Guest Post and Review ~ LADY SARAH'S SINFUL DESIRES by Sophie Barnes




Today, FBL welcomes Sophie Barnes.  She is stopping by on her virtual tour that runs from April 27th to May 22nd. She is sharing with her fans what she learned as she researched Historical Romances. You don't want to miss this.. Follow the tour  for more chances to win. 


Lady Sarah’s Sinful Desires
Secrets at Thorncliff Manor # 1
By: Sophie Barnes
Releasing April 28, 2015


Welcome to Thorncliff Manor, where London's elite mix, mingle, and may even find their heart's desire...

There are thousands of things Christopher, Viscount Spencer, would rather do than hunt for a bride, especially since experience has taught him that women are not to be trusted. Then he finds the intriguing Lady Sarah scrambling around in Thorncliff's conservatory and he is instantly charmed by her passionate nature. But why is she so intent on avoiding him?

Lady Sarah would make the perfect bride for a peer—if not for a tarnished past that she's hiding from the ton. A stay at Thorncliff Manor was meant to help her plan for her future, not fall in love. Yet Christopher's kisses are irresistible, his gallantry enticing. When her secret stands to be revealed, will the truth ruin their dreams of happiness?

-Top Five CRAZIEST Facts I learned while researching for Historical Romances

1. Female duelists
Apparently not as uncommon as one might think. I did quite a bit of research on this when I wrote Lady Alexandra’s Excellent Adventure. One of the most notable accounts, is probably the incident where Princess Pauline Metternich and the Countess Kielmannsegg came to arms because of a disagreement regarding a floral arrangement. This duel achieved particular notoriety because both ladies fought topless due to the danger of minor wounds turning septic as a result of fabric being driven into the wounds with the point of the sword.

2. Women could be sold at market by their husbands
Turns out that during the Regency period, a husband who wanted to be rid of his wife, could in fact lead her to market and officially sell her. Oftentimes, the wife would be in agreement, but due to the high expense/scandal of divorce, a transaction of this nature was a much cheaper and simpler option, though there were many people who disapproved.

3. Men wore unmentionables but women wore…nothing
I pretty much knew this after all the fashion history classes I took in college, but I didn’t realize that few women prior to the Victorian era had a solution to ‘that time of the month’. Menstruation belts were worn after 1800, but many women, especially those from the lower classes, would just refrain from leaving the house.

4. The flush toilet was an Elizabethan invention.
I’ve always thought that flushing toilets were invented during the Victorian era by George Jennings and somewhat later by Thomas Crapper, but apparently that’s not the case. The very first flushing toilet was invented by John Harrington in 1596a prominent member of Queen Elizabeth I's court.

5. Hang him!
When we read Regency romances, the fairytale setting and plot distract from the more unpleasant aspects of that day and age. In fact, I don’t recall ever reading a romance novel in which a public hanging was mentioned, and yet they continued to take place until 1868 when Michael Barrett was hanged for his part in the Clerkenwell bombing.
Born in Denmark, Sophie Barnes spent her youth traveling with her parents to wonderful places all around the world. She's lived in five different countries, on three different continents, and speaks Danish, English, French, Spanish and Romanian. She has studied design in Paris and New York and has a bachelor's degree from Parsons. But, most impressive of all, she's been married to the same man three times—in three different countries and in three different dresses.
While living in Africa, Sophie turned to her lifelong passion: writing. When she's not busy dreaming up her next romance novel, Sophie enjoys spending time with her family, swimming, cooking, gardening, watching romantic comedies and, of course, reading. She currently lives on the East Coast. 
 Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Tour ~ Review and Giveaway ~ SUGAR ON TOP by Marina Adair Sugar, Georgia Book #2





SUGAR ON TOP,   Sugar, Georgia Book #2
by Marina Adair 
Forever Mass Market

She's sassy and sweet
The last thing Glory Mann wants is to become chairman of the Miss Peach Pageant in Sugar, Georgia. Spending months hearing nothing but the clinking of pearls and judgment? No thank you! But when Glory is forced to take the rap for a scandal she didn't commit, the judge sentences her to head the committee. Even worse, her co-chairman is rugged, ripped . . . and barely knows she's alive.

He's ready and willing
Single dad Cal McGraw can't take any more drama in his life. After a difficult divorce, his little girl became a boy-crazy teenager and his hands are full. The last thing he needs is to spend his down time with the town bad girl. Glory is pure trouble-tempting and tantalizing trouble. But he can't deny the strong chemistry between them-or how her touch turns him inside out. Now as squabbles threaten to blow up the contest and the town of Sugar itself, Cal must risk everything on the sexy wild card to get a second chance at love . . .


