Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell

Monday, 6 July 2015

Blog Tour Review: A will of Iron - Linda Beutler

Only days after his disastrous proposal, the untimely death of Anne de Bourgh draws Fitzwilliam Darcy and his cousin Colonel Alexander Fitzwilliam back to Rosings Park before Elizabeth Bennet has left the neighborhood. Their return finds Rosings swathed in mourning. In death, Anne is revealed as having lived a rich life of the mind, and she plotted rather constantly to escape her loathsome mother, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Anne’s journal—spirited into the hands of Elizabeth and Charlotte Collins—holds her candid observations on life and her family. It also exposes her final, and sadly fatal, means of outwitting her mother. Anne’s Last Will and Testament, with its peculiar bequests, sends Lady Catherine into a tailspin and throws into turmoil every relationship amongst the Bennets, Darcys, Fitzwilliams, Collinses, and even the Bingleys! Was Anne de bourgh a shrewder judge of character than Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzilliam Darcy combined?

My thoughts:

Edit. I will no longer recommend this book. Seems the author thinks I am an embarrassment, and she had someone attack me on twitter for dare giving her a 3. Oh I should be stoned

This one sure took the story for a spin.

Lizzy never leaves because Anne dies. And oh my, Anne's diary tells quite the story. She was a very busy lady, and how she hated her mother! But then that was deserved cos Lady Catherine was evil.

But yes the failed proposal is still there...*doom*

Darcy was Darcy, aww Darcy.

Colonel Fitzwilliam, I was quite taken by him in this book. He is such a nice man.

So you all get that Darcy and Lizzy gets another chance. He gets to prove himself, she gets to see him in another light.

But! There is something else going on. Something sinister. Something that made me go all 0_0

Oh and then there is Anne's will, quite the lady as I said.

All the usual players do show up. There will be happy endings (that they have to work for), and I enjoyed this one. I smiled, I felt suspense and was happy to see it all work out.

Kindle Edition, 246 pages
Published June 30th 2015 by Meryton Press
Pride and Prejudice variation
For review

Author Bio:

Linda Beutler is an Oregon native who began writing professionally in 1996 (meaning that is when they started paying her...), in the field of garden writing. First published in magazines, Linda graduated to book authorship in 2004 with the publication of Gardening With Clematis (2004, Timber Press). In 2007 Timber Press presented her second title, Garden to Vase, a partnership with garden photographer Allan Mandell. Now in 2013 Linda is working with a new publisher, and writing in a completely different direction. Funny how life works out, but more on that in a minute.

Linda lives the gardening life: she is a part-time instructor in the horticulture department at Clackamas Community College, writes and lectures about gardening topics throughout the USA, and is traveling the world through her active participation in the International Clematis Society, of which she is the current president. Then there's that dream job--which she is sure everyone else must covet but which she alone has--Linda Beutler is the curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection, which is located at Luscher Farm, a farm/park maintained by the city of Lake Oswego. They say to keep resumes brief, but Linda considers Garden With Clematis her 72,000 word resume. She signed on as curator to North America's most comprehensive and publicly accessible collection of the genus clematis in July 2007, and they will no doubt not get shut of her until she can be carried out in a pine box.

And now for something completely different: in September 2011, Linda checked out a book of Jane Austen fan fiction from her local library, and was, to put it in the modern British vernacular, gobsmacked. After devouring every title she could get her hands on, she quite arrogantly decided that, in some cases, she could do better, and began writing her own expansions and variations of Pride and Prejudice. The will to publish became too tempting, and after viewing the welcoming Meryton Press website, she printed out the first three chapters of her book, and out it went, a child before the firing squad. Luckily, the discerning editors at Meryton Press saved the child from slaughter, and Linda's first work of Jane Austenesque fiction, The Red Chrysanthemum, published in September 2013. Her second work of fiction, From Longbourn to London was published in August of 2014.

Linda shares a small garden in Southeast Portland with her husband, and pets that function as surrogate children. Her personal collection of clematis numbers something around 230 taxa. These are also surrogate children, and just as badly behaved.

Links:

Buy Links

Blog Tour Schedule:

7/6: Review at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell

7/7: Guest Post & Giveaway at More Agreeably Engaged

7/8: Excerpt at My Kids Led Me Back to Pride & Prejudice

7/9: Review at Wings of Paper

7/10: Guest Post & Giveaway at So Little Time…