On this day in History: King Tut, Historical Romance, and Downton Abbey

On this day in 1922, Howard Carter's excavation group uncovered the steps to Tutankhamen's tomb outside Thebes. Since it was the best preserved burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings, Carter's discovery gave an unprecedented look at a Pharaoh's life in Ancient Egypt.

Most tombs in the Valley of Kings had been opened, raided, and even visited by tourists from other ancient civilizations. From the Theban Mapping Project (link),

The Valley of the Kings was another frequently visited site in Graeco-Roman times. Over two thousand Greek and Roman graffiti can be found in ten royal tombs. KV 9 attracted the most visitors, probably because Rameses VI's cartouchestrongly resembles the one of Amenhetep III and might have been a reminder of their hero Memnon. Around one thousand graffiti were noted in this tomb alone.

Fast forward to 1799 when the Napoleon arrived in Egypt and began to excavate the ancient tombs. The English, Italians, and even an American joined the hunt in Egyptian antiquities, leading up to Carter's discovery.

Napeoleon Bonaparte before the great Sphinx 

by Jean-Leon Gerome

Egyptology has always fascinated me as a child when King Tut and his artifacts toured the US from 1976 - 1979.  I finally met my "hero" in December 2004 when I hopped on board a Nile cruise with teachers from our NATO assignment in the Netherlands.  We took the overnight train from Aswan to Cairo, where we indulged in a trip to the The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.  King Tut was all that I expected him to be.

I have enjoyed two historical romance set in Egypt, including Loretta Chase's MR IMPOSSIBLE (Book 2 of the Carsington Brothers Series):

Impossible...
Rupert Carsington, fourth son of the Earl of Hargate, is his aristocratic family's favorite disaster. He is irresistibly handsome, shockingly masculine, and irretrievably reckless, and wherever he goes, trouble follows. Still, Rupert's never met an entanglement--emotional or other--he couldn't escape. Until now.

Outrageous...
Now he's in Egypt, stranded in the depths of Cairo's most infamous prison, and his only way out is accepting a beautiful widow's dangerous proposal. Scholar Daphne Pembroke wants him to rescue her brother, who's been kidnapped by a rival seeking a fabled treasure. Their partnership is strictly business: She'll provide the brains, he, the brawn. Simple enough in theory.

Inevitable...
Blame it on the sun or the blazing desert heat, but as tensions flare and inhibitions melt, the most disciplined of women and the most reckless of men are about to clash in the most impossibly irresistible way.

and Anne Cleeland's DAUGHTER OF THE GOD-KING (Regency No. 2):

Hattie Blackhouse is the only child of famous Egyptologists, and when they go missing, she travels to their latest excavation in ancient Thebes only to discover that she is attracting interest from the French, the British, and the Egyptians, who believe her the reincarnation of a long-dead princess.

In the second book in the Regency series, the heroine finds herself in the crosshairs of factions who are vying to support or thwart Napoleon’s latest attempt at world domination—and she unknowingly holds the key.

Check out my review on Goodreads at this link.

I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash. To enter the giveaway.

1. Leave a comment about books set in Egypt - can you recommend a title from any genre?

2. Due to shipping costs, this giveaway is open to US residents only.  But comments are welcome from all readers.

3. Comments are open through Sunday, November 6, 10 pm in Baltimore. I'll post the winner on Monday, November 7, here at SOS Aloha.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

Bonus Trivia - Carter's expedition was funded by George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon.  His family seat is Highclere Castle, the film location of Downton Abbey. 

Aloha to Loretta Chase and DUKES PREFER BLONDES - Dressmakers Book 4

Hau’oli Makakiki Hou!  Let's start the New Year with a fan favorite in Regency Romance - Loretta Chase!  She is celebrating the release of DUKES PREFER BLONDES, Book Four in the Dressmakers series ... 

Lady Clara, the fan-favorite character from Loretta Chase’s New York Times and USA Today bestselling Dressmakers series, finally gets her own happily ever after!

Convenient marriages are rarely so…exciting. Can society’s most adored heiress and London’s most difficult bachelor fall victim to their own unruly desires?

Biweekly marriage proposals from men who can’t see beyond her (admittedly breathtaking) looks are starting to get on Lady Clara Fairfax’s nerves. Desperate to be something more than ornamental, she escapes to her favorite charity. When a child goes missing, she turns to Oliver Radford—a handsome, brilliant, excessively conceited barrister.

