Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: 12-27-2016
Length: 448pp
Buy It: B&N-Amazon-Kobo-IndieBound-Publisher
Overview:
Lady Julia Hazelton is the most dazzling among 1920s England's bright young things. But rather than choosing the thrill of wanton adventure like so many of her contemporaries, Julia shocks society with her bold business aspirations. Determined to usher the cursed Worthington estate into a prosperous, modern new era, and thus preserve her beloved late fiancé's legacy, the willful Julia tackles her wildest, most unexpected adventure in Cal Carstairs, the reluctant new Earl of Worthington.
The unconventional American artist threatens everything Julia seeks to protect while stirring desires she thought had died in the war. For reasons of his own, Cal has designed the ultimate revenge. Rather than see the estate prosper, he intends to destroy it. But their impulsive marriage—one that secures Julia's plans as well as Cal's secrets—proves that passion is ambition's greatest rival. Unless Cal ends his quest to satisfy his darkest vendetta, he stands to ruin his Worthington wife and all her glittering dreams.
Read an excerpt courtesy Harlequin:
The Estate of Brideswell Abbey
June, 1925
“I don’t care about scandal, Nigel.” Lady
Julia Hazelton marched up to the desk in the study of her brother, the Duke of
Langford, and set her palms on the smooth oak edge. “These women lost their
husbands to war and now there is nothing for them. If they have farms or
stores or homes, they are being turned out of them, despite having children to
feed and clothe. I can help them. What do you think I will do? Do you really
think I’ll be inspired, after spending time with a fallen woman, to stand
outside the village public house, plying the trade?”
“Good God,
Julia!” Her brother, startlingly handsome with raven-black hair and brilliant
blue eyes, jolted in his chair. Fortunately he had a secure grip on the very
precious bundle he held. Nigel wore his tweeds, but a lacy blanket hung over
his shoulder. Napping on his shoulder was his eleven-month-old son, holding his
father’s strong hands.
Nigel blushed scarlet. “The fact you
know so much about such things speaks for itself.”
“I thought Zoe finally cured you of your
stuffiness, Nigel,” Julia said.
Zoe was her brother’s American bride,
the “American Duchess” famous in the British newspapers—once famous for her
wild style of living, now famous for her brilliance in investing and in turning
Brideswell into the most modern yet beautiful house in England.
Cradling his son, Nigel said, “Julia, I
agree that the plight of the war widows is terrible. But the responsibility for
it doesn’t rest on your shoulders. You have been loaning money to them out of
your pin money—”
“What I am supposed to do? Simply
pretend I don’t see the women who look as if they’ve lost their souls, because
they are hoping some man gives them a few pennies to—to poke at them?”
“Julia! Where, for the love of God, did
you learn expressions like that?”
“Nigel, there was a war on. I’m afraid
that one of the casualties of war is innocence. You were there. You know how
brave those men were, and how wrong it is that they are dead.”
“I know that. As a result, Zoe and I
have given to many charities—”
“But once these women sell themselves,
they don’t go to charities for help. Some of these women were left alone, with
babies even younger than Nicholas. I would go to terrible lengths if my child
was starving.”
“Yes, but—”
“These women do not have a choice. With
money, they would!”
“Yes, but—”
“Many of them have skills—they have run
households and farms.”
“Yes, but—”
“They could start businesses. They could
better themselves. They could give futures to their children.”
This time her brother didn’t bother with
a yes, but.
“Julia,
this work is not helping your marriage prospects.”
“Oh, that’s
what you all are worried about.”
Now
that Zoe and Nigel were married and Julia’s dowry was restored—from the
investments made from Zoe’s fortune—her brother, her mother and her
grandmother wanted to see her wed.
“I’ve
lost two men that I loved, Nigel. I lost Anthony to the Battle of the Somme.
And Dougal to the idiocy of our class system. Frankly, I’ve given up on getting
married.”
Nigel
shifted his son in his arms. “Don’t, Julia.”
“Well,
I have.” Julia crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. “But I can still do
something worthwhile. I have the power to help these women. No bank
would loan them money. But—”
She
knew people thought her to be a cool, controlled, reserved English lady, but there
were times when her heart hammered passionately and she was willing to fight to
the ends of the earth if she had to. Two years ago, accompanied by her American
sister-in-law, Zoe, Julia had begun to be daring. She had put mourning behind
her and taken risks, only to have her heart broken again, this time by the brilliant
Dr. Dougal Campbell, who believed they could never bridge the divide between
their positions. She’d retreated back into the world she knew. She’d hidden all
her emotion behind ladylike behavior.
