Paging Mr. Darcy (2024)

Specializing in the works of Jane Austen, Dr. Eloise Cavendish is the keynote speaker at this year's Jane Austen League of America (JALA) conference and ball. This annual event is only the second time she's ever attended as, as an academic through and through, she doesn't much like the "ball" component, with many attendees treating JALA like one big Regency costume party. She doesn't even really see Austen, as most do, as a romance novelist in her rather clinical perspective. In addition to being able to visit with Mia Cavendish, her drama queen of a sister at the same time in Mia living in town, Eloise primarily accepted the invitation to meet and impress Dr. Victoria Jennings, one of the event organizers who is part of the hiring committee for a job at Princeton, a job Eloise would very much like. Unlike most, single Eloise is dismayed literally to meet "Mr. Darcy", he really Sam Lee, someone hired to dress and act like Mr. Darcy to provide some color to JALA. Her dismay is that Sam is doing double duty as her special guest liaison to JALA, including immersing her into what is somewhat expected of her in the "costume party" aspect. Eloise hates to admit that she needs Sam's help to impress Dr. Jennings, while she in turn helps him with a somewhat personal matter also associated to Dr. Jennings. The question becomes whether Eloise and Sam can bridge their differences in helping each other.—Huggo