits I wanted, I started with the characters’ defining characteristics and wrote modern character sketches: appearances, occupation, schooling, middle names, pets, hobbies, birthdays, childhood traumas, personality strengths and weaknesses. 

Then, I studied and took notes on Persuasion, chapter by chapter, creating a timeline of the plot points/events that drive the story. After that, it was decision time: What would those events look like in the setting I’d chosen? Which ones no longer made sense?  

Finally, I walked my modern characters through the plot points, similar to viewing a movie with a pause function. Whenever I “saw” something interesting, I stopped the movie and “interviewed” the characters. Sometimes they said the wackiest things, and sometimes they surprised me (which seems odd given that they’re in my head, but there you have it.)

Because Jane Austen’s characters are iconic, they adapt well when stepping into another time or place. It’s fun to watch her beloved Elizabeth, or mysterious Mr. Darcy, or her hated Willoughby or horrid Mrs. Norris walk their way through uncharted territory. Fun to read AND fun to write. 

Find Wonder in All Things was a joy to write. I hope all the fans of Persuasion find it a joy to read as well.

Find Wonder in All Things
by Karen M. Cox

Book Description: 

 “There could have never been two hearts so open… Now they were as strangers” —Persuasion 

Mountain Laurel Elliot is like her name—she blooms best in the cool comfort of shade, hidden in the Kentucky foothills of Appalachia. Alone on her mountain, she lives a private existence with only her pottery—and her regrets—for company. 

James Marshall had a secret dream and Laurel was part of it, but dreams sometimes lead to unexpected places. James’s heart broke when Laurel cut him loose, but he moved on—and became successful beyond his wildest dreams. 

For one glorious summer, James and Laurel had each other, but life has kept them far apart. 

Until now. 

“a magnificent modernization of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.” -Austenesque Reviews 

Winner of the Independent Book Publisher’s Award 2012: Gold Medal in Romance and Next Generation Indie Finalist in Romance 2013

Buy: Amazon (paid link)
Add to Goodreads

FTC Disclaimer: Link to Amazon. 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

Karen M Cox is an award-winning author of five novels accented with history and romance, a novella, and several short stories.

Karen was born in Everett WA, the daughter of a United States Air Force Officer. She had a nomadic childhood, with stints in North Dakota, Tennessee, and New York State before settling in her family’s home state of Kentucky at age eleven. She lives in a quiet town with her husband and works as a pediatric speech pathologist.

If you would like periodic bits of authorly goodness delivered to your inbox, be sure to get Karen’s News and Muse Letter. Updates, sales, book recommendations, etc. are yours for the asking. 

Connect with Karen M Cox

Website • Instagram • Twitter • Facebook • Tumblr • Pinterest


Blog Tour Schedule

Jan. 4 - Karen M Cox

Jan. 7 - So Little Time...

Jan. 9 - From Pemberley to Milton

Jan. 10 - Babblings of a Bookworm

Jan. 11 - My Love for Jane Austen

Jan. 12 - Austenesque Reviews

Jan. 13 - Delighted Reader

Jan. 17 - Margie's Must Reads

Jan. 20 - From Pemberley to Milton

Feb. 3 - Diary of an Eccentric

* * * GIVEAWAY * * *

It's giveaway time! To celebrate the second edition of Find Wonder in All Things, Karen is giving away a signed copy of the book and some Jane Austen swag: fun notecards from The Quill Ink, What Would Jane Do? book of quotes, and Austen coffee mug (if US winner),

or an ebook copy of the book and 25$ Amazon Gift Card (if International Winner - cause #shipping :)

Each comment left on a Find Wonder in All Things blog tour post will serve as an entry.

Winner will be chosen by 11:59 pm EDT on 2.6.20 and announced on Karen's website and social media (Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram).

Good luck, everyone!

Wow! Thank you, Karen, for having a fantastic giveaway! Also, it was a pleasure having you here, and I loved hearing how you adapted Persuasion to a modern setting. It was fascinating to see how you broke down and outlined your story! 

As promised the link to my review of Find Wonder in All Things (first edition).

I hope you enjoyed reading this Karen's post as much as I did! Don't forget to leave a comment to enter the giveaway! :) Thanks for stopping by!