The RED Chrysanthemum by Linda Beutler ~ Review and GIVEAWAY!

The RED Chrysanthemum by Linda Beutler 

Publication Date: September 1, 2013 
Publisher: Meryton Press 
Paperback: 304 pages 
Received: paperback from publisher 
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars


"Pride and Prejudice" and the language of flowers....

 

LOVED this story!!! The RED Chrysanthemum is a Pride and Prejudice variation that had me hooked from the very beginning! It has quickly moved up to being one of my top favorites! 

What if ...while Elizabeth is touring with the Gardiners, Darcy and Elizabeth have more time together at Pemberley? What if ...when Darcy goes to Lambton to see Elizabeth, the letter she is reading from Jane does not contain the dreadful news of Lydia’s elopement? Allowing them to have a different conversation. Allowing them more time to get to know each other and heal misconceptions. Although, not everything is coming up roses (pun intended), and there are still some misunderstandings to work out. And then, of course, Lydia does run off with Wickham causing more troubles for everyone in concern.

Bingley is a little more astute in this story, and quickly figures out Darcy’s feelings for Elizabeth. When he learns of Darcy’s part in separating him from Jane...well, let’s just say I was delighted with the way Bingley began his discussion with Darcy on his part in the matter.

From almost the beginning of this story it evoked emotion in me. From a gentle warmth in my chest when Darcy and Elizabeth were first together in Lambton, to crying with Elizabeth and Mrs. Reynolds, and at times laughing out loud!  I loved this story! 

For those who care, there are some sex scenes after Darcy and Elizabeth are married. I wouldn’t let that stop you from enjoying this story. I feel you can easily stop reading after they get married, because isn’t the chase the best part?!? Although, you would miss Darcy’s letter to Mrs. Bennet which I found hilarious! 

I thought The RED Chrysanthemum was brilliantly done! I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Pride and Prejudice variations! 

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of the book for my honest review.

Amazon | Goodreads

Connect with Linda Beutler

website • twitter • facebook • Meryton Press

~ * ~ * ~ GIVEAWAY ~ * ~ * ~

Linda Beutler has generously offer to giveaway one signed copy of 
The RED Chrysanthemum 
to one lucky person! 
Open Internationally! 
Last day to enter is October 21, 2013!

Good luck!

*Note: This is the same Rafflecopter from Linda's guest post page, with a new entry for posting on today's post!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Any thoughts? As always, I'd love to hear from you!

*Remember, to enter the giveaway you must fill out the Rafflecopter above!

Author Linda Beutler ~ Guest Post & GIVEAWAY!

Hey Everyone! I'm so excited to have Linda Beutler guest posting on my blog today! Linda is the author of The RED Chrysanthemum, a Pride and Prejudice variation. I recently had the pleasure of reading it, and I LOVED it! I will post my review on Monday! 

Be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this post, and you'll find a Rafflecopter form to fill out for a chance to win a copy of The RED Chrysanthemum! 

Thanks for the opportunity to guest blog here at So little time... It is a real privilege to get to know the JAFF community this way.

The questions has been posited, “After writing gardening books, what made her want to write a Regency romance, especially a P & P variation?” The question makes it sound as if I can provide some natural and logical explanation of how one led to the other, and the truth is, I can’t! The only thing I can do is provide a kind of timeline, and it will be up to whomever reads this to make of it what they will.

I first read Pride and Prejudice after the 1980 BBC mini-series aired in the USA, but had already read Sanditon and Emma. Pride and Prejudice joined the rotation of books I revisit again and again, a list that includes A Room with a View by E. M. Forster, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, and the Bertie and Jeeves stories by P. G. Wodehouse. After a spate of reading all kinds of fiction, I always return to one of my “English anchors”. When the Emma Thompson version of Sense and Sensibility was released I rushed to see it, then watched the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice in reruns after realizing I’d missed its first run on A & E here in the States. It was at about this time I began garden writing for magazines.

The garden writers who inspired me had a bit of Jane Austen about them. The best were witty and opinionated, even though ostensibly writing non-fiction, and reading them (Christopher Lloyd, Margery Fish, Beverley Nichols and the like—again, mainly British) encouraged my written voice. Books about gardening didn’t have to read like textbooks, and I’ve been assured that mine do not.

