Sparky Tabasco, on The Winter Bride

Freddy & Marriage ~ part 1

Freddy has been quizzing Damaris on her aversion to marriage:

She rounded on him suddenly. "Why don't you want to get married?"

"What? None of your b—"

She smiled. "Exactly. And yet marriage offers you so much; a wife to run your home and do your bidding—"

Freddy snorted. "Do my bidding? You don't know much about wives if that's what you think."

"A companion, children—isn't it your duty to produce an heir to continue the family name? What do they say, 'an heir and a spare'?"

Freddy loathed the expression. 

"Or is it women you have an aversion for? I know some men—"

"I do not have an aversion for women!"

"Well then, why don't you want to marry?"

Nettled, Freddy stared at her in frustrated silence. 

She gave a little grin. "See? Not so much fun when you get a taste of your own medicine, is it?"

THE WINTER BRIDE - Snippet #3

Mrs Jenkins (Damaris's employer) on  our hero, Freddy:

“Tomcat in gen’leman’s clothing, that’s what ’e is—a rake through and through.”

“Rake? You thought—”

Mrs. Jenkins snorted. “I knew what he was the instant I clapped eyes on him! Dressed like that in his fancy duds at this hour of the mornin’. The cheek of ’im, thinking he could seduce away one o’ my girls in broad daylight.”

“But he wasn’t—”

“Bless you, my dove, you’re too young to recognize a Wicked Seducer when you see one, and I grant you that one is an ’andsome devil, and charmin’ as an oiled snake, I have no doubt!” She fixed Damaris with a gimlet eye. “But it don’t do for a girl like you to catch the eye of a gentleman, take it from me. He’ll soften you up with sweet words and little gifts and . . . and poetry, and you’ll think ’e’s ever such a nice fellow, then in the twinklin’ of an eye, he’ll ’ave your skirts over your ’ead, and there you’ll be, rooned forever!”

“But Mrs. Jenkins—”

“Rooned forever!” Mrs. Jenkins repeated firmly. “And we don’t want that, do we? Now, I’ve given him a piece of me mind—blistered ’is ear’oles good and proper, I did—and if ’e knows what’s good for ’im, he won’t be back to bother you again, so let’s get to work.”

"A romantic winner, with Gracie's typical witty charm and sweeping emotion." Kirkus reviews

More at:  bitly.com/1c6gAY7

I have books!

Hooray! The advance copies of my new book, THE WINTER BRIDE (an RT Top Pick!) have just arrived.

Normally they don't get here until just after the book comes out, so I'm thrilled to have them a little bit early. Of course I ripped open the box and tossed them onto the rug to take a photograph.

They look pretty, don't they?

I have a couple of friends who've been waiting impatiently to read this, so they'll be pleased.

The rest of you will have to either wait until the book is out (April 1st) or visit me on the various blogs I'm touring and leave a comment. I'll be giving away a book at each blog.

You'll be notified about the blog tour here, and also on Facebook and Twitter, where I'll also be posting snippets of the story (there's one below this post —scroll down) and the occasional review.

The Australian cover

Two advance copies of my Australian edition of THE WINTER BRIDE arrived in the mail today. So pretty.

Mary Jo Putney will be interviewing me about the book on the Word Wenches Blog, and I'll give one of these away to a North American commenter. Stay tuned for the interview date. I'll put it on FB and twitter -- and here too.

THE WINTER BRIDE (RT Top Pick) Our hero Freddy on Pride and Prejudice:

When his best friend Max asks him to attend his aunt's literary society, our hero, Freddy, is appalled:

“Not the literary society. The horror stories those girls read are enough to make a fellow’s hair stand on end.”

Max frowned. “Horror stories? They don’t read horror stories, only entertaining tales of the kind ladies seem to enjoy, about girls and gossip and families—”

“Horror stories, every last one of them,” Freddy said firmly. “You asked me to sit in on their literary society last month, when you went up to Manchester, remember? The story they were reading then . . .” He gave an eloquent shudder. “Horror from the very first line: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Must he, indeed? What about the poor fellow’s wants, eh? Do they matter? No. Every female in the blasted story was plotting to hook some man for herself or her daughter or niece. If you don’t call that horror, I don’t know what is!”

Max chuckled.

“You can laugh, bound as you are for parson’s noose in the morning,” Freddy said bitterly, “but every single man in that story ended up married by the end of the book! Every last one.” He numbered them off on his fingers. “The main fellow, his best friend, the parson, even the soldier fellow ended up married to the silly light-skirt sister—not one single man in that story escaped unwed.” He shuddered again. “Enough to give a man nightmares. So, no literary society for me, thank you.”

* * * * *

There's another excerpt here.

Preorder THE WINTER BRIDE:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Indie bound

Book Depository UK

Booktopia (Australia)