Comes with an Attitude Is Out Now!

Comes with an Attitude (A modern Pride and Prejudice retelling)

Comes with an Attitude, is out now! Comes with an Attitude is a modern Pride and Prejudice retelling, and I'm super excited to share it with the world. The book is now available on Amazon in several formats (e-book, paperback, and hardcover), and it’s also free on Kindle Unlimited. You can get the book here (*Amazon affiliate link). If you’re looking for a fun contemporary romance with Jane Austen vibes, enemies/rivals to lovers, slow burn, and low spice (kiss only), here’s the blurb for you:

Book Review: Oh Dear, Maria! by Abigail Ted

Oh Dear, Maria! by Abigail Ted

Book title: Oh Dear, Maria! (* Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Abigail Ted
Genre: Historical fiction
Published: November 1, 2022
288 pages
My rating: 4/5

“For Maria Harrington, there was no greater satisfaction than that which could be found in her own misery. It had always been the way, and there was no explaining it, at least not by the lady herself; misery was her oldest, most-beloved friend, and she was forever in search of this companion.”

Maria Harrington is a stubborn, self-centered, and melodramatic daughter of a power-hungry merchant father and a mentally ill and absent mother. Her father forces her into a marriage with a debt-ridden Member of Parliament, Honourable Mr. Jackson—a man she used to love but now despises. At first, she is sure to make everyone know how miserable she is, and it doesn’t take long for her new husband to realize Maria is more than just a ticket to financial independence. She is also an emotional time bomb whose explosions range from comical to terrifying.

Oh Dear, Maria! is a debut novel by indie author Abigail Ted. The book is a humorous Regency pastiche, following the footsteps of classic satire such as William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. That alone made me eager to read this book, as Vanity Fair is one of my favorite classics. I must admit I was slightly disappointed, but that’s probably because I was setting my expectations too high. This book does what it promises, although it does not quite reach the level of the masters it takes inspiration from.

How I Wrote and Self-Published a Short Story

In the Shadow of Death (a fantasy short story)

It’s the release day of In the Shadow of Death, my urban fantasy short story about love and loss. What better opportunity to share with you how I wrote and self-published the story. In the Shadow of Death (*Amazon affiliate link) is an urban fantasy inspired by the myth of Castor and Pollux and takes place partly in the modern world and partly in the Underworld.

Author Interview with Cinasee Pollett

Cinasee Pollett's debut novel WildWood Revisited was one of my favorite reads of 2023, and I recently read it again. You can find my review of the book here. Read more about her book, her thoughts on writing and self-publishing, and what she's working on next!

Your debut novel WildWood Revisited took you a long time to write and edit. Can you tell us a little bit about the process?

The idea for “Tome Travellers” came about when I was 16. My interests at the time revolved around Sherlock Holmes, The Hobbit, and an old British spy series called Sandbaggers. More than anything, I wished I could live in the Shire or sit with Holmes in his flat at 221b.

What if I could? became the foundational question for my novel.

Over the years, I worked on a dozen different drafts, each with the same cast but set in different time periods, with different books, and varying levels of espionage. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Jane Eyre, and Pride & Prejudice were all different volumes the cast Travelled into at one point or another. However, none of them ever felt quite right.

I think I needed to reach a certain stage of life and experience certain things before the final draft could be realized. When I decided to take on the challenge of crafting a book-within-a-book (WildWood) instead of using existing British Literature… I knew I had stumbled onto the final draft. 

Book Review: WildWood Revisited by Cinasee Pollett

WildWood Revisited by Cinasee Pollett

Book Title: WildWood Revisited (*Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Cinasee Pollett
Genre: Historical fantasy
Published: May 22, 2023
252 pages
My rating: 5/5

“Angela scowled. If she’d heard the Laws of Literature once, she’d heard them a thousand times from her uncle—only first editions were Travellable, books had to remain open whilst Travelling, and plots must not be changed. She would remember them if she lived to be a thousand.”

Angela Graham is a Tome Traveler. She can enter any book she wants – as long as it’s a first edition. Her favorite novel, WildWood, would be the perfect escape from the harsh reality of life after World War I, if only its ending wasn’t so dismal. When she learns that someone has tampered with the book’s plot, she seeks help from the book’s reluctant author Aspen DeBryn to save her beloved woodland and its goblin residents.

Author interview with Amanda Darcy

Amanda Darcy's debut novel Of Love and Beer was published March 12, 2024. You can find my review of the book here. Read more about her book, her thoughts on writing and self-publishing, and what she's working on next!

Your debut novel Of Love & Beer is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Why did you choose to write a retelling and why specifically Pride and Prejudice?

This actually starts with Pride and Prejudice. Every time I’ve read it, or any of Jane Austen’s novels (and I’ve reread them a lot), I’ve always spent days afterwards thinking about how a modern version might go. But until recently, I didn’t have the confidence to try it. About five years ago, things go so chaotic with politics that I got overwhelmed. I think now it was a kind of depression I went into, but it manifested by me turning away from all media except Pride and Prejudice variations which I had recently discovered. After reading nothing but what is essentially Jane Austen fan fiction for nearly six months, I woke up one day and just thought, “I could do this. I could write an Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy story.” For a while I debated whether to do a variation set in the Regency period like most of the books I’d read, or to do a retelling. The retelling won out partly because I’d been thinking of that for so many years, and partly because since I’d never written a romance novel before, I mistakenly thought it’d be easier to already have a basic structure and plot points to follow.

Book Review: Of Love and Beer by Amanda Darcy

Of Love and Beer by Amanda Darcy

Book Title: Of Love and Beer (*Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Amanda Darcy
Genre: Contemporary romance, Jane Austen retelling
Published: March 12, 2024
324 pages
My rating: 5/5

“If there was one thing Ellis could trust, it was her first impressions, and things were not looking good for Wallace. She’d always had a knack for sizing people up quickly, but she’d recently had the opportunity to hone her skills. Since June, when her partner announced his plans to retire, every beer loving Lothario in a thirty-mile radius had shown up at the brewery thinking that if they bought Barney out, they’d get to plant themselves behind the bar and “pick up chicks.””

Craft Brewer Ellis Bourne has two problems: avoiding the suitors her match-making mother thrusts upon her and finding a new business partner. Luckily for her, she knows she can always trust her first impressions. So when a handsome vintner Dean Pembrook insults her, she knows exactly what to think of him. That is until Dean’s friend shows interest in her business, and she’s stuck trying to ignore Dean and trying to get his friend invest in her small-town brewery.