Books 1 and 2 of the award-winning, international bestselling Confession of Mr. Darcy, Vampire, re-released in this special edition only on eBook for a limited time at an incredible price.
BOOK I: Pulse and Prejudice
Elle Magazine selection "A Most Inventive Adaptation" (April, 2016)
Austenprose "Readers' Choice, Top 5 Books of the Year" (2012)
1st Place Winner in Category, 2013 Chatelaine Awards Romantic Fiction
Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy - elegant, dark, brooding...vampire. The Master of Pemberley tells his haunting tale of unquenchable desire and forbidden love.
"I cannot express enough how skeptical I was upon starting this book. Pride & Prejudice with a touch of vampires was enough to send me into fits of eye rolls. But, within only the first chapter, I found myself strangely drawn to the story. The vampire Darcy weaves his spell quickly." - Austenprose
Book II: Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth
In this lurid, lusty sequel to Pulse and Prejudice, death shadows the newlywed Darcys from Pemberley to the parlors of Regency London to the courtyards of Antebellum New Orleans. As Elizabeth discovers the trials and travails of marriage to a vampire, can Darcy ever believe that she loves him as he is? Or will his jealousy tear them apart?
This is the sequel to Pulse and Prejudice; however, as it is not an Austen adaptation, the reader will find it darker, bloodier, and more provocative than Book 1.
"After taking the plunge into this dark and haunting world, I am bloody thrilled to say that I just loved this sequel! The story examines the beauties and frailties of Darcy and Elizabeth's love and devotion to each other while folding it into a world filled with gothic danger. It is action-packed and left me turning pages rather quickly, while at the same time being filled with well-developed characters whose inner turmoils make the reader empathize with each of their own plights."
C.A. Pepe, Just Jane 1813
What can we expect from you in the future?
I have several irons in the fire for future novels, including a sequel to one of the books I’ve written under another name, and also a noir mystery that probably will not have any romance in it because the female protagonist is a murder victim! I don’t have plans to write any more Pride and Prejudice adaptations, although a lot of fans of the first two vampire novels have pressured me to write a third. I have a basic premise in mind for a possible third, but I fear that will be many years down the line.
Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?
The character of the Comtesse de Calmet was inspired by Jane Austen’s favorite cousin Eliza. She and her mother had settled in Paris where Eliza married a man who called himself the comps the fuel lead. Eliza knew Marie Antoinette and other people at court and 18th-century Paris before the reign of terror, when her husband was guillotined. I have included this into the background of Wilhelmina, or Mina, Calmet. Mina has a dog, a basset griffon vendeen on called Amadeus. He is based on my own dog and possesses many of his characteristics. For a long time my dog had terrible car sickness, which I have included with Amadeus getting sick while writing in the Comtesse’s carriage.
How did you come up with the concept and characters for the book?
Book I, Pulse and Prejudice, is a complete and faithful adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic but from the perspective of Mr. Darcy as a vampire. I had the idea that Jane Austen could have conceived his character as a vampire, which would explain why he is so dark and brooding and misinterprets “human” emotions. For the second novel, Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth, I decided to use that dark quality of Mr. Darcy’s and apply it to a fun variation of a Shakespearean tragedy. When I told my friend and fellow author Abigail Reynolds what I had in mind, she was appalled because, as with all Shakespearean tragedies, everybody winds up dead in the end! And yet I have managed to maintain the requisite “happily ever after” for a romance novel!
I have several irons in the fire for future novels, including a sequel to one of the books I’ve written under another name, and also a noir mystery that probably will not have any romance in it because the female protagonist is a murder victim! I don’t have plans to write any more Pride and Prejudice adaptations, although a lot of fans of the first two vampire novels have pressured me to write a third. I have a basic premise in mind for a possible third, but I fear that will be many years down the line.
Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?
The character of the Comtesse de Calmet was inspired by Jane Austen’s favorite cousin Eliza. She and her mother had settled in Paris where Eliza married a man who called himself the comps the fuel lead. Eliza knew Marie Antoinette and other people at court and 18th-century Paris before the reign of terror, when her husband was guillotined. I have included this into the background of Wilhelmina, or Mina, Calmet. Mina has a dog, a basset griffon vendeen on called Amadeus. He is based on my own dog and possesses many of his characteristics. For a long time my dog had terrible car sickness, which I have included with Amadeus getting sick while writing in the Comtesse’s carriage.
