Showing posts with label happy ever after. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happy ever after. Show all posts

Thursday, September 23, 2021

At the Heart of the Matter by Victoria Chatham

Details and Purchase links

https://bookswelove.net/chatham-victoria/

Charlotte Gray discovers her home ransacked, her father missing, and a dark and dangerous stranger, Benjamin Abernathy, waiting for her. He had promised to take care of his friend’s daughter if anything befell him and must now follow through with that promise.

With no other options, and despite her misgivings, Charlotte becomes established in the stranger’s home as governess to his nephew and niece. Benjamin doubts her ability to cope with the two young hellions but is quickly reassured as he recognizes the sharp mind behind her blue eyes. But is it Charlotte’s mind he falls in love with, or her delectable body?

With Charlotte hunted for the knowledge she is suspected of possessing and Benjamin, for the threat he presents, danger stalks them. Will the smugglers and spies behind the threat have any chance against this duo who will go to any lengths to protect the secrets they each must keep?

 

* * *

I don't pretend to write complex novels. My stories have, I hope, an easily understood point to make to the reader.

Writers, especially new writers, frequently worry about how much of themselves they reveal in their writing. Therefore, it follows that writing subtle or intuitive themes would suggest the author has those qualities and is writing from their own point of view or at the very least understands them well enough to introduce them in their writing.

My characters may already be married, as Lord and Lady Buxton in The Buxton Chronicles or become married, and love, loyalty, and fidelity lie at the heart of all my novels.

During the Regency era in which I set most of my novels, women were expected to get married and expected it of themselves with few exceptions. Jane Austen is one of them. Aristocratic families married not so much for love as economics. How does one enlarge one’s estate and holdings? Marry the heir or heiress next door. While that might sound cold, it was just the way of things amongst the upper class.

 Once an heir arrived to complete the happy or not union, the lord was free to take a mistress (if he ever gave one up.) His lady, discreetly, of course, might take lovers while everyone turned a blind eye to their extra-marital shenanigans. Or, as in the case of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire who, later in her marriage to the emotionally distant Duke, was forced to accept his mistress Lady Elizabeth Foster into a ménage à trois which delighted the gossip-mongers of the day.

 While love and marriage are not so much a subtle theme, they are at the heart of most romances. The ‘aha’ moment when the characters finally admit they have fallen in love is what appeals to romance readers. If the characters are not married by the end of the book, then you darn well know that a wedding will take place soon after. It’s the ‘Happy Ever After’ that seals the romantic deal.



Victoria Chatham

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