Guest: Sharon Lathan: A Bad Boy at the Wedding

Linda Banche here. Today I welcome Sharon Lathan and the latest book in her Darcy Saga, The Trouble With Mr. Darcy. Here she tells us about that villain we all love to hate, George Wickham. I've read The Trouble With Mr. Darcy, and yup, Wickham's a bad one, and I do mean bad!

Leave a comment with your email address for a chance to win the copy of The Trouble With Mr. Darcy which Sourcebooks has generously provided. Sharon will select the winner. Check the comments to see who won, and how to contact me to claim your book. If I cannot contact the winner within a week of the selection, I will award the book to an alternate. Note, Sourcebooks can mail to USA and Canada addresses only.

And the winner Sharon selected is Jhosszu! Jhosszu, please send me an email at linda@lindabanche.com to claim your prize. If I do not hear from you by April 12, I will award the book to an alternate.

Welcome back, Sharon. We love to have you here.

It was inevitable. I knew it would have to happen. I just did not know when. After all, one cannot write a Pride and Prejudice related novel without eventually tackling the characters fans love to hate. Lady Catherine - check. Caroline Bingley - check. Mr. Wickham - yep, check. I had to do it. I held off though, partly for the very reason that it was inevitable. I did not want to be too predictable!

In the cases of Lady Catherine and Caroline Bingley I avoided going the typical, expected route of making them villains. I softened Lady C up a bit with Anne finding love and then giving the old battle-ax a grandchild, after she gets what-for from Mr. Darcy, Lizzy, and Lord Matlock of course, just to provide some satisfaction. Caroline also found love, eventually, after a few revelations along the way, and although still uppity and annoying she meets her match and settles down.

Maybe this deviation from JA fan-fiction norm gave me the okay to go for broke with Wickham. Or maybe I simply hungered to write a story line with intrigue, danger, and heavy drama. Or perhaps I just dislike him more! Not sure, but early on, even when ignored and left to ramble off-scene in the nether regions of England with Lydia, I knew he would pop up and wreck havoc someday. Hints have been sporadically strewn through the series as Darcy revealed bits of his childhood to his wife, eventually talking about his playmate/nemesis George Wickham. Definitely a love/hate relationship!

Yet even I was a bit surprised at just how bad Wickham turned out to be. Evil. E-Vil. As in so bad it must be spoken with two syllables! Cracked and twisted he is. Gone off the deep end. A few bricks shy of a load. Missing a full deck. Cuckoo for... well, you get the idea.

And what fun to write! I guess it is true that the bad boys are fun to write. I ended up cliche after all! Oh well. But better yet was compounding Wickham’s badness and deviant behavior with making him a partial pawn for someone even worse! Who? Not saying! My lips are sealed. Guess you will have to read the book!

So in The Trouble With Mr. Darcy, Mr. Wickham and naughty Lydia show up after an absence of several years. Ostensibly they are in Hertfordshire for the wedding of Kitty Bennet. Darcy does not believe it is that simple and he goes on high alert. Lizzy sympathizes with his distress, especially now that she knows of the history between the two boyhood friends, but she does not agree that there is a threat. Until, that is, she sees something horrifying. Pulling themselves together to enjoy the long awaited nuptials of the final Bennet daughter proves difficult, but they manage, even to the point of growing complacent. That will be a mistake they shall regret, but hindsight is twenty-twenty as they say.

The guests at the wedding are largely oblivious to the drama aside from the strained undercurrents. They are too focused on seeing Kitty’s day transpire as perfectly as possible. The marzipan is prepared for the cake. Early spring flowers are cut and arranged. The dress is sewn - a simple gown of while with green trim to please the groom who loves green. The Netherfield kitchen staff cook the breakfast feast to Kitty’s specifications, which are too simple for Mrs. Bennet’s taste, she still anguished that none of her daughters saw fit to utilize their fiances’ influence to obtain a special license for their weddings. Alexander Darcy and Claudia Daniels are entirely focused on spreading the flower petals before the bride while the groom’s five brothers are entirely focused on discovering the location of the secluded honeymoon cottage, their motives not innocent in the least. Lydia Wickham flirts brazenly with every man present, annoying her husband which in turn amuses Darcy.

Loads of undercurrents indeed. A bad boy and a wedding. What a winning combination! Talk to me about your favorite bad boys. We do love them even as they get their comeuppance.

Thank you, Linda, for hosting me today and giving me a chance to talk about the Austen bad boy we love to hate the most.

About the Author Sharon Lathan is the author of the bestselling novels Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One, Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley, My Dearest Mr. Darcy and In The Arms of Mr. Darcy. Sharon also wrote a novella as part of an anthology with Amanda Grange and Carolyn Eberhart, A Darcy Christmas. In addition to her writing, she works as a Registered Nurse in a Neonatal ICU. She resides with her family in Hanford, California in the sunny San Joaquin Valley. For more information, please visit www.sharonlathan.net. Come to Austen Authors – www.austenauthors.com where Sharon and twenty other authors of Austen fiction blog together.


The Trouble With Mr. Darcy by Sharon Lathan
Sourcebooks Landmark ISBN 1402237545

Even charmed lives will encounter troubles along the way....

After a time of happiness and strife, Darcy and Elizabeth gather with family and friends in Hertfordshire to celebrate the wedding of Kitty Bennet. Georgiana Darcy returns from a lengthy tour of the Continent with happy secrets to share, accompanied by the newlywed Colonel Fitzwilliam and Lady Simone, who may have secrets of their own. The stage is set for joy until the party is upset by the arrival of the long absent Mr. and Mrs. Wickham.

Wickham's jealousy and resentment of Darcy has grown steadily throughout the years and Darcy rightly suspects that Wickham is up to no good. Darcy enlists the aid of Colonel Fitzwilliam to keep an eye on Wickham's activity, but neither anticipate the extreme measures taken to exact his revenge. Nor do they fathom the layers of deception and persons involved in the scheme.

George Wickham returns to Hertfordshire bent on creating trouble, and Elizabeth and her son are thrown into danger. Knowing that Wickham has nothing left to lose, Darcy and Fitzwilliam rush to the rescue in a race against time. This lushly romantic story takes a turn for the swashbuckling when Mr. Darcy has to confront the villainous Wickham and his own demons at the same time... devoted as he is, what battles within will Mr. Darcy have to face?