How did you come up with the concept and characters for the book?
Book I, Pulse and Prejudice, is a complete and faithful adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic but from the perspective of Mr. Darcy as a vampire. I had the idea that Jane Austen could have conceived his character as a vampire, which would explain why he is so dark and brooding and misinterprets “human” emotions. For the second novel, Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth, I decided to use that dark quality of Mr. Darcy’s and apply it to a fun variation of a Shakespearean tragedy. When I told my friend and fellow author Abigail Reynolds what I had in mind, she was appalled because, as with all Shakespearean tragedies, everybody winds up dead in the end! And yet I have managed to maintain the requisite “happily ever after” for a romance novel!
Another Pride and Prejudice adaptation???
I have been asked more than once why I wrote a vampire adaptation of Pride and Prejudice – especially as others are already out there. The simple truth: I never found the vampire variation I longed to read, so I had to write one myself! I wasn’t looking for a “mash-up” or a sequel or a variation that veers off on its own – albeit creative – vampire plot before revealing that Darcy is not a vampire at all. I wanted to read a paranormal variation that remained faithful to Austen, to Darcy and Elizabeth, and to Pride and Prejudice. Oh, and I wanted a few naughty bits as well – a peek at the passion, lust, and desire that simmers just under the surface in the original.
I love Jane Austen, and I have read Pride and Prejudice a dozen times at least. I always thought of Darcy as a Byronic figure that lent itself well to a vampire characterization, which is why I chose to have the story unfold through his eyes. (Coincidentally, Byron published The Giaour in 1813 – the same year Austen released Pride and Prejudice.) Although Pulse and Prejudice adheres to the original plot and style of the classic romance, it is not a “mash-up” but an original variation told primarily from Darcy’s point of view as he struggles with the curse of vampirism.
I hope I have written the vampire adaptation that others want to read as well.
I love Jane Austen, and I have read Pride and Prejudice a dozen times at least. I always thought of Darcy as a Byronic figure that lent itself well to a vampire characterization, which is why I chose to have the story unfold through his eyes. (Coincidentally, Byron published The Giaour in 1813 – the same year Austen released Pride and Prejudice.) Although Pulse and Prejudice adheres to the original plot and style of the classic romance, it is not a “mash-up” but an original variation told primarily from Darcy’s point of view as he struggles with the curse of vampirism.
I hope I have written the vampire adaptation that others want to read as well.
As he had done the previous nights, Darcy waited until the house had gone silent and opened the door to Miss Bennet’s room. At first surprised to find Elizabeth was not in the chair beside the bed, he then realized that, as Jane Bennet continued to mend, her sister need not tend to her all night. He turned back into the hall and closed the door. Darcy instinctively knew Elizabeth was in the next room. He stepped over and stood before the door, aware of her presence on the other side.
Darcy leaned in with his hands on either side of the doorframe and let his forehead fall against the door. He closed his eyes and imagined her lying on the bed, her hair splayed out on the pillow, the eyes that had challenged him so brightly just that evening now closed in repose. What little effort, how few steps it would take, for him to be upon her, taking what he needed, sating his thirst.
He pushed himself away from the door and leaned back against the wall beside, despair filling him. He had stood watch over Elizabeth and her sister for two nights and had come back to do so again, to protect them from the very thing he now ached to do himself. The irony sickened him but did not staunch his desire. Gathering all the resolve he knew it would require to return to his room, he stepped away from the wall.
Darcy turned just as the door opened and Elizabeth appeared. They cried out in surprise simultaneously.
“Mr. Darcy!”
“Eliz-a-Miss Bennet!”
She was dressed in her night-rail and wrapper; and, though more modest than even her day dresses, the sight set his nerves on edge. Her hair hung down as he had imagined. She held one hand to her heart as the other gripped a candlestick.
“Mr. Darcy, you frightened me! What do you mean by all this skulking about in the dark? How can you even see where you are going?”
He steadied himself before speaking. “I seem to have mislaid my book. I was unable to sleep and thought to read.”
“The Lord Nelson? I believe I saw it in the library on the sideboard.”
He nodded. “That would be a good place for it.”
