Lola Montez Conquers The Spaniards: Lola Montez Conquers the Spaniards (Whip Smart) - Softcover

Brennan, Kit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1938231473 ISBN 13: 9781938231476

Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions, 2014

Synopsis

It is 1842, London, and the gorgeous, ever-capricious twenty-two year old Eliza Gilbert, (aka Lola Montez) is in deep trouble and seeks escape from a divorce trial. Desperate to be free, Lola accepts an alluring offer of a paid trip to Spain, if she will only fulfill a few tasks for Juan de Grimaldi-a Spanish theatre impresario who is also a government agent and spy for the exiled Spanish queen, Maria Cristina. Lola soon finds herself in Madrid, undercover as a performer in a musical play. But when she falls dangerously in love with the target, General Diego de Léon-the “perfect Spanish soldier, lover and horseman”-Lola becomes a double agent and the two hatch a plot of their own. Disaster strikes when the plot is exposed, Diego is captured, and Lola is forced to flee on horseback to France, with a dangerous group of Loyalists in hot pursuit. Will Lola's reckless daring, feminine whiles, and signature whip be enough to save her life and preserve her cause? She will have to be more whip smart than ever.

About this title

About the Author

Kit Brennan is an award-winning playwright, who teaches writing and storytelling at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, and who has now successfully branched out into a new career as a novelist. With her husband, Andrew, she divides her time between Montreal and the quiet lake wilderness of Ontario, and maintains a disciplined writing regime each morning, revising the previous day's work and then progressing by a further five, or six, pages. In growing up her first interest was in becoming a ballet dancer, but that gave way to a love of horses and an ambition to be a jockey, followed by painting, children's book illustration, and finally acting, yet with writing always in the background somewhere. She worked for a number of years as an actor in the professional theatre before being asked to write a play for children to be performed on tour in elementary schools. This re-kindled her interest in writing and she moved on to become a professional playwright. One of the recurrent themes found in her work is gained from her interest in history, particularly Victorian, and personalities from that era are found in both her plays and novels. She meticulously researches the characters before placing them in a fictionalised setting with sometimes exaggerated adventures, which brings more life and interest to them than is usually possible in a straightforward biography. Her play, 'Tiger's Heart', explores the life of Dr. James Barry, who was actually a woman disguised as a man in order to be allowed to practice medicine in an age when this was not permitted, and the debut 'Whip Smart' series of novels is based on the real-life story of Lola Montez, a top notch, notorious bad girl of the Victorian era who was one of the most widely travelled women of her time.

Review

"A sharp, tight plot that rarely stops surprising, this little novel rises above its category of "historical romance" by dint of masterful writing and a sympathetic, many-layered cast.," Foreword Reviews

"A fun and sexy romp...I can't wait for the sequel!," Gwyn Cready, RITA Award-winning author of TIMELESS DESIRE: AN OUTLANDER LOVE STORY--Gwyn Cready

A fun and sexy romp...I can't wait for the sequel!--Gwyn Cready

A sharp, tight plot that rarely stops surprising, this little novel rises above its category of historical romance by dint of masterful writing and a sympathetic, many-layered cast.--Foreword Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1938231473
• ISBN 13: 9781938231476
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260