New Release and a Free Book

A New Release for the Archer Family Regency Romance Series

Love Across the Pond is now available!

I'm so pleased to announce the release of my latest book in the Archer Family Regency Romance series, Love Across the Pond. This book completes the series, which began with an American heiress Charlotte Haywood (The Unwanted Heiress) in London and now ends with Edward Archer traveling to Charleston, South Carolina to settle a property dispute for Charlotte.

But don't worry, even though this particular series is now complete, there will be other Regency romantic mysteries in the future.

Love Across the Pond is available for a limited time at a discount, so grab your copy now before the price goes up!

Love Across the Pond on Amazon.com

Blurb

Edward Archer walks right into the den of lioness Charity Stonewright when he sails across the pond to South Carolina to resolve a property dispute for his cousin, the Duchess of Peckham. Astute but bookish, the Englishman isn’t prepared for Charity, a strong-willed woman determined to prove the Charleston mansion is hers. And unbeknownst to Edward, Charity has a secret purpose. She is searching for the lost Stonewright fortune, hidden over sixty years ago, somewhere within the walls of the old, decaying mansion. Finding it will mean an end to the grinding poverty she’s endured and fulfill her dream to establish herself in Charleston society as a wealthy heiress.

Drawn to the mysterious woman, Edward is increasingly torn between duty and his growing love for her. But Charity seems determined to keep him at arm's length, stubbornly maintaining her distrust of him.

As the mysteries of the mansion threaten to tear Edward and Charity apart, they must learn to listen to their hearts and discover that the real treasure may be love.

Excerpt - Edward and Charity's first meeting

Using his cane, Edward knocked again, listening as the loud noise echoed and finally faded in the depths of the house. It sounded empty, completely deserted. While finding the house empty did mean he wouldn’t have to evict anyone, it did mean that he’d have to find the lawyer, Mr. Tarte, in order to obtain the key and enter.

With a sigh, he half-turned. A flicker of yellow light caught his attention. The wide fanlight above the door glowed with the faint, wavering illumination of a candle. After a minute, the doorknob rattled as someone struggled to unfasten the heavy lock.

The door creaked open a few inches, spilling light through the gap.

“Finally! Where have you been?” a woman’s breathless voice asked.

She peered around the edge of the door, holding a candle above her head. The golden gleam of red hair curled over the woman’s pale face. Below the tangle of hair, eyes blinked, lost in shadowed hollows beneath her arching brows. A sprinkling of freckles leapt over the bridge of her straight nose and high cheekbones.

“We would like to speak with Mr. Stonewright,” Edward said, hoping his cousin was incorrect when she said the woman lived here alone. “If he is available.”

“Mr. Stonewright? My—” She broke off before asking sharply, “Who are you?” Then, as if she suffered sudden doubts about the wisdom of opening the door to strangers, she started to slam it shut.

He shoved his booted foot into the gap and thrust the door open, forcing her to retreat into the dim hallway.

Clearly nervous, she glanced around the near-empty hallway, her mouth set in a grim line.

Edward held up his hands, although the cane gripped in his right hand marred his attempt to appear harmless. “I am Edward Archer.” He reached through the door and dragged Hildegard over the threshold. “This is my sister, Lady Hildegard Archer. I believe we are expected. Is there a Mr. Stonewright? Is he available?”

“Archer? I don’t know anyone named Archer,” the woman said, gliding back another yard, her feet invisible under the long hem of her pale gray gown. Her gaze flicked to the candle in her hand, as if she contemplated blowing it out and escaping in the resulting darkness.

“No, but I am sure if you speak to your master, he will recognize our names. Or your mistress,” he amended. “We sent him notice of our pending arrival weeks ago.”

“Master?” A harsh laugh broke from her mouth. “He—he is not here.” She lifted her round chin, daring him to argue otherwise.

