The Lady's Masquerade #MarchMadnessSale

The Lady's Masquerade
#MarchMadnessSale
$2.99 thru March 31

Someone is trying to kill Lady Penelope Leighton’s father, and now the fiend has turned his sights on her. Frightened, she flees London masquerading as a traveling companion for her elderly aunt.

When William Smith, the Earl of Westerly, arrives in London to a hero’s welcome he does not want, he takes the stewardship at his cousin’s manor in Wakefield-by-the-Sea to escape. He is more than surprised when he meets the mysterious Miss Penny Higgins residing there with a persnickety duchess.

Miss Higgins’ unfathomable beauty and stunning intellect are in direct contrast to her dowdy clothes and recurring stutter. William discerns the ladies are in trouble, it’s obvious they are in hiding, and William means to find out why, but no one is talking.

Before either of them realizes it, they’ve lost their hearts – Penny to a man who she thinks is a steward, and William to a woman destined for a duke.

After Penny’s true identity and reason for hiding are revealed to William, he immediately engages his friends in a campaign to help catch the blackguard who threatens her. However, upon their return to London, a confounding chain of events leads them right into the villain’s trap. Can William save her before it’s too late?

The Lady's Masquerade is the first book in The Reluctant Grooms Series. This story came to me in a dream. I thought about it for a long time before I decided to tackle the actual process of writing it down. However, when I did start, I wrote with pen and paper. I still have all the notes somewhere.

I like the two characters, Penny and Will, but as I was writing their story, I was simultaneously also writing the next three stories in the series. As a matter of fact, for those of you who did not know, I actually published this novel third in the line. Originally, I was only supposed to have three novels and four accompanying-novellas for the whole series. But then I kept writing and well, you can see what happened next.

I have these pictures on my Pinterest board, but they've been written over so many times you can't see what my thoughts were. I've found it invaluable to have pictures of my characters and their settings as part of my writing process. I should have done this sort of blog post years ago.

Lady Olivia Leighton,
Duchess of Caymore

Lady Penelope Leighton,
Daughter of the Duke of Olmstead

Penny is the great-niece to Lady Olivia. Penny's father was nephew to the Duke of Caymore.

Lady Olivia is a busy-body of the first water in Society, in Parliament, and within her own family.



When someone tries to assassinate Penny's father, Olivia takes matters into her own hands and brings Penny on a life and death adventure. The both find love, albeit in different ways. Lies abound, intrigue and political posturing within Parliament and the Monarchy immerse us within the British aristocracy in 1809.

Lt. Colonel William Smith,
Earl of Westerly

William is the hero, a dedicated war veteran who comes home to a very different, yet exactly-the-same-as-he-left-it, London. His parents are expecting him to take on the responsibilities of a wife and children, but William wants nothing more than to fix up the estate his grandfather left him and be alone with his horses.

Robert Carlton, Viscount Hadley,
Duke of Cantin

When his cousin Robert needs a favor, William is not keen on
the idea, but it would give him the opportunity to manage a small estate so he would be better prepared to take care of his new holdings. What William doesn't figure on is the colorful Lady Olivia in disguise, seemingly embroiled in a kidnapping scheme. He doesn't prepare to fall in love with the mysterious woman named Miss Higgins. He knows she is not who she claims to be, but Lady Olivia is not telling, and Miss Higgins cannot.

William and Robert, along with other friends, devise a scheme to bring the perpetrator of the death threats against Penny's father to justice. However, when Penny is kidnapped, William must make a daring life or death decision. Unfortunately, it's Penny's life.

I won't tell you the end, only to say yes, it's a Happily Ever After. However, it does set up some interesting questions for the rest of the series. Lady Olivia plays an integral role.

Honoria Leighton,
Duchess of Olmstead

Charles Leighton,
Duke of Olmstead

John Quiggins

Their Grace, the Duke and Duchess of Olmstead.


John Quiggins, butler at Wakefield Manor. Until Lady Olivia has him posted to Caymore House.

