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HAMILTON'S BATTALION is out today!!!!

I am really proud of this book.

It probably comes as no surprise to most of you that I really, really love Hamilton. (There was about six months there where my Twitter was 99% Hamilton, I think?)

Since I was a kid, I’ve always had a thing for our Dashing Banking Policy Wonk founding father, and I remember staying in Times Square for the 2015 Romance Writers of America conference and seeing that a musical about Alexander Hamilton would be staged later that summer at a theater around the corner.

I remember thinking, They’ll probably focus on all the least interesting things about him.

Oh I was a fool.

Here I am in front of that same theater a while later, a giant fangirl in my Hamilton hoodie, getting ready to see the show, having listened to nothing but the Hamilton soundtrack and read nothing but Hamilton-related nonfiction for several months:

Afterwards, the BFF and I waited at the stage door. Lin-Manuel Miranda is not a super tall dude and we were at the back of the line. When he came out, I knew it was someone important because of the cheers, so I jumped as high as I could and saw…his hat and forehead. I CAN’T EVEN TELL YOU HOW EMOTIONAL HIS EYEBROWS MADE ME. “That was the best three hours of my life,” I told him when he got to us, and he looked pleased, and I was like my life has meaning now because I made Lin-Manuel Miranda smile.

A couple weeks later, Courtney and Alyssa asked me to be part of a Hamilton-themed anthology. After I was like YES PLZ WHERE DO I SIGN I said, and I quote: “This is great actually because I was like ‘ugh I have to start researching my next book but all I want to do is read about Hamilton.'”

But enough about me! Let me tell you about Hamilton’s Battalion…

Continue reading “HAMILTON'S BATTALION is out today!!!!”

"Promised Land" bibliography

If you have any questions about any of the historical background of the book, feel free to comment or e-mail me! I love talking about this stuff. This is only a partial bibliography with some of my favorite sources.

1. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier, by Alfred F. Young. An excellent biography of the most successful female soldier of the Revolutionary War (that we know of!).

Continue reading “"Promised Land" bibliography”

New contest: "Listen to the Moon" re-release gift basket and ebooks!

ETA: This contest is now closed. Christina won the basket, and Karen, A, Joye, and Jackie won the ebooks!

The third book in my Lively St. Lemeston series, Listen to the Moon, comes out today with a beautiful new cover! To celebrate, I’m giving away 5 e-books and a few lovely physical items:

Listen to the Moon is a Regency historical romance about a snarky maid-of-all-work and a very proper valet who marry to get a plum job.

She’s a maid-of-all-work, and he’s a valet of no play…

John Toogood always prided himself on being the perfect gentleman’s gentleman, skilled, discreet, and professional. But now he finds himself laid off and blacklisted, stuck in tiny Lively St. Lemeston until he can find a new job. Any job.

His instant attraction to his happy-go-lucky maid Sukey Grimes couldn’t come at a worse time. Her manners are provincial, her respect for authority nonexistent, and her outdated cleaning methods…well, the less said about them, the better.

Sukey can tell that John’s impeccably impassive facade hides a lonely man with a gift for laughter—and kissing. But she also knows he’ll leave her sleepy little town behind the moment he gets the chance, and she has no intention of giving him her heart to take with him.

John learns that the town vicar needs a butler—but the job is only for a respectable married man. Against both their better judgments, John and Sukey tie the knot. The ring isn’t on her finger long before Sukey realizes she underestimated just how vexing being married to the boss can be…

Buy the book: amazon · kobo · nook · apple

The winner will receive:

1. A paperback copy of Listen to the Moon.

2. The collected Jeeves and Wooster radio dramas!! Seventeen hours and thirty-five minutes of Wodehousian joy with a full cast of performers! This is a smaller basket than usual because I splurged on this item, which looks DELIGHTFUL and I am super jealous of whoever wins it. Jeeves is the Platonic ideal of the impassive gentleman’s gentleman and a key influence in writing Toogood.

3. Rose soap, so you can take a glamorous rose-scented bath just like Sukey!

The rules:

1. Comment on this post to enter.
2. The winners will be chosen at random using random.org.
3. The 5 e-books are open internationally. The gift basket is US only.
4. Open for entries through September 11, 2017. (I am releasing a BRAND-NEW Lively St. Lemeston erotic novella on September 12! A Taste of Honey is about a perfectionist baker who needs his lovely shopgirl’s help to fill a big catering order…but she has something sweeter in mind. If you’ve read Sweet Disorder, you’ll recognize Mr. Moon! It’s already up for preorder at a couple of venues: amazon · apple)
5. Void where prohibited.

If you’d like to be alerted when new contests go up (I typically give away romances signed by the author), or when I have a new book out, you can sign up for my newsletter.

Remember, you can buy Listen to the Moon here! Or if you’ve read it, check out the DVD extras.

Good luck!

"Listen to the Moon" bibliography

This is just a partial bibliography of some of my favorite sources. If you have particular questions about any of my research, please e-mail me or comment! It’s a subject I never get tired of talking about.

1. Servants: English Domestics in the Eighteenth Century, by Bridget Hill. So detailed and helpful!

Continue reading “"Listen to the Moon" bibliography”

New contest: "True Pretenses" re-release gift basket and ebooks!

