BooksChatter: ☀ Dukes by the Dozen

Thank you for joining us on the Release Celebrations Virtual Book Tour for Dukes by the Dozen, a Historical Regency Romance Anthology by Eileen Dreyer et al. (16 April 2019, 954 pages).

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and the Kindle Cloud Reader Preview below.

Author Eileen Dreyer will be awarding a $25 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 (☀), interviews (ℚ), reviews (✍) and guest blog posts (✉).

|| Synopsis || Teaser: KCR Preview || About the Author || Giveaway & Tour Stops ||

Synopsis

What’s better than a dashing duke? A dozen of them! In this case, a baker’s dozen—thirteen of your favorite historical romance authors have come together to bring you more than a dozen tantalizing novellas, with one per month, for a year’s worth of never-before-released romances.

January – Duke in Winter by Alyssa Alexander — When the highwayman demanded that the Duke of Highrow stand and deliver, he didn’t know she would steal his heart.

February – The Difference One Duke Makes by Elizabeth Essex — All it takes is one frosty night for two imperfect people, former naval commander Marcus Beecham and ruined Penelope Pease, to meet and make the perfect February Valentine.

March – Discovering the Duke by Madeline Martin — Reunited at a house party after a lackluster start to their marriage, the Duke of Stedton attempts to win his Duchess’ heart. Will a sizzling wager be enough to melt the frost between them, or will it truly remain the coldest winter in London?

April – The Duke and the April Flowers by Grace Burrowes — The Duke of Clonmere must marry one of the Earl of Falmouth’s three giggling younger daughters, but Lady Iris—Falmouth’s oldest, who is not at all inclined to giggling—catches Clonmere’s eye, and his heart!

May – Love Letters from a Duke by Gina Conkle — The Duke of Richland needs a proper duchess, but he wants his thoroughly fun, entirely inappropriate neighbor, Mrs. Charlotte Chatham. She’s widowed, older, and if the whispers prove true—barren.

June – Her Perfect Duke by Ella Quinn — Still suffering over the loss of his wife and child, Giles, Duke of Kendal sees Lady Thalia Trevor at a market and is instantly smitten. There is only one problem. She is already betrothed to another man. Will she defy her powerful father to marry him?

July – How to Ditch a Duke by May McGoldrick — Lady Taylor Fleming is an heiress with a suitor on her tail. Her plan to ditch him is simple, escape to the Highlands. But there is nothing simple about the Duke of Bamberg. And even with the best laid plans, things can go awry…

August – To Tempt A Highland Duke by Bronwen Evans — Widowed Lady Flora Grafton must be dreaming. Dougray Firth, Duke of Monreith, who once pledged her his heart but then allowed her to marry another, has just proposed. Why now, after eight years? When she learns the truth, can she trust Dougray to love her enough this time?

September – Duke in Search of a Duchess by Jennifer Ashley — The meticulous Duke of Ashford is dismayed when his children ask Helena Courtland, the gossipy, busybody young widow next door, to find Ash a new wife. But she sweeps into his home and his life, turning Ash’s precisely ordered world into a chaotic whirlwind.

October – Dear Duke by Anna Harrington — When the Duke of Monmouth, decides to build a canal, he isn’t prepared for an old mill owner and his daughter to stand in his way. The only person who understands him is the anonymous pen pal to whom he’s been pouring out his heart, a woman not at all who she seems.

November – Must Love Duke by Heather Snow — Lady Emmaline Paulson already has the only Duke she wants in her life—an adorable puppy she rescued from the Serpentine with the help of a handsome stranger. Can Maxwell Granville, heir to a dukedom, convince her there’s room for him, too?

December – The Mistletoe Duke by Sabrina York — The Duchess of Devon can't think of a better way to tempt her widowed son into marrying again, than to throw a Christmas Ball. And there simply must be mistletoe everywhere! But it's not until Jonathan meets his mother's humble companion under the mistletoe, that fireworks erupt.