Wakefield Manor

Trilling

And this is the story of THE LADY'S MASQUERADE.
Book One in The Reluctant Grooms Series.

On Sale now thru March 31. $2.99

Amazon
Smashwords

#MarchMadnessSale

Anne Gallagher (c) 2019

Writing a Series -- Marketing/Publishing Part 1

Marketing and Publishing go hand in hand these days. You can publish as many books as you want, but if you don't market them, how will people know they're out there unless they stumble across them somehow.

Looking back on my own series, I can see where I made mistakes, and will now share them with you. I didn't know what I was doing when I first started writing so I had no idea where I would end up. (Here.) If I had, I would certainly have done things a lot differently.

I'm going to look at Publishing the series first, because that is the BIGGER picture. Once you have the big picture, then the Marketing aspect can be broken down into littler pieces.

Let's begin with our friends Susie and Bob, the firefighter and nurse. We know we're going to write 5 books in the series. We have all our characters, our antagonist, the settings, we've done our research, and found all of our plot lines. Our poster boards are hanging on our walls, and we've written the first book.

The first book is fantastic. It's everything a book can be. Everybody says so. And you want to publish it right now because, well, because the book is fantastic, everybody says so. And once you publish that first book, you'll have hooked the readers to the rest of your series.

Here's the problem. How long did it take you to write that first book? Two years? Six months? It doesn't matter. If the book is part of a series, you will want to have at least 3 books written and polished before you publish. Because as I said before, once you hook your reader, you want them to continue reading, and you also want them to tell their friends about it. (Word of mouth is still the BEST way to market your book. We'll touch on that later.)  If you only have one book, and it takes 6 months or a year to write another one, by the time that second book gets published your readers will have moved on to the next hot thing. (Attention spans don't last very long in these days of instant gratification.)

Also, as I found in writing a series, things change the further on in the series you go. For example, in MASQUERADE (the first book in my series), Lady Olivia walked with a cane. She was elderly, or so I had imagined her. Over the course of the next 5 books as I wrote the series, she was not as old as I first thought, nor did she walk with a cane any longer.  I self-published so I could change the earlier versions whenever I wanted. Say for instance, you find out in Book 3 that the timeline in Book 2 is off, you can change it before anyone notices. However, if you publish right away and you need to change something, let me tell you what a pain in the neck that is. You really want to make changes BEFORE you publish. (For those of you who ship your work out for formatting this can become very expensive. Especially if you keep making changes.)

So the more books you have ready to publish, BEFORE you publish, the better off you are.

Loss Leaders. And FREE.

So, let's say, for the sake of argument, you've written the first 3 books in the Susie and Bob saga, and you're just about to publish them all, but then you get sidelined by the arsonist who wants to be heard so you write a short little something-something just to get him out of your head. He's not supposed to be in the books until the very end, but he just won't shut up.

This is what I call BONUS material. It's not anything you want to use in your story lines because that's all about romance (more or less), but it's an integral part of the story. What do you do with it?

Naturally, you would polish this and publish it as the loss leader. (A loss leader is something you want to lure your customers with. Stores do this all the time. "Come look at our super cheap TV." But then they put the most expensive one right next to it and the sales associates tempt you into buying the more expensive one.)

In my own example, I had already written MASQUERADE, FATE, and COINCIDENCE, but then Winsbarren wouldn't shut up in my head, so I wrote down his story. It came in around 19K. More than a short story, less than a proper novella, but it had a beginning, middle, and end. I decided when I published THE LADY'S FATE, I would publish A WIFE FOR WINSBARREN at the same time. Fate went out at $3.99, Winsbarren for .99 cents. That way, those who wanted to try my writing could, for the fabulous price of .99 cents, and if they liked that, they could then buy the more expensive one.

