The Spinster Bride   By Jane Goodger

Historical Romance                                                                                                                    Release date: February 2, 2015                                                                                  Kensington/Lyrical Press

BLURB:

Mr. Charles Norris needs help finding a wife…

For he has the unfortunate habit of falling for each Season’s loveliest debutante, only to have his heart broken when she weds another. Surely Lady Marjorie Penwhistle can help him. She’s sensible, clever, knows the ton, and must marry a peer, which he is not. Since she’s decidedly out of his reach, Charles is free to enjoy her refreshing honesty—and her unexpectedly enticing kisses…

Lady Marjorie Penwhistle doesn’t want a husband…

At least not the titled-but-unbearable suitors her mother is determined she wed. She’d rather stay unmarried and look after her eccentric brother. Still, advising Mr. Norris is a most exciting secret diversion. After all, how hard will it be to match-make someone so forthright, honorable, and downright handsome? It’s not as if she’s in danger of finding Charles all-too-irresistible herself…

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AUTHOR BIO:                                                                                                                          The award-winning author of more than 15 historical romances, Jane Goodger lives in Rhode Island with her family, juggling three kids, a full-time job, a writing career, and a business. She’s gotten pretty good at juggling. In her free time (bwahaha) Jane likes to read, shop, and once in a great while cook a decent meal.

JANE’S THOUGHTS: 

As a writer, I want to love all my characters—even the ones I want my reader to hate. But about half way through writing THE SPINSTER BRIDE, I realized that I had written a character with few redeeming qualities. My heroine’s mother, Lady Summerfield, was loathsome, and since she appeared as a minor character in WHEN A LORDS NEEDS A LADY, I couldn’t change her completely; she was pretty loathsome in that book, too.

So I got to thinking…Why was Lady Summerfield so bitter? Why did she have so little patience for her odd-duck son?

And then I saw the hat.

I was doing research on what women wore through the 1800s and I saw the hat that inspired Dorothea’s (Lady Summerfield) story. It was a ridiculous thing (as many hats were back then),  but I knew it was perfect. I realized Dorothea had to have her own story, had to be explained, had to touch the hearts of the readers as much as she frustrated them.

In the end, I loved Dorothea and understood her. And all because of a silly hat.

A Dorothea Excerpt from THE SPINSTER BRIDE

Dorothea was unmarried, of course, and at an age when most women had children and a home. At age twenty-eight, she was so long on the shelf she was considered dusty. But even at that age, she continued to have hope that someday she would marry, would have her own home, and perhaps children (though her mother hinted she was already far too old to begin down that road). And Lord Smythe, ever so polite, ever so attentive, was her last hope. He always asked for a dance, and the two of them had strolled together in more gardens than she could count. While he’d never expressed any feelings toward her other than friendship—they shared an interest in botany—Dorothea allowed herself to imagine that he did have them.

“He always goes to Briggs on Wednesdays at two o’clock because that’s when the new shipment of books arrives.” This wonderful tidbit had come from Mary. And so that’s where the two of them were heading.

Dorothea knew Mary felt sorry for her, but she hid it well most of the time. She saw Mary’s look of hesitation each time Dorothea would mention Lord Smythe. She knew she had no chance with him, not when there were so many other far younger and far prettier girls to pick from. But she couldn’t stop her heart from wanting what it wanted. Four years of wanting. Four years of lying in bed at night, staring at the ceiling, and wondering if there were any hope at all that he was doing the same about her.

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