GEORGIANA BLOG TOUR - AUTHOR GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY

Thank you for hosting me here at My Jane Austen Book Club and letting me talk about my latest release, GEORGIANA: Pride & Prejudice continued… Book Three.

What was the impetus for Georgiana’s story? I had a couple of ideas that percolated for a while before scenes and dialogue began to solidify in my brain. I wanted her experience at Ramsgate to not only mould her character but to have some impact on what would happen later in the story.

You see, Max discovers that Georgiana barely escaped a previous compromise at Ramsgate and it rocks him to the core. How can he be assured she’s not pregnant by the man he rescued her from three weeks prior? He makes the decision to take his new wife to his ancestral home and leave her there for six months to ensure she’s not enceinte. Needless to say, when Darcy finds out… Well, it’s not pretty.

This is one of the reasons why I like GEORGIANA so much. The divide between Maxwell and Georgiana (and their families) is real, almost insurmountable, and yet they work at repairing their marriage. It’s very much true to life.

How often have we had angry, hurtful words with someone we love? Do we turn our back on them and stalk off in anger? Maybe at first, but if we dig deep, we make the choice to forgive and move on. Sometimes we forgive even when that person has not apologized. Fortunately, Max does apologize… but, you’ll have to read the book to find out how he and Georgiana reconcile.

Here is a vignette between Lizzy and Georgiana after she returns to Pemberley.

She flipped onto her back and stared at the filmy lace bordering the canopy of her bed. Such frippery, chosen when she was but a child, all fluffy and lacy, and pink, and stupid— She jumped off the bed and began ripping at the lace. Anna entered the room and stopped cold.

“Your Grace—” she began.

“I am not your Grace!” Georgiana whirled around and faced her maid, tattered lace clenched in her fists. “I am nothing. I am nobody. I am unloved and unwanted.” She fell to the floor, choking sobs pummeling her frail body.

“I’ll get Mrs. Darcy.” Anna spun around and dashed down the hall.

Through her retching sobs, Georgiana dimly heard Elizabeth rush into the room and soon her soothing voice cut through all the agonized clutter that filled her mind and dreams.

“Shh…. Georgie. Shh…. Come here, dearest.”

Elizabeth gathered Georgiana in her arms and rocking her gently, stayed seated on the floor with her until the sobbing finally subsided. With a shuddering breath, Georgiana hugged Elizabeth around her ever thickening waist.

“I am so sorry, Lizzy. I am so sorry.”

“What do you have to be sorry about?” Elizabeth caressed her back with long comforting strokes. Georgiana recognized this as the same method in which Lizzy settled young Bennet when he had a crying fit, and though she was a married woman, she didn’t mind the cossetting. When she’d settled, Elizabeth moved away slightly and with one finger beneath her chin, raised her tear stained face to hers.

“Now tell me. What do you have to be sorry about?” She clasped her hands on her lap, and although they were both sitting on the floor in a wrinkled pile of skirts, she managed to look regal. Not for the first time Georgiana wished she could emulate the strength of character Lizzy had.

“I have failed at my marriage. My husband cannot bear to be in the same room with me let alone a gigantic estate, and I am sure he will divorce me once he discovers I left Adborough Hall against his express wishes.”

The only sign of Lizzy’s anger was a slight pursing of her lips.

“Your husband has much to answer for, but you defying his orders and leaving Adborough Hall is not one of them.”

“Maybe I should have stayed and waited until he returned. He did say he’d come back in six months and that’s only two months away. If I’d have waited−”

“Georgiana,” Lizzy interrupted angrily. “I do not care what Society might dictate in circumstance such as these. He had no right to abandon you based on an overheard conversation. He promised to keep you safe and give you a loving home.”

“If I had a candy drop for every broken promise I’ve received in my life, my jar would overflow,” Georgiana whispered into Lizzy’s shoulder.

“Oh, sweetling,” Lizzy gave her another tight hug before rising to her feet with Georgiana’s help. “Do not be so hard on yourself. When you feel this low, you can only go up, and Fitzwilliam and I shall endure the climb with you.”

Sue Barr

BOOK INFORMATION

She longs for true love... 

A dowry of thirty thousand pounds places a hefty weight upon the shoulders of Miss Georgiana Darcy. Her tender heart has been broken before by a cad who cared not one whit for who she was, but as a prize to be won, and she fears no man will ever see the worth of her heart.

Duty and honor... 

These are the stalwart columns which hold up the life of Maxwell Kerr, Fifth Duke of Adborough. After rescuing Miss Darcy from an inescapable compromise, an offer of marriage is as natural to him as breathing air. When he discovers this is not the first compromise she has evaded, anger becomes his faithful companion and threatens their tenuous bonds of love and respect.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

“The prairie dust is in my blood but no longer on my shoes.”

Sue Barr coined that phrase when once asked where she came from. Although it’s been over thirty-seven years since she called Saskatchewan home, her roots to that straight-lined province and childhood friends run deep. The only thing strong enough to entice her to pack up and leave was love. When a handsome Air Force pilot met this small-town girl, he swept her off her feet and they embarked on a fantastic adventure which found them settled in beautiful Southwestern Ontario when hubby retired from the military and began his second career as an airline pilot.

Sue started writing in 2009 and sold her first manuscript in 2010. For four years she was published under the pen name of Madison J. Edwards, and in 2014 began to write sweet contemporary romance under her own name. Always a reader of Regency romance, she discovered Jane Austen Fan Fiction through a childhood friend who writes under the name of Suzan Lauder. Almost immediately a question popped into her head, “Whatever happened to Caroline Bingley after her brother and Mr. Darcy became engaged to a Bennet sister?” and the “Pride & Prejudice Continued…” series was launched.

Sue is a member of Romance Writers of America and its satellite chapter, The Beau Monde. She is one course away from achieving her Professional Creative Writer’s certificate from the University of Western Ontario’s continuing study curriculum. In her spare time, she cans and preserves her own food, cooks almost everything from scratch and grows herbs to dehydrate and make into seasoning. Hubby has no complaints other than his trousers keep shrinking. At least that’s what he claims…. Oh, the kids and grandkids don’t mind this slight obsession either.

AMAZON BUY LINKS

US  CA  UK  AU

GIVEAWAY 

Sue Barr is gifting three e-copies of GEORGIANA to three lucky winners via Rafflecopter. Open internationally through March 12. Click HERE and gook luck!