Her Timeless Obsession
~BRITA ADDAMS~
TOUR ORGANIZER:
CREATIVE MINDS PROMOTIONS
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CREATIVE MINDS PROMOTIONS
https://creativemindpromotions.wordpress.com/
PUBLISHER: Musa Publishing
RELEASE DATE: 23rd January 2015
LENGTH: 44,325 words
BLURB: A love that transcends time.
Ever the explorer, Honey Danby discovers a treasure trove in her dusty 1910 London attic. Old trunks filled with clothes, journals, and love letters written between two lovers in 1810 entertain her and leave her longing for a time and a man long past. Dressed in an irresistible gown from one of the trunks, Honey discovers a heart-wrenching love story. When she learns that all was cruelly torn asunder, the handsome soldier's loving words written to his H. catapult Honey into an adventure that defies logic.
When, dressed in a crisper version of the gown, Honey inexplicably awakens inside a rumbling horse-drawn carriage, she discovers she shares the antiquated vehicle with the man who tore the lovers apart. Can she convince this stranger to forego his unreasonable demands, or will history repeat itself on a misty August morn in Green Park?
AUTHOR BIO: Born in a small town in upstate New York, Brita Addams has made her home in the sultry south for many years. In the Frog Capital of the World, Brita shares her home with her real-life hero—her husband, and a fat cat named Stormee. All their children are grown.
Given her love of history, Brita writes both het and gay historical romance. Many of her historicals have appeared on category bestseller lists at various online retailers.
Musa Publishing publishes Brita’s heterosexual historical romances, including the rewritten and expanded, best-selling Sapphire Club series, each with new titles. Again, each of the titles have again hit the best-selling lists at various online vendors.
Tarnished Gold, the first in her gay romance Tarnished series for Dreamspinner Press, was a winner in the 2013 Rainbow Awards, Historical Romance category. The book also received nominations for Best Historical and Best Book of 2013 from the readers of the Goodreads M/M Romance Group.
A bit of trivia—Brita pronounces her name, Bree-ta, and not Brit-a, like the famous water filter. Brita Addams is a mash-up of her real middle name and her husband's middle name, with an additional d and s.
AUTHOR LINKS:
Website/Blog - http://britaaddams.net
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EXCERPT:
October, 1910
Upper Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, London
During a lifetime spent at Danby Terrace, Honoria Danby, Honey to those who knew her best, had excitedly explored the secret passageways and hiding places that made living in the red-bricked townhouse worthwhile. As mistress of the old pile, she intended to restore some of the old charm the place must have once held.
With an autumnal storm blowing sheets of rain against the windows, Honey answered the call of her curiosity, as she had often done on such days during her childhood. She’d spent hours alone amid the relics of years gone by. The high-ceilinged attic beckoned her to poke around amongst paintings by the dozens, statues, and fine china. She had, over the years, restored furniture used by Danby ancestors and filled the rooms downstairs with them.
“Come on, Maizie,” she said to her less than thrilled maid. “Let’s explore that corner with all the trunks.”
“Yes’m. I’ll get the kerosene lamp.”
Honey changed into a work dress and met Maizie at the foot of the stairs. “I’ve been dying to explore those trunks. What about you?”
“I don’t like the dust. Now, you know that.”
“I know, but think of the treasures we might find.”
Maizie grumbled as she lit the lamp, and the dark attic took on light. With the dim recesses lit, Honey strode past covered furniture, rusted rifles, a patinaed garden bench, and an entire dining room set.
“Look here. How have I missed these in all our explorations?” Honey pulled back the sheets that covered paintings of animals, expressionless people, and admirably executed still lifes, “We’ll take some of these down to hang in the dining room.”
While Maizie stacked the paintings by the stairs, Honey delved deeper into the corner. Against the rough-hewn beams rested an age-stained oilcloth-wrapped mystery that had somehow escaped her frequent explorations.
On creaking floorboards, she advanced on the corner, distracted for several moments by copies of old magazines and a marble bust of a bald, bearded man that looked like her grandfather.
She hung the lamp on a nail in the beam. “Maizie, come help me uncover this.”
As they lifted the heavy cloth, dust motes clouded the airless attic as she and a sneezing Maizie unveiled a life-size portrait, well-preserved in a dull gilt frame.
Honoria slid her finger over the textured deep scarlet of the subject’s uniform, over the braided cords at his shoulders, and then higher. She shone the light on his handsome angular face—square jaw with a hint of a shadow. Unsmiling, he stared straight ahead, as though through the painter. “Oh, my, who do we have here?”
