A Searing Acquaintance

Elizabeth Bennet, saddled with a difficult family, dull dating prospects, and a mundane marketing job, had never met a man like Fitzwilliam Darcy, the wealthy and remote British-American heir to a family famous for both style and tragedy. The aspiring novelist finds herself intrigued yet aggravated by the enigmatic businessman who never imagined thinking about, let alone falling in love with a woman as conversant in Looney Tunes and Yogi Berra as in literature and Greek poets. When they’re thrown together for a weekend in the country, they find themselves of like mind and lust. Confessions are made and secrets exchanged until misunderstandings and angry feelings overtake the intimacy they shared. Things only worsen when George Wickham stirs up an emotional tempest with tales of the Darcy family’s unhappy history and laces Elizabeth’s book project with traces of legal impropriety. Marked by their painful pasts, their acquaintance sears them both with anger, yearning and confusion.Can Elizabeth reconcile her distrust of unconditional love and lasting relationships with Darcy’s need for trust, forgiveness and enduring love? She expects to have expressions of love laughed away; he never anticipates receiving them. This contemporary variation of Jane Austen’s classic Pride & Prejudice sweeps the couple through Darcy’s heartbreaking background and Elizabeth’s ongoing family complications as they duel over everything from college football to the Social Register.