BooksChatter: ☀ The Chevalier: Châteaux and Shadows [3]

Tuesday 20 September 2016

☀ The Chevalier: Châteaux and Shadows [3] - Philippa Lodge

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for The Chevalier, an Historical Romance by Philippa Lodge (7 September 2016, The Wild Rose Press, Inc, 216 pages).

This is the third book in the Châteaux and Shadows series.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first chapter with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Philippa Lodge will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), and reviews (✍).

Synopsis | Teaser | The Series | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

Synopsis

Emmanuel, Chevalier de Cantière, youngest son of a baron, is happiest raising horses far from his complicated family. When news comes his mother is deathly ill, he races to her side only to find she has apparently recovered and moved on, leaving behind her companion, Catherine.

Catherine de Fouet blends into the background, saving up so she’ll never have to wait on waspish, scheming old ladies like the baronesse again. She has no interest in a resentful gentleman, estranged from his mother, no matter how broad his shoulders or intriguing the wounded soul behind his handsome face. She just needs someone to escort her back to Versailles.

But Catherine is suspected of poisoning the baronesse. She rebuffs a pushy courtier who tries to use blackmail to make her his mistress, and her reputation hangs by a thread.

The chevalier wants more than anything to protect this woman whose prickly exterior hides sweetness and passion. They need his family to help him through court intrigues—almost as much as they need each other.

Teaser: Excerpt

Chapter One

1678, Western France

      Emmanuel, Chevalier de Cantière, thought he recognized the horse cantering up the drive of his house. Not his house but his father’s Poitou property, promised to his second-oldest brother at their father’s death.
      A fine, deep bay with white feet and a black mane. Its form was wrong to be truly beautiful, but an all-around excellent riding horse for distance. Long, even stride, though he—if it was the horse Manu thought, from the inn twenty miles north—was nearly exhausted but putting up a good front.
      Only when the horse was closer did he bother to look at the rider.One of his older brother’s men. Emmanuel wondered if it was news of another baby. Though why Cédric would send a servant all this way to announce a sixth child, he didn’t know. He hadn’t even heard they were expecting a new one, but the youngest was already…seven? She had been born before he moved to the farm, and he had met her on his trips north. Perhaps his other brother’s wife, Hélène, had her baby.Wouldn’t it be early?
      Without changing horses, it was nearly a week to his family. With frequent changes, excellent weather, and little sleep, Manu could cover the distance to his father’s country house in three days. The message must be more urgent than a new baby. Which usually meant bad news, a thought which left Manu gritting his teeth.
      And why one servant? There should be at least two, to protect each other.
      Ah. A second horse limped around the curve of the lane almost half a mile away, backlit by the setting sun and almost lost in the long, dappled shadows, a jogging servant beside it.
      Manu wiped his work gloves on his stained breeches and tied his filly to a fence post as the servant on the bay approached.
      The servant swung down from his horse, removed his hat, and bowed low. “Monsieur Emmanuel.”
      Manu nodded. What was the servant’s name?
      “I have a letter for you from Monsieur le Baron. Madame la Baronesse is gravely ill.”
      Manu staggered.
      Maman.

***

The Chevalier
Available NOW!

The Series: Châteaux and Shadows

|| [1] || [2] ||

Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.

The Indispensable Wife [1]

Aurore was delighted when a marriage was arranged with the boy she loved, her older brother’s friend Dominique, Comte de Bures. But in a few years the first rush of joy has worn off, and their promising life seems ruined by loss, betrayal, and misunderstanding.

One terrifying morning mercenaries overrun their château and usurpers take Aurore hostage. Miles away at Versailles, where he is required to dance attendance on Louis XIV, Dominique is nearly killed by a crossbow bolt.

Escaping, Aurore travels with a troupe of itinerant musicians, hiding in the open while discovering hidden resources within herself.

Dom sets out to find his wife. He needs his old life back. He needs revenge. But his lands, his title, and his honor mean nothing unless he can win back the love of his indispensable wife.

[Published 7 October 2015, 190 pages]

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The Honorable Officer [2]

France, 1668

Hélène de Bonnefoi’s spirit has been squashed by the ever-critical aunt and uncle who raised her. Serving as nanny and stand-in mother to her cousin’s child has saved her from the convent, especially after her cousin’s death. When suspicious accidents threaten the toddler, Hélène overcomes her near-blindness to seek the help of the child's father, a colonel in Louis XIV’s army.

Jean-Louis, Colonel de Cantière, has spent his life proving his worth, integrity, and honor, first to his family and now in the army. When his daughter’s caretaker appears in his camp during a siege, claiming someone is trying to kill the girl, his loyalties are sorely tested.

Hélène must convince Jean-Louis the threat is real. But the true danger is to the heart of a shy young woman who has always loved her cousin’s husband from afar and to the colonel’s desire to resist complicated emotions.

[Published 6 April 2016, 253 pages]

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About the Author

Philippa Lodge has a hundred stories in her head and a social media addiction. She writes historical romance set in Louis XIV’s France (sometimes with the king himself!); New Adult romantic women’s fiction-type stories set in small-town, small-college, modern America; and contemporary romance with nerdy beta heroes and cranky heroines whose pasts can be healed with the love of a good man.

She lives with one husband, two cats, and three kids in the inland valley of California.

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