Lady Elinor Meets Her Hero #MFRWHooks #bookqw #Regency

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I’m sharing an excerpt from Lady Elinor’s Escape where Elinor meets her hero for today’s MFRW Book Hooks and for Book Quote Wednesday. This week’s word is tight.

Sweet Regency romance

“Excuse me, madam, but I could not help overhearing you say that you must leave for London immediately. Allow me to introduce myself. Stephen Chaplin, Esquire, at your service.”

Elinor turned to face the gentleman who had suddenly appeared. She stared at him through a haze of black, taking advantage of her veil to get a closer look at this tall, dark-haired, seemingly well bred gentleman. He was above average height, with finely chiseled features, and while he could not, strictly speaking, be deemed handsome, there was something in the intense scrutiny of his light brown eyes that drew her to him. By the cut of his bottle green Superfine coat, which emphasized his broad shoulders but was not so tight as to hamper movement, and his casually tied neckcloth, she surmised he was no society dandy.

“How do you do?” she said politely, extending one black-gloved hand.

“Fine, thank you.”

As he took her hand and bowed over it, Elinor savored the warmth of his touch for a moment. It had been a long time since someone had touched her out of kindness. Suddenly realizing she was clutching his hand, she withdrew hers. He studied her, his gaze seeming to penetrate the veil, and she could only stand like the veriest lump under his scrutiny.

“I beg your pardon, madam, but what did you say your name was?”

“Eli—” Elinor broke off and feigned a cough, panic bubbling up inside. Her name. Dear heavens, she needed a new name. If she told him who she was, he would never agree to take her to Mimi. She stared down at the gentleman’s yellow nankeen trousers and shiny brown boots. “Brown,” she stammered. “Ellie Brown.”

“Mrs. Brown, may I offer my assistance? I’m heading for London myself and would be pleased to convey you as far as Chippenham, where you may pick up another stage coach.”

Relief flooded through her at his offer, but could she trust him? No proper young lady rides in a closed carriage with a gentleman who is not related to her. The words of her governess rang in her ears. “I do not think—”

“Of course, you are cautious,” he interrupted smoothly. “Any genteel lady would hesitate to trust a strange gentleman.”

“But I am not a lady,” she blurted. If Aunt Sarah learned that a lady had been here, she would know where to look for her. “I am merely a seamstress.”

“Really,” he drawled, doubt evident in his tone.

“Yes, I have a position awaiting me in London.” She was surprised, and a bit uncomfortable, at how easily the lies flowed from her lips, but they were necessary.

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.

Available from Amazon, BN/Nook, Kobo and Smashwords.

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Linda

Interview with Frank Braden from Wolf Around The Corner #blogtour #giveaway

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Wolf Around The Corner
By Aidee Ladnier
 

Aidee is giving away a $5 Amazon GC, $10 Amazon GC, Ebooks from her backlist, print books from her backlist. The winners will be chosen by Rafflecopter. Please use the RaffleCopter below to enter. Don’t forget you have a chance to enter every day so be sure to visit all the stops on this tour. You may find those locations here.

About Wolf Around the Corner:

Frank’s family taught him that his wolf was dangerous, unwanted. Now his best friend’s brother wants him in bed and on stage. But giving into his wolf’s need for love could risk the quiet life Frank has created for himself—and his heart.

 Settled in the small town of Waycroft Falls, Frank is content to be a lone wolf among the white picket fences and dollar book bins until he finds himself sniffing his best friend’s brother. Tom smells like hot apple pie and his Broadway smile has Frank lolling his tongue. But when the visiting actor learns Frank’s secret and plies him with hot kisses to get him to star in his play, Frank can’t help but wonder if Tom is only acting.

 Tom ran away from family obligations to be a Broadway star. If he could make it there, he could make it anywhere…but he didn’t. Trudging home to Waycroft Falls to open his sister’s new performance space brings him face to face with a werewolf—a werewolf that would be perfect for Tom’s shoestring production of Beauty and the Beast. Staying in Tiny Town USA would be worth it if he can somehow convince the sexy wolf to expose his furry condition on stage and howl privately in Tom’s bed.

 Wolf Around The Corner, a paranormal semi-finalist in Passionate Ink’s 2017 Sexy Scribbles Contest, is a full-length fairytale romance with a side of wolf shifter. If you like your romance with gorgeous men, humor, and small town magic, you’ll love Wolf Around the Corner! Buy your copy now and settle in to watch the drama unfold!

