Harriet is an intriguing and original "take" on Jane Austen's immortal Emma, by *Publishers Weekly’*s 2021 BookLife Prize quarterfinalist, Alice McVeigh.

Emma, a privileged young heiress, decides to mentor Harriet Smith, a pretty boarding-school pupil, and to matchmake her as eligibly as she can… But how is she to guess that Harriet has a secret?

Meanwhile, the brilliant, penniless Jane Fairfax consents to a clandestine engagement with Frank Churchill – though not daring to confess, even to him, that she is being relentlessly pursued by her best friend’s husband.

Harriet sidelines Emma herself in favour of the ingenious Harriet and the fascinating Jane Fairfax. It is Emma – but an Emma with a surprisingly believable twist in its tail.

"McVeigh prose and plotting are pitch-perfect" - Publishers Weekly

Second in McVeigh's prizewinning Warleigh Hall Press Jane Austen series, Harriet is a standalone believably combining characters from Austen's novels. The first in the series - Susan: A Jane Austen Prequel - won the historical category in the PenCraft and Global Book Awards and an IndieBRAG medallion, reached the quarterfinals of Publisher's Weekly's 2021 BookLife Prize, and was selected by Shelf Unbound magazine as one of the "100 notable Indies of 2021.

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