The Colonel- Excerpt & Giveaway

Good Morning everyone,

I hope your week was a good one and that you already have plans for a wonderful weekend 🙂

If you don’t have any plans yet, allow me to recommend buying and reading Beau North’s latest book, The Colonel. I haven’t read it yet, but I absolutely loved its predecessor Longbourn’s Songbird and I’m sure that The Colonel will be just as good, so it will be perfect for a weekend read.

Have you heard about this book yet? Today I bring you a beautiful excerpt that will hopefully spike your interest. And if you haven’t read Longbourn’s Songbird yet, this is a good time to do so as it is currently on sale on Amazon for 0,99$.

I have read it when it was released and absolutely loved it! It was the book that made me want to read different era books. Before Longbourn’s Songbird I would never feel inclined to read something that occurred after regency, but after reading it I am not as skeptic anymore. That is how good this book is :)But I digress and prevent you from reading the excerpt, so I’ll stop now 🙂 Enjoy!

 

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“This isn’t a love story, but the end of one. The story of two ships forever passing in the night. This is the story of my father and the woman he spent most of his adult life loving, a woman who was never really his.”

1950:

After letting his chance at love with Elizabeth Bennet slip through his fingers a second time, Richard Fitzwilliam loses himself in women, whiskey, and war as he tries to forget what he left behind. Putting oceans, continents, and decades between himself and his heartbreak, Richard seeks his future, only to be pulled back to the past again and again.

2002:

Shaken by recent events, Ben Fitzwilliam has left everything familiar behind, walking away from his relationship, his Manhattan apartment, his career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist to return to his family home in Annapolis, Maryland. Struggling to navigate a world that makes less and less sense, Ben finds purpose where he least expected it: in his father’s private letters. With the help of Annapolis PD Officer Keisha Barnes, Ben attempts to uncover his father’s secrets, heal the rifts those secrets caused, and find the answers he seeks on far shores.

Spanning decades, continents, wars abroad and wars at home, The Colonel is the anticipated companion to Longbourn’s Songbird.

 

You can find The Colonel at:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBooks

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Excerpt Setup:

After a somewhat disastrous New Year’s Party at the Fitzwilliam home in New York City, Richard sends his cousin a letter that is partially an apology, and delivers some surprising news.

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January 15, 1951

Dear Will,

Greetings, salutations, etcetera. Thank you for dragging your family complete up to the city for the party. It was, as always, good to see you, but even better to see you so happy. You can be pretty fun to be around when you’re not glowering and putting everyone off of their feed.

You must think I’m very foolish. No need to deny it―I saw the look that passed between you and your excellent wife. Did you know that the two of you, taken separately, are about as easy to read as Greek—but when you’re together, you’re comically transparent.

So yes, I was a foolish man. Nothing to be done for it now. If I can be grateful about anything, it’s that I never fancied myself to be in love. I was thrill seeking, endangering life and limb, hell, my very sanity (or what’s left of it) but never in love. You may be glad to hear that that is all over with now. In any case, I don’t want either of you to worry about what kind of trouble I’ll be getting myself into next because well, damn it, there’s no easy way to say this, but I am back in the army. Old man Tilney himself pulled some strings and brought me back in, with a promotion.

When I took two bullets in Brest, I was a captain. The old bastard got me kicked out as a major, and now I’m going back in a lieutenant colonel. I could be one of the youngest men to make colonel, provided Uncle Sam doesn’t get fed up with my antics before then. I’ll have a bigger command now, which is good but troubling too. I hope that I’m up to the task. I think that there is more to this little skirmish than they’re letting on.

I’m to leave at the end of the month. I was hoping it wouldn’t be an imposition to come spend my last week there at Pemberley. We could settle my affairs (just in case) and I could say my (temporary) goodbyes to you all.

Confer with Mrs. Darcy and ring me up when you know.

Your faithful friend,

Richard

Darcy looked up from the letter at the two women dearest to him. Georgiana had her nose buried in a book while Elizabeth sat buttering her toast. She wore a bemused little half-smile, as if remembering a joke she hadn’t heard in years. She was beginning to show, getting more beautiful every day. She seemed to glow from within all the time these days, even when she was wretchedly sick or weeping or falling asleep every few minutes. His heart beat almost painfully when he thought about the child she carried, their life to come.

He honestly had no idea how she would take this news.

“So,” he began, watching Elizabeth’s face. “I have a letter from Richard here.”

Her only acknowledgment was a tiny lift of her eyebrows. “Any messages from Charlotte?”

“Ah, no. So I’m assuming things must be well.”

Georgiana put her book down and picked up her coffee, making a face. “Wasn’t his girlfriend so awful?”

Elizabeth’s lips twisted in a wry smile. “Actually, I rather liked her, though probably for all the wrong reasons. She was vastly entertaining.”

Darcy smiled. “She was rather appalling. I think she might have even been ruder than I am.”

“Impossible,” Elizabeth teased. “Still, I shouldn’t laugh at her. If she makes your cousin happy…”

She never said his name, Darcy noticed. It was always your cousin. He wondered if she was even aware of it.

“Ah, well. That’s part of why he writes. It seems that Miss Huntington-Whitney is out of the picture now.”

“Thank goodness,” Georgiana said with a sigh. “Poor Richard.”

If any of this talk bothered Elizabeth, she didn’t let it show.

Darcy turned to his sister and asked if she would excuse them for a minute. She shrugged and gathered her things before breezing out the room. Darcy reached over and took his wife’s hand.

“Elizabeth, do you mind if Richard comes to stay for a bit?”

“Why on earth would I mind? As long as he’s not bringing that little goblin with him. Not that I mind but I think she would probably upset Georgie.”

“I think you know what I mean when I ask, and it has nothing to do with Georgiana.”

“Oh good lord, not that again. I think we’d better get used to our new family situation sooner rather than later. We’re all adults, aren’t we?”

“That point is debatable. There’s…something else.”

“You’re worried! Is everything all right?”

“Richard has…well, damn if he’s not in the army again. That’s why he wants to come for visit. He’ll be headed out at the end of the month.”

She looked down at her plate, a small crease appearing between her eyebrows.

“I see. Headed out where?”

“I think you know.”

She cleared her throat, a habit she was picking up from him. “Are you going to tell Georgie or should I?”

“Don’t you want to tell her together?”

“One of us ought to inform Mrs. R, don’t you think? Yes, I think I will. You tell Georgie. I’m sure she’ll have all kinds of questions.” She stood suddenly, smoothing the fabric of her dress with the palms of her hands.

“Elizabeth—”

“I’m fine, William.”

But he wondered. Wondered at the tight set of her shoulders as she walked out of the room, the overly precise and careful way she closed the door behind her.

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Beau North is the author of four books and contributor to multiple anthologies. Beau lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband. In her spare time, she is the co-host of the podcasts Excessively Diverted: Modern Classics On-Screen and Let’s Get Weirding: A Dune Podcast.

You can find more about Beau North in the following social media:

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 is offering a very generous giveaway. On this stop you can either win a $10 Amazon Gift Card plus eBook or Audiobook of winner’s choice which will be

Beau North would like to offer one of my readers an ebook copy of The Colonel and another one of Longbourn Songbird.  The lucky winner will receive both books, and the best news is this giveaway is open internationally!

To apply to it all you have to do is comment on this post and click on this rafflecopter link.

Good Luck Everyone!