The California Dashwoods - Out May 1

The California Dashwoods is out on May 1, and if you want to join the blog tour, you can be in the running to win a $20 Amazon voucher and a vintage copy of Sense and Sensibility. To enter the competition, just keep an eye out at the following blogs for my tour posts, and leave a comment to win: 

May 1 - Love Bytes

May 2  - Joyfully Jay 

May 2 - The Blogger Girls

May 3 - The Novel Approach

May 3 - Divine Magazine 

May 4 - Boy Meets Boy Reviews

May 5 - Bayou Book Junkie

May 5 - Rainbow Gold Reviews

Make a new future. Choose your true family. Know your own heart.

When Elliott Dashwood’s father dies, leaving his family virtually penniless, it’s up to Elliott to do what he’s always done: be the responsible one. Now isn’t the right time for any added complications. So what the hell is he doing hooking up with Ned Ferrars? It’s just a fling, right?

Elliott tries to put it behind him when the family makes a fresh start in California, and if he secretly hopes to hear from Ned again, nobody else needs to know. While his mom is slowly coming to terms with her grief, teenage Greta is more vulnerable than she’s letting on, and Marianne—romantic, reckless Marianne—seems determined to throw herself headfirst into a risky love affair. And when Elliott discovers the secret Ned’s been keeping, he realizes that Marianne isn’t the only one pinning her hopes on a fantasy.

All the Dashwoods can tell you that feelings are messy and heartbreak hurts. But Elliott has to figure out if he can stop being the sensible one for once, and if he’s willing to risk his heart on his own romance. 

A modern retelling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

You can preorder The California Dashwoods at Amazon. 

An excerpt from The California Dashwoods - coming in May

Back in 2016 (?) I got an email from the awesome team at Riptide, asking me if I wanted to be a part of their Classics Queered series, and, if so, which Austin novel did I want to rewrite? And my answer, no question, was Sense and Sensibility. I know that a lot of other people prefer Pride and Prejudice, but for some reason Sense and Sensibility has always resonated more for me. My sister and I argue about this all the time--yes, we're literature nerds. So I was so, so happy to be given the chance to tackle Sense and Sensibility, and put a new twist on a favourite classic. 

The Dashwoods in the 1995 movie - mine are a little different!

The California Dashwoods, my take on a modern Sense and Sensibility, is due out on May 28 -- and I'll be sharing preorder links and cover art as soon as I get them! For now though, since I've finished line edits, I thought this would be a perfect time to share an excerpt! 

In this scene, Abby (Mrs. Dashwood) and Elliott (Elinor in the original) are figuring out where they can go once Abby's terrible in-laws through them out of Norland Park: 

“Do you remember John?” Abby asked. “Not John John. My cousin John.”

Elliott sucked jam off his finger. “John in California?”

“He lives in a little town called Barton Lake. He has a store there. It’s where I met your father, actually. He and the Family were there for the summer, and they wanted an au pair for John. John John, not cousin John. I thought, well, I can make more money looking after some spoiled little snot-nosed rich-kid brat than I can doing chalk drawings on the pavement, and—” She cut herself off with a laugh. “And the rest is history.”

Elliott saw the moment her expression shifted from gentle grief into something sharper. He reached out and caught her hand. “Cousin John?” he prompted.

Abby shook herself. “He emailed me last night. He’s got an apartment above his store that he’s happy to let us have. And, if we work a few shifts in the store, he’ll let us have it rent-free. Utilities only. It’s two bedrooms, so it’s going to be a squeeze, but we’ll find a way to make it work, won’t we?”

Four of them in a two-bedroom apartment sounded like a disaster, actually. Abby and Marianne, despite being two peas in a pod—or perhaps because of it—locked horns a lot, and Greta was at the age where she needed her own space to storm off to. It wasn’t ideal, but it was a hell of a lot better than the prospect of living in the car. And it was a starting point, right? A roof over their heads while they figured out their next move.

“What’s the catch?” Elliott asked.

Abby smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “There’s no catch, baby. This is what families do.” She raised her eyebrows. “Well, families that aren’t the Dashwoods.”

Elliott quirked his mouth in a wry smile.

That was certainly true. The Dashwood Family was less like a family and more like a corporation. He wondered what Alexander Dashwood, flying his kites and dreaming his dreams, would have thought about the true legacy he’d left. A legacy of lawyers at every family gathering, of board meetings instead of birthdays, and of looping signatures on contracts instead of Christmas cards. A legacy of scheming sycophants who relied on the family trust for income and spent their lives cozying up to the trustees—Cynthia and Great Uncle Montgomery among them—to keep the money coming.

The Dashwoods really were so awful that it was as easy to reject them on an emotional level as it was to be rejected by them. Practically though . . . Well, enough money to get the girls through school and college would be nice. Elliott just needed to convince John to make that happen somehow. John was under no legal obligation—the Family lawyers had made sure that Abby and her children were in line for absolutely nothing—but John wasn’t as bad as the rest of them. John was their brother. Except there was also no guarantee that John would have any influence with the rest of the Family.

Elliott thought of the space above the fireplace where the Naked Blue Lady had hung.

“California might be nice,” he said at last, when what he really meant was that California might be necessary.

Abby smiled and squeezed his hand again.