Leenie B Books – Page 14

Sweet Solitude (Edmund Blair Leighton)

Sweet Solitude. Edmund Leighton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When I saw this painting I thought of the heroine in His Beautiful Bea. She likes quiet escapes and books. So, I chose an excerpt from that book to share today, but it’s not from her perspective. It’s from the hero’s point of view.

This is the hero:

For those who don’t know:

His Beautiful Bea is book 1 in my Touches of Austen series of original sweet Regency romances with deliberate nods to Jane’s novels. This book pairs long-time friends and neighbors as the romantic interests. The heroine lost her father in the war, and his friend, the hero’s father, has promised to care for the heroine’s family.

Those sound like they could be things that nod to possibly Sense and Sensibility or Emma, but in fact, when I wrote this story, the nods I had in mind were to Mansfield Park. After all, our quiet and bookish heroine is infatuated with the younger son of her neighbour’s two sons, but he doesn’t see her as anything other than a friend. Does that sound a bit like a Fanny/Edmund situation?

There are other nods as well, but as you can see from the details that I have given, this is not a retelling or a variation. This story, while inspired by various bits of Austen stories, is completely original — characters, setting, and plot.

“Dance in the City” by Renoir

“Dance in the CIty” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. The woman is identified as artist Suzanne Valadon. Original is in Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.

Ok, so I know that this is not a Regency era painting and that the couple is neither dressed or dancing as as a Regency era couple would be. How anachronistic!

Now that we have that out of the way 😉 let me tell you why I picked this image to share today with an excerpt from Delighting Mrs. Bennet. My reasons are pretty basic. First, the couple seems to be enjoying their dance very much, and second, her dress is blue. I know, not exceptionally deep reasons to match this with the excerpt below, but there you have it. 😀 By this point in the series, Darcy has learned to be rather swoony, so I hope you enjoy this snippet from Chapter 8.

[FYI for those who do not yet own this book, the ebook edition is on sale everywhere this month (May 2023). See the book promo page for a link and details, or click the book cover image below to find links to various stores.] Continue reading “Dance in the City” by Renoir

Portrait of a lady in a white dress (Marie Wandscheer)

This young lady looks ready to spend the evening at some soiree, but her expression is not one of delight. I think both of those things are fitting to pair with my book A Scandal in Springtime.

In this book, Kitty is spending time at her aunt and uncles home in town and attending some of the events of the season with her sister, Elizabeth (aka Mrs. Darcy). As she goes through her short season in town, Kitty is not always cheerful — mostly due to the excessive amount of talent that the always-proper-until-he-met-her Mr. Linton has for saying or doing something wrong. 🙂 (The poor man has Darcy beat in the how to offend a Bennet lady category!)

The excerpt I chose to share below is one of those times when Mr. Linton is making Kitty irritated, to say the least. I chose this time of his doing that because the lady in the painting is holding a rolled up paper, and Kitty has just attended a literary reading.

Oh, and one more thing before you read the excerpt: The Mr. Crawford who is mentioned is Henry Crawford (from my Other Pens series), who happens to be engaged to Mr. Linton’s sister.

Enjoy!

A Travelling Coach and Pair (Henry Bunbury)

Travelling Coach and Pair, Henry Bunbury, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

This drawing is the sort that will make me enlarge the image just to look at all the little lines that comprise the details in it. I also enjoy that it almost looks as if it could be moving.

I chose to share it today because Pretending to Love Mary begins in travelling coach, and I wanted to share the first few paragraphs of that story with you.

If you’re on my mailing list, you may have already read this story because I sent out an email with a link to download a copy yesterday. If you’re a Booksprout reviewer, you might have picked up a copy of the novelette to review. (Twenty out of the thirty-five review copies were claimed the last time I looked.)

If you’d like to join my mailing list, and you do so before March 7th (which is the release day for Pretending to Love Mary, you could also get a copy of this story for free.

If you’d rather just purchase the book, it’s on pre-order now.

With all that said, here’s the beginning of the book to pique your curiosity. 🙂

The Apothecary to See Miss Bennet

Pride and Prejudice Illustration, Charles Edmund Brock (1870-1938), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Today, I’m sharing an excerpt from my upcoming release, His Father’s Last Gift, (which is currently on pre-order everywhere). The story begins during Jane’s illness at Netherfield, and the apothecary is indeed called to see her… but not just because Jane is not feeling well. Mrs. Bennet needs his assistance for another reason. 🙂