A Fine Stout Love Excerpt & Giveaway

Hello everyone,

I’m very pleased to receive Renée Beyea in From Pemberley to Milton today to open the blog tour for A Fine Stout Love and Other Stories!

Renée Beyea was a wonderful guest and A Fine Stout Love and Other Stories is clearly on top of my TBR list, not only because I’ll have 5 different opportunities to get amused, but also because I loved the wonderful excerpt we’re sharing today. I wonder what Mrs. Beyea has prepared for the other stops of the blog tour! I am sure to follow it 🙂

But now, without further ado, I will let you read the book blub and the first excerpt of A Fine Stout Love and Other Stories so you can form your own opinion…I don’t won’t to influence anyone, but again…I loved it 🙂

 

***Book Blurb***

Discover what happens when Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy meet fancy and fantasy in this novella-length ensemble of Regency stories.

– What if two inexplicable trails of words led to the Meryton churchyard on the same blustery morning?

– What if Darcy stumbled across suggestive lines of verse following Elizabeth’s stay at Netherfield?

– What if a rumored engagement so thoroughly shocked Lady Catherine that she could not interfere?

– What if Elizabeth learned the last man she would ever marry was the only man she could marry?

– What if every Bennet family member read the love poem Darcy intended only for his bride?

With all the intimacy and lyricism of a chamber concert, these five whimsical shorts will inspire the heart, prompt a smile, and entice readers to many happy returns.

 

***

Thank you so much, Rita, for hosting me at From Pemberley to Milton and launching the first day of the blog tour for A Fine Stout Love and Other Stories! Each excerpt stop on the tour features an excerpt from a different story. Today’s comes from the title story, though it actually falls second in the collection. “A Fine Stout Love or The Efficacy of Poetry” gives the account of a wayward love poem told first from Elizabeth’s and then from Darcy’s point of view. Enjoy!

 

***Excerpt – A Fine Sout Love of The Efficacy of Poetry***

 

Lydia rocked from foot to foot, the offending paper fluttering like a flag atop a ship’s mast. The words were only idle imaginings but intended solely for Elizabeth’s personal diversion. She must conceal them.

Elizabeth stretched, balancing on tiptoe and grunting with effort. Her body pressed against her sister’s, but her fingers barely reached Lydia’s wrist. She stepped back onto her heels, held out her hand, and leveled her fiercest glare. “Give. Me. The. Paper.”

“What? You think I should simply hand it to you for nothing? This is too delicious!” Lydia snickered and reciprocated Elizabeth’s glare. “Papa will find them very interesting, I’m sure.”

“You would not dare.”

“I would.”

Elizabeth’s heart raced. Lydia never did understand their father. He would not be cross but amused—would probably call Elizabeth silly—and she would be mortified by having to explain to him. “Very well—my pin money for the week.”

“For the month.”

“That is extortion!”

The younger girl shrugged her shoulders.

Elizabeth folded her arms, held her sister’s eyes, and refused even a peek at her hostage verses. She was not a Bennet for nothing. She could outlast Lydia for sheer stubbornness.

A gust assaulted them, and Lydia whooped with glee. Elizabeth swiped away the tendrils slapping her face and saw the paper consigned to the blast just as her sister pirouetted from reach. The little chit. She would race to the house in feigned innocence, and Mamma would grant her immunity. This was how it had transpired ever since she was a tiny dimpled thing hiding in her mother’s skirts.

The white square tumbled end over end, floating, sinking, and diving like a gull on a coastal draught. Elizabeth raced down the drive, her eyes affixed to the sheet as if she could leash it with a look, but it soared too swift and too high. If only Mamma had not insisted they wait for Mr. Collins to walk into Meryton, then this trouble might have been avoided!

A massive, black charger paraded into view, her paper careening toward its head. The horse scrambled sideways in a flurry of dust and hooves. The rider sprang from the saddle. He seized her paper with one hand and the reins with the other. Her heart froze. Mr. Darcy.

