The Second Mrs. Darcy: A Novel
Aston's latest novel (afterThe True Darcy  Spirit) focuses on another woman in the tradition of Elizabeth  Bennet, Octavia Melbury. Tall and outspoken, Octavia fails to find a husband in  London and is dispatched to India, where she is to live with relatives. There,  she marries Capt. Christopher Darcy, but their happy union is cut short when he  dies from an insect bite. Christopher's spiteful cousin, George Warren, nabs  the estate and leaves Octavia with a pittance. However, a surprise and sizable  inheritance comes Octavia's way, and she travels back to England, where she  keeps mum about her newfound fortune while her conniving half-sister Theodosia  schemes to marry her off. Octavia takes a shine to her smart, headstrong niece,  Penelope, who, in turn, fancies a man of lower stature than her mother will  accept. Not so for Octavia, whose rocky repartee with Lord Sholto Rutherford  matures, inevitably, into love. Meanwhile, George realizes Christopher's  inheritance isn't as large as he had thought and plots to steal Octavia's  fortune. Aston's villains may be one-note wicked, but the lengths to which  their puerile greed sends them make for good reading. Fans of the series will  enjoy this chronicle of reversals of fortune.(Mar.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.