Aloha to Emily Greenwood and HOW TO HANDLE A SCANDAL (The Scandalous Sisters Book 2)

THEY THOUGHT THE DEBUTANTE WAS SCANDALOUS

Miss Elizabeth Tarryton was the toast of the London Season the year she was seventeen and spurned young Tommy Halifax. A careless flirt who didn't know what she wanted, she was startled into laughter by his public proposal of marriage. Furious and heartbroken, Tommy promptly left home for a life of adventure in India.

IF THEY ONLY KNEW ABOUT THE WIDOW

Seven years later, Elizabeth has much to make up for, but the methods she chooses for doing good are as shocking as her earlier wanton behavior--should the ton ever find out. Tommy returns to England a hero, with no intention of allowing himself to be hurt by a woman ever again, but he's fascinated nonetheless by Elizabeth, now widowed and more alluring than ever.

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Emily Greenwood worked for a number of years as a writer, crafting newsletters and fundraising brochures, but she far prefers writing playful love stories set in Regency England, and she thinks romance novels are the chocolate of literature. A Golden Heart finalist, she lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters.

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Sourcebooks offers an excerpt from HOW TO HANDLE A SCANDAL ...

Eliza Tarryton broke Tommy Halifax’s heart when she was seventeen and the scandal of the London Season. Tommy promptly left England. He’s been gone for six years, but now he’s back, and Eliza wants to make amends for what happened. But so far, Tommy has been cool to her. In this scene, they’ve just encountered each other in a bookshop, where Eliza was engaged in something she doesn’t want Tommy to discover.

“Lizzie?” he said in a voice that held none of the playful warmth he’d showed Mrs. Dombrell. “What are you doing here?”

She decided on misdirection as her best course. “It’s Eliza now, actually. I haven’t gone by Lizzie for years. Are you shopping for something in particular?” A stupid question that made her sound as though she worked at the shop and was offering assistance, but with any luck it would distract him.

It didn’t, and his eyes narrowed. “Were you there the whole time I was with Mrs. Dombrell? Were you spying on me?”

She flushed. “What a thought!” she said, managing a laugh. “I’m simply passing the time before I meet a friend. But perhaps you are up to something nefarious that you wish to hide by attackingme.”

He just stared at her for several long moments, an effective method of intimidation that made her want to squirm.

“You must have been lingering in that aisle for some time—and very quietly, too—because I have perfectly good hearing, and the only person I’ve noticed around that aisle was a lady who emerged several minutes ago. Perhaps she was a friend of yours?”

Eliza willed herself not to flush again. The last thing she needed was to make Tommy interested in who Nancy was.

“I don’t know who you mean. I was simply looking for books about Italy,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to go there. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be on my way.” She stuck her nose in the air and took a step forward, but he grabbed hold of her arm and drew her close.

“You’re up to something, aren’t you? You might have my brother charmed into thinking you’ve changed into a virtuous woman, but I’m not so easily fooled.”

This was all wrong, the way things were between them. Maybe he’d known she wanted to apologize yesterday and he hadn’t wanted to hear it, but he deserved her apology—and she really needed to offer it.

Besides, at this rate, they wouldn’t even manage to be pleasant when Will and Anna eventually thrust them together, as now seemed inevitable. And, equally important considering what she was planning to do that night, was that Tommy not be suspicious of her. She looked him in the eye.

“Tommy, I want you to know that I’m very sorry about what I did six years ago when you proposed.” She thought he flinched at the word proposed, but she made herself keep going. “I sent a letter to apologize, but I don’t know whether you ever received it.”

“I did, nine months later.”

She winced, but she’d known it would take a long time for a letter to reach India. Her letter had been stiff and formal, because she hadn’t known how else to express herself.

“A letter was inadequate as an apology, and far too easy for me. I hope you’ll accept my apology now for the way I behaved. I was young and, frankly, scared about the idea of marriage. You deserved so much better from me.”

Book 1 in the series ...

Aloha to Emily Greenwood and THE BEAUTIFUL ONE

Thank you so much for having me here today! To celebrate the release of THE BEAUTIFUL ONE, the first title in my Scandalous Sisters series, I asked Anna Black, my spirited heroine, to answer a few questions so you can get to know a little about her and her love interest, Will Halifax, Viscount Grandville.

What are words you live by?

I’ve always lived by these words: You can only really trust yourself. But lately I’m starting to wonder if they’re such a wise guideline after all.

What do you wish someone had told you before you grew up?
That sometimes temptation is a good thing!

Tell us about a special memory you have that you’d never forget.

I’ll certainly never forget the first time I met Will, and the memory is special, but it’s not exactly nice, because he was in a very black mood. How our meeting went is a little funny in hindsight now that I know him, but it definitely wasn’t funny at the time.

A PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS…

The ton is buzzing about The Beautiful One, a striking figure in a scandalous book of nude sketches. Only two men know the true identity of The Beautiful One, and they are scouring the countryside, determined to find her.

BUT NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT ONES

The unlikely center of the scandal, Anna Black is forced to flee home as disaster looms. Her tomboy’s heart and impertinent tongue serve her well when she meets the most brooding viscount ever to darken a drawing room. Will Halifax, Viscount Grandville, has his reasons for pushing people away, and when his tempestuous teenaged ward arrives on his doorstep, he presses Anna to take on her care. As Anna begins to melt the Viscount’s frozen heart, she knows the more she loves, the more she has to lose. For although Will cares nothing for what makes Society titter, he has yet to see The Beautiful One.

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Emily Greenwood worked for a number of years as a writer, crafting newsletters and fundraising brochures, but she far prefers writing playful love stories set in Regency England, and she thinks romance novels are the chocolate of literature. A Golden Heart finalist, she lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters.

emilygreenwood.net
twitter.com/emigreenwood
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Excerpt from THE BEAUTIFUL ONE by Emily Greenwood:

Rounding the edge of the wood at the back of Stillwell, he was startled to see his ward standing about. She was looking up at a tree in which, from the movement of its leaves and branches, some large creature seemed to be thrashing. A crow?

As he drew nearer to the oblivious Lizzie, he was almost certain he heard a woman’s voice coming from among the leaves. Lizzie stepped closer to the tree and lifted her hands upward, and he saw that on a thick branch perhaps six feet off the ground were perched two feet in past-their-prime dark ankle boots, and above them he was treated to a view of trim calves he could not regret. The surrounding leaves and branches mostly obscured the rest of his recently hired governess. In the instant before Lizzie became aware of Will, he saw that she held in her cupped hands a fluffy white ball.

Lizzie turned and saw him, her mouth forming into an “O” as a voice called from above, “Lizzie? I’m ready for the owlet.”

“Er,” said Lizzie, looking at him. In the clear afternoon light he noticed that her eyes were a different color blue than Ginger’s had been. But the shape was Ginger’s, as were the eyebrows. Not her fault, but he couldn’t go the route of compassion. It would only muddy what had to be. He looked past her and lifted a hand to rub his eyes.

“Miss Black,” he said, knowing he could not avoid asking, “what on earth are you doing?”

There was a pause as she absorbed his arrival and a shifting of the feet on the branch near his forehead as they drew together, perhaps in an attempt at modesty.

“Ah, my lord,” she said from above him. “Good afternoon. Lizzie and I are engaged in returning a fallen owlet to its nest. It was her idea. She is very caring toward animals.”

He could feel Lizzie’s big blue eyes on him though his own were still covered by his hand. He had no doubt as to whose idea it had been to climb the tree. He hadn’t truly expected Anna Black to be a typical sort of governess, had he?

“Come down at once.”

“If you will wait just a moment, my lord,” she said breezily, “I shall be down directly. Lizzie, the owlet.”

Lizzie cleared her throat. “Here.”

He tapped her on the shoulder before she could lift her arms farther. “Give me that creature, please.”

She looked uncertain, but she clearly didn’t want to displease him, and she handed over the motionless owl. He took it carefully from her and did not return her tentative smile. He could feel her eagerness for him to acknowledge her, but he let it flow past him.

The leaves and branches above them shook as Anna Black crouched down and extended her hand for the animal. Her bonnet, the same horrible blue one, had fallen on its strings around her neck again, and her hair, apparently loosened by her climb, curled crazily about her face as if she were some unkempt urchin, accentuating her pert nose and reminding him of her jack-in-the-box appearance from the coach.

Her pink lips pressed outward at the sight of him; doubtless she was annoyed by his arrival, but her expression didn’t draw an answering wave of annoyance from him. Instead, her lips were making him wonder, unaccountably, what it might feel like to be kissed all over by pink butterflies.

“The owlet, please,” she fairly ordered him.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Get down this instant before you fall. I will return the owlet.”

“I am already positioned to do so. If you will just give it to me, I can put it back and then receive your displeasure properly on the ground.”

He grunted. Why did he keep finding himself in out-of-his-control conversations with this maddening woman?

In his palm the owlet’s heart beat with a rapid, stressed flutter. He reached up his hand, and she gently took the animal and disappeared into the foliage.

From above came a few rustling noises, then the angry screech of what had to be an adult owl and a yelp. Fearing Miss Black would fall, he stepped forward to catch her, but at that same moment she jumped neatly down, so that she landed right in front of him.

