sweet happily ever afters

Discovering Mr. Darcy | A Dash of Darcy and Companions Story

This book is available to listen to on YouTube. It is also available as a download with a paid Patreon subscription and is / or will be available in some other places as well (see the Audiobooks page at this link).

If you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel yet, I’d love it if you would (to help me get monetized) even if you only plan on listening to these stories here.

The description of this book and how the audiobook was made are below.

Happy Listening!

<3 Leenie

About the Book:

A wrong room, a locked door, and a final opportunity to understand one another

When Fitzwilliam Darcy left Netherfield, Elizabeth Bennet had yet to decipher his character and assumes she will never receive the opportunity to do so until he unexpectedly arrives in Kent where Elizabeth is visiting a friend. Upon their first meeting, Darcy seems different from the arrogant man Elizabeth remembers, and stories she hears from his cousin Anne further confuse her opinion until she overhears a conversation.

Arriving for his annual visit at Rosings, Darcy is both delighted and hopeful when he learns that his aunt’s parson has a guest. Having been unable to rid his thoughts and heart of the lovely Miss Elizabeth, he has determined to press his suit. However, when his cousin Richard’s attentions are more readily accepted by Elizabeth than his own, Darcy fears he will have to part with the lady he loves forever.

However, fate and scheming relations are not about to let this couple walk away from each other.

About the Audiobook:

This story is read by Christopher, an authorized voice replica made available by the voice actor, through the Elevenlabs library. While this is a digital narration, the voice actor does receive compensation whenever his voice is used. In other words, offering authorized voice replicas on Elevenlabs is one way that some voice actors have chosen to diversify their income. And I am so glad that Christopher has chosen this option because I quite enjoy listening to him read me my stories. I hope you enjoy his performance as much as I did while getting it ready to share.

Editing of the audio to produce this performance was completed by me, Leenie Ann, using the Elevenlabs program.

Bei der Tanzprobe (at the Dance Recital) by Leopold Schmutzler

Bei der Tanzprobe (at the Dance Recital), signiert Leopold Schmutzler, Öl auf Leinwand. Leopold Schmutzler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

If you would like to listen to this post, you can do so on YouTube at this link.

Today, I’ve a Story Connections post that is a bit different than most, because I’ve got some book news to share before I get to the picture and a story excerpt part of the post.

You see, I have a new book available for pre-order, but there is a short window of time, during which you can get the book early and for free. All you have to do is be subscribed to one of my reader communities, whether on Patreon, Substack, or my blog.

If you are already a subscriber to one of those places, you should have received an email, or a notification via an app, on either Friday or Saturday with a link to where you could download a copy of None So Accomplished as Mary. It’s the sequel to How to Marry an Accomplished Lady, and it is part of my Sweet Extras collection.

Sweet Extras are always offered as free downloads to my reader community for a period of time before the release of the book. This time, you have until March 31 to download your copy.

So, if you missed that email, or if you’d like to subscribe to one of my reader communities, you can find that post here: on my blog under the Subscribers Only Post menu option, on Substack in the Substack chat, or on Patreon in the eBook Downloads Collection. You have just over half a week left before the download link expires.

If you prefer to purchase your books from a favourite eBook retailer, you can pre-order None So Accomplished as Mary here. Release day is April 4, 2025.

If you’ve already read the book and are the book rating and reviewing sort, early reviews/ratings can be placed on the book’s Bookbub page here or on Goodreads here.

Just one more thing before we get to the picture and excerpt part.

None So Accomplished as Mary is best enjoyed when read AFTER you’ve read How to Marry an Accomplished Lady, which is in my Sweet Possibilities collection. And that story is best enjoyed AFTER you’ve read An Accomplished Lady (of the best sort), which is a Teatime Tale.

In case you need to pick up either of those previous books, I’ve added a 50% off coupon on them at Smashwords until April 5, 2025. The coupon will be applied automatically at checkout. You can find How to Marry… here, and An Accomplished Lady… here.

Are you still with me? 🙂 I know. That’s a lot of info, but now, let’s look at that painting.