Marina brings us back to Sugar, Georgia. Marina doesn't let her readers down with the electric sizzle between the two main characters. Glory is one of the stronger heroine characters that I have read in a long time. Gloria is living each day -living down a repetition that has no merit. As a young high school student she looked to the wrong person to make her feel special. My heart goes out to her, she has put up with a lot of sh** from her hometown, but she stuck it out, she stayed there and didn't let the meddlesome gossipers drive her from her town.
The hero, Cal, wow, can we just swoon.  He may not know how to be a daddy, but boy does he know how to melt a person's heart. He becomes Glory's knight in shining armor. It is a wonderful book, Mariana doesn't let her fans down. 
I will say I didn't care for Sheriff Jackson, in this book he comes across as a pompous rich kid. Totally different from the character that we met in the earlier book.  Hopefully he can redeem himself in the next book. :)
I loved to know what is going on with Cal's brother, Jace,  and Charlotte.. their story is yet to be told. There was a lot of hints that were scattered about in this book, it appears to be a good one.
Thanks Marina for a wonderful trip to Sugar, Georgia.  Just the right touch to start the hot, sizzling, summer season. 
Marina Adair is a lifelong fan of romance novels. Along with the Sugar series, she is also the author of the St. Helena Vineyard series and the upcoming Shelter Cove series. She currently lives in a hundred-year-old log cabin, nestled in the majestic redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with her husband and daughter. As a writer, Marina is devoted to giving her readers contemporary romance where the towns are small, the personalities large, and the romance explosive. She also loves to interact with readers and you can catch her on Twitter at @MarinaEAdair or visit her atwww.MarinaAdair.com.



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Review and Giveaway ~ Catherine Bybee Seduced by Sunday

FBL is excited to be part of the Seduced by Sunday Blog Tour!  It runs until May 5, follow the tour and enter to win a kindle and gift cards.  The more you enter the more chances you have to win.

SEDUCED BY SUNDAY
The Weekday Bride Series, Book SIX
Montlake Romance, Contemporary
April 14, 2015, First Edition
Paperback & Kindle

Meg Rosenthal: Matchmaker by day, realist by night, Meg is not about to get swept away by a charming, darkly handsome businessman in a designer suit.
She’s come to a beautiful secluded resort to evaluate the private island’s potential for her agency, not to ogle its owner. But there’s something about the magnetic man that’s hard to resist, even for a woman who refuses to fall in love.
Valentino Masini: A successful and drop-dead sexy businessman, Valentino is used to having the finer things in life. Yet he’s never wanted someone the way he wants Meg, who’s stirring up a hurricane of trouble in his heart. But just as he decides to convince her to stay, someone else decides it might be time to get Meg off the island...permanently.

Praise for Catherine Bybee
“Suspense, survival, and chemistry mix in this scintillating read in the style of Julie Garwood and Suzanne Brockmann.” —Booklist on Fiancé by Friday

"This is a book nobody should miss, because the magic it contains is awesome." —Booked Up Reviews on Married by Monday

"[A] wonderfully exciting plot, lots of desire, and some sassy attitude thrown in for good measure!" —Harlequin Junkie on Single by Saturday
This was another winner from Catherine Bybee.  Catherine continues on with the Alliance series, this time Meg takes center stage.  Meg will do anything to keep the her Alliance clients' privacy intact. Meg learns of a resort that will be perfect for her elite clients, but before she can recommend the island, she needs to test the security. Meg takes a page right out of her clients books and poses as a couple with non other than Michael.  For those of you who have read the earlier books in this series, you will remember Michael as Hollywood's heartthrob and action hero.  What Meg wasn't planning for is to fall in love with the resort owner, Val.  They have a wonderful love hate relationship and their passion sizzles through the pages.  This book is filled with forbidden love, blackmail, betrayal, seduction, kidnapping, and danger and that is few of the yummies that Catherine's readers will find in Seduced by Sunday.
My heart broke for Gabriella Masini, Val's sister and I hope that see finds a way back to trust again. I love that Catherine tidies up Michael's love life.  He was so in need of a HEA.  Thanks!!