January – Dueling with the Duke by Eileen Dreyer — When Adam Marrick, Duke of Rothray, shows up on Georgie Grace’s doorstep, she thinks it is to become acquainted with his cousin James’s widow and daughter. Instead he brings news that will completely upend their lives and put them all in danger.

Teaser: KCR Preview

What's better than a dashing duke? A dozen of them!

Dukes by the Dozen
OUT 16 April 2019!

About the Authors

|| Alyssa Alexander || Jennifer Ashley || Grace Burrowes || Gina Conkle || Eileen Dreyer || Elizabeth Essex || Bronwen Evans || Anna Harrington || Madeline Martin || May McGoldrick || Ella Quinn || Heather Snow || Sabrina York ||

Despite being a native Michigander, Alyssa Alexander is pretty certain she belongs somewhere sunny. And tropical. Where drinks are served with little paper umbrellas.

But alas, she will not be living on a white sandy beach anytime in the near future. To keep herself busy until that day, Alyssa survives the cold Michigan winters by penning romance novels that always include a bit of adventure.

Alyssa is married to a real life hero who is tolerant of her over-flowing bookshelves and eating pizza for dinner on a regular basis. She also lives with many four-legged children and an active nine-year-old-boy who used to wear a knight in shining armor costume, and now is just simply that knight in shining armor.

When she's not working at her day job, writing, cleaning house, scaling Mount Laundry or doing any of the other tasks a wife, mother and writer must do, she can usually be found sitting on her deck overlooking the hay fields behind her house. Or, in the winter, she's staring out the window at her deck and wishing the foot of snow would melt. Either way, Alyssa is likely to have a book in her hand. And maybe a drink with a paper umbrella.

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New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Jennifer Ashley (Allyson James) has lived and traveled all over the world, and now lives in the Southwest. She writes historical, paranormal, and contemporary romance as Jennifer Ashley; mysteries as Ashley Gardner; and paranormal romance and urban fantasy as Allyson James.

Jennifer’s/Allyson’s/Ashley’s more than 100 novels and novellas have have been also been translated into French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Norwegian, Hungarian, Italian, Thai, Indonesian, and several other languages.

Jennifer enjoys writing and reading above all else, but her hobbies include cooking, hiking, playing flute and guitar, painting, and building miniature rooms and dollhouses.

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Grace Burrowes started writing as an antidote to empty nest and soon found it an antidote to life in general. She is the sixth out of seven children, raised in the rural surrounds of central Pennsylvania. Early in life she spent a lot of time reading romance novels and practicing the piano. Her first career was as a technical writer and editor in the Washington, DC, area, a busy job that nonetheless left enough time to read a lot of romance novels.

It also left enough time to grab a law degree through an evening program, produce Beloved Offspring (only one, but she is a lion), and eventually move to the lovely Maryland countryside.

While reading yet still more romance novels, Grace opened her own law practice, acquired a master's degree in Conflict Transformation (she had a teenage daughter by then) and started thinking about writing.... romance novels. This aim was realized when Beloved Offspring struck out into the Big World a few years ago. ("Mom, why doesn't anybody tell you being a grown-up is hard?")

Grace eventually got up the courage to start pitching her manuscripts to agents and editors. The query letter that resulted in "the call" started out: "I am the buffoon in the bar at the RWA retreat who could not keep her heroines straight, could not look you in the eye, and could not stop blushing--and if that doesn't narrow down the possibilities, your job is even harder than I thought." (The dear lady bought the book anyway.)

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Gina Conkle writes adventurous Viking romance and lush Georgian romance. With more than six novels published, you're sure to find characters to love and story worlds to get lost in. Her books offer a fresh, addictive spin full of the witty banter and sexual tension readers crave.

On the personal side, her writing career began in southern California and despite all that sunshine, she prefers books over beaches and stone castles over sand castles. When it comes to family vacation destinations, her motto is "The older and moldier, the better." Now Gina lives in Michigan with her favorite alpha male, Brian, and their two sons, who devour the Viking and Georgian dishes she cooks. Really! You can read about that on her blog.

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New York Times bestselling, RWA Hall of Fame author Eileen Dreyer has published 31 romance novels in most genres, 8 medicalforensic suspenses, and 10 short stories.

