Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Dear Ms Koen,

Anyone who’s ever seen the film “Restoration” will have an idea of the glory, beauty and depravity of the reign of Charles II. The court of the Merrie Monarch was filled with those fighting to get ahead, stay ahead, make an alliance or catch an eye — either that of the King or one of his powerful advisors or many mistresses. Your book drops us right into the center of the action.

Alice Verney is a young woman intent on achieving her dreams. Having left Restoration England in the midst of a messy scandal, she has been living in Louis XIV’s Baroque-mannered France for two years. Now she is returning home to England and anxious to re-establish herself quickly. First, she will regain her former position as a maid of honor to Charles II’s queen. Then she will marry the most celebrated duke of the Restoration, putting herself in a position to attain power she’s only dreamed of. As a duchess, Alice will be able to make or break her friends and enemies at will. But all is not as it seems in the rowdy, merry court …

Dear Ms Thornton,

“The Vagabond Duchess” winds up your trilogy about a set of cousins who all find love around the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666. As such, it’s set in one of my favorite time eras, the lusty and bawdy court of King Charles II. Men dressed like fops but carried deadly swords. Women flirted outrageously yet still lived under many societal restrictions. The Guilds of London still ruled their members and the country was still uneasily putting itself back together after the upheavals of the Civil War. I have to ask though, what’s with this cover? The women look like Restoration beauties but are the men supposed to be playing dress up in Tudor clothes?
He’d promised to return.
But Jack Bow is dead. And Temperance Challinor’s quietly respectable life is changed forever.

Practical Temperance has no time to grieve for the irresistible rogue who gave her one night of comfort in a blazing city. She must protect her unborn child—by pretending to be Jack’s widow.

A foolproof plan. Until she arrives at Jack’s home…and the counterfeit widow of a vagabond becomes the real wife of a very much alive duke!
Temperance, a member …