She lowered the lamp to the dusty brass plaque at the lower edge of the frame. With a moistened thumb, she cleaned the filthy piece of metal.
Captain Jeremy Saintaubin, Marquess of Galmore, 1803.
Honey stared at the ribbons on the captain’s scarlet coat and imagined his pride as he received them. The hem of his eternally creased black trousers disappeared into his highly polished Wellington boots. His stylish curly black hair, perfectly coifed, did nothing to soften his stiff, broad-shouldered stance.
Honey’s heart skipped a beat when she studied his face. A man’s eyes had always enthralled her, especially those that held a hint of mystery. “He’s handsome, isn’t he, Maizie?”
Her maid held her apron to her face. “Yes’m.” She sneezed again.
Though the captain’s eyes bored through to her soul, Honey tore her gaze from the visage of the handsome Lord Galmore to root amongst the old trunks that lined a darkened wall and peek beneath dust-laden cloths at the discarded remnants of another century.
A swath of blue drew her attention to a blue-and-cream striped Hepplewhite sofa and matching chairs. “Even at a hundred years old, these are in good repair.”
Maizie batted away the dust and mumbled a reply.
“We’ll take these downstairs. We can clean them up, can’t we?”
Maizie coughed. “I suppose we can.”
“You should keep your face covered so the dust doesn’t affect you like that.”
“Yes, miss.”
With Maizie’s help, Honey tugged the furniture out of the way and settled before the first of many trunks that lined the darkest wall. After leveraging one rusted clasp open, she giggled with glee. “Oh look, Maizie. Old clothes.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Honey sat on the plain wood floor and pulled dresses and bonnets from the trunk—silks, satins, cambric, and muslins in styles that had long since lost favor. “They are remarkably unspoiled.”
Maizie sneezed several times, but she managed a weak, “That’s nice.”
“We need to get you out of this attic. Will you go get Frederick and Paul, and they can take these trunks and that huge portrait downstairs? I want to see it in a better light”
“Yes, ma’am.”
While Honey dug even deeper in one of the trunks, Frederick and Paul appeared. “I’d like to have these trunks, this beautiful portrait, and the blue Hepplewhite furniture taken downstairs. You can put them in the corridor until I decide what else to do with them.”
Honey supervised the removals, prodding as much as she dared, eager to see everything in the stark light of day and electrical lighting.
“What do we do with the portrait, ma’am?” Frederick asked.
Honey ran her fingers through a thick coating of dust. “After Maizie dusts it, bring it and this trunk into my bedchamber. The furniture goes to my drawing room.”
Mari's ARC Review:
* ARC Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie in exchange for a fair and honest review. *
This was such a great read. It has intrigue, suspense, a vengeful brother and his horrible aide, and a sweet and hot romance that transcends time.
From the moment I read the blurb, I was intrigued over the story. Honoria Danby is an only child, whose parents died a few years before and left her their family home, Danby Terrace and enough of an inheritance to live by comfortably. She’s well-read and curious and when she finds the portrait of a gentleman and a trunk with his things in her attic, she falls in love with him at first sight and is determined to finding out more about him. Through her search she determines Jeremy Saintaubin, the Marquess of Galmore, died on 1810 after a duel with one of Honey’s ancestors, leaving his wife Honoria a widow. She is depressed by this and somehow, after going to sleep one night, she wakes up in a coach as she travels with said ancestor, Bartholomew Danby, the Baron of Evermore, who calls her his sister and tells her they’re on their way to the reunion where she knows the Marquess of Galmore meets Honoria. She’s surprised, but doesn’t let on to what she knows, instead deciding to just go through the motions of impersonating Bart’s sister, without anyone noticing they’re not the same person.
After meeting the Marquess at the soirée, they are both taken with each other, something that won’t sit well with Honey’s brother and that will set everything in motion.
The story was fast-paced and engaging. While not historically accurate, it was interesting and the author did a great job in transporting me back into 1810, where most of the story takes place. There are a few things that weren’t really addressed, mostly how Honey travelled back in time and what happened with the real Honoria, but other than that, the rest of the plot got resolved in a neat fashion.
All in all, the book was very enjoyable and I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. I just had to find out how it was all going to play out and I definitely wasn’t disappointed!
Rating: 4.5 time-travelling stars.
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Winner gets a $20 Musa Publishing Gift Card
A Runner-up will also be chosen who will win a Copy of any Brita Addams book (Choice of the Runner-up)
Contest Begins: 26th January, 2015
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