This had been my marketing campaign. Publish a novel, publish a novella at the same time. Somewhere between publishing the first set of books and the third, I wrote a short companion piece to A WIFE FOR WINSBARREN called A HUSBAND FOR MISS TRENT. I decided at that time to market this book FREE. This would be my loss leader. MISS TRENT is still free. But, free is not what it used to be. (We'll also touch on that later.)

Now, some authors I know, write the whole series first, and then when they finish it, write that little something something that they will use as a loss leader. I found mine in the middle. You might not want to write one. However, I think it's a good idea. A short something for free or .99 cents will allow the customer to get a feel for your voice, and your story. They won't feel bad about spending .99 if they don't like it.

Publishing

To get back to Susie and Bob -- Let's say, we have 3 books and a short introductory novella ready to go. What do we do? Publish everything at once? Publish one a week over the course of the month? Publish once a month and hope something sticks?

My suggestion would be to put out the novella free (or .99 cents with the caveat you're not a new writer. If you're brand new, I would set the price to free), and then publish the first novel. At the end of the first novel, place the first chapter of the second novel in the back. There's your HOOK. Just make sure that first chapter is polished and will entice the reader into reading. (And for every consecutive book make sure the first chapter of the next novel is in the back. I did NOT do that and found it was a HUGE mistake. ALWAYS give the reader a taste of what is to come.)

I would then wait six weeks before publishing the second novel. However, now that Amazon and Smashwords have the pre-order option, I would use that for the second book. Once the second novel is published, I would do the same with the third novel. Again, six weeks with pre-order option. You might ask, "Why can't I just publish everything at once and just change the dates on the pre-order option?" And the answer is, you will frustrate the reader that they can't buy it now.

Look at it this way... I made a decadent chocolate cake and put it in a store window for display. However, I gave you a cupcake to taste for free. It's delicious and over the course of the the first week after the cupcake tasting, you come in and buy a slice of that chocolate cake (Novel #1). Every week you come in and ask when you can have another piece of that cake (Novel #2). I tell you six weeks, but if you pay me now, I'll hold your order for that cake. Your mouth waters for those six weeks. On the day you come into the store, not only is the chocolate cake ready, but I also made an apple pie (Novel #3). You want a piece of apple pie now. But you have to wait six weeks. Again, if you pay me now for the pie, I'll have it ready and waiting for you when you come back in six weeks. You want to build supply and demand. You want those six weeks to work for you. (This is part of the marketing plan for Susie and Bob's books.)

For example

Jan 1 Free novella
Jan 1 Novel #1
Feb 15 Novel #2
April 1 Novel #3
May 15 Novel #4
June 30 Novel #5

Using the pre-order option allows the reader to know there is more coming. And if the first chapter of the next novel in the back of the book hooks your reader, they may pre-order it, which is a guaranteed sale. (I've used the pre-order option recently, and although it didn't raise my standing in the ranks as some of the big name authors said it would, it was a nice bonus in my paycheck.)

You may ask, "Well, if the first three books are ready, why can't I publish them all at the same time?" Because you want to keep the momentum of your readers looking forward to your next book. If you give them what you have all at once, they'll read the first 3 books in two days and then have to wait how long until you finish book #4. By that time, they've moved on. If they eat the whole chocolate cake in two days, they'll want more, but if there is no more, they'll switch to vanilla ice cream. If you publish every six weeks, your momentum builds. If you can only have a piece of cake every six weeks, it tastes much better. You look forward to it more.

Marketing

Now, here comes the hard part, once you publish something, you have to market it. Agents say you need to be on social media to sell books. Every author I know (and some of the big name authors too) maintain that social media does NOT sell books. It doesn't. I see Twitter campaigns and blog tours, and give-aways, and all kinds of foolishness going on over the interwebs, but it doesn't work. Word of mouth is still the best way to market, which is where I think the Twitter campaigns originally started, but then they just got to be spam.

I have never done a blog tour. Nor a Twitter campaign. I am what is known as a Quiet Marketer. I don't push people to read my book. I don't nag, or campaign. I'm not everywhere. I announce the publication once on my blog, and once or twice on Twitter. That's it. I don't believe in ramming my book down anyone's throat. It doesn't sell books, and only annoys people. And if you annoy people they won't read you. (And this is only MY opinion. You can do whatever you wish for a marketing campaign.)