Elizabeth would have fled if she could have commanded her feet to move, but dread turned every reflex, every nerve, every muscle to stone.

His eyes scanned the paper while his voice soothed his mount. “Easy, Samson, easy now.”

Mr. Bingley, whom she had not noticed before, stopped abreast of Darcy, but his friend only waved in dismissal. “Go on, and I shall join you directly.”

Bingley nodded and urged his horse forward, examining Elizabeth with drawn brows as he approached. “Good day, Miss Bennet.” He tipped his hat.

Elizabeth glanced over her shoulder at his retreating form. Did she curtsey and greet him? She could not recall, riveted as she was by her poem in Darcy’s hands. Apprehension quavered in her stomach. This was infinitely worse than explaining herself to her father. What had she been thinking to frame such fancies in ink?

There were not many lines that Darcy should linger long, yet he did. Elizabeth’s fingers bunched and twisted her skirts. If only she could simply disappear!

Darcy’s horse prodded him, the breeze stirring his black mane. His master rubbed the solid neck, crooning inarticulate sounds from deep in his throat.

When Darcy finally raised his head and peered toward Longbourn, Elizabeth strained to read his expression. Not bemused or scornful or angry, but pensive. He seemed lost in introspection, his stare unseeing. Her laughter bubbled inaudibly. To craft such verses and have him appear only thoughtful? What did she expect? He may have been the object, but not once did she conceive him as the reader.

Then his gaze retracted and snagged on her like fleece on a nail.

 

***

A Fine Stout Love and Other Stories is available at:

• Amazon.com: A Fine Stout Love and Other Stories
• Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/FSLnook or http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-fine-stout-love-and-other-stories-renee-beyea/1122782686?ean=2940152402568
• Smashwords (ebook only): http://bit.ly/FSLsmash or https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/583950

 

*** Author Bio***

Renée Beyea holds an undergraduate writing degree from Taylor University and a Master of Divinity from Fuller Seminary. She serves as full-time wife, mother to two sons, and ministry partner with her husband, an Anglican priest and chaplain. Her free time is devoted to crafting stories and composing poetry that delight the senses and touch the soul.

You can contact her through the below media links:

• Email: renee.beyea@gmail.com
• Website: www.reneebeyea.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/reneebeyea
• Goodreads:
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27147359-a-fine-stout-love-and-other-stories?from_search=true&search_version=service

 

***It’s giveaway time***

The blog tour comes along with a giveaway of 8 books, open internationally (including up to 4 paperback), to enter it just click on the link below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please note that there is a small issue with the FB link inside Rafflecopter that leads to an error page, so to enter the FB link, please use the links mentioned on the author contacts in this post.

***Blog Tour***

 

The Blog tour for Fine Stout Love is just starting! Don’t miss it on the below sites:

5/2: Excerpt & Giveaway at From Milton to Pemberley

5/3: Guest Post & Giveaway at So Little Time…

5/4: Excerpt & Giveaway at Half Agony, Half Hope

5/5: Review & Giveaway at The Calico Critic

5/6: Guest Post & Giveaway at Austenesque Reviews

5/7: Guest Post & Giveaway at Babblings of a Bookworm

5/8: Review & Giveaway at Delighted Reader

5/9: Review & Giveaway at Austenesque Reviews

5/10: Interview & Giveaway at Savvy Verse and Wit

5/11: Review & Giveaway at Diary of an Eccentric

5/12: Review & Giveaway at Just Jane 1813

5/12: Excerpt & Giveaway at Laughing with Lizzie

5/13: Review & Giveaway at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell

5/14: Excerpt & Giveaway at My Kids Led Me Back to Pride and Prejudice

5/15: Excerpt & Giveaway at Best Sellers and Best Stellars

5/16: Review & Giveaway at Margie’s Must Reads

 

I would like to thank Mrs. Beyea for being such a wonderful guest, and to  Jakki for thinking of me for this blog tour. And of course, to all my readers, I hope you liked what you read today 🙂