American Historical #bookbuffet

Introducing the Book Lovers’ Buffet. Load up, you won’t gain a pound!

The Buffet’s “Bouquet of Books” sale will be open May 1-3. More than 175 e-books, all reduced in price to just 99 cents. Save in categories such as Young Adult, Contemporary, Paranormal, Suspense, Erotic Romance, and more, including my historical romance Rogue's Hostage!

PLUS, visit the website to win gift cards to your choice of online retailers. $400 in gift cards up for grabs!

If you're like me, you love Historical Romance. Today I'm focusing on the American-set books in the sale, starting with my own, of course!



Rogue's Hostage - Linda McLaughlin
Colonial American Romance

His hostage.  Her destiny.

From the wilderness of Pennsylvania to the fall of Quebec, Mara and Jacques are thrust into the tumult of war and passion, relying only on their feelings for each other to stay  alive.  Before the war ends, they will risk death, embrace life, and discover love that transcends all bounds.

Improper Situation - Sydney Jane Baily

A 24-year-old confirmed spinster won't risk heartbreak, until a handsome stranger awakens her yearning both for companionship and for indulgent pleasure...

From dusty Colorado to civilized Boston, Charlotte and Reed encounter sinister forces and scorned women. With passions ablaze yet often at odds, they find themselves in a very Improper Situation.




Tame a Wild Wind - Cynthia Woolf
Western Romance from an Amazon Bestselling Western Author

He’s looking for work not love. She’s looking for a ranch foreman not the love of a lifetime.

Former Texas Ranger Sam Colter isn't looking for love.  Neither is pretty widow Cassie O'Malley.  But when a man stalking Sam for killing his brother kidnaps Cassie, Sam discovers it's more than duty that sends him racing to her rescue.  Will Cassie realize the truth about her own feelings before it's too late?

The Escort - Gina Robinson

Young, beautiful Italian mail-order bride Angelina D’Alessandro is married by proxy to an older man she’s never met—her only chance to escape the poverty of Italy for the hope of a new life in America.

Mine owner and explosives expert Tonio Domani prefers to travel alone. In his line of work he can’t afford distractions. Against his better judgment he’s coerced into playing chaperone to a beautiful and tempting bride. But what scares him most is the rising passion he feels for Angelina and the danger of losing his heart to her.

Click here for the page with all the historical books and buy links. Enjoy!

My Lady Elinor's Escape new release giveaway continues through May 5. I'm giving away a $10.00 gift certificate of the winner's choice: Amazon, BN, Starbucks, etc. Winner will be notified on May 6. There are several ways to enter.

1) Leave a comment here. If you are commenting anonymously, please leave an email address so I can find you if you win!

2) Friend me at Goodreads or Shelfari. (I will friend you back)

3) Join my YahooGroups announcement list.

Linda

Blog Week Craziness #FoFblog

To celebrate the reissue of my Regency romance, Lady Elinor's Escape, I'm doing a mini-blog tour along with two other promotional events this week. Stop by when you can. There's a chance to enter to win a prize at every stop.

Mon. April 29: The Romance Studio blog (excerpt)
and Why I Love the Regency Era at Leanne Tyler's blog


Sat. May 4: First Sight Saturday at Jill Hughey's blog

For the blog tour I'm giving away a $10.00 gift certificate of the winner's choice: Amazon, BN, Starbucks, etc. Winner will be notified on May 6. There are several ways to enter.

1) Leave a comment here. If you are commenting anonymously, please leave an email address so I can find you if you win!

2) Friend me at Goodreads or Shelfari. (I will friend you back)

3) Join my YahooGroups announcement list.

More announcements coming on Wednesday!

Linda

Meet Lady Elinor #SPeekSunday

Before I get into this Sunday's Sneak Peek, I want to announce that the cover of Lady Elinor's Escape, designed by the very talented Lacey Savage, made the finals in the April 2013 Indie eBook Cover Awards! This month's Guest Judge Scarlett Rugers, a professional book cover designer, from Melbourne Australia, had this to say about the cover:

A historical regency romance with absolutely gorgeous golden colours – the placement of elements and colour scheme are well-balanced and harmonious.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks the cover is absolutely stunning!

