Mischief & Matchmaking

Review also posted on my blog
https://myjaffobsession.blogspot.com/2022/07/mischief-matchmaking-pride-prejudice.html

When Lizzy Bennet visits her newly married friend Charlotte, at Huntsford Parsonage, she is introduced to the overbearing Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her daughter Anne.

Lizzy's first impression of Anne, is that she is sickly and cross.
However, first impressions are often wrong.
Anne de Bourgh pretends to be weak and cowed by her dreadful mother. In reality, she escapes the Rosings manor house in the mornings, to walk and read.

When Lizzy stumbles across her one day, Anne accidentally reveals her reading matter. She collects smutty romance novels, which she hides in a ramshackle cottage.

Lizzy and Charlotte soon start reading the collection and create a scandalous book society, with Anne.

The arrival of Fitzwilliam Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam is a mixed blessing. Lizzy likes the Colonel and tries a little matchmaking between Richard and Anne. However, Mr Darcy is someone to be avoided, following his haughty and rude behaviour when they met the previous year.

Darcy is reluctantly in love with Lizzy, despite viewing her as beneath him. He is jealous of her friendship with Richard and accuses her of trying to capture him as a husband.

When Darcy sees Lizzy enter the ramshackle cottage, he suspects an illicit assignation. He is even more shocked when he discovers the book collection.

Shock turns rapidly to lust, when they are trapped inside the cottage.

A sensual novella that is quite pleasing. The interaction between Lizzy and Darcy is distinctly steamy but there is a light and teasing nature to their banter.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.