Joana Starnes

Joana Starnes lives in the south of England with her family. She swapped several hats over the years – physician, lecturer, clinical data analyst – but feels most comfortable in a bonnet. She has been living in Regency England for decades in her imagination, and plans to continue in that vein till she lays hands on a time machine. She loves to look for glimpses of Pemberley and Jane Austen’s world, and to write about Regency England and Mr Darcy falling in love with Elizabeth Bennet over and over and over again. She is the author of twelve Austen-inspired novels: From This Day Forward ~ The Darcys of Pemberley, The Subsequent Proposal, The Second Chance, The Falmouth Connection, The Unthinkable Triangle, Miss Darcy’s Companion, Mr Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter, The Darcy Legacy, The Journey Home To Pemberley, A Timely Elopement, Twists of Fate and Snowbound. Joana is also one of the contributing authors to the Quill Ink anthologies.

Most commented posts

  1. Coming Soon ~ The Journey Home To Pemberley — 189 comments
  2. New Year, New Book — 154 comments
  3. ‘Twists of Fate’ ~ Excerpt and Giveaway — 153 comments
  4. Coming soon, Macaroons! — 152 comments
  5. Cover Reveal, Excerpt & Ongoing Giveaway — 126 comments

Author's posts

‘Twists of Fate’ ~ Excerpt and Giveaway

Good morning! Well, I’m finally getting somewhere with my next book, and I was wondering if you’d like to hear a little more about the story. If you’ve seen my earlier posts, you already know the premise: What if Mr Collins were to shock Elizabeth with his base conduct at the time of his proposal, …

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Freebies, ‘Coming Soon’ & A Scatterbrained Mamma

Good morning! Thanks for stopping by for a chat today. I think you’ve already guessed which scatter-brained mamma I’m thinking of.       Poor Mrs Bennet! In a time when no one had any understanding of genetics, it was regarded as the woman’s fault, and she was seen as having failed her husband, if …

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Sonnets and Bonnets

    When ‘Sonnets and Bonnets’ was chosen as this month’s theme, the first one I could think of was the sonnet that seems to say it all about the guiding thread in Pride and Prejudice:       Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters …

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Wickham’s Comeuppance: How shall we punish him?

There are some characters we simply love to hate: Lady Catherine, Miss Bingley, Wickham. I hope you enjoyed Lady Catherine’s comeuppance in Shannon Winslow’s post the other day. So delicious! A few years ago, I posted a couple of short stories where I poked fun at Miss Bingley. If you haven’t read them, these links will …

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Looking Back, Looking Forward

Hi! I hope you’ve enjoyed the Austen Variation posts on ‘January 2021 Retrospective and Prospective’. The ‘looking back’ part of my post is going to be pretty short, mostly because I’ve spent most of 2020 looking back and thinking of the times when we were free to roam, meet, hug, chat and have tea and …

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Advent Calendar Day 11 ~ The Christmas Bough

Hello, everyone! Today’s treat is some time under the Christmas Bough. Even in Jane Austen’s time, the Christmas Bough was an old tradition. It had made an appearance in the 14th century as an effigy of the Holy Family surrounded by a couple of hoops festooned with greenery – holy, ivy, mistletoe, bay, rosemary or …

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Advent Calendar Day 4 ~ A Festive Dish

Hi! Today’s Advent treats are a brass band, a vignette and a virtual bite of Christmas pudding and the festive dish that went before it. Did you know that the Sunday before last (22 Nov) was Stir-up Sunday? That’s when families (those who still make their own Christmas pudding instead of buying it from the shop) …

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Sailing Ships and Nutty Wish-Lists

  Hello again! Soo, I’ve been hiding under the bonnet for a while, caught in a tug-of-war between two stories that want to be written: one short and happy, with pretty much all of Elizabeth’s reasons to dislike Mr Darcy cleared at the drop of a hat – and a longer one, where our favourite …

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Darcy and Elizabeth: Their Wedding Night, Their Private Haven

For my  After the Wedding post, I thought I’d choose Darcy and Elizabeth’s wedding night from The Journey Home to Pemberley. If you haven’t read the book yet, you might be surprised to find that, in this scenario, they marry at Pemberley (because that’s where their sweet reunion was: at Pemberley, in Mr Darcy’s private …

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A Timely Elopement ~ Audiobook Launch

Good morning! I’m thrilled to announce that the review of my latest audiobook is finally completed, and A Timely Elopement, exquisitely narrated by Stevie Zimmerman, is now available on Audible, Amazon and iTunes. Would you like to listen to the sample?   Actually, I’m not just celebrating this release today, but also the ever-so-kind nudge …

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