An Appearance of Goodness by Heather Moll (Book Tour)

 

Do you like to host parties?  How would you feel about hosting a house party that lasted for weeks?

An Appearance of Goodness is a delightful Regency mystery and romance.  In this Pride and Prejudice variation, after Mr. Darcy’s first proposal and rejection, he returns to London and tells Mr. Bingley that Jane really loves him.  At the start of this novel, Mr. Bingley and Jane are now married and Elizabeth lives with them.  She joins them on a vacation north to Scarborough.  On the way, they stop at Pemberly for two weeks.  While there, Elizabeth gets to see Mr. Darcy in his element and learns that he is a kind and compassionate brother, employer, and landowner.  Mr. Darcy starts to wonder if love can flourish again.  When disaster strikes and a murder happens soon after, will Elizabeth and Darcy be able to solve the mystery?

I LOVED this novel.  Moll does an excellent job of bringing Austen’s characters to life and also creating great new characters that belong in their world.  It was like reading a new Jane Austen novel.  I thought the mystery was intriguing and I was torn on which character was the murderer until close to the end.  I also really enjoyed the diversity in the novel.  Two of the characters are children of a Scottish lord and an Indian royal mother.  I thought they brought an interesting dynamic to the novel.

As a water resources engineer, I was very interested in the flood in this novel and the very accurate descriptions of how the flooding mechanics would work.  The devastation it caused was heart breaking.  It made me think about things in a historical novel I hadn’t really thought about before such as, when a flood happens and there are no crops, how does a landowner stay solvent?

The romance between Darcy and Elizabeth in this novel was top notch.    I loved their growing understanding and sweet romance.  I loved how the last chapter was set a year later.  I would love to see this as a book series.

Favorite Quotes:

“A man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must accept fair criticism, because he is thereby able to correct his faults or remove the prejudices against him.”

“I cannot make myself appear weak simply because gentlemen are supposed to be strong.”

Review Copy from author Heather Moll as part of the Book Tour.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Author Bio:

Heather Moll is an avid reader of mysteries and biographies with a masters in information science. She found Jane Austen later than she should have and made up for lost time by devouring her letters and unpublished works, joining JASNA, and spending too much time researching the Regency era. She is the author of An Appearance of Goodness, An Affectionate Heart, Nine Ladies, Two More Days at Netherfield, and His Choice of a Wife. She lives with her husband and son and struggles to balance all of the important things, like whether or not to buy groceries or stay home and write.

Giveaway:

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