This week, I’m returning to my upcoming release To Woo A Wicked Widow, due out in 80 days! So I’ll be sharing quite a few snippets from this Regency romance until then.
I’m continuing the scene, at a ball, where Charlotte meets Nash, the Earl of Wrotham. As meet cutes go, it’s pretty cute. 🙂 We are in Nash’s POV Charlotte has tripped, fallen into his arms, and he responded with “The pleasure is certainly all mine, my lady.” If you want to catch up to this point, click here.
(Creative punctuation utilized to conform to WWW rules.)
Not the most appropriate response, perhaps, but a heartfelt one surely.
Lady Cavendish gasped and raised her head, her green eyes flashing.
“Are you all right, Charlotte?” Lady John asked, stepping forward, her lips puckered as if trying to hide a smile.
“Yes, I am fine, Jane. I stepped on the hem of my gown is all.” She cut her eyes at Nash and her lips thinned to a line. “Thank you, my lord, for coming to my rescue.”
Nash smiled. Even angry, the woman was a vision to behold. “Not a’tall, my lady; glad to have been of service.”
BLURB for To Woo A Wicked Widow:
The war years are behind them.
The future is before them.
And one by one, the widows of Lyttlefield Park are getting restless . . .
Lady Charlotte Cavendish is still the spirited girl who tried to elope in the name of love. That dream was thwarted by her father who trapped her into a loveless, passionless marriage. But now widowed, Charlotte is free to reenter the giddy world of the ton—and pursue her desires. For hardly your typical widow, she remains innocent to the pleasures of the flesh. Yet her life is finally her own, and she intends to keep it that way . . .
Nash, the twelfth Earl of Wrotham, is beguiled by Charlotte at first sight—and the feeling is mutual. When he receives her intriguing invitation to a house party, the marriage-minded lord plans to further their acquaintance. But even he cannot sway her aversion to matrimony, and only with great restraint does he resist her most tempting offer. For unbeknownst to Charlotte, the misadventures of the past are revisiting them both, and bedding her could cost him everything—or give him everything he ever wanted . . .
Available for pre-order at Amazon.
I still have about 10 ARC copies of To Woo A Wicked Widow. If you’d like to review the book before its release, please contact me at 1jennajaxon@gmail.com. I’d love to share it with you!
Books in The Handful of Hearts series:
And don’t forget to check out the rest of the Warriors here. There’s some fantastic snippets to be read.
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 
Glad you explained the ‘ton’ as I wasn’t familar with the term either. I did enjoy the excerpt though and I think he’s certainly going to have his work cut out in his attempts to win her favour!
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Well, he’s made an impression. Not sure it’s a good one, but he’ll have to just change her mind.
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That he does, Caitlin! A lot of the book is him trying to change Charlotte’s mind about him. 🙂
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I get the feeling that Nash has this magical quality to him… Our dear Lady Cavendish just can’t maintain her balance within his sphere of influence. 😀
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Oh, how right you are, Eden. He keeps Lady Cavendish off balance throughout the book–in so many ways! 🙂
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Cute meeting! I wouldn’t be surprised if Nash finds some future excuses to have similar run-ins involving physical contact.
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Funny you should mention that, Carrie-Anne. I sort of made it a running joke throughout the book. Anytime I could make her fall into his arms, I did it. LOL
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Lady Cavendish should be more upset at herself for losing some dignity than at him. But then, it’s more fun this way.
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You know we can’t blame ourselves for looking foolish, Ed. Gotta blame someone else. LOL So yes, much more fun this way.
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I enjoyed the snippet. Falling into his arms is a cute way to meet. LOL
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I thought so too, Diane. Although it’s not the way they originally met. After a suggestion from an agent I’d queried, I went back and made their meeting a bit more fun. 🙂
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Great scene!
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Thanks, Amy!
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I do love your Regencies! Quite the scene going on here, loved the snippet…
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Thank you so much, Veronica! And it’s about to get even juicier!
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Haha, well, it sounds like he still has a bit to do to win her over. 🙂
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You have no idea, Christina! This is romance is not a smooth ride for Nash by any means! 🙂
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Those nasty hems – get a girl every time 🙂 Tweeted.
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Don’t you know it, Daryl! LOL Thanks for the tweet!
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A third of my way through my first regency romance – your “Hearts Beneath a Mistletoe” – and am enjoying it. Since this is a foreign genre for me, what is a ‘meet cute’? And on the cover art of your Woo book above, you have “she’s the talk of the ton.” Is that supposed to be “talk of the town?” For those unfamiliar with this genre, if ton is what you want to say it will be misunderstood by almost everyone who doesn’t read those kinds of books. But then, maybe that’s your goal. Which is fine. Anyway, good snippet here, nice tension and scene is very clear. Good job. 🙂
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Thank you, Lyn, both for letting me be your introduction to Regency romance and for your comments. A “meet cute” is actually a script writing term used in romantic comedies and generally just means the way the H/h meet–hopefully interesting and memorable for the reader. Ton is the correct term used in the tag on my cover for To Woo A Wicked Widow. The editorial team at Kensington came up with it (I can’t take credit for it) and is a play on the well-known phrase “talk of the town.” In the Regency people refered to Polite Society as an entity as the bon ton, which was shortened to “ton.” I’ve had others ask that same question, so you are correct that people not used to Regencies won’t understand it and may think it’s a typo, but if they read the book, it will become clear. 🙂
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