Having unexpectedly found himself in line to inherit a dukedom, Radford needs a bride who can navigate the Society he’s never been part of. If he can find one without having to set foot in a ballroom, so much the better. Clara—blonde, blue-eyed, and he must admit, not entirely bereft of brains—will do. As long as he can woo her, wed her—and not, like every other sapskull in London, lose his head over her…

Buy Links: Amazon | B & N | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo

Loretta Chase has worked in academe, retail, and the visual arts, as well as on the streets-as a meter maid-and in video, as a scriptwriter. She might have developed an excitingly checkered career had her spouse not nagged her into writing fiction. Her bestselling historical romances, set in the Regency and Romantic eras of the early 19th century, have won a number of awards, including the Romance Writers of America’s Rita. For more about her past, her books, and what she does and doesn’t do on social media, please visit her website LorettaChase.com.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

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Loretta offers an excerpt from DUKES PREFER BLONDES ...

At the head of Whitehall-street is the noted point of Charing cross; and immediately above it lately opened Trafalgar square, where is to be erected a splendid naval monument; and the new national gallery of the fine arts, now in building, is on the north side of the square.

—Calvin Colton, Four Years in Great Britain, 1831–35

Environs of Covent Garden, London Wednesday 19 August 1835

“Stop it!” the girl cried. “Get off! I won’t go!”

Lady Clara Fairfax, about to alight from her cabriolet, couldn’t hear what the boy said, but she heard him laugh and saw him grab Bridget Coppy’s arm and try to drag her away from the building she was about to enter. It housed the Milliners’ Society for the Education of Indigent Females.

The horse safe in her tiger’s keeping, her ladyship snatched up her whip, picked up her skirts, and ran toward the pair. She struck the boy’s arm with the whip’s butt end. He let out a high-pitched oath.

He was a mean-looking boy, red-haired, with a square, spotty face. He wore the cheap, showy coat she’d learned to associate with the strutting ne’er-do-wells who infested the neighborhood.

“Get away from her, or you’ll get more of the same,” Clara said. “Leave this place. You’ve no business here. Be gone before I send for a constable.”

The boy eyed her in an insolent manner. The effect was spoiled, however, by his having to stretch his head back and cast his beady-eyed gaze upward a distance, for Clara was not petite and he was not tall. His gaze dropped to the whip in her hand, then to the dashing cabriolet behind her—from which she didn’t doubt her maid Davis had descended, brandishing her umbrella.

With a sneer, he said what sounded like, “You better hit harder’n that, you want me to feel it.” He didn’t wait for her to hit harder, but set his hat at a very sharp angle and sauntered off.

“Are you all right?” she asked Bridget.

“Yes, your ladyship, and thank you ever so,” the girl said. “I don’t know what was in his mind to come here. He oughter know his sort ain’t welcome here.”

The Milliners’ Society for the Education of Indigent Females housed and educated girls determined, against prodigious odds, to be respectable.

In the ordinary way of things, girls aiming to learn a trade became apprentices. But London’s dressmakers could pick and choose their apprentices, and the Milliners’ Society girls were outcasts or rejects for one reason or another: The majority were too old to be apprenticed and/or they were “fallen” or carried some other stigma.

The Society picked them up from the gutter—if they were willing to be removed from that location—and did everything possible to make them fit for employment. With practice, diligence, and good eyesight, most girls would learn to sew straight, tiny stitches at great speed, and they could be placed as seamstresses. Some, though, had the potential to rise higher—for instance, to embroider fine muslins, silks, linens, wools, and these materials’ numerous combinations. Perhaps one or two might even possess the wherewithal to rise to become successful milliners or dressmakers.

Bridget was fifteen years old. An unsuccessful flower seller, she had appeared on the Society’s doorstep after being assaulted and robbed who knew how many times, thanks to her refusing assorted pimps’ protection. She had been completely illiterate. She had turned out to be one of the most diligent students and an especially gifted embroiderer. In the display cases, her work always stood out.

Outside the building, so, unfortunately, did her looks.

“I can tell you what was in his mind,” Clara said. “He wasn’t thinking much beyond the fact of your being pretty and what males think when they see pretty girls.”

Lady Clara Fairfax ought to know. Twenty-two years old as of yesterday, she was the most beautiful and sought-after girl in London, and according to some, in all of England.

More books in the Dressmakers series ...