He grabbed her arms, a reflex to steady her. She didn’t need his help, but their eyes locked, and for a moment he read vulnerability there before it was replaced with the hard glint of independence. She smelled like sunshine and crushed leaves, and he felt the slim softness of her arms and his body’s yearning to hug her close.

She stepped away from him. It had all happened in the space of a few moments.

But as he watched her brush some leaves from her skirts with her head down, that vulnerability he’d glimpsed tugged at him. Who was this woman? Where had she come from? She was clearly educated and intelligent, and though she was too forthright and she dressed terribly, she was not rough, merely unusual.

That life-on-the-edge-of-propriety quality he’d observed in her the night before had suggested that she’d known some hardship, or that she had some burden she might trade for money. And yet today, in the company of his ward, she looked at ease, even if her eyes seemed to be hiding something.

Aloha to Emily Greenwood and MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT

This is a banner week at Sourcebooks with the release of many enticing titles.  Emily Greenwood is celebrating the release of MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT, Book 3 in the Regency Mischief series:

With the night so full of romance...

Colin Pearce, the Earl of Ivorwood, never dreamed he'd desire another man's fiancée, but when his best friend goes off to war and asks Colin to look after the bewitching Josie Cardworthy, he falls under her sparkling spell.

Who can resist mischief?

Josie can't wait for the return of her long-absent fiancé. If only her beloved sister might find someone, too...someone like the handsome, reserved Colin. A gypsy's love potion gives Josie the chance to matchmake, but the wild results reveal her own growing passion for the earl. And though fate offers them a chance, a steely honor may force him to reject what her reckless heart is offering...

I asked Emily what are the top five things she would like to see in London for her own season ...

Hello, and what a treat to be back at SOS Aloha! Thank you, Kim, for having me here to celebrate the release of MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT.   What a wonderful idea! Without further ado I shall tie on my enchanted time-travel scarf & let the magic whisk me back to the early 1800s…

And here I am! Dressed in a blue muslin gown, just like Miss Josie Cardworthy, the heroine of MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT. She has a sometimes-disastrous tendency to do the impulsive thing, which gets her into trouble when she makes her very first visit to London. I wonder what trouble I’ll find? The London spots I’ll definitely visit will be…

1. Mr. Darcy’s townhouse. I know…but he seems so real J What I mean is I’d want to be invited into the home of an upper-class gentleman, perhaps for a dinner party. I’d want to hear my leather slippers tapping softly on his polished floors and see the moonlight coming through the tall windows of his drawing room to fall on luxurious furnishings that I could actually touch (unlike what happens when you tour historical homes in the 21st century and everything’s roped off.) And I’d want to sit at his dining room table to partake of the roast beef and wine and conversation. In short, I’d want to be his guest!

2. The Tower of London, which my heroine Josie visits during her trip to London. The Tower reminds her of her friend Colin, the Earl of Ivorwood, (the hero of MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT), who’s an amateur historian. Many famous people were imprisoned in this old castle on the banks of the Thames, including Elizabeth I before she was queen. Some prisoners were unfortunately tortured, the two main methods being the rack, which stretched the body painfully, and manacles, which torturers used to hang victims by their wrists. I’m not certain how much I’d have been able to see of such implements in the Regency era, but I could have visited the Royal Menagerie, which was housed in the Tower and opened to the public in 1804.

3. Bond Street, where many of the best shops were. I love looking at old clothes on museum mannequins, but imagine being able to see–and wear!—all the latest Regency fashions when they were new. The Turkey reds, the fine patterned muslins, the silvery silks—all the fabrics that would have made up the morning gowns and ball gowns for a Regency lady, along with the gloves and hats and shoes…sigh.

4. Brooks’s Club. It was for gentlemen only, so wouldn’t it be pretty darn interesting to visit? I’d sneak in disguised as a man, of course, so I could hear just what all those gentlemen talked about when the constraints of feminine companionship were lifted.

5. Almack’s. Well, you apparently didn’t go for the food— puny offerings of bread and butter and bad lemonade— but if you wanted to be in a room full of fashionable people dancing, this was this place. If I went there, maybe it would feel like being inside one of my favorite BBC productions, like this lovely dance scene from the Emma miniseries -- link.  On the other hand, Almack’s would have been very crowded, and I imagine that, like Colin, my MISCHIEF hero (who’s a reserved man), I would at the end of my Town visit have been happy to return to the country.

My picture of the White Tower / Tower of London
It is the old keep built by William the Conqueror.

About the Author:

Emily Greenwood worked for a number of years as a writer, crafting newsletters and fundraising brochures, but she far prefers writing playful love stories set in Regency England, and she thinks romance novels are the chocolate of literature. A Golden Heart finalist, she lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters.

Sourcebooks is giving away a print copy of MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  What would you like to do in your own London season?

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, June 7, 10 pm in Baltimore.  

