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(Keeping up with the Cavendishes Book One)
Chasing Lady Amelia
Keeping Up with the Cavendishes #2
Maya Rodale
Releasing June 28th, 2016
Avon Books
In the second novel of Maya Rodale’s enchanting Keeping Up with the Cavendishes series, an American heiress finds her reputation—and heart—in danger when she travels to London and meets a wickedly tempting rake
Terribly Improper
Lady Amelia is fed up with being a proper lady and wishes to explore London, so one night she escapes . . . and finds herself in the company of one Alistair Finlay-Jones. He’s been ordered by his uncle to wed one of the American girls. How lucky, then, that one of them stumbles right into his arms!
Totally Scandalous
Alistair and Amelia have one perfect day to explore London, from Astley’s Amphitheater to Vauxhall Gardens. Inevitably they end up falling in love and making love. If anyone finds out, she will be ruined, but he will win everything he’s ever wanted.
Very Romantic
When Amelia finds out Alistair has been ordered to marry her, he must woo her and win back the angry American girl. But with the threat of scandals, plural, looming . . . will he ever catch up to the woman he loves?
“Ah, Lady Nansen. Lord Nansen!” The duchess
and her charges paused before a couple that looked just like all the others
Amelia had been introduced to: they were of an indeterminate middle age, decked
in an array of brightly colored silks and satins, and honestly, a bit jowly and
gray.
“I haven’t yet
introduced you to my nephew and nieces.”
“And we have
been dying to make their acquaintance,” Lady Nansen said, fanning herself
furiously. “The ton has spoken of nothing else.”
The duchess
performed the introductions. Upon meeting James, the new duke, fawning ensued.
Everyone fawned
over James these days—but then when his back was turned they whispered about
how his father was a horse thief and that James had been raised in the stables
and how tragic it was that Durham was now in his hands.
“And Lady
Claire.”
Amelia watched
as they took in Claire’s spectacles and her distracted, impatient demeanor. She
had not
mastered
the slightly vacant look of a simpering miss and with a brain as sharp as hers,
never would. Amelia watched as Lady Nansen decided that Claire would never be
an “incomparable,” or whatever they called the popular girls of the ton, and
flitted her attention to the next sister.
“Lady Bridget.”
Amelia watched
as her middle sister glided into an elegant curtsy. The duchess beamed. Lady
Nansen judged.
“Your
practicing is paying off,” Amelia murmured. She’d caught Bridget curtsying in
front of the mirror in the ballroom for an hour last Thursday.
“Do shut up,
Amelia,” Bridget said through gritted teeth. Unlike the other Cavendish
siblings,
Bridget actually cared about
fitting in here. She was obsessed with learning and following the rules.
“And Lady
Amelia.” She gave a smile somewhere between gargoyle and simpering miss, but
perhaps more on the gargoyle side of the spectrum.
“You must have
your hands full, Duchess, trying to make so many matches.”
“It does give one something to do all
day,” the duchess replied, with a tight-lipped smile that
Amelia dubbed the One Where I Am
Smiling Even Though I Hate What You Just Said. “But I do have every confidence
that they will make splendid matches. In fact, I have someone special in mind
for Lady Amelia this evening.”
The duchess
beamed at her charges, as if they hadn’t been foiling her every effort to marry
them off. Amelia began to dread meeting “someone special.”
“I say, Duke,”
Lord Nonesuch or whatever began, “do you have an opinion on any of the horses
running Ascot?”
The lords
always asked James for his opinion on which horse would win a race, so they
might win a wager. And then they turned around and made snide remarks about his
experience raising and training horses—as if he were beneath them because of
this knowledge. Even though he now outranked them.
“I do,” James
said, smiling easily.
“Don’t suppose
you’d tell a friend who you think will be the winner?” Lord Nansen or Nancy
said jovially, with a wink and a nudge.
“I might,”
James replied.
This was a
conversation he’d had before and Amelia had begged him to do something
nefarious, like deliberately suggest a losing horse. But James refused and just
smiled like he knew the winner and never said a word.
“I suppose
you’re going to build up Durham’s stables,” his lordship said.
“Nansen, he
doesn’t have time for horses,” his wife said in that exasperated way of wives.
“He must find a bride first.”
The duchess
beamed, an I-told-you-so smile.
