I’m delighted that I’ve reached today with sanity mostly intact, and that “A Very Fine Place” is off the starting blocks at last, available today from Amazon in both ebook and paperback formats.

For once, it’s available only from Amazon, as I’m trying out Kindle Unlimited for the first time. I’ve never done that before, but I hope the experiment works out. If it does, I’ll use it for future books. If it doesn’t… well. We live but to learn, after all.

Here are the covers. The paperback cover (on the right) is obviously based on that of the ebook, but radically different, and I’m going to see if I can (slowly!) convert my ebook covers to something similar, because I like it very much.

“Once may be chance. Twice may be ill luck. But thrice? Thrice, lad, is malice.”

1811. Calcutta. Fitzwilliam Darcy of His Majesty’s War and Colonial Office is stewing in the humid heat, when word comes that his father is dead. He must return to England immediately to take up his inheritance.

Pemberley.

The great house in Derbyshire that has never been his home. Instead, it’s home to the stepmother and half-siblings, Hugh and Georgiana, whom he barely knows.

Pemberley is his now, but an atmosphere of resentment and anger threads through every room. He isn’t welcome. His stepmother is cool towards him, Hugh hates ‘the usurper’… and when a series of incidents threaten Darcy’s life, the only people he can trust are John Reid, his right-hand man throughout his career; Charles Bingley, his aide in India; George Wickham, his cousin and Pemberley’s steward; and Elizabeth Bennet, his stepmother’s penniless niece.

Who is trying to kill him? Will the visit of the Bingley family frighten off the enemy, or just provide more opportunities to get rid of the new master of Pemberley? Most of all, can Darcy and Elizabeth come to an understanding that will, finally, make Pemberley feel like home?

(NB British spelling, punctuation and grammar throughout).

Title: A Very Fine Place
Author: Julia Winter
Wordcount: c111,000
Category: P&P variation, Regency romance.
eBook Publication Date: 17 October 2025
Publisher: Glass Hat Press © 2025
Editor: Megan Reddaway
Cover: Detail from a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence of Mrs Charles Fraser, 1817 (Philadelphia Museum of Art).

Here’s a link that will take you to the Amazon store serving your country, where you can either read the book through Kindle Unlimited or buy a copy.

https://books2read.com/AVeryFinePlace

I can’t celebrate today without repeating what I say in the acknowledgements of the book.

I owe Claire and Sally immense gratitude for their support, advice and criticism as I wrote Fine Place. They have not only enriched my life, they’ve chivvied me into being a better writer. I am who I am because of them… which boils down, I think, into “Don’t blame me! It’s all their fault!” Love you both dearly.

My editor, Megan Reddaway, is THE BEST. Again, the book would be the poorer if she hadn’t worked her magic on it. Thank you, Megan.

And Doris – dear, eagle-eyed Doris who consented to read the almost final version and found all the typos my clumsy fingers had introduced after Megan had finished with it (because I cannot stop myself tinkering with the darn text!). Doris’s tact in framing her corrections as “a few little questions…” made me laugh, made me reread with fresher eyes, and made the book the best it can be.

Thank you, ladies. You are all stars.