The Reluctant Debutante: A Regency Romance (Regency Romances) - Softcover

Bryant, Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1976586178 ISBN 13: 9781976586170

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017

Synopsis

A drunken encounter in a wayside tavern... 

"Perhaps I should be the one to start the conversation. I behaved badly last night, Miss Summers - and not for the first time with you." 
"That is so," Cordelia assented sedately. 
"Did I frighten you - that day at the tavern?" 
Cordelia thought about it. "Yes," she said. "I think I was more upset than I realised. I was also very angry." 
"You've a temper," he said with a laugh. "Of all the unlikely creatures to meet - a woman with blood in her veins instead of water. No, don't hit me - it's a compliment, believe me. But you're not a light skirt and I insulted you. I..." 
"You attacked me." 
Rockcliffe was silent for a moment. Then he said: 
"Yes, I did. I was foully drunk which is my only excuse. Last night I was - on edge, shall we say. I don't pride myself on gentlemanly behaviour, but after I left I was ashamed. I shouldn't have spoken to you that way. If you'd not been so self-possessed I could have caused an embarrassing scene. I'm sorry - you've never done anything to hurt me, I hardly know you. It was cruel and thoughtless - on both occasions. I apologise." 

When Cordelia Summers, daughter of a wealthy City merchant, reluctantly agrees to a London season it is purely to please her much loved father who is anxious to see her respectably settled in life. Intelligent and strong-willed, Cordelia has no wish to barter her fortune for a title and no wish to be married to any man who wants to curb her independent spirit. 

Giles Fenwick, Earl of Rockcliffe shares Cordelia's distaste for matrimony. A scarred Waterloo veteran who spent much of the war as one of Wellington's exploring officers and has yet to recover from his wartime experiences, he came into his title and fortune unexpectedly and has little respect for the polite world and the ambitions of the matchmaking mammas who see him as an eligible prospect for their daughters. 

The cynical Earl and the high-spirited merchant's daughter form an unlikely alliance based on their mutual determination to avoid matrimony. But Giles and Cordelia quickly discover that friendship can easily turn into much more, and that all marriages are not created equal... 

"The Reluctant Debutante" is the sequel to "A Regrettable Reputation" and the second of the Light Division Romances by the author of "An Unconventional Officer" and the Peninsular War Saga. 

About this title

From the Author:

The Reluctant Debutante has been my bestselling book so far.  The Earl of Rockcliffe was originally Giles Fenwick, an impecunious officer of the 110th who transferred to Wellington's Corps of Guides as an exploring officer.  Giles has struggled with his war experiences and the switch from constant danger in appalling conditions to the luxury of being courted by the Ton.  We first meet him in this book dangerously drunk in a wayside tavern with two army friends and behaving appallingly to a pretty chance-met female.  He has more than met his match in Miss Cordelia Summers who may well find him attractive but is not prepared to put up with his boorish behaviour and The Reluctant Debutante is the story of his redemption with the help of a young woman of decided opinions.  Giles is probably my most difficult hero, since I gave myself the impossible task of portraying a man who is probably suffering from PTSD in a light-hearted Regency romance - I do like a challenge.  He isn't a bad person, but his behaviour on occasion is definitely below-par, certainly at the start of the book. The opening scene, where Giles forcibly kisses Cordelia while very drunk, has offended two people who complained that it is a sexual assault and did not read the rest of the book.  They are, of course, quite correct.  Nothing in the book excuses Giles or suggests that his behaviour was acceptable.  Captain Fenwick from An Irregular Regiment and A Redoubtable Citadel would never have behaved that way, and by the end of The Reluctant Debutante, nor would the Earl of Rockcliffe.  I hope readers will give him a chance and read to the end.  The Reluctant Debutante is the second book in the Light Division romances and links in to the Peninsular War Saga by following some of the characters on into peacetime.

About the Author:

Lynn Bryant was born and raised in London’s East End. She studied History at University and had dreams of being a writer from a young age. Since this was clearly not something a working class girl made good could aspire to, she had a variety of careers including a librarian, NHS administrator, relationship counsellor and manager of an art gallery before realising that most of these were just as unlikely as being a writer and took the step of publishing her first book. She now lives in the Isle of Man and is married to a man who understands technology, which saves her a job, and has two teenage children and two labradors. History is still a passion, with a particular enthusiasm for the Napoleonic era and the sixteenth century. When not writing she runs an Irish dance school, reads anything that’s put in front of her and makes periodic and unsuccessful attempts to keep a tidy house.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1976586178
• ISBN 13: 9781976586170
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176