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Captain Wentworth’s Persuasion: Austen’s Classic Retold Through His Eyes by Regina Jeffers is a Salute Military Bookish Event pick #historicalromance #romance #salutemilitary #giveaway

  • Writer: N. N. Light
    N. N. Light
  • 1 day ago
  • 6 min read


Title:

Captain Wentworth’s Persuasion: Austen’s Classic Retold Through His Eyes

 

Author:

Regina Jeffers

 

Genre:

historical fiction romance; British historical literature, adaptations; pastiche fiction; classic lit and fiction; historical British fiction; vagary; classic romance fiction

 

Book Blurb:

 

The love affair behind Jane Austen's classic, Persuasion, rests at the heart of this retelling from Captain Frederick Wentworth's point of view.

 

He loved her from the moment their eyes met some eight years prior, but Frederick Wentworth is determined to prove to Anne Elliot that she made a mistake by refusing him. Persuaded by her family and friends of his lack of a future, Anne had sent him away, but now he is back with a fortune earned in the war, and it is Anne, whose circumstances have brought her low. Frederick means to name another to replace her, but whenever he looks upon Anne's perfect countenance, his resolve wavers, and he finds himself lost once again to his desire for her. Return to the Regency and Austen's most compelling and mature love story. Jeffers turns the tale upon its head while maintaining Jane Austen's tale of love and devotion.

 

Excerpt:

 

Wentworth glanced to her retreating form to admire the gentle sway of her hips. He had loved her from the first time he had laid eyes upon her, for only her countenance brought him peace. In that singular moment long ago, he had set his sights on his Anne; however, it had taken nearly nine years for him to win her. Anne Elliot Wentworth epitomized the things to which Frederick Wentworth aspired: acceptance and love. His wife had overlooked his common origins; she had seen the man he was—the man he had wanted to be since knowing her. He had sworn to prove to her aristocratic world she had not taken a step down with her choice of a husband. She symbolized why he fought this war against the French emperor.

 

When he left his service behind, Wentworth hoped to purchase an estate close to the shoreline, especially for her. They would live there when he finally cashed in his commission or at the war’s end. Anne, the daughter of a baronet, deserved the best he could provide her. Frederick had lost her once, when youth demanded they make decisions not their own. Anne belonged to him now; he loved her beyond reason. Soon they could take their place in society and begin a family. He smiled briefly as the image played before him of her large with his heir. Unfortunately, with regret, the image would have to wait its turn; for now, he turned his attention to the French ship and prepared his strike.

 

He felt the distant vibration as The Resolve ran out its guns, readying itself for the planned assault. Placing a spyglass to his eye, he watched the French scrambling to respond. Older seamen shouted orders, but Frederick recognized the confusion and the dismay upon the younger sailors’ countenances. His men, on the other hand, stood regally upon the deck, awaiting the inevitable battle to come. His crew’s silent vigil throughout the night’s maneuverings spoke of their determination.

 

With a nod of his head, Wentworth passed along the attack order. The Resolve’s gun ports, trained upon the French warship, rang out. He watched with satisfaction as the enemy’s sails crashed to the deck. When the smoke cleared, he could readily observe the gaping hole in the enemy’s starboard tack. But the French powder magazines had not exploded. “What the devil?” he muttered. The sloop’s mizzenmast lay in multiple pieces on the deck. With their longboats in the water, Wentworth knew the French would fight, but he also knew he had managed another capture. Along with it would come the financial reward that would secure his future with Anne. Everything he had ever wanted was within his grasp.

 

Beside him, a sailor called to his partner, “We’ll not be waitin’!”

 

“They’ll not surrender peacefully,” a lieutenant cautioned his men.

 

“They’re daft!” a man with a knife held tightly between his teeth hissed to the others gathering on the deck. A fierce curse sounded from the crow’s nest above his head as Wentworth placed a rolled-up map in his assistant’s hand.

