This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Morgan Blake will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
A Pride & Prejudice variation with a slightly paranormal, mainly comic twist!
When Elizabeth Bennet visits her newly-married friend, Charlotte Collins, at the Hunsford parsonage, she has no idea that Mr. Darcy (he of the arrogant demeanor and perpetual cause of annoyance!) shall turn up to ruin her blissful, idyllic days.
Only, Mr. Darcy is not himself. And then Elizabeth stumbles straight through him one day... like one would an apparition! Goodness gracious!
“Mr. Darcy, I do not know what you mean, but I would appreciate it if you would desist from haunting me!”
“I apologize, Miss Bennet, for scaring you,” Mr. Darcy said, almost regretfully.
To solve her haunting problem, Elizabeth must team up with Mr. Darcy to find out what happened to him, and along the way discover that maybe he is not all that he seemed at first. And that maybe... she doesn’t hate him after all.
“You wish to write the letter now?” he asked as she moved past him with the candle.
“Well, to be honest,” she glanced at him. “I would prefer to sleep. But since you are here, I do not see why not.”
From the antics of Lady Catherine de Bourgh to the hilarity of Mr. Collins’ advice on staying fit, The Cherry Trees of Rosings shall make you laugh and cry in equal measure. And wonder: Will our favourite couple find their happy ever after?
Spoiler: Yes, they will!
This Pride and Prejudice variation features our favourite Regency romance couple from Jane Austen's original classic in a somewhat spooky setup. ✨ But fear not, dear readers! ✨ This story is not scary in the least. Prepare for a chuckle fest and abundant cups of tea!
Read an Excerpt
“Mr. Collins, you know how I despise green beans!”
Lady Catherine’s brows drew down with annoyance as she looked over the tiny list Charlotte had handed her a few moments ago. It was about the gift baskets the Collinses were tasked with distributing for Easter; one of the yearly tasks of the parsonage.
“You shall not present that vegetable to the congregation,” she emphasized, mouth twisting into a moue of distaste.
Mr. Collins nodded his head vigorously. “Indeed, your ladyship.”
“Potatoes will do very well. Very well, indeed…”
More head nodding from her cousin.
Elizabeth held back a chuckle as the spectacle unfolded before her.
She had been somewhat right in her estimation of Lady Catherine from Mr. Collins’ extensive effusions. But once the introductions were made, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the great lady was even more ridiculous than she had imagined. Her father would be dearly entertained by such human folly once she wrote to him.
“Potatoes are vegetables for the hard-working,” Lady Catherine continued sagely. Then she picked up a cream tart from the platter before her and bit into it.
“You are quite right, your ladyship, as always,” Mr. Collins said. “I merely wished to place the beans in the baskets for the sick—”
“You should speak on the virtues of potatoes in your sermon, Mr. Collins,” the lady said, dusting off the crumbs from her fingers before fixing a glare on her parson.
Hi
Sandra, thank you for having me on your blog for the book tour of The Cherry
Trees of Rosings! You've asked a great question, but also a
difficult one. So I'll start with the easier answer—my favourite scene.
Since
I am a sucker for comic relief and irony, I literally had the most fun writing
the “green beans” scene between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her toady parson,
Mr. Collins. It happens pretty early on in the book.
In
the scene, we see Lady Catherine become instantly upset when she notices that
the Easter gift baskets for the poor (something the parsonage hands out each
year) includes green beans. “Mr. Collins, you know how I despise green beans!”
says she. She would rather have the Collinses give out potatoes.
The
punchline is how Lady Catherine reaches for a cream tart even as she observes
that “potatoes are for the hard-working”. I just could not resist the
ridiculousness of it. It’s such a hallmark of Austenesque fiction, so I
definitely wanted to have some satire in my book even with all the romance.
Now,
about my least favourite scene to write…
It
wasn’t as much a bad scene as a difficult scene to write. I think I took a
month-long break just because it was pissing me off so much.
And
even then, once I returned to writing, I had to push myself for a few days to
get to the other end.
This
scene happens much later in the book and is between our heroine, Elizabeth
Bennet, and Mr. Darcy’s cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, when the latter visits the
Hunsford parsonage on account of a letter Elizabeth sent him.
I
don’t want to spoil the story so I will not reveal exactly what these two were
fighting over, but there were quite a few accusations flying around in this
scene. It was frankly very infuriating to write.
The
main issue was that we have a male and a female character of different
backgrounds speaking to each other. So I needed the dialogues to sound right.
Especially for the Colonel, because he is both the son of an earl and has a
military background. I needed his speech/dialogue patterns to be cutthroat and
masculine while retaining upperclass politeness. And this was difficult to do
while also writing Elizabeth Bennet’s more refined and feminine dialogues.
To
be honest, I just could not get into a flow state while writing this scene
because Colonel Fitzwilliam’s words were either throwing me off, pissing me off
personally, or weren’t sounding authentic enough.
Eventually
though, I trudged through it. And I think the scene turned out to be one of the
most impactful in the book because readers keep mentioning it in their reviews.
But
of course, you are always free to make up your own mind. The Cherry Trees of
Rosings is available to read on Kindle Unlimited.
About the Author:
Morgan loves exploring themes of personal identity, inner strength, social discourse and hope alongside enduring love in her stories. She also believes that strong heroes and heroines are not enough to make a tale worth telling. They need a supporting cast of good and not-so-good characters that add more punch and vibrancy... and some dramatic ridiculousness!
Morgan is a cat friend, tropical girl who prefers winter clothes, perennial fantasy/historical fiction nerd, and a night owl.
Author Website: https://morganblakeauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563826174842
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morganblakewriter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242629836-the-cherry-trees-of-rosings
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/b/bwJ8pP