Until now. Last
week, she had seen a woman named Ellen Lambert struck by a brute of a man on
the village street.
The man had run when Julia approached,
waving her umbrella and shouting for help. She’d learned Ellen’s story and
Julia had seen, with horror, how insulated her life had been.
“But?” Nigel prompted.
“But I would.
I want a loan against my dowry, Nigel. I can use that to provide money to
widows like Ellen Lambert of the village. They can pay it back over a
reasonable time and with a reasonable interest.”
“Julia,
your dowry is there—”
“To
bribe men to marry me.”
“That
is not true. For a start, no man would need a bribe to propose to you.”
“Really?
No gentleman looked at me twice when the estate was close to bankruptcy and I
didn’t have the dowry.”
Nicholas
stirred. Nigel ran his large hand over the baby’s small back, gently soothing.
“That had nothing to do with it. Everyone knew you were still grieving Anthony
and you weren’t ready to move on.”
Oh, how
Julia’s heart gave a pang as her brother stroked his son. Without marriage, she
would never have such a moment with a child of her own.
Was it
worth marrying a man she didn’t love to have a child she could love?
Once
she would have emphatically said no. Now, with adorable baby Nicholas in the
house, a strange madness would sometimes overtake her. She had to fight the
dangerous idea that marriage without love could somehow work. She knew it
didn’t. She knew that from living with unhappily married parents.
And she didn’t
believe she could ever fall in love again. She had been in love twice—she’d
lost Anthony to war, and Dr. Campbell when he’d left her to go to the London
Hospital. Her heart had been broken twice. She didn’t think she could survive
a third time.
Nigel looked up from his infant son.
“Julia, promise you will not give up on the idea of marriage.”
“Nigel, I—” She broke off. Suspicion
grew at the hopeful look in her brother’s blue eyes. “Oh no. Say you didn’t—”
“Did not what?” he asked innocently.
“You didn’t invite a prospective husband
to the house…again?”
“No, no. We are dining at Worthington
Park tonight. But a friend of mine is going to be there. A friend from Oxford.
An admirable chap. He’s now the Earl of Summerhay.”
“Nigel, I am not exactly out of love
with Dougal yet.” She had just received a rather devastating letter from
Dougal, but this would give her an excuse. “I am definitely not ready to fall
in love with anyone else.” That was certainly true. She didn’t even think it
could ever be possible.
Her brother lifted an autocratic brow.
“Dr. Campbell did a sensible thing. You couldn’t be a doctor’s wife. You should
be running a house like Brideswell.”
“I think I would have been very happy as
a doctor’s wife.” True, but it was pointless now, wasn’t it? “But Dougal believed
we could not circumvent the difference in our social positions.” In fact, like
her brother, Dougal thought she needed a grand estate and a title. “Grandmama
and Mother worked at Dougal until he went away to London. Honestly, I wouldn’t
be surprised if Grandmama paid a gamekeeper to escort Dougal to the train
station with a rifle at his back.”
“She wants you to be happy.”
“No, she does not
if her only objection was that she didn’t want her oldest granddaughter married
to a mere doctor. But Dougal has saved lives. I don’t want an earl or a duke.
I’verealized that I want a hero. When I saw what Dougal could do, I was struck
with awe.”
Nigel frowned. “But I do not think Dr.
Campbell is worthy of you. He should have stayed and fought for you. You are
worthy of a dragon slayer. Your doctor may have saved lives, but I don’t know
if he has enough courage for you, Julia.”
“Is your earl a dragon slayer?”
She was surprised by how serious Nigel
suddenly looked. “I know what he did in the War, Julia. I think he is.”
“So you won’t give me my loan?”
“I cannot distract you, can I?”
“No.”
He sighed. “I want to see you happily
settled, Julia. So my answer has to be no.”
She could argue. And fight. Or she could
be smart about this. “I will ask Zoe for a loan.”
“In this, Zoe will not disagree with
me.”
“Maybe not. But I can at least try.” She
turned and walked away.
“Julia.”
She paused at the door.