ETA: This contest is now closed. Virginia won the basket, and Paola, Karen, Carolyn, LSUReader, and B won the ebooks. 

The second book in my Lively St. Lemeston series, True Pretenses, is available again today, with a beautiful new cover! To celebrate, I’m giving away 5 e-books and a lovely gift basket of items (basket not included)…

True Pretenses is a Regency-set historical romance about a small-town heiress who agrees to a marriage of convenience with a Jewish con artist in order to get her hands on her dowry…

Something borrowed…

Through wit and sheer force of will, Ash Cohen raised himself and his younger brother Rafe out of the London slums and made them (in his unbiased opinion) the best confidence men in England. Ash is heartbroken when Rafe decides he wants an honest life, but he vows to give his beloved brother what he wants.

When Ash hears of a small-town heiress scrambling to get her hands on the dowry held in trust for when she marries, he plans one last desperate scheme: con her and his brother into falling in love. After all, Rafe deserves the best, and Ash can see at once that captivating, lonely Lydia Reeve is the best.

Lydia doesn’t know why she instinctively trusts the humble stranger who talks his way through her front door and into her life. She just knows she’s disappointed when he tries to set her up with his brother.

When a terrible family secret comes to light and Rafe disappears, Lydia takes a big risk: she asks Ash to marry her instead. Did Ash choose the perfect wife for his brother…or for himself?

Buy the book: kindle · kobo · iBooks · nook

The gift basket includes:

1. A paperback copy of True Pretenses.

2. A happy Hulk plush (pictured). This is a bit of a stretch but I do imagine Ash as Mark Ruffalo, so. And I own one of these Hulk plushes myself and looking at it ALWAYS makes me smile.

3. David Maurer’s The Big Con. THE authoritative book on the classic long con (in fact, the author sued the producers of The Sting for infringement and received a settlement).

4. Season 1 of Leverage, one of the best con artist TV shows of all time!

5. Orange tree mug (pictured). Full disclosure: I found this mug at a thrift store so it isn’t brand-new. But it’s just so perfect! (If you’ve read True Pretenses, you know there’s a very sexy scene set in a greenhouse filled with orange trees…)

The rules:

1. Comment on this post to enter.
2. The winners will be chosen at random using random.org.
3. The 5 e-books are open internationally. The gift basket is US only.
4. Open for entries through August 14, 2017. (Book 3 re-releases August 15th! Listen to the Moon features an irrepressible maid-of-all-work and a very proper valet who marry to get a plum job.)
5. Void where prohibited.

If you’d like to be alerted when new contests go up (I typically give away romances signed by the author), you can sign up for my newsletter.

Remember, you can buy True Pretenses here! Or if you’ve read it, check out the DVD extras.

Good luck!

 

New contest: "Sweet Disorder" re-release gift basket, plus e-books!

The first book in my Lively St. Lemeston series, Sweet Disorder, is available again today, with a beautiful new cover! To celebrate, I’m giving away 5 e-books and a lovely gift basket of items (basket not included)…

Pictured: Spokemodel T-Rex (not included) indulging in some Byronic daydreams. (Image credit: Turner’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.” [x])

Sweet Disorder is a Regency-set historical romance about a prickly widow who could make her husband a voter…if she had one. A newly disabled officer is sent to marry her off to help his brother’s election campaign.

Campaigning has never been sweeter…

Prickly newspaperman’s widow Phoebe Sparks has vowed never to marry again. Unfortunately, the election in Lively St. Lemeston is hotly contested, and the little town’s charter gives Phoebe the right to make her husband a voter—if she had one.

The Honorable Nicholas Dymond has vowed never to get involved in his family’s aristocratic politicking. But now his army career is over for good, his leg and his self-confidence both shattered in the war. Helping his little brother win an election could be just what the doctor ordered.

So Nick decamps to the country, under strict orders to marry Phoebe off to somebody before the polls open. He’s intrigued by the lovely widow from the moment she shuts the door in his face.

Phoebe is determined not to be persuaded by the handsome earl’s son, no matter how charming he is. But when disaster strikes her young sister, she is forced to consider selling her vote—and her hand—to the highest bidder.

As election intrigue thickens, bringing Phoebe and Nick face to face with their own deepest desires, they must decide which vows are worth keeping, and which must be broken…

Contains elections, confections, and a number of erections.

Buy the book: kindle · kobo · iBooks · nook

The gift basket includes:

1. A paperback copy of Sweet Disorder.

2. Rocket-shaped popsicle molds. I have these and let me tell you, the popsicles look AMAZING. Appropriate because it’s summer and there’s ice cream in the book.

3. A popsicle cookbook so you can use your new molds, and

4. A “Byronic hero” mug!

The rules:

1. Comment on this post to enter.
2. The winners will be chosen at random using random.org.
3. The 5 e-books are open internationally. The gift basket is US only.
4. Open for entries through July 18, 2017.
5. Void where prohibited.

If you’d like to be alerted when new contests go up (I typically give away romances signed by the author), you can sign up for my newsletter.

Remember, you can buy Sweet Disorder here! Or if you’ve read it, check out the DVD extras.

Good luck!