In the summer of 2011 I must have made my annual rereading of P & P with a more critical eye than usual. It didn’t seem outlandish, when I picked up my first title of JAFF from my local library (What Would Mr. Darcy Do? by Abigail Reynolds), for some one to ponder the what-ifs more prominent in P & P than in any of Austen’s other stories. It flipped a switch. I bought the 1995 BBC P & P set, and was immersed in the voices of Elizabeth and Darcy as countless titles were read, discarded, or cherished. And I really don’t know exactly when I started, but before I made a trip to China in the summer of 2012, I was writing. In my hotel rooms throughout western Yunnan I was filling yellow legal pads, writing by hand as I had not done in years!

My first long story, Longbourn to London (posted at A Happy Assembly) was not so much a what-if as an expansion of the six week engagement of Elizabeth and Darcy, and there was little of the language of flowers in it at all. During that story, Elizabeth asks Darcy why he came to see her at the inn in Lambton on the morning she learns of Lydia’s elopement with Wickham. Darcy answers her in a charming and romantic way, but the question set me barking off after another squirrel, which became The Red Chrysanthemum.

With Andrew Davies’ screenplay as much in my thoughts as Jane Austen’s original novel, I started with Darcy arriving at the inn, and Elizabeth reading letters from Jane containing nothing to move Elizabeth to anything other than a few chuckles and knowing smiles. Both the canon and the screenplay allow for an evening at Pemberley, but how to get Elizabeth there more often in the remaining week she is to spend in Lambton? That’s where the language of flowers, which has always fascinated me, came in handy. Doing the research was pure joy, like putting a puzzle together, and when I unearthed a pdf of an old herbal with Victorian era illustrations of garden maids in Regency dress, I couldn’t believe my luck!

My own garden is in the cottage style, because that’s what my house is, a 1907 “brakeman’s cottage” built for workers at the end of the streetcar line connecting my neighborhood with downtown Portland. The iconic garden designer from the early 1900s, Gertrude Jekyll said, “The garden should curtsy to the house.” And my garden does. There are many plants here Darcy and his sister might known in the flowerier parts of Pemberley, a hundred years before my house was built. A mansion so grand would have had a cutting garden, a kitchen and herb garden, perhaps a conservatory attached to the house, and glasshouses producing fruit and salad herbs to extend the growing season. Off the Pemberley kitchen would have been a still room with a maid assigned to create arrangements fresh and dried, to make sachets for wardrobes and linen closets, and to blend strewing herbs to freshen the carpets and repel pests.

The 1995 screenplay gives us a glimpse of such a room in Longbourn, where Elizabeth and Jane dry flowers and discuss the return of Mr. Bingley. The scene enabled everything I wanted to include to fit easily into place on a grander scale in Pemberley. Even Bingley, great joiner-inner that he is, picks up the dialect of the local wildflowers.

There it is, the explanation—ephemeral as it is—for how the flowers, got into The Red Chrysanthemum, and how I became compelled to write in this new-to-me genre, whether I wanted to or not! 

It should be mentioned there is adult sexual content in the chapters after Darcy and Elizabeth marry. It is important to my vision of them that we know they are completely and utterly happily married. ~Linda B

Thank you so much, Linda! Your garden is beautiful! It's been a pleasure having you guest posting today. I'm so glad you figured out a way to have Darcy and Elizabeth spend more time together while she was in Lambton! Read my review here! 

Connect with Linda Beutler

website | twitter | facebook | Meryton Press

~ * ~ * ~ GIVEAWAY ~ * ~ * ~

Linda Beutler has generously offer to giveaway one signed copy of The RED Chrysanthemum to one lucky person! Open Internationally! Last day to enter is October 21st, 2013! 

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Any thoughts? We'd love to hear from you! Remember to enter the giveaway you must fill out the Rafflecopter above! Please, don't leave your email in the comments. Thanks! 

W... W... W... Wednesdays ~ October 9, 2013

W... W... W... Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. To play along, just answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll be reading next?

What am I currently reading? I recently started Weak at the Knees by Jo Kessel. I'm not very far into it, so I can't really say how it's going. 

