WIND FROM DANYARI, THE FIRST BOOK IN MY CARNARVON SAGA, HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY WINGS EPRESS TO BE PUBLISHED IN OCOTBER 08

Wind from Danyari is the first book of a trilogy about the Hennessy family. Joe Hennessy runs away from home. After finding gold on the Hall's Creek goldfields, he takes up a large tract of land in the north of Western Australia, which becomes the Hennessy sheep property, Walara. 

Read the first chapter on the Wind from Danyari page

Substitute Bride, a Regency Romance, is now available from Wings Epress  in print and download. 

When Miss Emma Napier helped her friend, Abby, escape a forced marriage, she little thought she would meet the dashing Marquis of Desborough. His lordship was looking for  a wife so he could gain control of his inheritance. Emma seemed the perfect choice.

 

A gay and frothy romance, packed with lively incidents and dramatic situations. Available from http://www.wingsepress.com/Bookstore/Substitute%20Bride.htm  

or http://fictionwise.com

 

 

 

 

Miss Emma Napier accompanies her friend Abby on a hair brained scheme to London to avoid Abby being married off to a man she does not wish to be with. On their trip they make a stop for the night, and Emma finds herself forced into a marriage to help a man gain his inheritance. She keeps the marriage a secret and waits for the promised annulment.

Nicholas Anthony William Sefton, Eighth Marquis of Desborough, has to gain control of his fortune before his bumbling cousin sends the family estate into ruin. So he comes up with a scheme to gain control; he will marry a poor woman for a few weeks get his inheritance, then have the marriage annulled.

To Nick's surprise and Emma’s great disappointment, they once again run into each other a few weeks after the wedding at a party. Nick cannot believe his luck in discovering the woman he thought was a servant is actually a respectable choice for marriage, and so begins the merry chase to keep Emma for his wife. But Emma has her own plans, and none of them involve Nick. Can Nick show Emma there is more to him that meets the eye before her brother comes back to London and rescues her from this so called marriage?

The lengths that Emma makes Nick go through to gain her love are amusing, and makes the whole story a fun read. You lose yourself in the battle of wills between these two characters. Ms. Lamperd did a wonderful job creating this world and these two characters; they are both charming and a little mischievous. Substitute Bride is a wonderful story about circumstances you can not control and how sometimes these events become more than you ever dreamed you deserved. I really enjoyed this book.

LeeAnn
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books

From time to time in our modern world where a woman is supposed to be “Jill of all trades and GOOD at all”, Regency novels are a dose of delightful medicine for gaining one’s balance again. I love them!

SUBSITUTE BRIDE by Laura Lamperd takes the reader to a time when women were valued for their appearance and social graces and considered of little value in other areas. Emma Napier manages to circumvent many limitations of the regency era as she proves her loyalty to her life-long friend Abby Derries.

Abby, afraid her uncle with whom she lives will force her to marry a man she hardly knows and who is much older than she is, seeks Emma’s help to escape her situation. Thus begins the adventure for two young women who have been reared in the country, far away from the intrigues of both the “high-born” and the “low-born” of London.

On their way to London, Emma is forced into a compromising position by the Marquis of Desborough who is known for his womanizing and wicked ways. Since her brother with whom she had planned to stay in London is out of the country, she goes to her great-aunt Matilda and asked if she and Abby may stay with her a few days.

Lady Matilda Langridge, delighted to have Emma and Abby for the season, arranges a social life that takes the two young women into a society they have only heard about. The reader gets to experience colorful balls, elaborate tea parties set in discreet parlors, and all the things wealth and privilege offered in the regency period.

Along the way, the squalid side of London comes into play for short intervals adding to the tension Ms. Lamperd creates as she shepherds not only Emma and the Marquis through a maze of intrigue and obstacles but also brings a happy-ever-after to secondary characters whom this reader found absolutely delightful.

SUBSTITUTE BRIDE is refreshing and laced with humor—a story to enjoy.