Switching the cane to his left hand, he held up his right in a gesture of surrender. “Please—we mean you no harm. We simply wish to speak with Mr. or Mrs. Stonewright. He is expecting us. We are cousins to the Duchess of Peckham—”

“We don’t know any duchesses,” she threw back, her chin set at a stubborn angle.

He studied her. Her straight back and air of defiance suggested she was not a servant. “You—and your husband? Father?—may have known her as Miss Charlotte Haywood.”

“I didn’t know her at all, and I would appreciate it if you would leave immediately. This is my house—you have no business here.”

“Mr. Stonewright—”

“I own this property, and I am the head of this household. If you wish to speak to someone, then you must make do with me.”

Behind him came the soggy squelching of their servants’ footsteps as Atwood and Nettle sought the relative dryness of the stoop. Another volley of damp sneezes echoed through the door. Nettle blew her nose noisily and heaved a heavy sigh.

Mr. Stonewright or no Mr. Stonewright, they were not going back out into the foul weather to look for an inn if Edward had anything to say about it.

“As we informed Mr. or Mrs. Stonewright, the ownership of this property has yet to be determined,” Edward replied calmly.

The red-haired woman leaned forward, body rigid with tension as she held the candle out slightly above shoulder-level. “It has been determined—it is mine.”

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Don't forget, Love Across the Pond is available for a limited time at a discount, so grab your copy now before the price goes up! And speaking of limited time offers...

Free Book

To celebrate the release of Love Across the Pond, the Archer Family Regency, A Stolen Rose, is available for FREE! But it's only free for today and tomorrow, so be sure to grab your copy before the price goes back up.

A Stolen Rose

When the Earl of Wraysbury rescues a young woman from a carriage accident, he can't resist her laughing eyes and wry sense of humor, even though their families have been locked in a feud for generations.

Anemone may be achingly lonely but she's loyal to her family. When she wakes up after an accident in the strong arms of a handsome stranger, she's immediately drawn to him, and appalled  when  she discovers he's her family's sworn enemy, the Earl of Wraysbury.

Neither Anemone nor the earl is prepared for the flaring attraction they feel, or for the escalation of the war between their families when a 40-year-old mystery triggers accusations of murder. Loyalty and the threat of a dangerous duel are destined to tear the lonely lovers apart unless they are willing to defy their families and take a chance on love. 

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If you are interested, grab your copy on Amazon.com today. The sale ends on August 24, 2016.

A Stolen Rose on Amazon.com

Hope you enjoy some light summer reading!

Amy

Update to Rabbit Rescue

The rabbit rescue continues, and The Little Squirt is now sending us out into the yard searching for appetizing greens to fill his little bowl. I can't believe he's managed to survive a week in our care. We weren't able to find any rehabbers to take it and could never find the rabbit's nest to put the baby back. So we're stuck with him for a couple more weeks until he is old enough to be released.

So far, his favorite food is clover, followed by young dandelion shoots and purslane. He likes new leaves, old leaves--not so much. The bad news is that he likes me, and whenever I put my hand in his cage to put in some food, he nuzzles my hand and wants to come out and sit in my lap (where he simply goes to sleep). He's not supposed to like me. He's supposed to be afraid of me so that he will survive when we release him.

But from what I understand, he'll soon be afraid me of, too, it's just a matter of time.

Anyway, I wanted to let folks know that The Little Squirt is still alive and seems to be thriving. So far, so good.

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And, on the book front, A Stolen Rose, a traditional Regency, has been released and is now available.

Poor Little Bunny

I was hesitant to write about our little orphan, but he's made it for almost 5 days so maybe this won't jinx the whole thing.

So, last Friday, I was walking the dogs when my little Jack Russel stopped in the middle of the road. I went back and, well, she had a bunny in her mouth. I made her drop it, and the poor little thing appeared to be unharmed except for being in shock.

My husband and I took the dogs and scoured the entire place, looking for the rabbit burrow to put the bunny back, because it hadn't even opened its eyes yet. Baby bunnies have a very low survival rate if you take them away from the rest of the litter, and I didn't want the poor little thing to die. No luck, although we searched and kept trying to get the dogs to show us where the bunnies were.

