Guest Amelia Grey: Regency Twins and Arranged Marriages

Linda Banche here. Today I welcome Amelia Grey and her latest Regency historical, A Gentleman Never Tells. A Gentleman Never Tells is the first book in her trilogy about a pair of Regency twins and their older brother.

Leave a comment with your email address for a chance to win one of two copies of A Gentleman Never Tells which Sourcebooks has generously provided. Amelia will select the winners. Check the comments to see who won, and how to contact me to claim your book. If I cannot contact the winners within a week of selection, I will award the books to alternates. Note, Sourcebooks can mail to USA and Canada addresses only.

And the winners Amelia selected are Judy and catslady. Congratulations! Thanks to all for coming over.

Welcome Amelia!

Amelia Grey:

Good morning, everyone! I’m thrilled to be with you at Historical Hussies. Thank you for having me at this fabulous site.

Today I want to give you a peek into my new trilogy and a little about the first book, A Gentleman Never Tells.

While I was finishing my last book, I had this crazy idea, wouldn’t it be wonderful if a handsome, powerful-looking set of twins came to London to quietly make their fortune. And wouldn’t it be intriguing if they instead they set the town on fire with scandalous gossip because they are the spitting image of a well-respected man in London—and that man is not their father? Now they know why their mother said it would be a cold day in Hell before they set foot in London.

Well, I was hooked on the idea so I ran with it, and started plotting and planning. It didn’t take me long to realize I needed to do a little research on twins in the 1800s because it was very rare for both of them to live to be adults. Not only that, I needed some general information, too. Do they really think alike as well as look like each other? Do they feel each other’s pain? Do they know if the other is in trouble and needs help? Do they have their own secret language?

So before I could get to the twins stories, which the first one, A Gentleman Says “I Do” will be coming out next spring, and A Gentleman Surrenders which will be the second twin’s story, I had to write their older brother’s story—Tada! A Gentleman Never Tells.

Viscount Brentwood knew what his twin brothers would be facing in London so he came to help them weather the gossip only to end up embroiled in more scandal than he thought possible. And, the trouble he became involved in had nothing to do with his brothers. You’ll learn all about them in the later books.

Brentwood is minding his own business, walking his mother’s Pomeranian in Hyde Park early one morning when out of the mist a lovely and alluring young lady walks up and kisses him. Of course, this is all very much to his liking until they are caught and he finds out that she is not only another man’s fiancée, she also happens to be the daughter of a powerful duke. And if that wasn’t enough trouble for the Viscount to be in the middle of, he’s lost his mother’s dog, too.

Lady Gabrielle is beautiful, clever, and courageous. The last thing she wants is to be forced into another loveless engagement, so she isn’t going to give up her freedom easily. She has plans that her father and Lord Brentwood don’t know about. But Gabrielle discovers that Brent has a few plans of his own as together they work to find London’s notorious dog thief.

Thankfully we don’t have arranged marriages today, but if we did what lengths would you go to get out of one? Let me know for a chance to win one of two copies of A Gentleman Never Tells.

Please visit my website at ameliagrey.com or email me at ameliagrey@comcast.net for more information about me and my books.

A GENTLEMAN NEVER TELLS BY AMELIA GREY—IN STORES JULY 2011
A stolen kiss from a stranger…
As if from a dream, Lady Gabrielle walked from the mist and into Viscount Brentwood’s arms. Within moments, he’s embroiled in more scandal than he ever thought possible…

Can sink even a perfect gentleman…
Beautiful, clever, and courageous, Lady Gabrielle needs Brent’s help to get out of a seriously bad situation. But the more she gets to know him, the worse she feels about ruining his life…

Enter the unforgettable world of Amelia Grey’s sparkling Regency London, where a single encounter may have devastating consequences for a gentleman and a lady…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Winner of the Booksellers Best Award and the Romantic Times Award for Love and Laughter, Amelia Grey’s books have sold in Europe, Russia and China. Married for twenty-five years to her high school sweetheart, she has lived in Alabama, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and now calls Panama City Beach, Florida, home. For more information, please visit www.ameliagrey.com.