There's also a thought out there that having as many reviews of your work as possible ready to go as soon as you publish will bring more sales than if not. In my experience that's not true either. When I first published, in the back matter was a little line that said, "If you liked this book, I would appreciate a review" or something to that effect. I didn't get any. For two years. So I took it out. It didn't make a difference. (I have very few reviews, but that doesn't keep people from reading my books.) People will either write a review or they won't. However, if you do have some people who will read it and write a review, by all means, have them ready. (And just so you know, one or two bad reviews won't bother your sales. Unless they're all bad and then you should rewrite the book. Some books with bad reviews even make it to the bestseller lists because people want to read it out of curiosity. Like rubbernecking a bad car wreck.)

Back to word of mouth for a second. One of the best ways to market, I've found, is to let people see what you're writing. I used to put scenes on my blog to let people read what I've been writing. But then the big name gurus said you shouldn't because of plagiarism. I then figured I would put cut scenes and polished first drafts on the blog to be read. However, now there's WattPad. I don't know how it works, I've never been there, but I hear it's a great way to be noticed. (I actually know of 3 people who found agents from using that site.) Word of mouth sells books. If your writing is good, people will talk about it.

Back to FREE for a second. Now, there are some people who think the first BOOK in a series should be free. I don't subscribe to that notion. Why should I give something away I worked so hard on? If I were a wedding cake maker I wouldn't give away the 7-tiered creation with the little roses and birds and fondant candies that I've been working on for the last month. If I wanted to entice people to buy my wedding cake, I would make cupcakes and give those away.  If you're going to go free, the littler the better. Here's why. I would rather give them a throw away book, ie. the arsonist's story. Because, if you give away the BOOK you've lost a sale you otherwise could have had. If you give away a LITTLE something something, you're not really losing anything, and potentially gaining customers/readers. Like the wedding cupcakes. They were made using leftover batter. You don't want to throw the batter away, but you can't really use it for another cake.

My Example -- A HUSBAND FOR MISS TRENT was a single POV novella I wrote to offset A WIFE FOR WINSBARREN. After I published it, readers commented that they wanted to see Davingdale's POV as well. So I then wrote LOVE FINDS LORD DAVINGDALE. Somewhere along the line, readers commented they wanted BOTH of those stories put together. So I mashed them up. I published Davingdale with both POV's for .99 cents. However, with Miss Trent, I kept her single POV and set the price to free. To entice those readers who wanted to try me out before buying anything else. Cupcake anyone?


*****

Having said all that, and using the example for Susie and Bob, you might say, "Well, my series is nothing like that. I'm writing novellas and going to publish once a month until the conclusion of the series." Okay, so how many novellas are written? How long does it take you to write one?

Or, "My series won't take long to write. I can write 4000 words a day."

Or, "I'm just going to write and publish, write and publish until the series is finished. I don't care how long it takes to finish it, but I'm going to write and publish as I go along."

Okay, so you've finished the first book and published it without a hitch. You're moving right along and then your kids come down with the flu, the washing machine floods the basement, and your in-laws are coming for Easter break all on the same day. What happens if your husband finds another job across the country and you have to pack and move in less than a month? What happens if your computer explodes and you didn't back up your files? (God forbid. Back everything up! Twice!)

You cannot foresee the future. You don't really know how long it will take to write the second book, or third, or last. You only have the first book written. And here's my final argument for having three books written in the series BEFORE you publish.

If you have 3 books written, and you publish according to my timeline above, if Fate decides to slap you upside the head, you will have (hopefully) enough time to recover from that and settle down to write the next book. And because you have 3 books published, (or on their way), your readers, (who will hopefully become fans) will wait just a little longer for the next book to come out. Fans will endure the wait if they know it's coming SOON.

