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Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Praise
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. January
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. February
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. March
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. April
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Twenty
  30. Twenty-One
  31. Twenty-Two
  32. Twenty-Three
  33. Twenty-Four
  34. Twenty-Five
  35. May
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. June
  43. Thirty-Two
  44. Thirty-Three
  45. Thirty-Four
  46. Thirty-Five
  47. Thirty-Six
  48. Thirty-Seven
  49. Thirty-Eight
  50. Thirty-Nine
  51. Forty
  52. July
  53. Forty-One
  54. Epilogue
  55. Acknowledgments
  56. Author’s Note
  57. Ladies of the House - Reader’s Guide
  58. Questions For Discussion
  59. Excerpt

Thank you to the team at Harlequin/HarperCollins for their advocacy: Pamela Osti, Justine Sha, and Samantha McVeigh. Quinn Banting designed the beautiful cover, which captures Georgetown and the novel so perfectly.

Thank you to those who graciously provided help, insight, and inspiration at various stages of the novel: Blake Albohm, Tricia Chambers Batchelor, Broderick Dunn, Meghan Faughnan, Daniel Meyer, and Amanda Whiting.

Jim and Jane Edmondson, to whom this book is dedicated, were also first readers. Thank you for always flagging when I incorrectly use I instead of me.

Bellamy Meghan Carstens cannot read yet, but for when she does: I love you.

And to Christopher Vollmond-Carstens, who continues to give me such support on this journey, I can’t thank you enough for your patience, good humor, and unconditional love.

Author’s Note

Sense and Sensibility has long been my favorite Jane Austen novel; the concept of a modern retelling was floating around in my head for many years before I actually had any idea of what that would, in practice, look like on the page. It seems many readers don’t find Sense as hilarious as Emma or romantic as Pride and Prejudice, but I’ve always been drawn to the novel’s pointed depictions of womanhood. Unlike in Austen’s other works, fathers are mostly absent from Sense, and the Dashwood sisters’ love interests almost entirely disappear from large sections of the novel. This absence of men focuses our gaze on the female characters, but the patriarchal systems of power still drive the story, allowing Austen room to explore what it means for women to demonstrate “proper” conduct.

Long fascinated by how women have approached such societal expectations across history, I thought adapting Austen’s framework to a contemporary setting would provide an enlightening contrast and benchmark for how women’s lives have and have not changed. Like Sense and Sensibility, my novel, Ladies of the House, also features two sisters, Daisy and Wallis Richardson, who must rebuild their lives following the passing of the family patriarch. But, as they live two centuries later, they have tools the Dashwood sisters would envy: they can vote, their educational and employment opportunities are greater, there is less stigma around premarital sex and cohabitation. They don’t have to marry men and give birth to sons in order to have security and protection.