I can't wait to see what is in story in the next book in this series.  I will be picking that  book up as soon as it is released. Bravo, Catherine. Keep them coming and know that you have a forever fan in me!
New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee was raised in Washington State, but after graduating high school, she moved to Southern California in hopes of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the Weekday Brides Series and the Not Quite Series. Bybee lives with her husband and two teenage sons in Southern California.  

www.catherinebybe.com
catherinebybee@yahoo.com
catherinebybee.blogspot.com
twitter.com/catherinebybee




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Spotlight and Giveaway ~ THE DUKE’S DISASTER by Grace Burrowes


Title: The Duke’s Disaster
Author: Grace Burrowes
Release Date: April 7, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Historical Romance

Noah Winters, Duke of Anselm, exercises the pragmatism for which he's infamous when his preferred choice of bride cries off, and her companion, Lady Thea Collins, becomes his next choice for his duchess. Lady Thea's mature, sensible and even rather attractive-what could possibly go wrong?
As a lady fallen on hard times, Thea doesn't expect tender sentiments from His Grace, but she does wish Noah had courted her trust, lest her past turn their hastily arranged marriage into a life of shared regrets. Is His Grace courting a convenient wife, or a beautiful disaster?

The Duke and Duchess are having a rocky start to their marriage, also to their day…

“Your tea, Duchess.”

Noah had woken up beside his wife—again, despite all plans to the contrary—creating another first for him. Thea had risen several times during the night to tend to herself. He hadn’t realized that monthly courses caused a woman’s rest to be interrupted.

Crashingly bad planning, for a lady’s sleep to be disturbed when she most needed rest.

“You’re not about to steal my tea?” Thea held out the cup, her gaze shy as she sat propped against the headboard.

“Where’s the fun in stealing what’s freely offered?” Noah settled in beside her and filched a bite of her cinnamon toast. “Would you rather have chocolate this morning?”

“Because?”

“You’re”— Noah waved a hand in the direction of her middle—“indisposed.”

“I am not indisposed.” Thea set her teacup down with a little clink. “The discomfort has passed, as it always does. You needn’t be concerned.”

“I am not concerned, Thea.” Not greatly concerned, now that she’d stopped ordering him to go away and was ready for a proper spat. “I am attempting in my bumbling way to dote. You will allow it.”

Drat. He’d given another order.

“You couldn’t bumble if one gave you written instructions, Anselm,” Thea said, looking a little less peaked for having run up her flags. “That was my toast you appropriated.”

“Appropriation is what happens when one’s wife can’t appreciate a little doting. You’re being stingy with the tea, just as you were stingy with the covers. How long does this indisposition last?” 

Her chin came up. “I am the Duchess of Anselm. I am not stingy with anything, but you are a very presuming husband.”

“Doting.” Noah took Thea’s free hand to kiss her knuckles— lest she mistake his point. “Also in need of my duchess’s guidance on this one marital matter.”

“This is so personal.” Thea’s gaze was on their joined hands— for Noah would not have her haring off in a fit of mortification. “I didn’t think you’d be a personal sort of husband. You were supposed to appear in my dressing-room doorway a few nights a month, silently take a few marital liberties, and then leave me in peace. We’d trade sections of the Times over breakfast the next morning.”

“Prosaic.” Boring and exactly what Noah himself had envisioned. “Hard to see any doting going on, though.”

“Husband?” Thea’s tone was hesitant. “Thank you, for keeping me company last night. I would not have known how to ask.”

“I suppose that’s the definition of doting.” Noah lingered at the cart to assemble a plate. “It’s the little things you can’t bring yourself to ask for, that an attentive spouse will enjoy providing to you. Bacon or ham?”

“A little of both, please.”

“Feeling carnivorous?”

“I’m a trifle indisposed. I need the sustenance.”

Noah piled both ham and bacon on Thea’s plate, and stole better than half of it, because he needed the sustenance too.


New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Grace Burrowes' bestsellers include The Heir, The Soldier, Lady Maggie's Secret Scandal, Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish and Lady Eve's Indiscretion. The Heir was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2010, The Soldier was a PW Best Spring Romance of 2011, Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish won Best Historical Romance of the Year in 2011 from RT Reviewers' Choice Awards, Lady Louisa's Christmas Knight was a Library Journal Best Book of 2012, and The Bridegroom Wore Plaid was a PW Best Book of 2012. Her Regency romances have received extensive praise, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Grace is branching out into short stories and Scotland-set Victorian romance with Sourcebooks. She is a practicing family law attorney and lives in rural Maryland.




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Review and Giveaway ~ My Highland Lover by Maeve Greyson



                                       
Another great day at FBL, today we are hosting the Tasty Virtual Book Tour for MY HIGHLAND LOVER by Maeve Grayson,  running from March 16th - April 10th, 2015.


