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Mar 14 min read

Unexpected Courtships, A Regency Romance Duet by Alina K. Field is a Shake Off Winter Doldrums pick #regency #historicalromance #giveaway



Title: Unexpected Courtships, A Regency Romance Duet


Includes two novellas and a bonus short story:


Liliana’s Letter

Courted by the Earl

The Ghost of Depford Hall

 

Author: Alina K. Field

 

Genre: Regency Romance

 

Book Blurb:

 

Two ladies who never expected to find love…

 

Two titled gentlemen, each in need of a wife…

 

LILIANA'S LETTER


A promise to his long-dead sister forces Lord Grigsby back into society to broker the marriage of his disreputable nephew to the heiress whose money can save the earldom.


Liliana Ashford has been hired to help an heiress pass muster with the ton and snare a titled husband. Though, if she had a magic wand, she’d turn her charge’s fiancé back into the toad he truly was.


But she never wished him dead! As the young Earl’s sordid death evokes the scandal of the season, a shadow from Liliana’s own past appears, threatening her carefully crafted world. Grigsby sets about finding his nephew’s killer…and Liliana’s secrets. Meanwhile she scrambles to make a new match for the girl, because finding a husband of her own is out of the question—or is it?


COURTED BY THE EARL


Chasing a rumor of a clandestine marriage, the reluctant new Earl of Hackwell combs London for his late brother's secret wife and son, anxious to return the title, find the murderous woman, and head back to his regiment.


Annabelle Harris came to London to find her disgraced sister, the mistress to the Earl of Hackwell. But the Earl has been murdered, Annabelle has his son, and the boy’s mother, her sister has disappeared again.


Now she must clear her sister's name, dodge the handsome new Earl’s investigating, and keep him from taking the boy away. When their paths converge, the reluctant Earl and the independent lady find themselves rethinking their goals and battling the real murderer together.


Excerpt from Liliana’s Letter:

 

The woman at Grigsby's side was like a lightning rod expecting a bolt to strike, or like a Fury about to deliver one. This close, scent wafted from her, roses and lemon, he'd guess. Tall, straight, and stiff, underneath her self-possession was a temper ready to unleash. He would bet on it.

 

Intriguing. He dared to poke her ire. "You clearly don't approve of the match. Do you intend to openly oppose it?"

 

Her head whipped around, and she glared. "It's not for me to approve or disapprove. Katie—Miss Mercer—will decide."

 

Passion flashed in her eyes, sending an answering spark through him. She was magnificent—though so very mistaken. "Really? Then her father is more liberal than I expected."

 

She looked him over more closely. "What do you know of this matter?"

 

I might ask you the same question. Her tone had been stiff, like the crystallized dome covering bubbling lava. He fixed her with his sternest glare, not entirely surprised at her cheek.

 

His glower didn't impress her. She lifted her shoulders higher. Stood a little taller, proud, lovely, and filled with indignation.

 

Quite righteous indignation. He gave into an unmanly sigh, truly weary of his responsibility for Thomas. "I know a good deal, Miss Ashford. I have been negotiating for these nuptials. The arrangement is my doing as much as Mr. Mercer's. Much more than it is my nephew's. He is probably the least culpable, except for his abominable behavior."

 

She clenched her hands tightly. "I see."

 

"Thomas's mother was my older sister. I made a promise to her that I would look after him." Her gaze softened, and she bit her lip in a way that made him want to taste the part that she was nipping.

 

And where had that thought come from?

 

"And your nephew needs money and an heir."

 

He nodded. As a woman of the ton, of course she would understand how marriage worked. Marriage wasn’t about love, or the bride’s approval, or a plump lower lip that begged to be kissed.

 

"He needs money most of all. He has a younger brother in the army who would make a far more dutiful earl."

 

He covered his mouth with his hand. The words had rolled out, shocking him. He rarely spoke this frankly with any woman.

 

Very well, he never spoke this frankly with any woman.

 

She released a soft breath. "And there is the matter of the ore."

 

His mouth gaped and he quickly closed it. Mr. Mercer had shared that information? Well. "That part of the county is rich with newly discovered veins of iron."

 

That information brought her up straighter. She looked away, gazing intently at a thick, dark spot of foliage, making him want to pry into that sharp mind.

 

"I see,” she said. “I believe we should go back in now."

 

Not yet. He tucked her hand over his arm but did not move. "I had hoped we were not finished talking. I've learned your Christian name is Liliana, but I don't know anything else about you. I don’t know where you're from or anything about your family."

 

He sensed her bristling, and waited for some reaction, perhaps a slap, verbal, or, with a woman of her passion, even a physical one. Strictly speaking, he was importuning her, and damn if he wasn't enjoying the nerves rippling through her.

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


What’s your favorite activity to shake off the winter doldrums?

 

Where I live, we don’t have snow, but we do have some pretty long rainstorms. When it’s pouring rain outside, I like to curl up with a good book, of course!

 

Why is your featured book a cure for the winter blues?

 

This boxed set of two novellas plus a short story gives a reader not just one or two happily-ever-afters, but three, plus a murder mystery and a ghost story.

 

Giveaway –

 

One lucky reader will win a $35 Amazon gift card

 

 

Open internationally.

 

Runs March 1 – 31, 2024

 

Drawing will be held on April 1, 2024. 

 


Author Biography:

 

USA Today bestselling author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature but prefers the happier world of romance fiction. Her roots are in the Midwestern U.S., but after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California where she shares a midcentury home with a golden-eyed terrier and a feisty chihuahua and only occasionally misses snow.

 

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