Excerpt from The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Chapter One

I stand at the craft-services table, wearing a delicate blue traveling coat and matching bonnet. One of my cream-colored gloves is clenched between my front teeth to facilitate the process of scrolling anxiously through Twitter.

I knew the news would break sooner or later, but I still wasn't prepared for this level of public humiliation.

@EW: Major Chuck Brown recast: 2-time Teen Choice Award winner Tess Bright OUT ahead of Season 5

@Celebri.tea: Anon from Vancouver: T*ss Br*ght wasn't replaced bc of "scheduling conflicts." she was CANNED bc she became totally unreliable in S3&4. Production nicknamed her "Tess the Mess"

I'm on the verge of vomiting all down the front of my beautiful, period-appropriate costume. Panicking, I continue scrolling down the feed, before smashing headlong into the digital brick wall that is the public announcement from my former showrunner.

@ChuckBrownOfficial: Statement on Loosie recasting from showrunner, Donna Cox, in photo attached.

"We categorically deny the rumors swirling that Tess Bright has been recast due to unreliability and unprofessionalism. We refer you to the statement from Tess' team, which states that she is departing the series due to scheduling conflicts with the shoot for her upcoming film, Northanger Abbey. Cast and crew here at Chuck Brown send Tess all our love and support! xoxo, Donna"

My breathing starts to even out. Donna did me a solid here, which she really didn't owe me. But the public denial hasn't impressed everyone, and loads of fans are speculating that it's just a professional courtesy—which it sorta is. All around me, I can hear the bustling of the production crew as they prep the next scene. I face the corner of the craft-services tent so nobody passing by can read the humiliating news from my expression.

@RosingsParkour: Statement from CB showrunner only supports the rumor IMHO. why bother denying unless it's close to the truth? SMH. Tess is just gonna drag this Northanger adaptation down

@makeatomelette: Tess Bright has a face that has seen an iPhone. Sorry not sorry.

@Half_Agony: I'm so torn. Obviously I want to see Northanger Abbey for the gorgeousness that is Hugh Balfour, but I think Tess will ruin it for me.

It's been almost nine months since major casting for Northanger Abbey was announced and I had really hoped the outrage would die down. No chance of that now. This recasting news has only fanned the flames. Listen: even when I went in for the auditions, I knew I was a long shot. Nobody casts the girl best known for her work on an increasingly bizarre teen drama based on a long-running cartoon strip for the lead in a major-motion-picture adaptation of a classic work of literature.

Still, I'd hoped audiences would be open to seeing my performance before passing judgment. I need people to like me in this role. Badly. It's all I have left of my career.

And look, I'm not going to lie. I completely understand why I'd been unemployed until I got Northanger Abbey. It had been a long time since I'd given Chuck Brown my best work. I am not proud of that, at all. But I'd been catatonic in the months following my mom's funeral. Not lying motionless in bed, necessarily. I was still walking and talking and showing up to set, albeit frequently late. But the light in my eyes wasn't there anymore. I knew that because I'd seen the reels of my recent work. The disgruntled fans of Chuck Brown were right—I was phoning it in for Season Four. I'd also been half-assing it for much of Seasons Two and Three, ever since we'd learned that Mom was sick.

My agent told me they were casting for an adaptation of Northanger Abbey about nine months after I lost her. It was the first time I felt a flicker of real emotion in what felt like an eternity, instead of just … numbness. I've never been a coma patient—I've just played one on TV—but emotionally, it felt like waking up in a hospital bed after years asleep. The news forced me to get a grip. Northanger Abbey is an underrated, underadapted Austen. And it was my mom's second-favorite one.

Excerpted from The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell. Copyright © 2025 by Madeline Bell. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Griffin. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.