New from Summer Hanford + Giveaway + Excerpt

Hello All and Happy New Year!

I have two exciting New Releases to tell you about, plus a ‘Secret Audiobook Giveaway.’ Although, given the way ACX goes about reviewing and approving audiobooks, I really have no way to know if the audiobook will still be ‘secret’ by the time this post goes up. I guess we’ll see.

La librería del señor Darcy

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Before we get to the Possibly-Secret Audiobook Giveaway, the first new release I’m excited to tell you about is my very first Spanish variation, La librería del señor Darcy. I am so excited to be able to bring you Mr. Darcy’s Bookshop in Spanish. Although I cannot speak Spanish, I know this translation is amazingly well done, because I know Cristy’s dedication and craftsmanship, and that of her whole team.

If you speak Spanish, or want to learn Spanish in that old-school, translate and compare texts sort of way they would have used in Austen’s time, I encourage you to give La librería del señor Darcy a try. You can find it at:

getbook.at/LaLibreraDelDarcy

The Christmas Unicorn

Next, I have for you an excerpt from The Christmas Unicorn, a Pride & Prejudice variation short story about sisterly love and acceptance. Made to be read in about an hour, but with twists and turns to keep you guessing, this Christmas tale is the perfect just-before-bed read.

Chapter One

Early September, Hertfordshire, 1812, Shortly After Miss Lydia Bennet Wed

Miss Kitty Bennet sat bolt upright in bed, screaming, a hand clutched to her chest. In the wake of her cry, footfalls clattered down the hallway without. Heart hammering, Kitty peered about in the darkness.

Where was she?

Reaching out, she felt the sloped ceiling to her left, then a gaping hole where a gable cut through the truncated wall and the roof alike. Outside, beyond the grasping claws that raked the window, a few distant stars gleamed.

No, not claws, she realized as her bedchamber door burst open and candlelight spilled in. Tree limbs. The tree at the north end of the house. She was in Longbourn’s guest room, across the hall from Mary’s room.

The same room Kitty had been put in when Lydia was born, sixteen years ago. Kitty hated this room.

“Kitty?” her sister Elizabeth’s voice asked.

Kitty blinked into the light of several candles. Her eyes trying to adjust, she made out Elizabeth, their sister Jane, and both Lydia and her new husband, Mr. Wickham. The latter looked her over with one eyebrow cocked. Kitty yanked the blankets up to her chin.

“Are you well?” Jane asked from where they all clustered in the doorway to the guest room.

Rather, Kitty’s room, by dint of the larger chamber she once shared with Lydia being designated for visitors. Now that one of her daughters was married, Mrs. Bennet said they must have the larger room for guests so the Wickhams could stay whenever they liked.

Kitty opened her mouth. No words came out. Her heart still pounded. Her mind might realize that the ‘claws’ raking at her window, trying to get in, were tree branches, but her body still did not.

“What was that racket?” Mrs. Bennet’s voice called. “What is everyone doing in the hallway?”

“Kitty suffered a night terror,” Lydia said over her shoulder.

“Kitty is too old for night terrors, and we do not socialize in the hallways in our nightclothes in this house,” Mrs. Bennet declared. “To your rooms, girls. Oh, ah, and you as well, Mr. Wickham.”

“You do not need to order us, Mama,” Lydia said, grasping her husband’s arm and yanking him away. “George and I are very pleased to be in our bed together. Aren’t we, George?”

“Certainly, my pet.”

Kitty hated how smug they both sounded.

They disappeared from sight down the hall, but not quickly enough that Lydia’s, “Kitty is such a child,” didn’t reach Kitty’s ears.

“You will be well?” Jane asked, still in the doorway, while Elizabeth looked down the hall with a frown.

Kitty nodded. “I am sorry for waking you.”

Out of sight, a door closed.

Elizabeth turned back. “It is not as if you woke us on purpose.”

“Jane, Elizabeth,” Mrs. Bennet’s voice snapped.

With final sympathetic looks for Kitty, Jane and Elizabeth retreated. More doors closed. A single light gleamed in the hallway. Candle in hand, Mary, who Kitty had not even realized was there, came forward. Apparently, Mrs. Bennet did not care if her middle daughter returned to her bedchamber or not.

“You have never been able to sleep in this room,” Mary said, coming to Kitty’s bedside.

Kitty sighed. “It is the sloped ceiling, and that tree out there. I cannot really remember when I was two and they put me in here, but I remember horrible yellow eyes staring at me from outside the window.” That was what she’d been dreaming about. Yellow eyes, and claws raking at the window.

“Yes. A family of owls sometimes lives there. I quite like them.”

“Owls?” Kitty repeated, blinking.

“I told you they were owls when we were little, but you would not believe me.”

“I do not recall,” Kitty admitted. “I do know, because Mama used to go on about it, that even though I was only two, I would always end up back in the larger room with Lydia, until Mama decided I could stay there.”

“You do not remember?” Mary reiterated, sounding surprised.

Kitty shook her head. “I was two,” she emphasized. Lydia always claimed to remember everything from the moment she was born, which Kitty did not believe, but Kitty could conjure little from before her fourth birthday.

Mary frowned. “I used to take you. That is how you got into Lydia’s room with her.”

“You did?” Kitty sought back, but simply couldn’t remember. “You never said.”

Mary shrugged. “If Mama knew that I put you in there, she never would have let you stay, and you would have kept crying all night, keeping me awake.”

“Oh.” Kitty did not know what to say to that. Mary had helped her, but only so she could sleep well.

“And you were upsetting the owls.”

And, apparently, for the owls, but not for Kitty’s sake. “Well, ah, I will try not to wake you, or everyone else, again,” she mumbled. Her gaze shifted to the window where the claws— No, tree limbs, rattled against the glass.

“I used to tell you stories to help you fall asleep,” Mary said abruptly. “Lydia as well, so she would not wake Mama after we woke her, bringing you in. You truly do not recall?”

Kitty shook her head.

“Your favorite was The Christmas Unicorn.”

“Christmas Unicorn?” Kitty giggled. “Why would there be a unicorn at Christmas?”

Mary shook her head. “The unicorn appears with the first full moon of autumn. If you see it, you make a wish that comes true on Christmas. You could wish to always sleep well from then on.”

Kitty gasped as memories of their childhood diversion returned to her. “Lydia and I used to play unicorn! We would sneak out to the garden and sit under the apple trees and wait for the unicorn.”

“I know.”

“But if you told us that story, why did you not join us?” Kitty asked, frowning.

“You never invited me.” With that, Mary turned away. “Rest well,” she said as she left Kitty’s room, closing the door.

Kitty stared after her middle sister in surprise. Mary was correct. They had never once invited her.

And now for the Giveaway. If you would like to be entered to win YouTube access to the Secret Audiobook of The Christmas Unicorn (hidden on a secret page on YouTube), read by the always-wonderful Stevie Zimmerman, comment below. Winners will be selected in one week.

Have a wonderful day, and a fabulous start to your New Year!

~ Summer