REVIEW: The Colonel by Beau North

I snapped this photo of the novel from the balcony of the Maryland Inn on Main St., Annapolis, Maryland.

About the book: “This isn’t a love story, but the end of one. The story of two ships forever passing in the night. This is the story of my father and the woman he spent most of his adult life loving, a woman who was never really his.”

1950: After letting his chance at love with Elizabeth Bennet slip through his fingers a second time, Richard Fitzwilliam loses himself in women, whiskey, and war as he tries to forget what he left behind. Putting oceans, continents, and decades between himself and his heartbreak, Richard seeks his future, only to be pulled back to the past again and again.

2002: Shaken by recent events, Ben Fitzwilliam has left everything familiar behind, walking away from his relationship, his Manhattan apartment, his career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist to return to his family home in Annapolis, Maryland. Struggling to navigate a world that makes less and less sense, Ben finds purpose where he least expected it: in his father’s private letters. With the help of Annapolis PD Officer Keisha Barnes, Ben attempts to uncover his father’s secrets, heal the rifts those secrets caused, and find the answers he seeks on far shores. Spanning decades, continents, wars abroad and wars at home, The Colonel is the anticipated companion to Longbourn’s Songbird.

Content Warning: This book contains themes that may not be suitable for some readers, such as PTSD, Addiction, Suicidal Ideation and Violence.

Mini Review by Christina Boyd:

I had the privilege to read excerpts of The Colonel along the way and I can tell you this: THIS is Beau North’s finest work yet! She had me in tears a number of times, happy tears too, and the dialogue is smart and well-intended, so honest. The scenes with Elizabeth and Darcy are electric and when Richard is with them…you can feel the dangerous, loving undercurrent that just “is” between the three. But this masterpiece, and I can honestly and confidently call this a masterpiece, is so much more than a romance or fan fiction. Readers bemoan they want something new while still being familiar, that they want something more. This definitely answers that call. Be prepared to have your socks blown off by this sweeping novel. Think: if Jane Austen and William Martin collaborated, this novel might be their book baby.