After Prudence’s desperate marriage and move to London,
sisters Rowena and Victoria fear they have lost their beloved friend forever.
Guilt-ridden and remorseful, Rowena seeks comfort from a daring flyboy and
embraces the most dangerous activity the world has ever seen, and Victoria
defies her family and her illness to make her own dream occupation as a botanist
come true. As England and the world step closer to conflict, the two young women
flout their family, their upbringing, and their heritage to seize a modern
future of their own making.
Victoria
Buxton
With her delicate
constitution but strong, unflappable spirit, Victoria has never followed
societal conventions, the rules of fashion, or the pursuit of a husband.
Instead, she finds herself drawn to the controversial—and dangerous—fight for
women’s suffrage. But her dream is compromised, and her heart divided, when her
struggles for equal rights collide with unexpected love.
Rowena
Buxton
After yearning to no
avail for a certain young pilot to fly back into her life, Rowena fears her
chances for happiness have been jeopardized by recklessness and scandal.
Burdened with guilt for bringing her sister Prudence to Summerset Abbey as a
lady’s maid while she herself led a life of privilege, Rowena hopes to one day
make amends. But her desire to set things right is complicated by her passion
for flight and a sudden engagement…to the wrong man.
Prudence
Tate
Raised like a sister
to Victoria and Rowena, then banished to the servants’ quarters when their
father passed away, Prudence has seen both sides of life, upstairs and down. But
once the truth about her parentage was revealed, Prudence forged a new life for
herself, married to a penniless veterinary student. Living in poverty in a
shabby London flat, she wonders if she’s made a terrible mistake—and there’s no
turning back...
BUY LINKS
********* EXCERPT ***********
Victoria sat
impatiently, her fingers skittering across the shining top of her lovely round
desk, once used by an ancestor who would no doubt be completely scandalized by
the plan she had just proposed to Kit.
“Let me get this
straight,” he frowned at her, his dark red brows furrowing like caterpillars.
“You want me to help you to sneak into London for a week?”
She glared at the
mocking tone of his voice. “You know, you’re usually quite handsome, but right
now, you look more like an ogre from a Grimms’ fairy tale than a human, so you
can stop glowering at me.”
His head came up and
he looked at her, his eyebrows unfurrowing and shooting up on his forehead in
such a comical way, she couldn’t help but giggle.
“You think I’m
handsome?”
Victoria shrugged.
“Yes. Sort of like a fox, with your ginger hair and sharp eyes. But don’t let it
go to your head; Sebastian and Colin are far better looking than you. Now back
to my plan.”
He rolled his eyes at
that and got back to the matter at hand. “The only way it would work would be to
bring Elaine into it. There is no way your aunt would approve of your traveling
to London on your own, and she certainly would never let you drive off alone
with me.”
Victoria shook her
head, frustrated by the fuss. “These people do know I’m of age, right? Why may
Cousin Colin come and go as he pleases, yet Elaine and I are required to inform
everyone where we are at every moment of every day? How is that
fair?”
“Do you know you’re
rather lovable when you act like a suffragette?” he teased.
She threw a fountain
pen at him and missed. It exploded on the mantel. “Oh blast! Now see what you
made me do.”
He laughed. “Made you
do? No, leave it,” he said when she stood to clean it. “No one comes back here
and we’ll call it art, much as that crazy art nouveau crowd calls their stuff
art.”
“Oh!” She stamped her
foot. He knew she loved art nouveau.
“Now don’t get your
petticoats in a bundle, kitten, and let’s figure out how to get you to London so
you can meet with…whom?”
“Harold L. Herbert,
the managing editor for the Botanist’s Quarterly,” she said, sitting back
down.
“Ah yes, so you can
meet with Hairy Herbert. And what do you hope to gain from this
meeting?”
For a moment, Victoria
drew a blank. “Well, he said he wanted to meet with me. He finds my writing
thought-provoking. He not only paid me for an article, but is also interested in
more of my work. So, more assignments, I suppose.” She tilted her nose up in the
air, waiting for him to make fun of her.
To her surprise he
didn’t. “So you’ve never met Hairy Herbert. Have you spoken to him on the
telephone?” He took the seat across from the desk and crossed his long legs. His
eyes regarded her gravely.
Victoria shifted
uneasily. “No.”
“So he doesn’t know
that the author of the scientific article he paid ten pounds for is, in fact, an
eighteen-year-old girl?”
Victoria opened her
mouth, but no sound came out.
TJ Brown is passionate
about books, writing, history, dachshunds and mojitos. If she could go back in
time, she would have traveled back to England, 1910, Paris, 1927 or
Haight-Ashbury, 1967. She resides in the burbs of Portlandia, where she
appreciates the weirdness, the microbreweries, hoodies, Voodoo Donuts and the
rain.
********* GIVEAWAY **********
T. J.
will be awarding to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour a 4 piece
Whimsical Butterfly Tea set. The tea set is handcrafted by artist April Cook of
white stoneware slip and painted with a unique whimsical design of a butterfly
in lime green and plum glaze. It is both dishwasher and microwave safe. The set
includes a 32 oz. tea pot with lid, creamer and sugar bowl. (To see more of April's designs, see www.etsy.com/shop/
For more chances to enter you can follow the tour HERE
