IWD Blog Tour: Catherine – Linda O’Byrne

*I received a free copy of this book with thanks to the author and to Zoé of Zooloo’s Book Tours and SpellBound Books. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*

Blurb: 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.

Catherine:

Catherine Collins, a very ordinary young woman – plain, quiet, often over-looked but possessing a reputation for having great common-sense.
Or so her distant cousin Elizabeth Darcy believes and so recommends her as governess for little Matilda Courtney.

Catherine travels to Northumberland, full of good intentions to do her best and be a credit to the family.

But appearances and reputations can be deceptive – Robert and Martin Courtney will soon learn exactly what type of girl Elizabeth has sent them.

We start Catherine’s story with a wedding, that neatly rounds off the character arcs from the first book in the series, while cleverly introducing some new ones for this story. I recommend reading Cassandra first, for the backstory to said characters, but as they are mainly background characters in this next book, you can get away with not reading in order, if you must. (Picture this reviewer shuffling uncomfortably at the very thought!)

Catherine’s story picks up the Austen themes of women’s roles, power imbalances and the marriage market, but with a new generation of heroines. And our heroine in this novel won me over immediately by dancing barefoot under the skies when she thought no one could see her – I could picture a younger Lizzie Bennet being just as impulsively joyous! Unfortunately, we quickly discover that Catherine has little to be joyous about, as Kitty Bennet (now Collins) uses her as a 24 hour nursemaid and she seems to be almost invisible to everyone else.

That is, until Lizzie swoops to the rescue by sending her off to be a companion to traumatised little girl, parented by a forbidding father who loves but doesn’t understand her. Talk about ‘out of the frying pan…’!

This reader was put in mind of The Sound of Music in terms of Catherine’s immediate decision to put the little girl’s joy first and defy the seemingly-stern master of the house. We do get to see things from the Courtney brothers’ sides, as well as from our heroine’s viewpoint, so we get sneaky insight into everyone’s true feelings, often before they realise them themselves!

Well-written and easy to read, this homage to Jane Austen’s classic captures the essence of the characters very well but in the author’s own style, resulting in a light-hearted romance suitable for any fans of a sweet, clean happy-ever-after.

I can’t wait to find out what Mary Bennet’s daughter is like in book 3 – I always had a soft spot for the snappy, socially-awkward bookworm!

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that when two young people meet, fall in love and become engaged, then it is only a matter of time before a wedding takes place. If there are no objections and no financial difficulties, then this marriage can happen quite speedily.’
– Linda O’Byrne, Catherine

Author Bio

Fiction has always been my go-to world, a place of entertainment, excitement and imagination – I am told that I wrote my first story when I was four about a lady who had twenty children! Sadly it has been lost for posterity.

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.