2020 is coming!

We’re two weeks away from the start of a new year–a leap year!

And this coming leap year some of the big holidays fall on Friday or Saturday: Valentine’s Day is on Friday; Halloween on Saturday; Christmas and New Year’s Day on Friday. Get ready to party!

A Leap Into Love

In February 2018 I released A Leap Into Love, a Regency romance novella with a Leap Day theme. I’d been thinking about this story since 2016. I considered waiting until 2020 to publish it. But, life being what it is, two years is a long time to wait, so I went ahead and hit publish.

For this story, most of my budget went to editing. So, for 2020, I’m splurging on a new cover design by Dar Albert of Wicked Smart Designs. Here it is:

What do you think?

Discussion Questions

Last April, on my birthday, a reader contacted me in behalf of her book club and told me that A Leap Into Love had “made for some beautiful reading and very lively discussions!”

Music to an author’s ears…

So, along with a new cover, A Leap Into Love will include discussion questions for book groups. I’m also adding the first three chapters of the prequel novella, The Marquess and the Midwife. Plus, a print copy will be available on Amazon, priced close to my cost.

Look for this new version soon!

Blurb

Can a gentleman be too charming? The ladies of Upper Upton think so.

And it’s almost Leap Day, when a man who refuses a lady’s proposal of marriage must offer a forfeit.

When the single ladies of the village conspire to teach their charmer a lesson that might bankrupt him, the town’s loveliest young widow steps up to warn him.

His secrets and hers make them a perfect match—and she’s the lady he wants. But she won’t accept his proposal, not even to rescue him.

As Leap Day approaches, the clock is ticking. Can he convince her in time to say yes to his offer and take a leap into love?

Excerpt

When the Ladies’ Society for the Improvement of Village Life gathered, discussions could drag on.

Mrs. Myra Smith stood at a distance, watching the exhalation of so much talk fog the air in the unheated assembly rooms of the Royal George Inn. From her station near the door, she kept an eye on the boy who’d marched off to the far end of the room, away from the ladies.

The Society’s grandiose title always made Myra smile. Stuffy-sounding though it might be, the Ladies’ Society did have a valuable purpose. Village life could be dull, and didn’t she know that well.

It could also be closed-minded, a trap Myra was always dodging. She was here today representing Longview, the nearby children’s home that had brought so many interesting characters to Upper Upton—the teachers, ladies of questionable background like herself, and the children, London’s outcasts, who’d found shelter, and training, and love.

Longview had been generously endowed by the Lords Cathmore, Hackwell, and Wallenford, much as their lordships had endowed this whole village, trying to make the residents of Longview more palatable to the good citizens of Upper Upton. Even this inn had been thoroughly modernized and expanded. Their lordships had even plucked the handsome innkeeper from among their former military comrades.

Thoughts of the man reminded her, she and Barty should be on their way. “The room is quite adequate to your needs,” Myra said. “The children and I shall certainly see to—”

The door to the assembly rooms whooshed open, silencing her.

A wide smile flashed her way, and she caught her breath. “Mr. Grant,” she said with a clipped curtsy, remembering what she was dealing with.

True to his nature, Alexander Grant turned that handsome gaze on the other three ladies and bowed all around. “Such loveliness brightens the dreary aspects of this day.”

His grin widened, and his dark hair sparkled in the light from a tall window. The cold February rain had dampened his coats and breeches and ruddied his cheeks under the dark stubble. Warmth rose in Myra. She shook herself, searching for words.

Universal Buy Link:

https://books2read.com/u/4AxWz0

Print version coming soon!