Melanie Rachel

Melanie Rachel is a Jane Austen variation author who believes that the only thing better than a dashing hero is one who knows how to handle an unexpected adventure—or perhaps just a stubborn heroine. When she's not busy plotting how to put Darcy and Elizabeth in any number of predicaments, you can find her sipping tea and pretending it's still 1811.

Most commented posts

  1. A Little Royal Trouble (And an Audiobook Giveaway) — 36 comments
  2. Introducing author Melanie Rachel! — 27 comments
  3. Dear Miss Austen . . . — 26 comments
  4. Austen Variations 2025 Advent Calendar — 19 comments
  5. Why No One Is Hanging Stockings at Pemberley — 18 comments

Author's posts

Why Mr. Collins is a Good Catch

Ah, Mr. Collins. Half man, half toady, full-time sermon machine. While we’re all busy cringing at his long-winded speeches and overbaked compliments to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, there’s one little detail that deserves a closer look: his living. No, not just his lifestyle of parsonage comfort and unsolicited advice, but the actual “living” at Hunsford. …

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Release Day for The Marriage Trap! (excerpt inside)

IT’S RELEASE DAY FOR THE MARRIAGE TRAP! Buy or download your copy here! https://readerlinks.com/l/5186464 The Marriage Trap has officially arrived! 🎉 If you love forced marriages, sharp-tongued banter, he-falls-first, slow burn romance with a lot of laughs but a serious emotional spine, then I think you’ll love this story. I had so much fun writing …

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The Forgotten Bestseller: Mary Brunton’s _Self-Control_ and Jane Austen

The Marriage Trap illustrated cover.

Ever heard of Self-Control by Mary Brunton? Probably not—unless you stumbled across it through Jane Austen’s letters or a variation that mentions it. Back in 1811, though, Self-Control was the book. Huge. Everyone was reading it. Meanwhile, Sense and Sensibility? Not so much. Funny how that turned out. Austen herself was trying (and failing) to …

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When History is Convenient: The Act of Union and The Princess Problem

One of the pleasures of writing in the wider Regency world—though The Princess Problem is technically set in 1809, two years before the official Regency—is finding those moments when history offers a novelist exactly the complication she needs. In the years after the Union with Ireland, questions of title, influence, and political advantage still felt …

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St. Patrick’s Day in the Regency: Before Green Beer and the Parade

When we think of St. Patrick’s Day now, we tend to picture a great deal of green, a great many decorations, and more shamrock-themed enthusiasm than anyone in the Regency would have recognized. In Austen’s era, March 17 was first and foremost the feast day of St. Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint. It was a religious …

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A Little Royal Trouble (And an Audiobook Giveaway)

The Princess Problem

It’s Monday (day 4 after release) and I’m celebrating The Princess Problem with an audiobook code drop! Want to listen? Comment on this post with the phrase “PRINCESS AUDIO” and tell me: if you were offered a title, would you take it ? I’ll pick two winners at random, so be sure to enter by Friday …

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It’s Still Christmas at Pemberley: The Fifth Day of Festivities

Cover for Unwrapping Christmas with couple walking together carrying presents.

On December 29th in Regency England, Christmas was not over. In fact, they were right in the middle of it. Under the traditional church calendar, the Twelve Days of Christmas run from December 25 to January 5, with Christmas Day itself counted as the First Day. That makes December 29 the Fifth Day of Christmas, …

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Austen Variations 2025 Advent Calendar

the number 20 in gold

Welcome to the 2025 Austen Variations Advent Calendar, where our amazing authors will bring you a new gift every day from now until December 24th. Christmas at Pemberley is no longer the quiet, solemn affair it once was. After their first full year of marriage, the great house glows with a new warmth: candlelight shimmers …

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Why No One Is Hanging Stockings at Pemberley

When you picture Regency Christmas, do you see twinkling lights, piles of presents, and everyone in ugly sweaters? I regret to inform you that Elizabeth’s Mr. Darcy owns zero ugly sweaters. Not even one with a reindeer. This is because in Jane Austen’s time, December looked a little different: No Christmas trees (for most English …

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Dear Miss Austen . . .

16 December 2025 My dear Miss Austen, It has come to my attention across years, pages, and more variations and adaptations than even Lady Catherine could properly censure, that today is the anniversary of your birth. I am reliably informed you have reached the distinguished age of 250, which, even for an immortal authoress, is …

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