Then Lady
Nansen turned and fixed her attentions on Amelia. Her fan was beating at a
furious pace.
“And Lady
Amelia, have you found any suitors you care for?”
“After having
met nearly all of England’s finest young gentlemen, I can honestly say that no,
I have not found any suitors that I could care for,” Amelia said. “But I do
have a new appreciation for spinsterhood. In fact, I think it sounds like just
the thing.”
Just the thing
was
a bit of slang she had picked up. Sticking forks in her eye was just the thing (but only with
the good silver!). Flustering old matrons with an honest and direct statement
was just
the thing.
Lady Nansen
stared at her a moment, blinking rapidly as she tried to process what Amelia
had just said.
“Well your
sister seems to have snared the attentions of Darcy’s younger brother,” she
said, evidently disregarding Amelia and focusing on Bridget, the one who cared
about fitting in and finding suitors.
“Are Lord Darcy
and Mr. Wright here tonight?” Bridge asked eagerly. Too eagerly. “I haven’t
seen them.”
“It’s not a
party without Darcy,” Amelia quipped.
Darcy spent the
majority of every social engagement standing against the wall, glowering at the
company, refusing to dance, and begging the question of why he even bothered to
attend.
But that was
neither here nor there and no one deigned to reply to Amelia, so she sighed and
lamented her choice in footwear quietly to herself. When Lord and Lady Nansen
took their leave and sauntered off, the duchess turned and fixed her cool, blue
eyes on Amelia.
“You might
endeavor to be a touch more gracious, Lady Amelia.”
The Duchess
always said everything in perfectly worded, excruciatingly polite phrases.
Translation: Lord above, Amelia, stop acting like a brat.
“I’m just . . .
bored.”
And homesick.
And unhappy. And dreading the future you have planned for me. And a dozen other
feelings one does not mention when one is at a ball.
“Bored?” The
duchess arched her brows. “How on earth can you be bored by all this?” She
waved her hand elegantly, to indicate everything surrounding them. “Is all the
splendor, music, and the company of the best families in the best country not
enough for you? I cannot imagine that you had such elegance and luxuries in the
provinces.”
Everyone here
still referred to her home country as the provinces, or the colonies, or as the
remote American backwater plagued by heathens, when Amelia knew that it was a
beautiful country full of forthright, spirited people. It was her true home.
They operated
under the impression that there was no greater fun to be had than getting
overdressed and gossiping with the same old people each night, in crowded
ballrooms in a crowded city.
She missed
summer nights back home on their farm in Maryland, when she would slip outside
at night with a blanket, to look up at the vast, endless expanse of stars.
This, no matter
what the duchess said, just did not compare.
Amelia
shrugged.
“We already met
half these people at the six other balls we have attended this week,” she said.
“The other half are crashing bores.”
Crashing bores
was
a phrase Amelia had read in the gossip columns. The violence of it appealed to
her.
“I suppose it
would be too much to ask you to pretend to act like an interested and engaging
young lady.” Then, turning to Lady Bridget, the duchess said, “I daresay she
couldn’t.”
With that, the
duchess turned away.
She turned away, leaving the
words hanging in the air, floating to the ground, just waiting for
Amelia to pounce on them.
“Well that was
a challenge,” Claire said.
“I’m not
certain she could manage it.” Bridget sniffed.
Really? Really?
“Is that a
dare?” Amelia asked, straightening up. Oh, she would pretend all right. She
would pretend so well they’d all be shocked. It would give her something to do
at least. “Because I will take that dare.”
“I’d like to
see you try,” Bridget replied. Then, muttering under her breath she added, “For
once.”
Amelia reddened. Admittedly she hadn’t been
taking this whole sister-of-the-duke business seriously. But she would show
them. So instead of sticking her tongue out and scowling at Bridget, Amelia
stuck her nose right up in the air and turned away.
This books takes place at the same time as the first book of the series, Lady Bridget's Diary, which I loved. We finally find out what Amelia was up to the days she was gone. Amelia takes advantage of her time with Alistair to experience things that she normally wouldn't be allowed to. I loved their interaction and I could see the feeling begin to develop between them even though their time together was very short. Unfortunately, Alistair's uncle's plan to have him marry her makes Amelia doubt everything they shared. Alistair has to being courting her all over again. The entire story takes place in just a couple of weeks, and the first half of the book is just about the two days she was missing. While I enjoyed their romance, I felt a bit rushed to me. That is the main reason I did not like it as much as the first book in the series. I am still really curious for their brother James' story, but I will have to wait a bit longer as the next book is about their sister Claire. I would really recommend reading the first book to get the most our of this one.