In my own career, I published a novel and a novella every four months or so.(Because I had already written 3 of my 5 novels.)  I published THE LADY'S MASQUERADE in June 2013 and THE CAPTAIN'S COINCIDENCE was supposed to be published in September. Everything was going according to plan when Fate stepped in and said, "Uh, no." It took almost nine months to get back to COINCIDENCE. When it was finally published in March of 2014, it was not SOON enough. It didn't do well. I cannot tell you why but I have my suspicions that the readers who became fans got sick of waiting for it.

Attention spans are limited these days, and if you don't have new writing every few months, readers will move on to someone else. Oh sure, they MIGHT come back when you publish again, but it's not a guarantee. Would you rather overhear this conversation --

"Oh, did you hear, Anne has a new book out. Number 4 in the series. Have you read it yet? It's fantastic."
or
"Anne has a new book out. I'm not going to bother with it though. I've already lost the gist of the storyline and I don't want to go back and reread the whole series."

In publishing, it's all about the hook to get them to read in the first place. In marketing, it's all about keeping the reader coming back for more.

Next week, I'm going to discuss marketing a series a little bit more. Hope to see you.

Anne Gallagher (c) 2014

Reviews

Good Morning. Now that LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING is finally released as well as THE LADY'S SECRET for pre-order, I've done a lot of thinking as to how to market these books. As you know, I'm not a great fan of marketing or promotion, and have pretty much done neither over the last few years.

Truthfully, I've never liked asking people for help. If I want something done, I do it myself, whether that's formatting an e-book, laying a new floor in my living room, or building a fence in the backyard. I'm just a natural DIYer.

The problem is, I can't do EVERYTHING, and sometimes I just have to bite the bullet and ask.

A long time ago, (when I first started publishing three years ago), the blogging gurus said you needed to have at least 10 reviews ready to go before you published. Well, three years ago, I didn't know 10 people who would want to read my books. Regency romance is a niche market -- you either like it or you don't. With vampires and steampunk, shades of color, and the zombie apocalypse currently the craze, traditional regencies (Jane Austen anyone?) don't always make it to the top of the charts, unless you're a name brand.

I have a name, and yes, I've branded it, but I'm just a small fish in a very big pond.

So here's the skinny... If you've bought ANY of my books, would you please leave a review. (Bought is the operative word. Book retailers frown on reviews that weren't "paid for".)

And I know how hard it is to write a decent review. However, I have to tell you, the best review I've ever received was on THE CAPTAIN'S COINCIDENCE. From Amazon, it had 5 stars and only two words -- "Well written." Believe me when I tell you, that was music to my ears. (I do work hard on everything I write and sometimes the best praise comes in the form of "good job".)

I don't expect you to write a dozen paragraphs, or expand on my themes (if you can find them), but I would like your honest opinion. And by no means do you have to write a review on ALL of the books (depending on how many you've read), but if you have read them all, one or two would be swell. Just pick the ones you like the best. (And if you didn't like them, then I guess this request is moot.)

A HUSBAND FOR MISS TRENT is free on Smashwords if you're new to this blog/writer and want a little taste of what I write. It's downloadable for all formats.

And you don't have to leave the review all over the place. Just where you bought it from would be sufficient. And Goodreads would be nice if you're on that site.


Thank you in advance.

Anne Gallagher (c) 2014

PS If you click on the tab under my header marked Reviews, you can find a few samples of other reviews. There's also a surprise.

A Blog, A Newsletter, A Website

Good Morning. With THE CAPTAIN'S COINCIDENCE ready to be published (March 15th), I've been giving a lot of thought to promotion. I don't generally do any. I usually blog about the release once, post it on Twitter a couple of times, and that's about it. I don't like it, I'm not good at it. I hate wasting my time doing something I don't like and am not good at. However....

