Sunday, November 18, 2012

An Infamous Marriage by Susanna Fraser (Guest Post/Giveaway)

Today I would like to give a warm welcome to author, Susanna Fraser, who is joining us on tour with her book, An Infamous Marriage!


For me, a big part of the Regency Era’s appeal is its overlap with the Napoleonic Era. Of the books I’ve sold so far (three published to date, another coming in 2013), all but one has had a military hero, and even in that book, A Marriage of Inconvenience, the war is never far away from the protagonists’ minds.

My new release, An Infamous Marriage, begins with my hero, Jack Armstrong, entering a marriage of convenience partly to secure a caretaker for his ailing mother in England while he serves with his regiment in Canada. It ends at Waterloo. While most of the action takes place in the brief peace before Napoleon’s return from exile, Jack always thinks of himself as a soldier, a warrior. 

So what is it about the Napoleonic Era and soldier heroes for me? Here are my Top Five reasons:

1) Sexy men in tight-fitting, blingy uniforms. ‘Nuff said.

2) Getting to write stoic, brave, honorable heroes--in uniform.

3) The wars provide an endless supply of adventure and danger, and therefore a neverending source of plots.

4) The outsized personalities of the era. I’m no admirer of Napoleon, but for better or worse there’s never been anyone quite like him. My favorite figure of the era is Wellington--cool-headed, snarky, stoic, and brilliant--but I also love Blucher, Michel Ney, and Eugene de Beauharnais, just to name a few.

5) The world went through so much upheaval between 1789 and 1815, and I can’t help wondering what it would be like to live through it all. Reading and writing about it gives me a chance to find out.

And now a question for you--what’s your favorite historical setting to read about, and why?

I’ll be giving one copy of An Infamous Marriage to a commenter on this post in your choice of e-book format, and at the end of the tour I'll be giving a one commenter on the tour as a whole grand prize of a $50 gift certificate to their choice of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell's Books. You get one entry per blog tour stop you comment upon, so check out my blog for the whole schedule! If you wish to be entered in the gift certificate drawing, include your email address formatted as yourname AT yourhost DOT com.




Northumberland, 1815
At long last, Britain is at peace, and General Jack Armstrong is coming home to the wife he barely knows. Wed for mutual convenience, their union unconsummated, the couple has exchanged only cold, dutiful letters. With no more wars to fight, Jack is ready to attempt a peace treaty of his own.
Elizabeth Armstrong is on the warpath. She never expected fidelity from the husband she knew for only a week, but his scandalous exploits have made her the object of pity for years. Now that he's back, she has no intention of sharing her bed with him—or providing him with an heir—unless he can earn her forgiveness. No matter what feelings he ignites within her…
Jack is not expecting a spirited, confident woman in place of the meek girl he left behind. As his desire intensifies, he wants much more than a marriage in name only. But winning his wife's love may be the greatest battle he's faced yet.

About the Author
Susanna Fraser wrote her first novel in fourth grade. It starred a family of talking horses who ruled a magical land. In high school she started, but never finished, a succession of tales of girls who were just like her, only with long, naturally curly and often unusually colored hair, who, perhaps because of the hair, had much greater success with boys than she ever did.Along the way she read her hometown library’s entire collection of Regency romance, fell in love with the works of Jane Austen, and discovered in Patrick O’Brian’s and Bernard Cornwell’s novels another side of the opening decades of the 19th century. When she started to write again as an adult, she knew exactly where she wanted to set her books. Her writing has come a long way from her youthful efforts, but she still tends to give her heroines great hair.Susanna lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter. When not writing or reading, she goes to baseball games, watches Chopped, Castle, and The Legend of Korra, and cooks her way through an ever-growing cookbook collection. 



19 comments:

  1. I love reading books set in England. I really don't care what time. Every time has been appealing.
    debby236 at gmail dot com

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  2. I've been reading historical romances almost exclusively for the past two years -- and realized that I've inadvertently favored Regency-set romances.

    I also love turn-of-the-century set stories, it was fascinating to see how people were adjusting to all the "new technology" of their time.

    - khriscc (at) yahoo (dot) com

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  3. I love historical romance stories! I don't think I really have a favorite era...I just love to delve into the past and see how people lived back then. I think romance was much more alive then than it is now.

    fantasy_angel381 AT yahoo DOT com

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  4. I used to read all kinds of historical romances, but I've gotten more picky in the last few years. I love anything set anywhere in Europe from Georgian times and after (Georgian, Regency, Victorian, Edwardian, right up through WWII). Settings other than Europe are okay also, but I have to be in the right mood for those.

    jen(at)delux(dot)com

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  5. I like the Victorian Era because of the medieval chivalry.

    dlatany at gmail dot com

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  6. oooh, i love to read about all historical periods!! i think regency and victorian are my faves. the book looks fantastic! is it available in print also?

    inthehammockblog at gmail dot com

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  7. I like the late 1800's to early 1900's of US history. So much was changing -- socially and technologically -- that is seems like a pretty exciting time. suz_glo(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  8. Hi Susanna! I love historical romance books set during the 1600's-1800's. There were so many people that were interesting and admirable during those times and so many things being invented. I also love the dress from those periods.

    kscathy AT yahoo DOT com

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  9. I love many different historical settings, but I seem to read a lot of Regencies (I think just because there's so many), and lately I like the Victorian era as well, because I like that things were changing and getting better for women and there were lots of new inventions that made life a bit easier for the lower classes.

    Barbed1951 at aol dot com

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  10. I love historical romance, especially during Victorian times. I think this book sounds reaaly good and I have added to my TBR list.

    sheryll1974 AT netscape DOT net

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  11. Sounds fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing and have a fun tour! Congrats on the new release!

    efender1(at)gmail(dot)com

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  12. Thanks for stopping by, everyone! I can see that England and the 19th century remain a beloved setting. A couple of specific comments:

    Carrie - An Infamous Marriage is currently available only in ebook, though there's a chance it might be made available as POD at some point.

    Susan, I agree that the turn of the 20th century in America is a fascinating time, though one I doubt I'll ever write myself. If I move out of the Regency, I'd probably go back in time to the 17th or 18th century, or even to ancient Greece or Rome, rather than forward.

    Cathy, I like the clothes, too, though some decades were better than others. If I ever write sequels about my current characters' children, I'd need to set them in the 1830's, and those dresses with the absurdly puffy sleeves just make me sad. :-)

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  13. I just love this kind of romance.
    r.d1@myfairpoint.net

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  14. If the story is engrossing I'm very happy to find myself immersed, or lost, in any time period. I love my history wrapped up in a great story.

    If pushed to name one, it would have to be Regency England.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  15. This book looks really good and so do your other books and they are on my TBR pile. I am just getting into the historical romance books.

    angiek@cfu.net

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  16. As long as the story and characters are interesting, I don't have a favorite historical setting. If I did have to choose, though, I'd have to choose Scotland as my favorite.

    e.balinski(at)att(dot)net

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  18. I tend to really like stories set in England & Scotland, but I also love other settings like Italy, India, S. America, etc. My favorite time setting (probably because I have read so many) is the Regency period, but I have read many more before that for like the 13th Century to the 18th. I prefer historicals set before the industrial age/when cars began to be used. I guess for me, that is just not historical enough :) But I have read some stories that I did enjoy from that time period.
    June
    manning_J2004 at yahoo dot com

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  19. I like to read all different time periods but I think I have read more stories set in the Regency period than any other.
    mce1011 AT aol DOT com

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