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

It’s Picnic Time! The Pemberley Picnic is Here!

The Pemberley Picnic cover

A picnic sounds simple, right? A basket, a blanket, a shady tree, good things to eat, maybe some lemonade. But in the Regency era, it was more complicated. The word “picnic” had already appeared in English by the mid-eighteenth century, but by the Regency period it had become associated with genteel outdoor dining, especially among …

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The Marriage Trap Audiobook! (And a Giveaway!)

The audiobook for The Marriage Trap is here, and I am so excited to share it with you! Harry Frost has done an amazing job on this story. This is the Ramsgate one with a  very inconvenient compromise, a seaside scandal, and a forced marriage. Darcy and Elizabeth try very hard to behave sensibly while …

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Wickham’s POV

Melanie: I don’t often write from Wickham’s pov, and I don’t generally use first person, so I thought I’d give both a go. Not edited, just for fun. Add or link your own versions or scenes if you like! Wickham’s Point of View   Meryton, October 1811 I never expected to see him here. Not …

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Mr. Gardiner: Elizabeth’s Posh Uncle in Pride and Prejudice

When it comes to wealthy characters in Pride and Prejudice, our minds tend to drift straight to Mr. Darcy and his ten thousand a year. But let’s take a moment to appreciate Mr. Gardiner—the quietly prosperous uncle who not only provides moral and emotional ballast to the Bennet family but is also surprisingly flush with …

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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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