I selected this image because, as you will see, None So Accomplished as Mary begins at a ball, and the ladies in the painting are preparing for a ball and having a fabulously fun time. That attitude matches with this book perfectly, since it continues the light-hearted, feel-good romance mood established in the two preceding books in this trio.

In this story, Colonel Fitzwilliam is dead set against knowingly falling prey to a matchmakers scheme. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t unknowingly be captured by a bit of cunning and a tantalizing riddle to solve.

The chapter below takes place just as such an entertaining journey to happily ever after for Mary and the colonel is about to begin.

Enjoy!

It’s a new release kind of day!

GEt your copy here

Yesterday was the day that this book went live on all retailers. The only places where I’m still waiting to see the book listed are Hoopla (which always takes forever) and Everand.

If you’re a subscription reader, the book is available to read “for free” with your Kobo Plus subscription, and it has been added to the Repository on Patreon for paid members to read.

FYI: There are changes being made to membership things at Patreon. The official reveal of all that will be coming soon, but for now, just know that all paid members have been given access to read this new release and the Teatime Tales prequel as part of their membership benefits. And memberships currently begin at $1 USD.

If you’re a paperback reader, both the large and regular print paperback editions are available on Amazon.

I got my copies of it just a few days ago, and they turned out very pretty. 🙂

How to Marry an Accomplished Lady, just like it’s prequel An Accomplished Lady (of the best sort), is not an angsty book. It’s not supposed to be. It’s more of a romcom — full of entertaining antics and enjoyment. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t anyone trying to stop Darcy from marrying Elizabeth. Oh no, there are a few of those characters, who simply add to the drama that might just drive Darcy to distraction as he moves from determined to ask Elizabeth to marry him, to betrothed, to finally married.

And there are hints at what you might expect in the short sequel to this story, which will be a Mary and the Colonel novelette. (And which I need to get back to writing after the holidays).

If you’d like to see what some of the advance review copy readers are saying about this book, here are a few sound bites from the reviews I’ve gotten via my Booksprout Review Team.

If you haven’t gotten your copy of this book yet then click here to find it at your favourite retailer.

Please feel free to share news of this new release with your friends! You can always tag me on FB (@LeenieBrown) or IG (@leeniebbooks) and I’ll give it a like (as long as Meta lets me know about the tag — you know how social media can be 😉 ).

Have a great weekend! Happy reading!

<3 Leenie

The College of Physicians (Microcosm of London Plate 020)

Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827) and Augustus Charles Pugin (1762–1832) (after) John Bluck (fl. 1791–1819), Joseph Constantine Stadler (fl. 1780–1812), Thomas Sutherland (1785–1838), J. Hill, and Harraden (aquatint engravers)[1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

If you would prefer to listen to this post, you can do that on YouTube at this link.

Annabelle (aka Belle) lost her heart to a young man who was training to be a physician. Unfortunately, her father is more than a bit full of himself. He’s a narcissist of the first order, and a physician as a son-in-law will not do. So, he makes sure to separate Belle from Fritz and hopes to see Belle married to someone more suitable. However, six years later, Belle is still unmarried, and her father gives up hope. Therefore, when his sister in Bath asks to have Belle join her as her companion, he’s more than willing to send her away. Little does he (or Belle) know that Aunt Augusta’s physician is Fritz.

This story, His Irreplaceable Belle, is an original sweet Regency romance with a Persuasion flavour and is book four in my Touches of Austen series.

Below is an excerpt from chapter 2.

Enjoy!

Watercolor Flowers

Images for the above video were sourced through Depositphotos. Video background was created using Animoto and Canva.

I decided to share the images for this post in a bit of a different fashion today, and you have some options. You can press play and listen to the rest of this post being read to you, or you can press play and turn off the sound to see the images before you read the post below. It’s totally up to you how you wish to enjoy it.

While Georgiana’s sketchbook in Protecting Miss Darcy contains only sketches, I couldn’t resist sharing these pretty watercolor flowers that I found, so that, just like Lily (Alfred’s niece), you could “page” through them.

In the excerpt below, you’ll hear a bit about an incident involving a flower and bee and, hopefully, you’ll enjoy watching Alfred come to a surprising conclusion.