I received an ARC via NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review. I was not compensated for this review, all conclusions are my own.
Tell us about yourself.
What three things about you might surprise your readers?
1. I once lived in London for a summer for graduate
school and spent much of it researching in the British Library and trekking
around to every museum and historical house (and gift shop). It has proven to
be tremendously helpful when writing my Regency romances.
2. I’m very short—4 feet, eleven and three quarter
inches, barefoot. Do not forget my
three/quarters of an inch.
3. I keep a list of all the books I read, organized
by year, color-coded by month. As one does.
Is there a genre(s) that you think “I might like to
write one of those.”?
I have plenty of stories in my head and even some drafts under the bed that aren’t romance and I would love to write them (read: the muse insists I must write them). One is a Young Adult novel, the others are grown up lady fiction. But all of them will end happily :)
I have plenty of stories in my head and even some drafts under the bed that aren’t romance and I would love to write them (read: the muse insists I must write them). One is a Young Adult novel, the others are grown up lady fiction. But all of them will end happily :)
Tell us about CHASING LADY AMELIA
Lady Amelia Cavendish is sister to a
duke and hates it. Alistair
Finlay-Jones is heir to a baron who hates
him. A series of events involving scandal, laudanum and lost shoes result
in these two running away for a perfect day around London, taking in the sights
and falling in love. When Amelia finds out Alistair had been ordered to marry
her, he must woo her and win back the angry American girl. But with the threat
of scandals, plural, looming…will he ever catch up to the woman he loves?
Where did the
idea for the storyline come from?
The idea for Chasing Lady Amelia came from two distinct, but oddly
compatible, stories. The first is Pride
& Prejudice, which is the inspiration for book one in the Keeping Up
With The Cavendishes, Lady Bridget’s Diary. In both those
novels, there’s a runaway sister who definitely needs to have her story told
(where did she go!? With whom!? What kind of sexy fun trouble did she get
into?!) And then I noticed that the plot of my favorite movie of all time, Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn
and Gregory Peck, would dovetail perfectly. While her story inspired by that
film, Amelia quickly takes over and makes the story uniquely her own.
What do you think readers will like/love about Alistair and Amelia?
Things to love about Amelia: her irrepressible spirit and love for her family.
Things to love about Alistair: his
kindness, determination to do the right thing and the way he pleases Amelia, if
you know what I mean ;-)
What was your favorite scene from the book?
My favorite scene in Chasing Lady Amelia is a spoiler! (But don’t worry, no spoilers here). I’d been having trouble with the ending (I
wrote it, oh, three different ways) and over dinner and drinks with my husband
we schemed and plotted an alternate ending that is both funny, humorous, plays
on the Alistair’s worst fears and gives Amelia a say in her own destiny. It was a riot to write and is hopefully a
delight to read!
Who are some of your book boyfriends? What draws you to them?
Not Lord Darcy! I’m much more partial to Gilbert Blythe (If you don’t know who that is, I’m so sorry). But my book boyfriends tend to be the ones I’m writing currently about, so right now they are a hot, hunky Marquess (Lord Fox, of Lady Claire is All That) and a rebellious, American duke (the final book in the Cavendish series). I’m a lucky girl ;-)
If you had to
pick a favorite cocktail of choice, what would it be? (It can be
non-alcoholic too)
Something sparkling! Whether it’s champagne (or Prosecco, I’m not picky) or
sparkling water with extra limes please thank you very much. Cheers!
What’s next for you?
I am Keeping Up With The
Cavendishes! I’ve just finished up book three in the series, Lady Claire is All That (12/27/16).
Readers will see this smart heroine make an unexpectedly perfect match with the
hunky “jock” of the haute ton, Lord Fox, in a story that riffs on the rom com She’s All That. Oh, and then I’m writing
the duke’s romance...
Maya Rodale began reading romance novels in college at her mother’s insistence and it wasn’t long before she was writing her own. Maya is now the author of multiple Regency historical romances. She lives in New York City with her darling dog and a rogue of her own.
Thank you so much for sharing your review!
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