My Highland Lover
Highland Hearts # 1
By: Maeve Grayson
Releasing March 24th, 2015
Loveswept

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Maeve Greyson unleashes a thrilling tale of magic and desire as a feisty Southern gal falls into the arms of a rough-hewn Highland chieftain.

As the proprietor of a homeopathic store in rural Kentucky, Trulie Sinclair knows that her neighbors think she’s strange—but they have no idea how strange she really is. Trulie was born in Scotland in the thirteenth century to a line of time-traveling Highlanders. When Trulie’s grandmother convinces her to return to their homeland, Trulie jumps back in time, right onto the powerful chest of Gray MacKenna. Just as his steely good looks send ripples through her body, their fierce attraction will send ripples through the ages.

After his parents murdered, Gray is consumed by thoughts of revenge. As the new chieftain of the MacKenna clan, he has reason to believe that there’s a traitor in his midst, and nothing—not even the bonny lass who suddenly drops from the sky—can distract him from his single-minded pursuit of the culprit. But when Gray learns that this sassy beauty possesses gifts beyond the sparkle in her eye, he allows his gaze, and his heart, to linger. While he hunts for the murderer, Gray finds in Trulie a precious companion—and a timeless love.

What a great book mixing two of my favorite genres: Highlanders and Time Travel.  From the first few pages I knew this was going to be an exciting story.  I couldn't put it down, almost missed work just to finish the last few chapters. :) This is the first read of Maeve Greyson's work and truth be told it will not be my last. I can't wait to see more from her and this time travel series.  The author took time and talent in building the secondary characters. I encourage all of you this is a must read book, but far warning- you'll want to read it without putting it down.  
No one has the power to shatter your dreams unless you give it to them. That’s been Maeve Greyson’s mantra since she was a girl. When she’s not at the full time day job at the steel mill, Maeve’s writing romances about sexy Highlanders and the women who tame them. Tucked away in a five acre wood, Maeve listens to the wind singing through the trees and hears her characters telling their stories. Her work is proofed by her sharp-eyed dog, Jasper, and her greatest supporter is her long suffering husband of over thirty-five years who’s learned not to throw away any odd sticky notes filled with strange phrases.



Review and Giveaway ~SEBASTIAN'S LADY SPY by Sharon Cullen


                                  
Thanks for stopping by today. I am participating in the SEBASTIAN'S LADY SPY by Sharon Cullen, the tour runs March 23rd - April 17th, 2015. Great Giveaway- Follow the Tour for more chances to win.



Sebastian’s Lady Spy
Secrets & Seduction # 5
By: Sharon Cullen
Releasing March 31st, 2015
Loveswept



Seduction abounds in Sharon Cullen’s steamy historical romance! For the Crown’s top agents, love is a hazard best avoided—until an unforgettable affair exposes their undercover hearts.

Sebastian Addison has a powerful secret. To society he is the Earl of Claybrook, the patriarch who raised his siblings after the death of their parents. But to the king, Sebastian is Britain’s top spy—a position that has taken an emotional toll on him. Contessa Gabrielle Marciano has also been living a lie, her title a cover devised by the Office of Intelligence. The femme fatale was plucked from a life of crime and prostitution and trained to restrain her passionate nature. Until she meets the earl.

For three deeply sensual days and nights, Sebastian and Gabrielle drop their masks, indulging in pleasures that seem too good to be true. Then the lovers go their separate ways. Seven months later they reunite when inside sources report that an English aristocrat has been aiding France in a plot to topple the Crown. Their objective: to find the turncoat. Their greatest challenge: to keep their wild, wounded hearts from derailing a mission of life and death.


This is book 5 in the series, but honestly you can read this one alone. The author provides a good background so you don't feel like you walked in on the middle of things. This book offers it all with mystery and action. Just when you think you know whats going to happen next, a new twist is revealed. Hold on tight because you are in store for a great read.  The hero and heroine spend a few nights in the throws of passion... Fast forward and the find that they are reunited under different circumstances. Learning that they both share not only passion but the same job only on different sides. You can't help falling head first into their stories.  They hold true to their heart the love of their country and the mission they are assigned.  Great read, I encourage everyone who loves mystery, intrigue and romance to pickup this book.  Happy Reading Everyone!
Sharon Cullen is the author of the historical romances The Notorious Lady Anne, Loving the Earl, and Pleasing the Pirate, as well as many novels of romantic suspense, paranormal romance, and contemporary romance. If you’d like to find out more about the author and her books, you can visit her blog or her website. She is addicted to social networking so you can find her on Facebook and Twitter. Friend her! Like her! Follow her! She’d love to hang out with you and talk about her passion: books.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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