Miriam (Cousins of Pemberley #3) by Linda O'Byrne
Genre: Historical fiction, Regency romance
Read: 8th August 2022
Published: 15th August 2022
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Many years have passed since the dramatic events of Pride and Prejudice. In The Cousins of Pemberley series we follow a new generation of heroines - cousins with lives as different and interesting as those enjoyed by their mothers.
Mary Bennet - overlooked, laughed at, despised - married a missionary and vanished into a life of service out in Africa. But now Miriam, her daughter, is coming to England, disliking everything she has been told about her family.
Her aunts and cousins are expecting someone quiet, dull and bookish, just like her mother, not the quick-tempered, impulsive girl who arrives.
How can this adventurous girl with her desire for freedom possibly fit into their well ordered world? And what havoc will she cause as she tries?
Book 4: Jane, Coming Christmas 2022
MY THOUGHTS:
I am great fan of Jane Austen on the screen...not so much the books. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect from MIRIAM, the third book in the Cousins of Pemberley series. However, I was surprised...pleasantly surprised. In fact, I loved this book! And I cannot wait to read the previous two "Cassandra" (Book 1) and "Catherine" (Book 2), both of whom are mentioned in this story.
As with many a fan of period tales, I am familiar with "Pride and Prejudice" though I have never been able to get through the book, I have enjoyed the many adaptions that have been made for TV over the years. From Greer Garson to Keira Knightly. Maybe it's the passage of time and the ease with which writing is presented in a way that can be better understood today rather than Ms Austen's English of the 18th century. Whatever it is, I was easily drawn in from the very beginning and was kept there until the very last page, reading this absorbing tale within six hours and one sitting (breaking only to serve dinner).
In this tale, we meet the overlooked sister Mary Bennet who married a missionary and escaped to Africa where she gave birth to a daughter, Miriam, on the passage there. For the first eleven years of her life, Miriam has lived a carefree life amongst the natives, caring for the underdog, finding lost puppies and kittens to bring home. But then they moved to Cape Town where her father, the Reverend Malliot, buys and sets up a school to teach the underprivileged. Miriam hates Cape Town and longs for the freedom she once had.
And then, her father who was her mother's senior by some years, dies suddenly of a fever and her mother Mary must sell their possessions and pack themselves off to live out life alongside her sisters and cousins back in England. But Miriam doesn't wish to go to England. She has never been there nor met any of her aunts or cousins, whom her mother hardly spoke very kindly of anyway. But it is all arranged and Miriam boards the Sea Sprite, chaperoned by family friends Reverend Poole, his wife and their daughter Delphine, to accompany her to England.
Upon arrival, there is no one to meet her as expected and feigning otherwise to Mrs Poole, bids the odious family farewell and awaits her uncle's arrival. When he doesn't arrive, First Officer Nicholas Sullivan whom she met on the passage from Africa, attempts to find somewhere for her for the night but not before the bellowing arrival of Mrs Tremaine, sister-in-law to Miriam's aunt Jane, who sees Sullivan as a white slave trader and rescues Miriam in the nick of time. It seems, Mary's letter from Africa had been delayed and only reached them that morning so arrangements were made in haste to collect young Miriam from the waiting port.
Delivered safely to her Aunt Elizabeth Darcy of Pemberley, Miriam meets her cousins Bennetta and twins Anne and Jane. The aunts and cousins all expect a quiet, dull, younger version of her mother Mary...but they are shocked to discover she is anything but. Miriam arrives at Pemberley in a wave of excitement, with tanned skin and red hair as uncontrollable as the young lady herself, used to standing up for the underdog and herself. Life at Pemberley is going to be somewhat interesting over the coming weeks and months until Mary arrives.
After resting the afternoon Miriam strolls into the room before dinner expecting to find her Uncle Darcy and is surprised to find First Officer Nicholas Sullivan standing there! Whatever is he doing at Pemberley? After the irritation he had caused her on board the ship passage, Miriam had no desire to replay those events again. But when she is introduced to visiting artist Edmund Avery, who is painting the Darcy children's portrait, she notices a flicker of something in Sullivan's eyes; a frown; a dislike even. Whatever did he have against the man? Whatever it was, a battle was sure to ensue should either man be in Miriam's vicinity.
As for Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, they could only hope that Miriam's outspoken ideas and independence would not lead their youngest Bennetta astray as she approaches her coming of age in the next few months. But it seems Bennetta is wiser than any of them give her credit for. For she sees all and knows far more of what goes on at Pemberley and within the family than anyone else. And she soon becomes something of a confidante for Miriam, the only one of the Darcy sisters that Miriam feels a true kinship for.
But something sinister is brewing with malice afoot as Miriam could be placed in danger. Will the malevolence be uncovered before it's too late? Or will Miriam be shunned from Pemberley and her family forever?
MIRIAM is a delightful tale expanding on the "Pride and Prejudice" tale featuring the Bennet sisters and that of the romance between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, now of whom reside at Pemberley, and whose daughters consist of Bennetta and twins Anne and Jane as well as sons Fitzwilliam and Henry. I enjoyed this tale far more than I thought I would and I could have stayed in their presence at Pemberley forever.
As soon as I closed my kindle, I wanted to step right into the previous two tales of cousins "Cassandra" and "Catherine"...such was the effect of this heartwarming tale. It really has that Austen-esque feel without the language barrier of the day. I have read other Austen-esque tales - "The Clergyman's Wife" by Molly Greeley and "Miss Austen" by Gil Hornby - and I did not enjoy those tales at all. So I was more than pleasantly surprised by how much I took to and loved this book.
MIRIAM is a quick and delightfully easy read. I devoured it in under six hours and when I finished, felt I could have happily stayed there. That is what I love about reading, the feeling of leaving old friends behind but being a series knowing that I can pick up another and reunite with them once again.
Overall, a wonderful story. A delightful tale. Thoroughly recommend to historical fiction fans of regency romance and Jane Austen.
I would like to thank #LindaOByrne, #SpellboundBooks and #ZoolooTours for an ARC of #Miriam in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
I have been writing all my life in the time I could spare from having a “proper job”, mostly for children under the name of Linda Blake, stories of ballet dancers, pony riding and talking animals! Not all in the same book!
But my love of romance, a great tendency to say “What if..?” and the endearing characters of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice have now resulted in a series of books that will take the reader forward to the next generation of heroines.
I am retired, live in Kent and am a keen member of my local drama group. Directing and acting take up a lot of my time - I have been given the onerous task of writing the Christmas pantomimes - but I still need to cope with a large garden, doing daily battle with the heron who thinks my pond is his own breakfast buffet and keeping in touch with friends and family scattered all over the world.
Social Media links:
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