Tag: georgian fiction

Lady at the Lodge is Out Now

Congratulations to Graham Ley, whose captivating Regency saga, Lady at the Lodge, is out now!

Lady at the Lodge is the third book in the Wentworth Family Regency Saga Series: historical novels set between England and France during the French Revolution.

England and Brittany, 1796

Rumours of a planned French invasion of Britain have reached the British military leaders, prompting them to prepare their troops and mobilise their spies. Amid the unrest, the Wentworth family — Anglo-French aristocrats — continue to move forward with their lives.

After visiting Brittany — her birthplace — to put right a past wrong, Sempronie has returned to Devonshire. However, she has left an inheritance dispute behind her that could change the lives of the small Breton community that surround her old family estate.

Recovering from her recent illness, Amelia is sampling London society and getting involved with the abolitionist movement. But when a sinister figure from her past reappears on English shores, her safety is once again under threat.

Living peacefully at Chittesleigh Manor in Devonshire, Justin and Arabella are expecting their first child. Though grateful for her good fortune, Arabella is impatient with Justin’s cossetting and misses her old independence. And despite her good sense, her determination to be active seems set to land her in danger…

Happy Publication Day to Elizabeth Bailey!

Congratulations to Elizabeth Bailey, whose page-turning Georgian mystery, The Hanging Cheat, is published today!

The Hanging Cheat is the tenth book in the Lady Fan Mystery series: historical  murder mysteries with a courageous woman sleuth embarking on traditional British, private investigations in eighteenth-century England.

1796, England

Heavily pregnant Lady Ottilia Fanshawe should not really be travelling. But when her sister-in-law dies, she goes with her husband Francis to comfort her brother and her two nephews.

And of course it’s not long before the services of her alter-ego, Lady Fan, are required.

While playing in the woodlands, the two boys come across a gruesome discovery. A dead man is hanging from a tree.

The corpse is quickly identified as the local justice, Hector Penkevil, a man universally disliked for his meanness.

And it’s soon clear that his death was not suicide, but murder.

With Penkevil so disliked in the community, how can Lady Fan narrow down the suspects? Will she find the killer?

And can she solve the mystery before she is forced to bed with her pregnancy…?

Love’s Legacy is Out Now

Congratulations to Natalie Kleinman, whose captivating Regency romance, Love’s Legacy, is out now!

When her father — a countryside reverend — dies suddenly, young Patience Worthington is left with no home and little money. In urgent need of support, she is forced to seek out her estranged uncle, a viscount at the vast Worthington Place.

Patience arrives to find that her uncle has died and that the current viscount is her cousin, Gideon. After hearing her plight, he agrees to give her a home on the Worthington estate.

However, when Patience and Gideon learn the cause of the long-standing rift between the two sides of the family, they quickly begin to clash. Now too proud to accept his accept the viscount’s charity, Patience soon leaves Worthington Place to seek shelter with her late mother’s relatives in Bath.

With her kindness and beauty, Patience is an instant success in Bath society and regularly crosses paths with Gideon. Despite their differences, they enjoy each other’s company and form a tentative friendship.

But when dark secrets once again threaten their growing bond, the cousins begin to wonder whether they can ever leave the shadows of the past behind…

 

Click here to order Love’s Legacy

The Ghost of Glendale is Out Now

Congratulations to Natalie Kleinman, whose sparkling Regency romance, The Ghost of Glendale, is out now!

Having never been in love, twenty-four-year-old Phoebe Marcham has no interest in marriage. Fiercely independent, she spends her days helping to manage Glendale, her ancestral home — a centuries-old estate full of long-buried secrets.

While out riding, Phoebe crosses paths with Duncan Armstrong, a charming wanderer who has just returned from the Continent. Finding that they share a penchant for mystery, Phoebe shares the biggest enigma that haunts Glendale: the tortured ghost of her ancestor, Simon Marcham, who took a secret sadness to his grave.

Convinced that Simon’s soul will never be at rest until they uncover his secret, Phoebe and Duncan set about unravelling the riddles that he left behind. As they delve deeper, a story of heartbreak and intrigue soon starts to emerge.

Faced with the darkness of the past, Phoebe is determined to make the most of the future. And as she and Duncan grow closer, she soon begins to wonder whether she has at last met her fate…

 

Click here to order The Ghost of Glendale

Researching for THE GIRL WITH FLAMING HAIR by Natalie Kleinman

Natalie Kleinman is the author of THE RELUCTANT BRIDE and THE GIRL WITH FLAMING HAIR: glittering romantic adventures set in Regency England.

Research can come in many forms, particularly when it’s for a historical novel. One of my shelves is heaving under the weight of the books I have covering my chosen period, Regency England. And those are just the research books. Another is overflowing with novels set in that era.

Unlike our predecessors, we also have access to a wealth of information on the Internet, so much that if we allowed ourselves to follow its pull we’d never get any words of our own written, so we have to be selective. All these sources have helped in bringing to the page my latest book, The Girl With Flaming Hair.

That said, there’s nothing like seeing real artefacts. Not so easy, you might think, living as we do two hundred years after the time in question. And here’s where I feel particularly lucky. I live in London with easy access to its plethora of galleries and museums. A while ago I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum and amongst its treasures I found things that not only helped with my work in progress at the time but which also affirmed why I love this period so much. One of my characters in another book is a keen artist, and this Watercolour Box circa 1820 is a particularly treasured image.

Women’s dress changed dramatically after 1785. The rich fabrics and complicated formal shapes of the late 18th century gave way to simple, lighter fabrics that draped easily. These new gowns achieved something of the effect of the simple tunics shown on classical Greek and Roman statues and vases. This beautifully elegant creation is muslin embroidered with cotton thread.

You can see how easy it is to get carried away by research when it can be so enjoyable. I’ll leave you with one more image before I tear myself away – I have another book to write!

This is an evening cap (1818-23) described as silk and net embroidery with silk thread; wired paper and muslin artificial flowers. I SO want one!

 

Click here to order The Reluctant Bride

Click here to order The Girl With Flaming Hair