“Summerhay will not be the only eligible
man there. Lady Worthington has invited the Duke of Bradstock, my friend from
Eton days. Along with Viscount Yorkville. Three intelligent, interesting men.”
James, the duke, she knew quite well.
One of his many houses was only an hour away by motorcar, and he would visit on
school holidays. He had been born to be a duke—he could be rather arrogant.
Yorkville, she’d never met.
“Nigel, you can’t
push me at eligible men at Worthington Park.” She sighed. “It’s bad form when
Lady Carstairs will want to do that with her three unmarried daughters.”
“Julia, all I am asking you to do is be
polite,” her brother protested.
“That is all anyone wants me to do. Be
polite and ladylike and boring. But I am not giving up.”
Then she swept out of his study. But it
was not such a dramatic exit—she was leaving to do what was expected of her.
To dress for dinner.
But she longed to burst out of her
shell. To do something that was more than just wild and frivolous, like dancing
and drinking cocktails.
Her sister-in-law, Zoe, could fly
airplanes. There were women doctors, singers, artists, clothing designers. A
modern woman could now grasp almost any opportunity, take hold of life and
become something.
Modern women could change the world.
That was what she wanted to do.
Publishers Weekly
11/28/2016Page offers those jonesing for Downton Abbey a supplemental dose of unconventional British jazz age characters in this vibrant sequel to An American Duchess. Lady Julia Hazelton has poured herself into her charitable work with war widows since the death of her fiancé, the future earl of Worthington. When the new earl, Cal, arrives and promises to destroy the estate to avenge his lower-class mother, who was spurned by his father’s family, Julia feels compelled to change his mind. As the two grow closer, Julia attempts to expand proper roles for ladies, and Cal realizes the selfishness of his vengeance. Frustratingly underdeveloped minor characters, including tenants, servants, Julia’s other love interest, and mysterious gangsters from Cal’s American past, enter and leave the story with dizzying speed. With this cast and the additional plot involving the deaths of three possibly murdered local women who strongly resembled Julia, the work veers dangerously close to overstuffed and uncontrolled. Page manages to hold it together through her captivating portrayals of Julia and Cal, beautifully capturing the tension between desire and responsibilities and allowing the two protagonists room to evolve. This work will delight fans of melodramatic period pieces. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
"Sharon Page shines with this riveting tale of true love... The rip-roaring plot kept me turning pages far into the night." -New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries on An American Duchess
"Fans of Downton Abbey should reach for An American Duchess... Page's captivating prose evokes the Roaring Twenties with skillful and vivid details and creates a searing romance with a timeless message." -International bestselling author Pam Jenoff
"Merging the flavor of Downton Abbey with her own special touches, Page crafts a vibrant novel and a dramatic love story [that] completely captures the angst and glamour of the era." -RT Book Reviews on An American Duchess
"THE CLUB was fantastic! Great mix of sexy with a dynamic story line." -Sue Grimshaw
"With danger and erotic intrigue at every turn, THE CLUB is a fast paced, blistering page turner that evokes the emotional and erotic with every scene." -USA TODAY bestselling author Kathryn Smith
"A Winner." -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review on The Club
"[A]n intensely emotional love story. It isn't only the sizzle that rivets readers, it's the true passion and love that [Page] infuses into the story that makes it a deep-sigh read." -RT Book Reviews on Engaged in Sin (Top Pick)
"Anticipation...smolders on every page." -RT Book Reviews on Deeply In You (Top Pick
Connect with Sharon - Website - Facebook - Twitter
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Sharon Page is author of more than 20 books. Sharon has won two RT Bookreviews Reviewers’ Choice Awards, two National Readers’ Choice Awards, the Colorado Award of Romance, and the Golden Quill.
The mother of two children and wife of a terrifically supportive husband, Sharon has a degree in Industrial Design and worked in structural engineering before fulfilling her dream of becoming an author.
Today's Gonereading item is:
Did someone say Clearance!
Did someone say Clearance!
Thanks so much for sharing the excerpt, hope your Christmas was a good one!
ReplyDeleteIt was fab kindlemom, hope yours was too!
DeleteOh yes. This certainly sounds like a worthy read! Going on my TBR.
ReplyDeleteI know I thought the same thing Kathryn :)
DeleteThat cover is just so pretty! I've enjoyed hers in the past, too. Looking forward to this one :)
ReplyDeleteOh good to know Anna, she's new to me!
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