Genre: M/M Paranormal Shifter Contemporary

 Buy Links:
 Amazon  | B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Smashwords | 24Symbols | Indigo | Angus & Robertson | Mondadori

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Interview with wolf shifter Frank Braden:

LM: Thanks for sitting down with me today. Tell us a little about yourself.

Um, well. There’s not that much to tell. I grew up in the small town of Hendersonville and then after high school I moved to Waycroft Falls. I’m the assistant manager at a local bookstore, The Little Dorrit Bookshop. Our store came in third last year at the Founders Day Bed Races. My life is pretty quiet. Or at least it was until my friend Annie—she owns the bookshop—invited her brother home for the summer to open the new performance space in the upstairs floor of the bookshop.

LM: I understand you have some kind of special power. Can you tell us about it?

Not really a power. I can turn into a wolf. Which isn’t necessarily special, just rare. It’s not something I talk about. People don’t always treat me the same once they know that about me. Like, um, my family. That’s why I don’t live in the town where I grew up. Nobody really knows about my, um, special power, here in Waycroft Falls.

LM: When did you discover you were able to shift?

I first manifested my Galen’s Syndrome at sixteen. It was after school, on the track. My team was doing drills in preparation for our next meet. One minute I was racing down the track with a teammate on my heels and the next I hit the ground because my legs didn’t work right. Or rather, they worked fine, but wolves don’t normally wear clothes and my legs were all tangled in my shorts. Luckily my coach knew what was happening because I sure didn’t!

LM:  Did you have special education or training to hone your power?

Well, my mom died when I was little. I’m not in contact with anyone from her family. I think they live in Canada? My dad’s family doesn’t have any manifestors, just carriers. I’m the lone wolf. My dad took me to a Galen’s meet up when I was in first grade, but it was across the country and other than that I’ve never met anyone else like me. So, no, I guess you could call me self-educated?

LM:  Do you consider your ability a gift or a curse? Why?

Technically, Galen’s Syndrome is a genetic curse. That means one of my ancestors was cursed with lycanthropy and turned into a wolf temporarily. The curse wrapped around his DNA and because lycanthropy is a curse that’s never been broken, it’s traveled down the genetic line. In other words, the curse gene passed to his children and to their children’s children like a mutation. Luckily it’s recessive, so unless your mother and your father both have the cursed gene (like I do), you don’t manifest the curse. It’s recognized by the medical community as similar to a rare genetic disorder.

LM: How does having this disorder complicate your life?

Well, when I was in high school my classmates toilet papered my house and hung a papier-mâché wolf from one of our trees. It wasn’t easy for my family after everyone found out in my hometown. That’s why I’m hesitant to tell that many people here in Waycroft Falls. What if they’re afraid of me or think I pose a danger or something? I’d have to move again and…well, I like it here.

LM: I heard you wrote the play that’s being performed at the bookshop. Will you tell us about it.

Yeah. It’s a version of Beauty and the Beast merged with the story of The Loathly Lady. Beauty and the Beast is basically a woman that’s held captive by a beast who asks her to marry him every night at dinner. The Loathly Lady, on the other hand, is from the Arthurian Legends and pivots around a choice. In it a knight marries a hideous woman who offers him a choice of either a beautiful woman during the day with a hideous bedmate at night or a beautiful woman in bed with a hideous wife during the day. Similarly, in this play Beauty has to make a choice between a Beast who woos her in her day-to-day life or a prince who is only present in her dreams.

LM: That sounds really good. And you’re playing the lead part, too?

That’s what Tom, Annie’s brother who’s directing the play, wants. I can shift halfway and he’s sure that having a shifter in a play would be something new and different. But I’m not an actor. We’ve gotten pretty close and he’s assured me that he can teach me to act. I want to help Tom and Annie, and Tom…well, Tom’s gorgeous and just my type. But it would mean revealing that I’m a shifter to the entire town. I’m just not sure I’m ready to do that.

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About the Author: 

Aidee Ladnier, an award-winning author of speculative fiction, believes that adventure is around every corner. In pursuit of new experiences she’s worked as a magician’s assistant, been a beauty pageant contestant, ridden in hot air balloons, produced independent movies, hiked up a volcano, and is a proud citizen scientist.

A lover of genre fiction, Aidee’s perfect romance has a little science fiction, fantasy, mystery, or the paranormal thrown in to add a zing.

 Social Links: 
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