The book is a traditional Regency romance. Here's the blurb:

Lady Elinor Ashworth always longed for adventure, but when she runs away from her abusive aunt, she finds more than she bargained for. Elinor fears her aunt who is irrational and dangerous, threatening Elinor and anyone she associates with. When she encounters an inquisitive gentleman, she accepts his help, but fearing for his safety, hides her identity by pretending to be a seamstress. She resists his every attempt to draw her out, all the while fighting her attraction to him. 

There are too many women in barrister Stephen Chaplin’s life, but he has never been able to turn his back on a damsel in distress. The younger son of a baronet is a ‘rescuer’ of troubled females, an unusual vocation fueled guilt over his failure to save the woman he loved from her brutal husband. He cannot help falling in love with his secretive seamstress, but to his dismay, the truth of her background reveals Stephen as the ineligible party.

(For those not familiar with the genre, Newgate was the name of a prison in London.) Now for our Sneak Peek at the first six paragraphs of Chapter One:

She might as well be in Newgate.

Lady Elinor Ashworth stared out the window of her bedchamber at acres of farmland sprouting new growth. Spring green brightened the vista, taunting her with the promise of freedom. After three long, lonely months trapped in this cottage, her spirit cried out for something more, something she could not name.

She glanced at the sketchbook in her lap. She had intended to draw the pastoral scene outside her window, but her hand had sketched a young lady forlornly staring through the panes of a window. A truer self-portrait had never been drawn.

Until the last few months, she had been allowed to wander alone through the Wiltshire countryside, but no longer. Not since Aunt Sarah came out of her melancholy and turned into a raving madwoman.

All her life Elinor had dreamed of adventure, so what she was planning to do should not daunt her in the slightest. She had read about people braving the ocean in small boats, exploring the jungles of Africa, searching for ancient artifacts in Egypt.

In contrast, stealing out of her aunt’s house in the dark, walking to the nearest coaching inn and traveling by herself to London hardly qualified as an adventure. The merest of escapades, in fact. Or so she assured herself to calm the butterflies suddenly dancing in her stomach. Still, what other choice did she have?

Lady Elinor's Escape is now available at Amazon,  All Romance eBooks and Barnes and Noble. Coming soon to other retailers.

To celebrate the reissue of Lady Elinor's Escape, I'm giving away a $10.00 gift certificate of the winner's choice: Amazon, BN, Starbucks, etc. Winner will be notified on May 6. There are several ways to enter.

1) Leave a comment here. If you are commenting anonymously, please leave an email address so I can find you if you win!

2) Friend me at Goodreads or Shelfari. (I will friend you back)

3) Join my YahooGroups announcement list.

Click here to read more Sneak Peeks.

Linda

My Tortured Hero: Updated

This was supposed to be my portion of the Tortured Hero Blog Hop, which unfortunately had to be cancelled. However, that's no reason for me not to talk about the hero of my newest release.

There's something about a tortured hero that appeals to a woman's tender nature. She can't help but wonder what made him the way he is and what she can do to ease his pain. But he never makes it easy for her, does he?

We all know how to recognize a tortured hero when we see one, right? He's the bad boy who thumbs his nose at authority and hides his pain under a  don't-give-a-crap attitude. Or the brooding loner or drifter who shuns society to nurse his wounds.

Or maybe not. He could also be a charmer who hides his inner angst with a flirtatious manner or a polite smile.

Stephen Chaplin, the hero of Lady Elinor's Escape, falls into the latter category. A respectable barrister with ties to the ton, on the surface he seems like a well-adjusted Regency gentleman. A paragon of virtue, in fact. But inside, he's torn up by guilt over the death of his first love Deborah at the hands of her abusive husband. He's also unable to forgive her brother, his former friend, Marcus Knightley, for not helping them to elope. Stephen's distrust of Marc complicates matters considerably when Lady Elinor is reported missing.