Review by Camellia

Substitute Bride is a fun read, with great unexpected twists, and a good
portion of humor and irony. Lamperd brings alive the England of the 19th
century through her colorful characters, a spirited heroine and strong-headed
rake to be tamed. Both are set against a society either clinging to
conventions at all cost or frivolously defying them. Emma and Nick find their
own unconventional way to happiness. So what if he needs to bite a bullet to
win her heart? A man's got to have his priorities.

You're feeling low? Bored? It's raining? Read the Substitute Bride and you'll
smile all day, if not laugh out loud.

Edith Parzefall
www.edith-parzefall.de

www.tricia-jones.com

   

Laurel Lamperd did a fabulous job in bringing her Regency Romance, Substitute Bride Substitute Bride

Laurel Lamperd
Historical romance
Available from Wings ePress
ISBN: 978-1-59705-301-3
January 2008

When Emma Napier helps her friend Abby to escape an unwanted marriage, the only adventure she thought she was going to experience was the coach ride to London and her Aunt Matilda. Her friend’s illness forces them to stop at an unsavory inn. There circumstances got worse and a drunken lord assists them at a price. She marries Lord Desborough, who thinks she is a maid, with the assurance that the marriage will be annulled within weeks. She does not expect to meet him again in London and she certainly does not expect him to want the impromptu marriage to stand. His very beautiful mistress, for one, refuses to let him go. This story started out a little slowly, but the pace rapidly picked up as did my interest in the story. Emma is a very strong, if naïve character and Desborough is anything but. The author makes this story of rake and untried country girl fresh again. I enjoyed reading about his lordship’s manipulation of Emma without her realizing it. The subplots of her friend Abby’s and Florence’s romances and Gerald’s gambling add much to the tale. There is quite a bit of excitement near the end which finally makes up Emma’s mind. The first incident could have used a little more explaining, but the second was a very clever and dramatic way to tie up all the loose ends in the story. This is a fine regency and I look forward to reading more from this author. Overall rating: Sensuality rating: Explicit Reviewer: Maura Frankman April 7, 2008

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Copyright © 2008 theromancestudio.com

 

The first chapter of my new novel in process. Set in Roman Britain in the first century AD

 

Way of the Eagles Chapter One

Faine’s head ached from the smell of burning oil. The smokiness in the building stung her eyes. From where she sat, she watched her cousin, Marella, dance around the fire, burning within a group of stones in the large wattle and daub hut. The audience of watching men shouted their encouragement to the whirling dancing Marella. Faine wished she was safe in her hut. She glanced at Ceomin, chief of the hillfort and her uncle, and wondered if she dared sneak away without him seeing her. 

“I enjoyed your singing and playing,” a voice from beside her said.

Startled, Faine glanced up to see, Titus Antoninus, one of the young Roman tribunes. The light from the flickering oil lamp on the wall behind him, lit his well-formed features, black hair and olive skin.

“Lucius tells me you compose your own songs,” he said.

“I do, though one of my songs was from a poem of Sappho’s.” Faine stumbled over the words, feeling embarrassed at the tribune’s compliments.

“I thought they sounded familiar. So you know the Greek poets?”

“We had a Greek tutor. He was an old man and destitute.” She told the lie she always did when asked about Cheiro. “Ceomin took pity on him and offered him a home at Ceobury.”

They were interrupted as the audience burst into an uproar as Marella completed the final steps of the dance to the rattle of stones and animal bones and the trill of a pipe. She curtsied in a low sweep, the folds of her woollen skirt spreading out on the hard dirt floor. Shouts of, “More, more,” from the watching men echoed around the hall.

Laughing, Marella danced around the central area, her face flushed and golden hair flying out around her, revelling in the loud cheers of the applauding men. She stopped and stood poised like a statue, one arm raised above her head, looking at the silent audience.

Tribune Lucius Acilius, his face flushed from excitement and wine, jumped into the circle and swept her into his arms, and danced with her in a whirl of skirts around the edge of clapping, shouting men, his leather iron studded sandals biting into the earthen floor.

Continue reading on Way of the Eagles page