What did I recently finish reading? I finished reading The RED Chrysanthemum by Linda Beutler. I loved it! It quickly moved up to the top of my favorites in the Pride and Prejudice variations category! I should have my review up by Monday along with a giveaway of the book.

What do I think I'll be reading next? I'm hoping to get two books read this coming week. I have Marylin Brant's new book The Road to You. I believe this coming-of-age romantic mystery is set in the 80's. I can't wait to be swept back to that time period for a bit! ;)

The other book I want to read is a spooky novella by Susan Adriani called Darkness falls upon Pemberley. A supernatural Pride and Prejudice! Perfect for this time of year! It should be a quick read. 

What are you reading? 

Fitzwilliam Darcy such I was by Carol Cromlin ~ Review and GIVEAWAY!

Fitzwilliam Darcy such I was by Carol Cromlin 

Publication Date: July 15th 2013 
Publisher: Worth Saying 
Paperback: 341 pages 
Received: an e-copy from author 
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

"Such I was, from eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearst, loveliest Elizabeth!"

 


I enjoyed reading Fitzwilliam Darcy such I was. Concentrating mainly on Darcy’s life, we don’t meet Elizabeth in this story, but I was fascinated with seeing how Darcy grew up and what shaped him.

The story briefly begins at Netherfield, then goes back to when Darcy is born. The beginning chapters stop at different ages in Darcy's life, showing us some milestones and special moments Darcy experienced. For example, meeting some gypsies camped in the woods of Pemberley, the birth of his sister and death of his mother, along with a first love. 

For me, the story took off when Darcy was older. I really enjoyed seeing his relationship with his cousin Rennie (Colonel Fitzwilliam). Meeting Bingley had a bit of a different twist to it, which I enjoyed! Georgiana’s near elopement with Wickham was exciting and tense! 

Seeing Darcy’s relationship with his father was very special. I always pictured it somewhat differently because of Wickham, but Cromlin’s portrayal of Darcy’s father, Wickham, and Darcy make it come alive for me. I could understand how Mr. Darcy could enjoy Wickham’s company so much and to favor him. I always thought that meant he favored him over Darcy, but that’s not so. 

Fitzwilliam Darcy such I was is a wonderful back story of the man we all love!

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book for my honest review.

Buy a copy at Amazon.

Add to goodreads!

~ * ~ * ~ GIVEAWAY ~ * ~ * ~

Carol Cromlin has generously offer to give away two signed paperbacks of Fitzwilliam Darcy such I was plus bookmarks to two lucky winners!! -OR- an ebook. (US, CA and UK only, ebook only for all other countries) 

Thank you, Carol!

To enter please fill out the Rafflecopter below!

• Two winners will be chosen.
• US, CA, UK: Winners can choose a signed paperback plus bookmarks -OR- an ebook (kindle or epub)
• Any other country: ebook only (kindle or epub)
• Last day to enter: October 14th, 2013

GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Any thoughts? I'd love to hear from you! Remember, to enter the giveaway you must fill out the Rafflecopter above!

W... W... W... Wednesdays ~ October 2, 2013

W... W... W... Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. To play along, just answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll be reading next?

What am I currently reading? After taking the weekend (a fun filled four days!) off to attend the JASNA AGM in Minneapolis, I have just started The RED Chrysanthemum by Linda Beutler. I will let you know how I like this Pride and Prejudice what-if story (my fav!)

What did I recently finish reading? I finished reading Fitzwilliam Darcy such I was by Carol Cromlin. I enjoyed reading this, especially toward the end when Darcy was meeting Bingley, and seeing what happened during Georgiana's near elopement. Review and Giveaway will be posted on Monday! 

What do I think I'll be reading next?  As part of a book tour, I have Weak at the Knees by Jo Kessel. So, I will probably start that. 

What are you reading?

Winner of The Heart Does Whisper!

Hey Everyone! Rafflecopter has picked a winner! 

But first, I would like to say 

THANK YOU! 

to Cynthia Ingram Hensley 

for generously offering to giveaway a copy of both 

Echoes of Pemberley and The Heart Does Whisper! 

Without further ado! The winner is....

LeeAnn Perry!

Thank you to all who entered!

If you didn't win, you can buy a copy at Amazon.

  LeeAnn, I have sent an email to you! You have 72 hours to respond.