We caught up with Mills & Boon Modern author Kate Hewitt to chat about her new book, Pride & The Italian’s Proposal Read on to find out how Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice inspired Kate to write this book.

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I fell in love with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice when I first watched the 1995 BBC adaptation with Colin Firth. I read the book afterward and then watched the program again with my teenage daughters. Whose heart doesn’t beat a little faster at the sight of Mr. Darcy’s stern countenance? When my editor asked if I’d be willing to write a Mills & Boon Modern version of this classic, I was beyond thrilled. Mr. Darcy—so cold, so autocratic, so gorgeous and with a steely core of honor—is, in my opinion, the ultimate Modern alpha male and the perfect hero!

Pride and Prejudice is, in some sense, a dryly clever comedy about manners and society, but in order to turn it into a Modern with all the necessary high-stakes emotion, I really needed to dig deeper into the characters. Why is Mr. Darcy—my Fausto Danti—so arrogant? Why is Lizzy Bennet—my Liza Benton—so quick to judge? Exploring the emotions beneath the witty, charming surface of the story was both challenging and fun, and I fell in love with Pride and Prejudice all over again, just as I hope you will!

Kate

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Buy Pride & The Italian’s Proposal by Kate Hewitt now!

By Lauren Gardiner