Making my rounds on the blogosphere the last couple of weeks, I've noticed more and more writers are promoting newsletters. Some writers espouse we HAVE to have them. Me not so much. Yes, I can see their point --
A newsletter allows for fans to know when the next book will be released before the general public, thereby building steam with a pre-purchase.
A newsletter can have many little tidbits about the book that the general public might not ever know.
A newsletter may also contain little tidbits about the author that the general public might not ever know.

A newsletter is also just another piece of email waiting to go into the trash.

I have exactly one subscription to a newsletter that lands in my mailbox every other month or so. I skim it and then trash it.

A website (to me) is a static site about the author and his/her books. Covers, where to buy links, maybe a blurb or two, maybe a review or two, and that's about it. Now sometimes a website, if built correctly also has a blog attached. That's okay. But if you don't land on the blog, then you have to click around.
When I go to a website, I click around to see what I can see, and then leave. I hardly ever go back, especially if there is no blog. It's just a page taking up cyber space.

I've resisted having dotcom after my name, well, quite frankly, there are quite a number of Anne Gallagher dot coms out there. A few writers, a chef, a lawyer. So a website for me would have to be something like Anne Gallagher writer dot com. Too long. Anne Gallagher author dot com -- sorry, already taken. Anne Gallagher Regency writer dot com. Way too long and who would remember it anyway.

A blog is something else. Short for web-log, it's a kind of cyber diary, at least that's my understanding of it. I can say whatever I want, have whatever I want on its pages. Nothing is set in stone, I can change it at will. If I don't like my header -- Poof, I get a new one. I don't like my pages -- Poof, I put new content up.

As for the newsletter, I already pretty much spill my guts right here. Why would someone want to read it twice? (I know an author who sends a newsletter and then puts the same content on his blog. What's the point in redundancy?) I put excerpts from the books on the blog. I post pictures of who I think my characters should be on the blog. (And on Pinterest if you want to see everyone all at once.) I post content on my research on the blog.

What's not to love about having a blog as a website and newsletter? And if you really want to see what I'm up to every single week, all you have to do is subscribe to this blog via email. The little sign up thingy is right on my sidebar. Try it once or twice, see if you like it. If not, then all you have to do is cancel the subscription. It doesn't cost you a dime.

In this new publishing dynamic when everyone is fighting for readers, it's all about being seen and heard. It's MORE MORE MORE, not less less less. Do we really need to have all those things? I can barely keep up with the social media I do take on. Why would I want to do more? Will it get me new readers? Will it make fans of those readers?

I don't know. They say this business has a long tail. People will be able to find my books twenty years from now. With the ebook revolution, books will never go out of print. So, will I be the next Jane Austen being read 100 years from now? Who knows. But will a newsletter still be read 20 years from now? Probably not.

Tell me -- How do you feel about newsletters, blogs, websites? Is it okay to have a blog as a website with newsletter content?

Anne Gallagher (c) 2014

The Earl's Engagement is For Sale

Well, after much time spent with the revision notes from my lovely and wise critique partners, THE EARL'S ENGAGEMENT is finished and out there among the masses. Yay!

You can find it for Amazon here.

I've also uploaded directly to Barnes & Noble for the Nook here.

Sony, Apple, Diesal, and Kobo links are on the sidebar.

This book was an absolute pleasure to write. It gave me fits and starts for awhile but once it settled down and I decided which direction to take with it, it became like an old friend.

I was worried during the writing of it because I didn't cry. And that made me nervous. I know the book will be a success if I cry at some point. Hence, my tearing it apart from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Once I implemented all the changes and rereading it, I bawled like a baby. So yay for me.

Anyway, for all who read it, I hope you enjoy it.
And for those of you looking for the paperback version, look for that in late spring.

Smashwords

I just wanted to let you all know that THE LADY'S FATE, is now available on Smashwords. 

If I've learned nothing else from this experience of self-publishing it's how to format for every single type of e-reader available.  With the time change, I was up at the ungodly hour of 4 am, and with nothing to do, I decided to try and upload to Smashwords.  Which I did, but it kept bouncing back to me saying that my file was too big.  So I had to "strip it".  Which means, I had to take out ALL the formatting. 