Guest Blogger Amelia Grey: Permanent Attraction

Linda Banche here. Today I welcome Amelia Grey, whose latest book is the Regency historical, An Earl to Enchant. All you Regency fans, take notice as she talks about the attraction of that unique and fascinating British era.

Leave a comment for a chance to win one of the two copies of An Earl to Enchant which Sourcebooks has generously provided. Amelia will select the winners. Check the comments to see who won, and how to contact me to claim your book. If I cannot contact the winners within a week of their selection, I will award the books to alternates. Note, Sourcebooks can mail to USA and Canada addresses only. The winners are Amber and StephB. I'll contact you for your snail mail addresses.

Great to have you here, Amelia!

Good morning! Thank you for having me at Historical Hussies. I’m very happy to be here.

I want to share with you today my long standing love affair with Regency Romances and my permanent attraction to all things British. Maybe I got it from growing up in the sixties when the Beatles and Rolling Stones were my idols, and I went to sleep each night listening to their songs. I loved their proper-sounding accents when they talked and sat glued to the tv when they were performing. I love the English countryside with its green, gently rolling hills, dotted with stately manor homes surrounded by fabulous gardens that go on forever with vistas, waterfalls, and neatly trimmed yew. So I loved the British long before I read my first Regency Romance.

To me there’s just something very sexy about a powerful, titled gentleman dressed in buckskin trousers, shiny Hessian knee boots, and with his neckcloth perfectly tied. Back then men were gentlemen. They wanted to make ladies feel beautiful, tempting and cared for. He expected to open the door for her, pull out her chair, and he watched his language and his manners around her.

I love thoughts of brocaded silk gowns, white cotton chemises, satin slippers, and three strands of pearls lying delicately against skin the color of warm alabaster. I like to think that all the grand ladies of quality of the Regency were as strong and spirited as the heroines I write in my books. Innocence during the Regency intrigues me and I enjoy writing about that first blush of true love that simmers and sizzles until the hero and heroine know the moment they have to be together.

I enjoy writing about ballrooms glittering with candlelight and cooled by a night wind, while beautifully gowned ladies and handsomely dressed gentlemen dance a quadrille. I love to imagine young ladies smiling behind fans, winking at a rogue, or dropping a lace handkerchief as a dashing gent walks by.

Oh, and I absolutely adore the Ton. I dream of what it must have been like to be a member of that elite group of people who were born to power, privilege, and money. They were courtly, in the know, and station above all the rest. I love writing about the Season when young ladies make their entrance into Polite Society in hopes of catching the eye of debonair gentleman or a rake of the highest order.

These are just a snippet of what makes the Regency so special to me. Now, please let me know what you think is sexy about the Regency!

I hope I’ve teased your senses about the British and the fabulous Regency Romance. I’d like to think that you’ll a taste of all things I’ve written about it here in my latest book An Earl to Enchant. It’s the third book in the Rogues’ Dynasty Series and the first chapter is available on my website. I invite you to stop by and give it a try.

I’m always happy to hear from readers. Please e-mail me at ameliagrey@comcast.net or visit my website at ameliagrey.com.


AN EARL TO ENCHANT by AMELIA GREY—IN STORES APRIL 2010
He’s determined not to be a hero…

Lord Morgandale is as notorious as he is dashing, and he’s determined no woman will tie him down. But from the moment Arianna Sweet appears on his doorstep, he cannot resist the lure of her fascinating personality, exotic wardrobe, and tempting green eyes…

She has a deadly secret…

Arianna Sweet never imagined the significance of her father’s research until after his untimely death. Now she is in possession of his groundbreaking discovery, one that someone would kill for. She can’t tell Lord Morgandale her secret, but she knows she needs his help, desperately…

About the Author
Winner of the Booksellers Best Award and the Romantic Times Award for Love and Laughter, Amelia Grey's books have been sold in Europe, Russia and China. Married for twenty-five years to her high school sweetheart, she has lived in Alabama, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and now calls Panama City Beach, Florida, home. For more information, please visit www.ameliagrey.com.