Picking up where Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice left off, The Bad Miss Bennet takes readers on a wild Regency romp with Lydia Wickham, née Bennet, who finds herself in dire need of a new husband.
Lydia was never the most upstanding of the Bennet sisters, but who ever said that moral rectitude was fun?
At least she bested her elder sisters and was the first to get married. She never could understand what all the fuss was about after she left Brighton with her gallant. It is a shame, though, that Mr. Wickham turned out to be a disappointing husband in so many aspects, the most notable being his early demise on the battlefields of Waterloo. And so Lydia, still not yet twenty and full of enterprising spirit, is in urgent need of a wealthy replacement. A lesser woman, without Lydia's natural ability to flirt uproariously on the dance floor and cheat seamlessly at the card table, would swoon in the wake of a dashing highwayman, a corrupt banker, and even an amorous Prince Regent. But on the hunt for a marriage that will make her rich, there's nothing that Lydia won't turn her hand to. In the meantime, she has no qualms about imposing on her sister Elizabeth's hospitality at Pemberly. After all, what is the point of having all that fine fortune if not to aid a poor, newly widowed younger sister?
While Lydia rattles around the continent from Paris to Venice and to the home of the disgraced Princess of Wales in Italy and back again to Darbyshire, you, dear reader, will be greatly diverted by the new adventures of Jane Austen's consummate and incorrigible anti-heroine, who never ceases to delight.
Jean Burnett studied at Exeter University and has a Masters degree from Cardiff, University of Wales. She has worked at the University of Bristol and has taught creative writing and written for a variety of agencies and magazines. Jean lives near Bath, England.
In her debut novel, Burnett picks up the story of Lydia Bennet, Elizabeth’s frivolous and shallow sister in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Between gambling, toying with a wealthy, married banker, and dalliances with a disreputable but charming highwayman, Lydia always lands on the wrong side of fortune. Burnett captures the essence of Lydia, and Austen fans will enjoy seeing her world from a new vantage point.
—Publishers Weekly
