This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Beverley will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner, and a boxed set of the first 3 books of the Daughters of Sin series to another randomly drawn winner (US ONLY), both awarded via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Caught up in a high-stakes game of intrigue and deceit orchestrated by their sister, the ton's reigning beauty, each must play their part to bring a dangerous traitor to justice while finding a man deserving of their love and special talents.
The gentlemen of the ton are about to discover a woman made just for them.
If you enjoy Delilah Marvelle and Liz Carlyle, you'll love Daughters of Sin, a series that combines sensuous Regency romance with lashings of mystery and intrigue.
She must remember every nuance, the exquisite sensation of his heated skin, lightly sheened with sweat, his chest hair tickling her cheek, the wonderful essence of him wafting through her senses.
He felt rock solid and he was in so many other ways, too. But he would not be there in the way she needed him to be; not if she were to escape the miserable cycle into which she’d been born. She wanted children. Children born within wedlock. Granted, Lord Silverton would be a more constant and loving parent than her own father—Lord Partington—had been. However, while her children by Silverton would enjoy their father’s protection and affection they’d not have his name and, in this world, one’s name was everything.
And so she must leave him but, dear Lord, making that break would be the most painful thing she would ever do.
Kitty reached across to stroke his face and murmured, “Your conscience must smite you,” then gave a gentle, ironic laugh as she felt him stiffen, the only indication that her words had found a mark.
“It’s not as I would wish.” He spoke with difficulty as he stared at the ceiling, one hand resting behind his head, the other tightening over her fingers as he turned to face her. “I love you, Kitty, but I am duty-bound to Miss Mandelton.”
“And to the rest of your family. I understand.” A searing pain ripped through her but she showed no emotion as stared into his eyes, mirroring the flickering candle that sat on a low table beside the bed. “I thought I could accept it too. Your arrangement, I mean. I thought I only wanted your heart…that I didn’t need more than that.” She swallowed, trying to keep at bay the rising tide of emotion. “But I know, now, that it’s not enough. If I were to sacrifice my hopes of children it would be different, but that’s too much a risk and too much for me to accept.”
He reached up to clasp her shoulders. “What are you saying, Kitty?”
“That I will never risk having a child that would be branded a bastard. I have endured that burden my whole life. And if I cannot be your wife, I cannot risk such a possibility as your mistress.”
“You would leave me?”
Her sigh felt as if it were dragged from her very depths. “I am leaving you, Silverton.” She felt like weeping but knew she must be strong. This was the only future for her. Gently she stroked his beloved features, both to comfort him and to commit them to memory as she tried to strengthen her argument. “It’s not just the children we might have together…out of wedlock. It’s what I’d be doing to Miss Mandelton, too. After my performance at The Grange I chanced upon a woman who confided to me the pain she’d endured as an unloved, legally wedded wife. I would not do that to anyone and I would not repeat the situation my mother has endured for the past twenty years.”
“We can make it work, Kitty,” he whispered as he pulled her into his arms but Kitty shook her head as she stared over his shoulder at the wall and repeated dully, “I want marriage, Silverton. I told you from the start, when we were simply friends, only it was such a strange and dramatic set of circumstances by which I became your mistress with you on the way to meeting the wife your family had chosen for you. I always felt confident of your love but when you marry your first obligation would be towards your wife and—when they start arriving—your children. You would soon be out of my reach. I can’t do it.”
“I would always be within your reach. You have my heart, Kitty. You will always have my heart.”
“But at what cost, Silverton? I’ve met Miss Mandelton. She deserves better than what she’d have to make do with if you remained true to me.” She brushed away a tear, adding, “What we have together is pure and true. I know you don’t love her and I understand the duty that compels you to follow through on an obligation made a long time ago but that’s not compensation enough for me.” Gently but firmly she pulled out of his arms, finishing her speech from the safety of the carpet as she draped her discarded shawl over her nakedness. “Miss Mandelton’s life would be barren and miserable if she learned your heart belonged to another. Believe me, I know what that feels like from experience and I could not live with myself for thrusting it upon someone else. Certainly not someone as good and deserving as Miss Mandelton.”
So Beverley became a journalist.
After a whirlwind romance with a handsome Norwegian bush pilot she met in Botswana, Beverley discovered her “Happy Ever After”, saved her heroine from drowning in her next manuscript and had her first Regency romance published in 2009.
Since then, she’s written more than fifteen sizzling historical romances laced with mystery, intrigue and suspense under the name Beverley Oakley.
She also writes psychological historicals, and Colonial-Africa-set romantic suspense, as Beverley Eikli.
With an inspiring view of a Gothic nineteenth-century insane asylum across the road, Beverley lives north of Melbourne with her gorgeous husband, two lovely daughters and rambunctious Rhodesian Ridgeback, Mombo, named after the Okavango Delta safari lodge where she and her husband met.
She loves it when readers get in touch, and you can find out more on her website.
WEBSITE: www.beverleyoakley.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBeverleyOakley/
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/BeverleyOakley
PINTEREST: https://au.pinterest.com/beverleyeikli/
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Thank you for introducing me to this book, it sounds like something I'd really enjoy reading!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad, Nikolina. I love the Regency period! But I love the intrigue and romance in Regency era books just as much.
DeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting me, Judith.
ReplyDeleteWhat time period do readers most love to read? Certainly the Regency is very popular but what about other niche time periods, like the English Civil War or during the reign of the Tudors, Stuarts or Georgians?
Does your family support your career as a writer?
ReplyDeleteHi Mai, yes, they're wonderfully supportive, though I also work full time. I'm in the middle of a four-month full-time contract as an editor in a govt. dept. and I also teach creative writing. I do various full-time contracts and fit in my writing in between.
DeleteSounds like a good read
ReplyDeleteThanks Gwendolyn. I've just got the new cover for the box set which I love!
DeleteGreat post, sounds like a wonderful book!
ReplyDeleteThanks Victoria. The posts were pre-edit so the book is much more seamless, now :)
DeleteYou're welcome!!
DeleteGreat Excerpt
ReplyDeleteThanks Edgar, I'm glad you liked it!
DeleteCongrats on the new book and good luck on the book tour!
ReplyDelete