She smiled. “Indeed. Although if you are looking for the second volume, you may have to wrest it away from Miss Bingley,” she said with a glint in her eye. He smiled at that; but then they both became sensible to the impropriety of their current circumstance and their close proximity. “I was on my way to check on Jane.”
He knew he should step aside, but he did not. He knew he should look away, but he did not. He held her eyes in his stare, his resistance faltering. Another moment and he might have moved towards her, reached his hand to hold the nape of her neck, pierced her flesh with his aching teeth, pressed his mouth upon her lips; but the light from her candle illuminated his face, and he saw his wan reflection in her eyes. As with all those with his curse, he could not bear the sight of his own reflection, a vision of death itself. Her candle flickered out in an instant, and she gasped and broke her gaze.
“There...must be a draught,” she said. They were in darkness, save the moonlight from the window behind her, as soft as her voice. Something made her step back from him; then she turned away. “Let me find the tinderbox.” When she looked back, he was gone.
Darcy leaned in with his hands on either side of the doorframe and let his forehead fall against the door. He closed his eyes and imagined her lying on the bed, her hair splayed out on the pillow, the eyes that had challenged him so brightly just that evening now closed in repose. What little effort, how few steps it would take, for him to be upon her, taking what he needed, sating his thirst.
He pushed himself away from the door and leaned back against the wall beside, despair filling him. He had stood watch over Elizabeth and her sister for two nights and had come back to do so again, to protect them from the very thing he now ached to do himself. The irony sickened him but did not staunch his desire. Gathering all the resolve he knew it would require to return to his room, he stepped away from the wall.
Darcy turned just as the door opened and Elizabeth appeared. They cried out in surprise simultaneously.
“Mr. Darcy!”
“Eliz-a-Miss Bennet!”
She was dressed in her night-rail and wrapper; and, though more modest than even her day dresses, the sight set his nerves on edge. Her hair hung down as he had imagined. She held one hand to her heart as the other gripped a candlestick.
“Mr. Darcy, you frightened me! What do you mean by all this skulking about in the dark? How can you even see where you are going?”
He steadied himself before speaking. “I seem to have mislaid my book. I was unable to sleep and thought to read.”
“The Lord Nelson? I believe I saw it in the library on the sideboard.”
He nodded. “That would be a good place for it.”
She smiled. “Indeed. Although if you are looking for the second volume, you may have to wrest it away from Miss Bingley,” she said with a glint in her eye. He smiled at that; but then they both became sensible to the impropriety of their current circumstance and their close proximity. “I was on my way to check on Jane.”
He knew he should step aside, but he did not. He knew he should look away, but he did not. He held her eyes in his stare, his resistance faltering. Another moment and he might have moved towards her, reached his hand to hold the nape of her neck, pierced her flesh with his aching teeth, pressed his mouth upon her lips; but the light from her candle illuminated his face, and he saw his wan reflection in her eyes. As with all those with his curse, he could not bear the sight of his own reflection, a vision of death itself. Her candle flickered out in an instant, and she gasped and broke her gaze.
“There...must be a draught,” she said. They were in darkness, save the moonlight from the window behind her, as soft as her voice. Something made her step back from him; then she turned away. “Let me find the tinderbox.” When she looked back, he was gone.
An abridged version of The Proud and the Prejudiced: A Modern Twist on Pride and Prejudice was selected a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Semi-finalist and Austensque Reviews’ Favorite Modern Adaptation under the title All My Tomorrows.
Colette’s latest release is the controversial erotic noir suspense, The Widow. She will be releasing Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth, Book II: The Confession of Mr. Darcy, Vampire in eBook August, 2016, and print in October.
A writer, world-traveler, empty-nester, and a literature, history, wine & cheese lover; Colette lives in Southeast Louisiana with her historian husband and their dogs.
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ReplyDeleteI loved Pride and Prejudice: The Scenes Jane Austen Never Wrote. I have also read a few of Colette L. Saucier's books.
ReplyDeletecool
ReplyDeleteLOVE the excerpt, the exchange between Mr. Darcy & Miss Bennet hooked me. I think I'll have to get the books :)
ReplyDeleteI like how the cover was done - very powerful
ReplyDeleteThe cover is interesting. It’s striking in it’s simplicity.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting take on Pride and Prejudice.
ReplyDeleteLiked your excerpt. Thanks.
ReplyDelete