When Marianne – still beautiful, still impulsive and not yet twenty-one – returns to London, she is rich, with a house in Mayfair and an estate in Dorsetshire. Despite her resolve to remain single, she finds herself besieged with admirers, including the dangerously attractive Willoughby and the charming and irreverent Crawford. Then Marianne’s younger sister Margaret arrives. Margaret’s passion for romance leads to unexpected complications. As Marianne attempts to navigate the social whirl of Regency London, she finds her resolution tested and her feelings torn – between the pull of the past and the allure of the present. "Marianne captures the essence of Austen... McVeigh throws together favorite characters that readers love, or love to hate, to see how they gel. The result is funny, heartwarming and everything lovers of Austen’s universe could hope for." The BookLife Prize review, 2025