The stories are about real people (admittedly of 'the ton') - the heroes and heroines are of the right age to be courting couples of this period and most importantly, for me anyway, they come from families who love them. To read most regencies you would think the characters were immaculate conceptions, untramelled by inconvenient parents or siblings. In Sasha's books, there are mothers and fathers who may not always agree with the way their offsring are erring and are not above teaching them the occasional life lesson, but at the end of the story you are left with the feeling that Christmas at the Duke of Strathmore's estates would be rowdy, happy, family times.
This story revolves around the Strathmore daughter, Lucy, sister to the heroes of Book 1 and 2. We have met Lucy in the preceding two stories (LETTER FROM A RAKE and AN UNSUITABLE MATCH) and we are familiar with her interfering ways. With both her errant brothers happily settled it is Lucy's turn to find love...
THE DUKE'S DAUGHTER
When handsome army officer Avery Fox unexpectedly
inherits a fortune, he instantly becomes one of the season's most eligible
bachelors. More accustomed to the battlefield, he has no patience with the
naive debutantes who fill the ballrooms of London.
Honest
and impetuous Lady Lucy Radley is a breath of fresh air, guiding him through
the season and helping him to avoid any traps. So when Avery is left with
little option but to marry Lucy, he can't help but feel he's been manipulated.
Nor can he shake the feeling that a duke's daughter should be out of his reach.
From
the wildly beautiful Scottish Highlands to the elegant soirees of Paris, Avery
and Lucy go on a journey that is full of surprises for them both. But
will their feelings for each other be strong enough to overcome the
circumstances of their marriage and survive the ghosts of Avery's past?
Read an excerpt from THE DUKE'S DAUGHTER....
Chapter One
By every measure of her own behaviour, Lady Lucy Radley knew
this was the worst.
'You reckless fool,' she muttered under her breath as she headed
back inside and into the grand ballroom.
The room was a crush of London's social elite. Every few steps
she had to stop and make small talk with friends or acquaintances. A comment
here and there about someone's gown or promising a social call made for slow
going.
Finally she spied her cousin, Eve. She fixed a smile to
her face as Eve approached.
'Where have you been, Lucy? I've been searching everywhere for
you.'
'I was just outside admiring the flowers on the terrace.'
Eve frowned, but the lie held.
Another night, another ball in one of London's high-society
homes. In one respect Lucy would be happy when the London social season ended
in a few weeks; then she would be free to travel to her family home in Scotland
and go tramping across the valleys and mountain paths, the chill wind ruffling
her hair.
She puffed out her cheeks. With the impending close of the
season came an overwhelming sense of failure. Her two older brothers, David and
Alex, had taken wives. Perfect, love-filled unions with delightful girls, each
of whom Lucy was happy to now call sister.
Her newest sister-in-law, Earl Langham's daughter Clarice, was
already in a delicate condition, and Lucy suspected it was only a matter of
time before her brother Alex and his wife Millie shared some good news.
For herself, this season had been an unmitigated disaster on the
husband-hunting front. The pickings were slim at best. Having refused both an
earl and a viscount the previous season, she suspected other suitable gentlemen
now viewed her as too fussy. No gentleman worth his boots wanted a difficult
wife. Only the usual group of fortune-hunters, intent on getting their hands on
her substantial dowry, were lining up at this stage of the season to ask her to
dance. Maintaining her pride as the daughter of a duke, she refused them all.
Somewhere in the collective gentry of England there must be a man
worthy of her love. She just had to find him.
What a mess.
'You are keeping something from me,' Eve said, poking a finger
gently into Lucy's arm.
Lucy shook her head. 'It's nothing. I suspect I am suffering
from a touch of ennui. These balls all begin to look the same after a while.
All the same people, sharing the same gossip.'
'Oh dear, and I thought I was having a bad day,' Eve replied.
'Sorry, I was being selfish. You are the one who needs a friend
to cheer her up,' Lucy replied. She kissed her cousin gently on the cheek.
Eve's brother William had left London earlier that day to return
to his home in Paris, and she knew her cousin was taking his departure hard.
'Yes, well, I knew I could sit at home and cry, or I could put
on a happy face and try to find something to smile about,' Eve replied.
Eve's father had tried without success to convince his son to
return permanently to England. With the war now over and Napoleon toppled from
power, everyone expected William Saunders to come home immediately, but it had
taken two years for him to make the journey back to London.
'Perhaps once he gets back to France and starts to miss us all
again, he shall have a change of heart,' Lucy said.
'One can only hope. Now, let's go and find a nice quiet spot and
you can tell me what you were really doing out in the garden. Charles Ashton
came in the door not a minute before you, and he had a face like thunder. As I
happened to see the two of you head out into the garden at the same time a
little while ago, I doubt Charles' foul temper was because he found the flowers
not to his liking,' Eve replied.
BUY THE DUKE'S DAUGHTER...
About Sasha Cottman...
Sasha Cottman’s debut novel was published
in 2013. Letter from a Rake, was a Ruby finalist in 2014 and won the Book
Junkies Choice Award in 2014.
Her books are centred on the theme of love,
honour and family. Her current book series, The Duke of Strathmore, covers the
story of the love lives of a group of siblings and their cousins.
Sasha’s second novel An Unsuitable Match,
was a four time ARRA finalist in 2015. The third book in the Duke of Strathmore
series, The Duke’s Daughter, was released in August 2015.
Sasha divides her time between the city of
Melbourne, Australia and her family beach retreat at Torquay. She and her
family have discovered all the places the family cat disappears to whenever it
realises they are about to head home on a Sunday night.
Before accidentally enrolling in a course for
romance writers a number of years ago, she had always had a love of history.
While her writing career may appear at odds with her professional career as a
finance executive, it means she can spot a poorly written company board report
at twenty feet.
A self-confessed ‘hopeless’ cook, she
writes a blog, In the Regency Kitchen, where she recreates recipes from the
Regency/Georgian era. Her family have so far managed to survive being the test
subjects of her culinary efforts.
The little time she has left during the
week and weekends is spent trying to beat her husband at Fitbit challenges and
trying to find where the pair to that sock really went.
Sasha is published by Destiny Romance a
digital imprint of Penguin Random House.
Connect with Sasha at... http://www.sashacottman.com, Twitter and Facebook
For her In the Regency Kitchen
Blog where she attempts to recreate Regency Recipes with mixed success http://www.sashacottman.com