Stephen has tried to make up for his failures by helping other women in distress, which is why he's unable to resist the heroine when she rushes into a rural inn, desperate to catch a coach to London. But Stephen is not the only one hiding secrets, and trust doesn't come easily to a woman like Lady Elinor.

Lady Elinor's Escape
by Linda McLaughlin
Sweet Regency Romance 

Lady Elinor Ashworth always longed for adventure, but when she runs away from her abusive aunt, she finds more than she bargained for. Elinor fears her aunt who is irrational and dangerous, threatening Elinor and anyone she associates with. When she encounters an inquisitive gentleman, she accepts his help, but fearing for his safety, hides her identity by pretending to be a seamstress. She resists his every attempt to draw her out, all the while fighting her attraction to him.

There are too many women in barrister Stephen Chaplin's life, but he has never been able to turn his back on a damsel in distress. The younger son of a baronet is a rescuer of troubled females, an unusual vocation fueled guilt over his failure to save the woman he loved from her brutal husband. He cannot help falling in love with his secretive seamstress, but to his dismay, the truth of her background reveals Stephen as the ineligible party.

Lady Elinor's Escape is now available at Amazon, All Romance eBooks, and Barnes and Noble. Coming soon to other retailers.

What draws you to the tortured variety of hero?

To celebrate the reissue of Lady Elinor's Escape, I'm giving away a $10.00 gift certificate of the winner's choice: Amazon, BN, Starbucks, etc. Winner will be notified on May 6. There are several ways to enter.

1) Leave a comment here. If you are commenting anonymously, please leave an email address so I can find you if you win!

2) Friend me at Goodreads

3) Join my YahooGroups announcement list.

Linda McLaughlin

Website: http://www.lindamclaughlin.com/

Blog: http://flightsafancy.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LyndiLamont

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/lindamclaughlin

Interview at Storm Goddess Site

Jane Austen Center, Bath, England

Today I'm being interviewed by Nikki Barrett at Storm Goddess Book Reviews and More.

When I answered Nikki's question, I skipped one and then forgot to go back and answer it. Too bad I'm not a blond or I could claim... never mind. Anyway, I did answer it in the comments and here it is here:

If you could spend a day with anyone from history, dead or alive, who would it be, and what would you do? What would you ask them?

That's a tough one, but a day in Bath with Jane Austen would be fun. A visit to the pump room and a long talk about writing over afternoon tea. Yes, that would do nicely.

Where would you like to go and who would you talk to?

Linda

Book Review Club: Steampunk Fun

Soulless
by Gail Carriger
Adult Steampunk
Hatchette, 2009

Soulless is the first in the popular Parasol Protectorate series featuring Miss Alexia Tarabotti, a half-Italian, half-English spinster in Victorian London. But Alexia is no ordinary spinster; she is a preternatural, a being without a soul. She is the paranormal opposite of the supernatural creatures who inhabit this world, the vampires, werewolves and ghosts. One touch from her and the vampire or werewolf is rendered fangless. She keeps her soullessness quiet for propriety's sake. Even her mother has no idea what she inherited from her Italian father, other than his Roman nose and dark complexion.

The story starts when Alexia sits down to tea in the library during a ball. She is rudely interrupted by a newly-created vampire who has the bad manners to attempt to bit her. Alexia fights him off with her brass parasol, accidentally killing him in the process. To make matters worse, the incident brings Lord Conall Maccon, alpha werewolf, into her life. Sparks fly between them immediately, with sexual tension thick enough to bite, though it takes Alexia a while to realize what Maccon knows almost immediately: the are meant to be mated.

The story follows Alexia and Maccon's attempts to discover who is creating rogue vampires and stop them before things spiral hopelessly out of control. While the mystery plot is quite exciting, the story is amusingly told and had me laughing throughout. I'll be reading more of this clever, engaging series that combines fantasy, science fiction, mystery and romance into one satisfying mix.