Finally, we had to give up for the night and take the poor thing home. We called a bunch of rehabbers because you're not supposed to keep wild animals, and I wanted to give the thing a chance. No luck. You see, 90% of orphaned bunnies die. Most of the rehabbers had too many other animals and didn't want a baby bunny that was sure to die.

We looked again on Saturday for the burrow. We even tried to find someone who had domestic rabbits with a litter, hoping to slip the baby in with the others. Mammas are great about accepting "strangers."

No luck. So we found the bunny org and because my husband is a wildlife biologist, we looked up rabbits in his literature. Between all the sources, we decided that goat's milk for puppies/kittens plus a bit of heavy cream (8 parts goat's milk to 1 part cream) warmed up would do it. So I went to the Seed & Feed and got goat's milk and a tiny feeding bottle, then got some cream. We prepared everything the way you do for a human baby and fed the beast.

Bunny likes the milk mixture a little on the warm side, but at least he ate. And I rubbed his bottom as recommended to get him to pee and poop, although he seems perfectly capable of pooping on his own because there were droppings in the bucket where he lived in a nest of microfiber rags.

Oh, we kept him in a big bucket hung from the rafters to keep the dogs and cat away from him. It worked for the first night. Unfortunately, he jumped out the second night and roamed around our living room all night. Oops. Fortunately, none of her animals found him. And although he was cold, we fed him and got a cat carrier for him. And I took one of those horseshoe shaped pads you heat up in the microwave for for shoulder/neck muscles and put that in the cat carrier to keep him warm.(Heat lamps are too dehydrating.)

We were trying to mimic his natural environment, which means no heat lamps or anything like that, but a gentle source of warmth like that pad did the trick. He likes it, but frequently hops away from it if he gets too hot And although we were feeding it twice a day, 1.5 tsp (approx), since the mamma rabbit only visits the den rarely to feed her kits (evening and morning) to avoid leaving a scent trail that might lead predators to the den, we did feed our kit a extra time after his "adventure" on our floor, so he got breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So far, (we found him Friday and it is now Tuesday) he seems to be doing okay. We don't mess with him except when I take him out to feed him. Sunday, I started adding probiotics to his bottle in preparation to moving him to greens. Baby rabbits have sterile digestive systems and normally eat their mamma's night poop to get the right flora in their bellies, but we have no mamma, so we're using probiotics.

He started opening his eyes Sunday night and Monday. Today, his eyes are pretty well open and his ears are twitching and upright. That means he's close to being ready to start on greens collected from the yard. He's also getting more nervous of me, which is great, because he needs to be afraid of humans and everything else out there when we release him in 2 - 3 more weeks.

I hope he continues to thrive. We're doing the best we can. I'd like him to be in that 10% of bunnies who do manage to live long enough to be released, and I hope I haven't just jinxed him by writing this. He's a tough little bugger and obviously wants to survive. Today, I'm going to sprout some oat and alfalfa seeds I got for sprouting (I eat a lot of sprouts, myself) as well as sorrel, clover, plantain, sumac, and other goodies I collect around our property. That should give him a variety of things to try as we move him to his normal veggie diet.

I'll update this as he progresses. Let's hope the update(s) don't include a bunny funeral. I can't quite believe he's made it this long after everything that has happened to him. I wish we could have convinced a rehabber to take him (they are all volunteers, unpaid, and overwhelmed this time of year). I'm always afraid I'm going to find him cold and stiff in the cat carrier.

I'm also hesitant to name him because, that also seems like tempting fate, but I think of him as The Little Squirt. And The Little Squirt really wants to live. He's been through a lot and is still hanging in there.

Finally, I don't mean to "pollute" this with crass talk of books, but September/October are exciting months for me. A Lady in Hiding is out, and both A Stolen Rose and Her Vampire Bodyguard will be out in October. So what with The Little Squirt and writing, this fall has been really busy so far.