We are only two weeks away from the release of Desperate Daughters, a Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends.

This collection of novellas by nine Regency romance authors is a perfect opportunity to sample some new-to-you storytellers. The stories are set around a central premise, a family of all daughters, left destitute by their late father, the earl of Seahaven.

Here’s the blurb

Love Against the Odds

The Earl of Seahaven desperately wanted a son and heir but died leaving nine daughters and a fifth wife. Cruelly turned out by the new earl, they live hand-to-mouth in a small cottage.

The young dowager Countess’s one regret is that she cannot give Seahaven’s dear girls a chance at happiness.

When a cousin offers the use of her townhouse in York during the season, the Countess rallies her stepdaughters.

They will pool their resources so that the youngest marriageable daughters might make successful matches, thereby saving them all.

So start their adventures in York, amid a whirl of balls, lectures, and al fresco picnics. Is it possible each of them might find love by the time the York horse races bring the season to a close?

It’s not just daughters finding romance…

Not everyone who finds love is a daughter. It was great fun to see the earl’s young widow find her own happily-ever-after. And my heroine, Lady Twisden, is a widowed great-aunt who learns that following her passion for painting doesn’t mean sacrificing love.

I’m continuing a series of blogs to give you a taste of the stories in this collection, today featuring Jude Knight’s story.

Lord Cuckoo Comes Home

Dom Finchley came to York as a favor to his half-brother, to attend a meeting. After a devastating break with the Finchley family followed by ten years at war, he is keen to get the favor done and leave to build the home he’s never had. A place to call his own.

Then he meets Chloe.

Chloe Tavistock is past the age for the marriage market, and unfashionable in her shape, her opinions, and her enthusiasms. She is not going to find a husband in York, whatever her fond brother might think. Though she does find a monkey.

And then she meets Dom.

Two misfits just might be a perfect fit together.

Excerpt

Was he courting? After one meeting? Granted, he had returned from war with the vague notion of finding a bride and starting his family. He had not intended to look about him yet. 

That said, though, choosing a wife here in the north was not a bad notion. A bride with family here was more likely to accept his desire to live in Yorkshire most of the year round. More likely, too, to give their hand to the younger son of a peer who had been repudiated by his supposed father.

Dom didn’t have wealth to make him more eligible. The estate was large enough, but needed work to be made profitable again. Haverford had given him a loan to do the necessary work, and he was confident he and his potential family had a bright future. He could offer a wife a comfortable home and some elegancies, but certainly not every luxury.

He’d like to smother Miss Tavistock in luxuries. It sounded as if she hadn’t had many under the rule of the dire Uncle Swithin.

This was all too fast, though. He’d only met her yesterday, two days after he’d arrived in York. She was at the top of his bride list, but to be fair she was so far the only one on it.

On the other hand, she intrigued, challenged, and amused him. She went to reform meetings. She rescued monkeys from thieves. She laughed at his jokes.

He wanted to know her better.

Desperate Daughters is available for Pre-order for only 99 cents: https://books2read.com/u/bMwL17

Hurry! The price goes up after the book’s May 17, 2022 launch day.

About the author

Jude always wanted to be a novelist. She started in her teens, but life kept getting in the way. Years passed, and with them dozens of unfinished manuscripts. The fear grew. What if she tried, failed, and lost the dream forever? The years since 2014 have brought 10 novels, 13 novella, 4 volumes of short stories, 3 awards, and hundreds of positive reviews. The dream is alive.

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What critics are saying:

A Marvelous Group of Authors

In addition to Belles authors, Caroline Warfield, Jude Knight, Rue Allyn, and Sherry Ewing, the collection features stories by Mary Lancaster, Elizabeth Ellen Carter, Meara Platt, Ella Quinn, and, of course, me!

I’ll be back soon for an excerpt from the next featured story, my very own Lady Twisden’s Picture Perfect Match!

You can find the complete list of stories and blurbs on my Desperate Daughter‘s book page.