To Challenge The Earl of Cravenswood blurb:
To live happily ever after...
Henry St. Giles, the Earl of Cravenswood, longs to find his soul mate. Now that his two best friends, both reformed rakes, are happily married, the need becomes an obsession. When they challenge him to find a wife by the end of the season or marry his neighbor, the innocently alluring Lady Amy Shipton, he can’t believe his luck. He wins, either way. But a darkened garden, a case of mistaken identity, a drunken kiss, and a dropped emerald earring, leads Henry on a Cinderella hunt. He knows the woman he held in his arms could be the one he's searched for all his life. He just has to find her.
Lady Amy Shipton is determined to marry for love instead of sharing her husband like her mother did. So why did she let her handsome neighbor and romantic fantasy, the Sinful Saint as he's called for his bedroom prowess, seduce her in his garden? And what can she do when in the middle of their passionate encounter; he whispers another woman's name. Now Henry is hunting the owner of the earring Amy left behind, and she's determined to retrieve it before her identity is revealed. She's not about to give her father the ammunition he desperately wants to force her down the aisle.
About the Author:
New Zealander Bronwen Evans grew up loving books. She’s always indulged her love for story-telling, and is constantly gobbling up movies, books and theatre. Her head is filled with characters and stories, particularly lovers in angst. Is it any wonder she’s a proud romance writer?
She writes both historical and contemporary sexy romances for the modern woman who likes intelligent, spirited heroines, and compassionate alpha heroes. Her debut Regency romance, Invitation to Ruin won the RomCon 2012 Readers Crown Best Historical and was an RT Reviewers’ Choice Nominee Best First Historical 2011. To Dare the Duke of Dangerfield was a FINALIST in the Kindle Book Review Indie Romance Book of the Year 2012. Look out for her first Entangled Publishing Indulgence release late 2012, The Italian Conte’s Reluctant Bride.
Bronwen loves hearing from avid romance readers at romance@bronwenevans.com
You can keep up with Bronwen’s news by visiting her website www.bronwenevans.com
Links: Website: www.bronwenevans.com Blog: http://www.bronwenevans.com/bronwen-blog.html
How a Woman Behaves...
By Bronwen Evans
I write Regency romance and therefore I have to know Society’s conventions of the period. I doubt I would have lasted long as a pillar of the Ton, but then the way I’ve been raised is significantly different. I’m not one to sit back and keep quite. I have to speak my mind. I hate seeing injustice and the weak taken advantage off or belittled.
We all know by now that the world is not a level playing field. There are huge divides between the haves and have nots. Even more so in Regency England. The aristocracy lived a life of great comfort and wealth, while the rest of the population mostly struggled to survive.
A Lady was raised to a particular standard of what I call ignorance. They were usually sheltered from the world. They were not party to financial matters, politics, or anything about the general running of the world around them. They were kept ignorant of sexual matters, their virginity prized above all else.
They were raised with the expectation of making a fine match and marrying to advance position and money. I liken it to be bartered for wealth. A legitimised form of prostitution if you must. Many women did not enjoy sex with their husbands because they did not love them or even like them. Hence the saying – ‘Close your eyes and think of England.’
The heroine in TO CHALLENGE THE EARL OF CRAVENSWOOD, Amy Shipton, definitely does not wish to marry to advance her family’s wealth and position. They are wealthy enough. She wants love. Good on her I say. So when she finds herself in a compromised position, by a man she believes is in love with another, she does the only sensible thing she can, she hides! Well, hides her identity. Difficult to do when said rake has one of your very expensive, and distinctive, emerald and diamond earrings.
If he ascertains the earring belongs to her, then she’s signed her own marriage certificate. For as an honourable gentleman he will have to offer marriage and she will be forced to accept. The scandal should she decline him would be catastrophic. She would be ostracized; she’d have no friends for no ‘lady’ would be allowed to be seen with her. Her father could force her into exile in the country to live a lonely spinsterish life, or worse a nunnery.
Here’s a snippet of Amy’s quandary...
Good lord, the man was a saint. Henry had helped her search! For an hour he’d crawled around on all fours, grass staining his beautiful trousers, whistling and calling for Tinkles when his head must have been thumping as if a steam train was running through it.
An imaginary guinea pig.
Amy Shipton you deserve to be whipped. How could she do that to him in his condition? Obviously hung over and his head swathed in a bandage.
She shuddered. If he’d called her bluff and gone for help...But he hadn’t. The waterworks to the rescue. Men hated tears.
She felt dreadful at her deception, but really! What was a girl to do when caught looking for an earring she’d lost when she’d let a man take liberties with her person? A man, who hadn’t cared who she was, or worse, thought she was someone else.
She’d thought the idea that Lord Chesterton had given her Tinkles would see him abruptly leave. But he hadn’t.
Why should her reputation be ruined for one small oversight? Her mother expected her to do her duty—to marry to ensure one’s position within the ton. Why should she? What of her own happiness? She admired Henry, was already a little in love with the man, but that made the situation unspeakable. To marry a man you worshipped and then have to watch him give his heart to another. She’d rather be ruined!
How long would it take Henry to discover who the earring belonged to? She had to get Sabine’s help. Marcus couldn’t reveal her identity. As soon as Henry showed him her earring the game would be up. It would ruin her life and Henry’s. He loved another.
She’d been stupid to search his garden. He was immediately suspicious when he found her here. If Marcus said anything...Henry would know. What would she say if he openly confronted her?
She could see Henry’s doubt clearly in his eyes.
She’d thought, after the condition he’d been in last night, he’d never be awake this early.
The only thing she could think of to get rid of him was to tell him an even bigger whopper. Lord Chesterton. She’d worked out from his demeanor last night that Henry had no love for Creeperton. Still he’d offered to intervene on her behalf. Why did he have to be so gallant? She was feeling little better than a slimy snail for making him search for a non-existent rodent.
Drat the man. But how could she stay angry at a man who’d got down on his knees for her? She shook her head. Saintly St. Giles.
Even more reason why he could not discover her identity. She would force such an honorable man to wed a woman he didn’t love. Especially if he loved another! It would be the situation with Marcus all over again.
To be stuck with a husband who left her each night to spend time with the woman he loved would be torture. She’d not watch quietly while he spent his life with his other family. She couldn’t bear it. To wither away inside like her mother...
She quickly rose. Time was not on her side. Then she looked at her dress and groaned. Blast. She’d have to change before she met with Caitlin and Sabine.
She refused to contemplate what she would tell her friends. She wasn’t at all sure they wouldn’t push her to marry Henry. They thought he was a wonderful man too.
Me, I would tell him to sod off and live with the scandal but then I wasn’t raised with the oppressive rules of the ton. What would you have done? Think about how you were raised and the Society you lived in and I’ll draw one lucky winner who’ll receive an eBook copy of To Challenge the Earl of Cravenswood. Open internationally.
The Wicked Wagers Blog Tour runs Monday to Friday for the whole month, and you can WIN copies of all my books and $30 Amazon or B&N gift card (International)... Simply visit each blog post and follow the instructions...
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I would also tell him to sod off but I wouldn't use the word sod.lol
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We seem to be having problems with the rafflecopter. Perhaps Kati can look into it. Thanks for popping by.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have accepted the arrangement either. ^_^
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