Lady of Devices: A Steampunk Adventure Novel 
by Shelly Adina
Young Adult Steampunk
First in the Magnificent Devices series
Self-published, 2011

At seventeen Lady Claire Trevelyan is both the daughter of a viscount and a brainy tomboy. While she should be thinking about making her debut and finding a husband, she instead aspires to attend college to earn an engineering degree. She would rather help the chauffeur with her father's steam landau than shop for new clothes or flirt with elegible young gentleman. However, her life becomes even more complicated when her father commits suicide after his unwise investments bankrupt the country. Her mother decamps to the Cornwall estate, leaving Claire to close up the London home, but before that happens, the house is destroyed in a riot, leaving Claire homeless in a restive London. How she goes from a pampered innocent to the Lady of Devices, head of a South Bank gang, makes for an exciting and enjoyable odyssey.

In Adina's steampunk version of Victorian England, Prince Albert is still alive and the Crystal Palace is still going strong into the 1880's. Society is divided between two rival groups, Bloods (aristocrats) and Wits (scientists and other intellectuals). Though born to the Blood clan, Claire's sympathies are clearly with the Wits.

I liked this book so much, the second I finished it, I went online (at about 3:30AM on a sleepless night) and bought Her Own Devices, the next installment in the series. I love Claire's spunk and resourcefulness and sympathize with her plight. The secondary characters are good, too. We have the obligatory love triangle here: should Claire choose Lord James Selwyn, a man of her own class, or brilliant inventor Andrew Malvern, despite his middle class origins? I know who I'm rooting for. (I'm Team Andrew, all the way.) The homeless youngsters she takes on are as delightful as their names: Snouts, Tigg and the Mopsies, twin ten-year-old girls who are streetwise beyond their years. I just love the Mopsies, and little Willie who is unable to talk about his tragic past.

Recommended to all fans of steampunk or offbeat, quirky historical stories.

Have you tried steampunk? And if so, how did you like it?

Linda

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Goodreads Reviews: Historical Mysteries I Loved

A Darker God by Barbara Cleverly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Letty's third outing set in 1928 Athens, Letty's mentor, Sir Andrew Merriman, is killed at the dress rehearsal of a Greek tragedy he is directing about the murder of King Agamemnon by his vengeful wife Clytemnestra. As more facts come to light, the parallels between ancient and modern become eerie. Personal vendettas and politics entwine in nefarious plots, and Letty's life is endangered. I found the political aspects interesting, as I'm not familiar with this period of Greek history. I love this series, and enjoyed this suspenseful episode, though I missed the archeological focus of the first two books. I am definitely hoping for a fourth book, with Letty off digging again!

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've long been a fan of Winston Churchill, so couldn't resist this one. It's the first of the Maggie Hope mystery series, about a young woman in London at the start of World War II. A mathematician, Maggie hopes to do more for the war effort than type, but takes a job as a secretary in the Prime Minister's office. She has no idea that she is of interest to the authorities because of her parentage, of which she knows very little, having been raised in the US by her aunt. The likable characters, exciting plot and a great sense of time and place make this a marvelous read.

What I like about both books is a strong female character trying to make her way in a man's world, and the strong sense of time and place. Do you enjoy historical mysteries?

Linda

View all my Goodreads reviews

Fooling Around at CTR

This April Fool's Day I'll be at Coffee Time Romance's Book Brew, sharing excerpts with other authors involving furred and feathered characters. I'll be sharing excerpts from Worth The Risk and Tova's Dragon, and a personal story about my first dog Lucky.

The excerpt from Worth The Risk features Mitch's dog, Albert, an Old English Sheepdog, much like the one in this picture from my Art Explorsion Clipart CD. Isn't he cute?

Drop by to visit and fill up those Goodreads shelves with some great new books.

I'll be giving away an e-book copy of Romancing The Pages, an anthology published by my local RWA Chapter, to one lucky commenter. I was honored to be one of the editors for the stories, most of which feature new and upcoming authors. Several of the stories feature animals, mostly dogs, so it sort of fits today's theme.

Wednesday is Barrie Summi's Book Review Club day, so I'll be back then with my April review.

Have a good day and don't let yourself get fooled!

Linda