 

He maneuvered The Resolve alongside the captured ship, readying to board her officially and claim her in the name of the English Crown. Then—the unexpected, the unthinkable. A single shot rang out, and the heat seared through his side. Surprised, he touched the bloody opening in his jacket. How? he wondered as he slumped forward into the arms of the nearest midshipman. He was not close enough to the French ship for a French sailor to deliver such a blow. Instinctively, he raised his eyes to his attacker. The man, wearing a leather-fringed jacket and a floppy-brimmed hat, held a long rifle. Frederick recognized it as one American privateers used often to fight off personal attack. It had the distance the British single-shot .60 musket could not claim. “Deliver that to your good King George!” he heard the man’s voice exclaim before British sailors surrounded the man.

 

Frederick’s pain had come not from his French enemies, but from an American assisting Bonaparte’s Navy. He could hear the air gurgle in his throat as he sank to his knees. The pain and the fire radiated throughout his chest as he fell to his back, permitting his eyes to search the thin, smoky air for the blue sky with streaks of sunlight opening a new day. “Anne,” he murmured as another midshipman cradled Frederick’s head. “Assistance is close, Captain. Just stay with us,” the man gasped through fear clenched teeth.

 

Shipmates rushed forward. Lifting his well-honed frame upon a net stretcher, his men quickly carried him to his quarters. As they settled Frederick on the bed, Laraby, the sawbones assigned to the ship, rushed in, hustling various sailors from the room. “I will require plenty of rum!” the doctor insisted.

 

“Yes, sir,” one of the lieutenants snapped as he darted from the small room.

 

Frederick groaned deeply as another officer assisted the doctor to prop him into a seated position to remove his jacket. Then, as the officer kept him upright, the physician cut the shirt from the wound to clean away the seeping blood. “Easy, Captain,” the doctor cautioned him. “Allow me to assess the damage.”

 

The surgeon was a skilled physician, but even so, Frederick wondered of his fate. Had he taken one too many chances? “The bullet appears to have torn a zigzag path through part of your lower abdomen, sir,” Laraby said in an all-business tone.” There is quite a bit of damage. The good news is the bullet exited out your side. I must sew you up, but you do not require any surgery.”

 

Frederick finally managed to speak the words that had formed from the moment they had carried him into his quarters, “Where is my wife?”

 

Another of his junior officers responded, “I will fetch her, Captain.”

 

“I am giving you some laudanum.” The doctor and the first officer eased Wentworth onto the stacked pillows.

 

“Might I have some rum?” Wentworth’s mouth had gone dry.

 

The doctor half grinned. “That is why I ordered it.” He supported Frederick’s head while the captain took a large swig of the brew.

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):

 

 

Available to Read on Kindle Unlimited

 

 

 

 

Audible (Virtual Voice Narration) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CS79FB2P

 

What makes your featured book a must-read?

 

When one is reading a good story, he/she is on an emotional high. Nothing else matters. One’s whole soul is focused on the protagonist(s). We do not want to leave the character behind. Jane Austen was brilliant in that manner. This is both Austen’s tale and mine. She originally created the characters, but “Persuasion” is told from Anne Elliot’s point of view. I always wanted to know what Captain Wentworth was thinking, just as I always wanted to know what Mr. Darcy was thinking and doing. This tale is set around naval battles with some flashbacks to the good captain’s and Miss Anne’s finally coming together and a bit of American history, of which you may not be familiar, tossed in for good measure.

 

Giveaway –

 

Enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card:

 

 

Open Internationally.

 

Runs May 20 – May 28, 2025.


Winner will be drawn on May 29, 2025.

 

Author Biography:

 

Regina Jeffers writes books about corsets, rakes, daring heroines, dashing heroes and all aspects of the Georgian/Regency era. She is an award winning author of cozy mysteries, historical romantic suspense, and Austenesque vagaries. Jeffers has been a Smithsonian presenter and Martha Holden Jennings Scholar, as well as having her tales honored by, among others, the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, the Frank Yerby Award for Fiction, the International Digital Awards, and the Chanticleer International Book Award.

 

Social Media Links:

 

Every Woman Dreams (Blog)  https://reginajeffers.wordpress.com

Always Austen (Group Blog) https://alwaysausten.com/

©2015-2025 BY N. N. LIGHT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (2015-17 on Wordpress) 

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