Ex Libris

Tomorrow is Independence Day in the US, and how perfect that my heroine Louisa Stratton is seeking her own independence in . is the first book in my new Edwardian-set Ladies Unlaced series. I’ve jumped almost a century from the Regency to the beginning of the twentieth century.

When I began writing, most of my books took place around 1820, the tail end of the Regency. Being a Georgette Heyer fanatic, I assumed that’s what I’d always write. I actually ignored research I’d already done working in a historical society museum and mounting an “At the Turn of the Centuries” exhibit contrasting 1900 with 2000. My grandmother and her sisters all were Gibson Girl prototypes in the family albums. But Regency was the gold standard for historical authors—who was I to be different?

Then I had a heart-to-heart with my wonderful agent Laura Bradford. Sometimes I think she’s a little psychic. Downton Abbey was just beginning to capture people’s attention, and she said how much she’d love to read about a different time period than the usual Regency or Victorian romance. She had to tell this to me several times before I woke up to the possibilities.

I started channeling Edith Wharton instead of Georgette Heyer, only not quite so depressing, LOL. A whole lot was happening around 1900 (actually a whole lot happens every year) and I discovered it was fun to put my characters behind desks, in cars and loosen some of the restrictions young women faced during the Regency…though the Gilded Age certainly had strict rules and regulations of its own.


My Louisa has broken out of her gilded cage and motored on the Continent trying to escape her controlling family. To avoid marrying her repellant cousin, she’s made up a man that she “met and wed” in France. But now that she has to come home, she hires a jaded ex-soldier to pretend to be her suave, sophisticated husband. Working-class Captain Charles Cooper is just desperate enough to be “married” for a month, and it’s all fun and games until somebody falls in love.

Louisa doesn’t want to be under any man’s thumb, and Charles has sworn off women. It was a joy to throw these two mismatched characters together to give them a well-deserved happy ending! RT Book Reviews Magazine has given 4 ½ stars and Charles a Knight in Shining Silver award!

Have you ever fibbed to your family? I once told my husband a grocery cart crashed into our car, but really, I crashed into the cart, LOL. One commenter will get a copy of .

Book #1 in the Ladies Unlaced series

It’s all fun and games until someone falls in love…

Independent heiress Louisa Stratton is going home to Rosemont for the holidays, and at the family’s request, she’s bringing her new husband—Maximillian Norwich, art connoisseur and artful lover, the man she’s written of so glowingly. There’s one hitch—he doesn’t exist. Louisa needs a fake husband, and fast, to make the proper impression.

Charles Cooper, captain of the Boer War and far from silver spoons or gilded cages, is so hard up that even this crazy scheme appeals to him. It’s only thirty days, not till death do them part. What’s so difficult about impersonating a husband, even if he doesn’t know a Rembrandt from a Rousseau?

The true difficulty is keeping his hands off Louisa once there’s nobody around to see their ruse. And then there’s the small problem of someone at Rosemont trying to kill him. Keeping his wits about him and protecting Louisa brings out the honor he thought he’d left on the battlefield. But when Louisa tries to protect him, Charles knows he’s found a way to face his future—in the arms of his heiress.

Read an excerpt

Buy it at - - Book Depository US - Book Depository UK

GIVEAWAY RULES:

Maggie has generously offered a copy of  to a lucky commenter!

 

To be entered justleave a comment and answer Maggie's question: Have you ever fibbed to your family?