ALL the formatting.  And then reformat the entire document.  It took me all day Sunday.  4 am to 4 pm.  I kid you not.  12 hours.  I had to learn a  bunch of new techniques and then re-upload the document.  But by 6 pm it was "pending" with no glitches.  So I was a happy girl when I went to bed last night. 

Hah!  And I though the learning curve for the Kindle was hard.  That was a cake walk compared to yesterday. 

But now I know how to do it.  And yes, I am very proud of myself.  I never, ever thought in a zillion years, that I would ever know how to do things with a computer that would end up becoming a book.  A published book at that. 

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Internet Indie Book Fair Blogfest

Good morning. I'm so glad you could make it to the Internet Book Fair Blogfest. Thank you to M.A. Leslie for hosting. This is such a spectacular idea, and I'm so glad to be a part of it.

On my side bar you will see the covers for the two books I have on sale now at Amazon in Kindle.

Here is a little information on THE LADY'S FATE. (Available for $2.99)

Lady Violet Flowers has only one Season to find a husband. Raised in the Queen’s household, Violet is elevated in rank, yet overlooked by society for having no dowry. Violet is petrified she’ll bring disgrace to her mother’s name in not making a good match, if any.

The widowed Marquess of Haverlane needs to find the perfect nanny for his beloved daughter, Jane. Fortunate for Haverlane, when the very plump, but very pretty Lady Violet rescues Jane from almost drowning, the solution to his problem stands before him. Ensconced at his country estate, Haverlane and Violet’s only means of communication is through correspondence, which leads to an amiable affection.

Unwilling to think of Violet as more than a nanny, a surprising Christmas kiss compels Haverlane to look at her in a whole new light, and she at him. However, Parliamentary demands made upon his time keep them both a safe distance from temptation.

As the Season begins, an old flame emerges from Haverlane’s past and attempts to rekindle that fire. Violet is bereft and knows things cannot remain as they are. She accepts an offer for her hand, even though Haverlane is the only one she wants. By the time Haverlane realizes Violet is the woman he has been waiting for, not only for himself, but for his daughter as well, it may be too late. Haverlane must now do what Violet has dreaded most – bring scandal to her mother’s house to try to win her back.
                                                  *******

Here's a review from Amazon --

I felt like I was reading one of the classics. Gallagher has done her research and The Lady's fate reads just as if it were written back in Austen's day. But she gives us a new set of characters to examine, and even though they're playing by the same set of Regency rules, the plot takes fresh, unpredictable turns.

The relationship between Violet and Haverlane takes time to develop, but their electricity is immediate, even before things get physical. Patience is rewarded with some of the steamiest kisses I've ever read---you know, the kind where you go back to read them again...and again, just to make sure you didn't miss anything. I think the attraction's even more intriguing because up until the very end, it's unclear if/how it can progress.

The characters are all well-defined and interesting, even those who are infuriating. My favorite is Lady Olivia in all her obstinate, noble, cane-thumping glory. I finished this book knowing I'd like to spend more time with them, so I look forward to more from this author---particularly in the "Reluctant Grooms" series.
                                                       ******

Second Review for The Lady's Fate from Amazon --

From the Jane Austen-esque prose to the twisting and turning plot, The Lady's Fate is a charming and engaging romance. Gallagher knows how to take a trope and give it a unique slant, building tension and longing that make Haverlane and Violet's story hard to put down. Through the ups and downs of their blossoming relationship, Gallagher keeps us guessing until the end. A delightful read for Regency Romance lovers!

And the blurb for A WIFE FOR WINSBARREN (which is a short story available for $.99) is on my sidebar, along with descriptions of my forthcoming books. If you'd like a sneak peek at my first pages, they are under my header.

For a little more from THE DUKE'S DIVORCE, scroll down to yesterday as I have just posted an excerpt from Chapter Five.

Thank you all so much for stopping by today. Have a great time at the Book Fair.