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, June 8.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

Learn more about Emily and her books at emilygreenwood.net.

Aloha to Emily Greenwood and GENTLEMAN PREFER MISCHIEF

On this day in 1154, Henry II of England  was crowned at Westminster Abbey.   He was known to be mischievous .... Emily Greenwood joins me today to celebrate the release of GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF.  From her bio (link),

Emily Greenwood has a degree in French and worked for a number of years as a writer, crafting newsletters and fundraising brochures. But she far prefers writing playful love stories set in Regency England, and she thinks romance is the chocolate of literature.

A Golden Heart finalist, she lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters.

Sally MacKenzie (left) and Emily Greenwood (right)
at Lady Jane's Salon/Silver Springs (link)

Kim: I enjoyed meeting you at Lady Jane's Salon/Silver Spring. I love meeting authors in my locale! What is your favorite sight, sound, and smell of the greater DC area? 

Emily:  Kim, it was lovely to meet you too, and thanks for having me on SOS Aloha to celebrate the release of GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF.

One of my very favorite sights in DC is The Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks. Located on the northern end of Georgetown, the gardens are part of a large property that was owned by the Bliss family and is now open to the public. This beautiful outdoor space, which was designed by the landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, feels like a collection of wonderfully old-fashioned garden “rooms.” I love to go there in the spring and stroll among the flowering trees and shrubs and enjoy the weathered stone fountains and statues. 

Dumbarton Oaks
Image from Public Domain (link)

Kim:  What inspired you to study French? What is your favorite French word? French food? French wine?

By the way, Henry II understood many language, but only spoke French and Latin.

Emily:  I just always loved French, ever since I was young. Perhaps this started out with my mom cooking a lot of French food from Julia Child’s cookbooks, but I also always loved the pictures I would see of France, and I loved the sound of spoken French. We had some records (records!) of French songs, too, that I loved to listen to. My favorite French word might be patisserie (a pastry shop). My favorite French food is a meal you can get at any bistro called a “steak frites,” which is a nice piece of steak, often with some delicious sauce of pepper and brandy, and skinny, amazing fries. My favorite French wine is a Cotes-du-Rhone, which is a nice, usually affordable red.

Hawaii's CoCo Puffs would be welcomed in a patisserie.

Kim:  Who helped you along the path to publishing?

Emily:  Early on I worked with two critique partners who were super-helpful and encouraging, and that made a huge difference in my capacity to learn and persevere. Also, I had some encouraging responses from agents and editors, even though they rejected my work. Washington Romance Writers and RWA have been awesome resources full of amazing, generous writers and professionals. And I feel extremely fortunate to have Jenny Bent as my agent—she’s fantastic! Finally, my family and friends have never been anything but enthusiastic about my writing. 

Menehune are mischievous  in Hawaii.

Kim:  Tell us about GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF!

Emily:  I like to think I’m the only author—or at least the only Regency romance author—with a current release that has haunted sheep in it J Those sheep belong to Miss Lily Teagarden, and now the whole neighborhood thinks they’re haunted because they’ve gone into the “haunted” woods between her family’s property and the estate belonging to their neighbor, Hal, Viscount Roxham.

Hal is not Lily’s favorite person. A handsome charmer who loves to tease, he broke her heart four years before without even knowing it. Little does she want to ask him for help, but the “haunted” sheep are causing her real problems.

A former army captain, Hal became viscount when his brother died, and he’s not exactly reconciled to this change in his life. What he loves is fun, and he thinks it’s come knocking when prim, beautiful Lily arrives to demand his help with her ridiculous problem. No sooner does he begin to investigate, though, than she mysteriously starts to thwart him—and the game is on. With each new bit of mischief, Hal falls deeper under her spell, but Lily’s the only woman in England who doesn’t think he’s Lord Perfect, and it’s going to take everything he’s got to win her love.

Moonlight over Pearl Harbor

Kim:  What's next for Emily Greenwood?

Emily:  The last book in my Mischief series, MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT, will release in June 2014. Here’s the blurb: Engaged to the perfect man, Miss Josie Cardworthy wants her sister to find the same bliss—with Josie’s dear friend, the Earl of Ivorwood. But when Josie gives Ivorwood a love potion, she’s the one who falls under the handsome earl’s spell.

Mahalo, Emily, for visiting SOS Aloha!  I posted my four star review of GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF on Amazon (link) and Goodreads (link).    Sourcebooks is giving away a print copy of GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  What's your favorite "thing" from France - the language?  the food?  the chateaux? 

2.  This giveaway is open to all readers.

3.  Comments are open through Saturday, December 21, 10 pm in Baltimore.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, December 22.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

To learn more about Emily and her books, check out her website at emilygreenwood.net.