Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight October 22, 2025 and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on October 29, 2025. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

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ABOUT THE BOOK:
357 pages
Released October 7, 2025
Tyndale Fiction
Available in Kindle and Paperback

Book Blurb: An Appalachian farmer’s daughter and a wealthy businessman find a surprising love but must reckon with what divides them in this retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by the award-winning author of The Lady and the Lionheart.

New River, Virginia. 1904. Lizbeth Bennet longs to preserve her family’s farm, securing a future for her and her sisters, a difficult task in their Appalachian coal mining town. Money is scarce, and Lizbeth is determined to find a way without giving up treasured pieces of her family’s legacy. But when the mine is put up for sale, it’s clear change is approaching. A contingent of coal barons descends on the town to investigate whether the mine is worth their investment, among them a young man rumored to be a very rich, eligible bachelor.

William Drake arrives focused on business and keeping his distance from the townspeople, especially those living on land entangled with the mine, including a farmer by the name of Bennet. As William digs through legal issues, his struggle to weigh the potential financial gain against what is right for the community grows more complicated when he meets one of the Bennet daughters.

Despite an awkward first meeting, Lizbeth and William continue to cross paths, and soon Lizbeth questions her first impression of the man she believed to be proud and indifferent. But just as their friendship begins to evolve, a revelation shakes Lizbeth’s tenuous trust, and she learns all may not be as it seems. To determine what is true, and step toward a love she’s barely dared dream of, Lizbeth must confront her own prejudices . . . and decide whether the future she’s always imagined is the one her heart truly wants most after all.

BOOK EXCERPTS:

Excerpt 1
Lizbeth Bennet clutched the handle of the wicker basket with hope. The same hope with
which she’d gathered each and every wildflower within. Slipping inside the farmhouse,
she traded the brightness of day for the dim light of Ma’s kitchen—the very heartbeat of
Bennet Hollow.
“Did you spot the new train car, by chance?” Jayne asked from the table, her voice as
soft and mountain grown as a wild birch grove. “They say it’s called the Pemberley.”
Lizbeth lowered the basket to the table and handed a sprig of lacy white yarrow to her
older sister. “I didn’t wander far enough. Have you seen it yourself? This Pemberley?”
Having just come in from the sunny garden, she brushed her hands clean and sat.
“Clearly I’ve missed the gossip.”
“I saw it when I walked into town this mornin’.” Jayne examined the contents of the
basket. Her golden hair was bound up in rag curlers, and a single band of gray twine
wrapped her pale wrist, holding a tiny nugget of violet amethyst that Pa, a geologist, had
unearthed in a mine. “It’s the prettiest sight, Lizzy. Brighter than a new penny perched
there right on the track.”
Lizbeth rolled back the sleeves of her striped work dress and tried to imagine such a
view. A breeze blew cool against her bare neck from the open window, causing her
homespun collar to flutter. Her sisters had been on the lookout ever since some weeks
back, when the owner of the New River Coal Company had announced his coming
guests—a slew of coal barons and investors, all eager to bid on the property that was
now for sale.
And the best part of all among the Bennet sisters . . . the dance that would mark their
arrivals.

Excerpt 2
Ma nodded, looking pleased. “It’d do well to marry a few of you girls off sooner rather
than later. And to think of such wealthy men here in town. I hope they stay a good long
while.”
“Ma!” Lizbeth gasped.
“Well, you two are of age, and your sisters are right behind. It doesn’t seem like anyone
‘round these parts has caught your eye. A mother can hope. Least give me that.”
Jayne widened her eyes playfully and chose another flower. “I’ve been told the train car
has a parlor and a dinin’ room. All dressed up in velvet curtains as deep a blue as the midnight sky. Just imagine being whisked away into the grand unknown aboard such a
dream.”
Lizbeth smiled softly. At twenty, she was two years younger than Jayne. Her other
sisters—Maryanne, Kit and Lacey—stair stepped after her. Though the younger three
still walked to school each day, they were just grown enough to attend the coming barn
dance. The very girls that bounded down from the second story now, brown braids
flying. Like chicks on a stoop, they filled the crooked stairwell in a chorus of sun-faded
skirts, mountain drawls, and tattered boots.
“I heard tell the owner’s a sight to see as well!” Sixteen-year-old Lacey winked brazenly
and twirled around the post. “A coal baron all the way from Vermont. They say he’s rich
enough to own all of New River if he fancies to. Oh, I hope he notices me.”

Excerpt 3
Lizbeth knew some fine colliers, but something in her heart longed for more than
sweeping the porch steps on one of the rowhouses where miners and their families
dwelled in the shadow of the coal company. A place where grime and dust tried to coat
anything in its sight.
Was that the life she was meant for? Who was she to think that there might ever be
more?
Ma had fussed that she was headstrong. Pa dubbed her noble. And all the girls knew
her as well-read. Those weren’t particularly good qualifications for a bride. No. Men
around here needed women who could diaper a baby and store coins beneath the
mattress. Stretching provisions remained the order of the day, not reading books or
caring for her mules or hoping she could have a purpose that she’d been uniquely made
for.
Tilting the basket, Lizbeth searched for more chamomile, unable to believe that a man
might love her and her purpose. That he could need her for such. Especially since she
didn’t yet know what that purpose might be. Best she remain alone and live out a quiet
life right here, surrounded by her sisters and her beloved mules. Perhaps that was her
calling all along. Otherwise, she’d need to nail her dreams to the floor and go the way
that all young women in New River went. To be a miner’s wife, owing every cent her
husband made to the company store just for flour and salt.