Humility and Tolerance Published by Quaternary Publishing Ltd. by Noni Valentine
Genres: European Literature, British Literature, Family & Relationships, Romance, Clean, Women's Fiction, Austenesque, Historical, Regency
Pages: 338
Source: Publisher
Format: ARC, eBook
Find the Author: Goodreads
Find the Book: Amazon | Goodreads
Rating:
A sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Seven years after Elizabeth Bennett married Fitzwilliam Darcy, they are still deeply in love, with two small children. But paradise is showing cracks now that Darcy’s aged housekeeper has died and Elizabeth must take up her duties. It’s more than one woman, even one as capable as Elizabeth, can manage.
Her sister Kitty, with Elizabeth and Jane’s help and a heroic effort on Kitty’s part, has outgrown her silly youth and matured into a sensible young woman—who, being sensible, spends as much time away from her parents and visiting her sisters as possible. Darcy’s sister Georgiana, with perhaps more influence from Elizabeth than is good for her, has become a confident, independent woman who is nevertheless ripe for romance. Charlotte Collins, newly widowed, is searching for a way out of the household of her husband’s crabbed patron, Lady Catherine, that doesn’t involve returning to her parents’ house.
Elizabeth sees a way to restore order to Pemberley and give herself a chance to to breathe: she offers Kitty a job as housekeeper of the estate, and Charlotte a job as governess of her adored children.
With these four women under one roof, chaos and the unexpected are inevitable. Both Kitty and Georgiana meet and begin falling in love with honorable, interesting men, neither of whom are gentlemen and therefore not considered eligible matches for them. Charlotte has the opposite problem: a childhood acquaintance who is now a Lord has become fixated on her and begins diligently wooing her, when all she wants is a quiet life and a chance to recover from eight years of marriage to a man she never loved.
When Elizabeth and Darcy learn of their sisters’ budding romances, each has the same reaction: delight at their sister-in-law’s choice and outrage at that of their sister. Now throw a ball into the mix, with Elizabeth’s mother bringing up forbidden topics from the past and her father hiding from the noise, Jane and Bingley attempting to calm the waters, Elizabeth trying to set up all three of the younger women, and Charlotte’s Lord pursuing her all over the dance floor—and an explosion is sure to happen.
This charming romance will delight all lovers of Jane Austen’s masterpiece who have ever wondered, “What happened next?”
There was a while there where I was eating up any and all Jane Austen variations that I could get my hands on. I mean, after re-reading the originals, of course. But after a while, some of them are just so bad that I gave up.
When I read the synopsis for this one I was SO incredibly hopeful. A “sequel” where Georgiana and a redeemed Kitty fall in love with men unsuitable for them? Charlotte is a widow and now governess to the Darcy children? Sign. Me. Up.
I was really impressed with this story. I feel like Elizabeth and Darcy were captured perfectly. It was fun getting to know Kitty and Georgiana more. Even Charlotte was…interesting. Although, I will say, this book made me like her even less that the source material.
It was absolutely delightful getting to be immersed in the world of the Darcys and their ilk. Most satisfying was the altercation with Mrs. Bennet–which was just so perfect. I believe in Austen, herself, would approve!
About Noni Valentine
Noni Valentine grew up in the north central part of the U.S., but moved away after graduating from high school, and never again stayed in one place for long. She has been writing for most of her life, but discovered Jane Austen as an adult and fell in love all over again.
She lives with a small menagerie of feathered and furry companions. Oh, almost forgot—there’s a human in that collection as well.