2015 sees Eileen enjoying critical acclaim for her foray into historical romance, the Drake’s Rakes series, which Eileen labels as Regency Romantic Adventure that follows a group of Regency aristocrats who are willing to sacrifice everything to keep their country safe. She is also working on her first nonfiction book, TRAVELS WITH DAVE, about a journey she's been taking with a friend's ashes.

A retired trauma nurse, Eileen lives in her native St. Louis with her husband, children, and large and noisy Irish family, of which she is the reluctant matriarch. She has animals but refuses to subject them to the limelight.

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When not re-reading Jane Austen, sipping tea or mucking about her garden, Elizabeth Essex can be found at her computer, making up wonderful stories about people who live far more interesting lives than she. Elizabeth Essex

It wasn’t always so. Elizabeth graduated from Hollins College with a BA in Classical Studies and Art History, and then earned her MA from Texas A&M University in Nautical Archaeology, also known as the archaeology of shipwrecks. While Elizabeth loved the life of a working archaeologist, after writing and reading all those dry, dusty reports on ship construction, she would daydream about how lovely it would have been if only someone had fallen in love on just one of those ships. And so now she writes stories about just that.

Elizabeth lives in Texas with her family, in a house filled to the brim with books.

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USA Today bestselling author, Bronwen Evans grew up loving books. She writes both historical and contemporary sexy romances for the modern woman who likes intelligent, spirited heroines, and compassionate alpha heroes. Evans is a three-time winner of the RomCon Readers’ Crown and has been nominated for an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. She lives in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand with her dogs Brandy and Duke.

Join her book club newsletter and receive a FREE copy of To Dare the Duke of Dangerfield (Amazon #1 Historical romance best seller)

Bronwen loves hearing from avid romance readers at Bronwen@bronwenevans.com

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Anna Harrington fell in love with historical romances and all things Regency—and especially all those dashing Regency heroes—while living in England, where she spent most of her time studying the Romantic poets, reading Jane Austen, and getting lost all over the English countryside. Anna loves the period’s rich history and finds that all those rules of etiquette and propriety can be worked to the heroine’s advantage…if she’s daring enough to seize her dreams.

Anna is an avid traveler and has enjoyed visiting schools and volunteering with children's organizations in Peru, Ecuador, Thailand, and Mexico, and she has amassed thousands of photos that she unleashes on unsuspecting friends who dare to ask about her travels.

She loves to be outdoors! She's been hiking in Alaska, the Andes, and the Alps, and she loves whitewater rafting (when she doesn't fall in!). Anna earned her pilot’s license at Chicago Midway (To all the controllers in Chicago Center—she greatly apologizes for every problem he caused for you and Southwest Airlines), and it is her dream to one-day fly in a hot-air balloon over Africa.

Anna adores all things chocolate, ice cream of any flavor, and Kona coffee by the gallon. A Doctor Who fanatic (everyone says her house is bigger on the inside), she is a terrible cook who hopes to one day use her oven for something other than shoe storage. When she's not writing, she likes to spend her time trying not to kill the innocent rose bushes in her garden.

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Madeline Martin is a USA TODAY Bestselling author of Scottish set historical romance novels filled with twists and turns, adventure, steamy romance, empowered heroines and the men who are strong enough to love them.

She lives a glitter-filled life in Jacksonville, Florida with her two daughters (known collectively as the minions) and a man so wonderful he's been dubbed Mr. Awesome. All shenanigans are detailed regularly on Twitter and on Facebook.

Madeline loves animals in sweaters, cat videos, and working out (to support her love of wine and Nutella). As she is unable to have pets herself due to allergies, she has acquired a plastic Halloween skeleton named Nick and a small robot named Meccano - both of whom are dressed up regularly by the minions.

She loves connecting with her readers, so feel free to follow her on any one of her social media platforms, or send her a message :)

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USA Today Bestselling Authors Nikoo and Jim wrote their first May McGoldrick romance using historical figures that Jim researched while earning a PhD in sixteenth-century Scottish and English literature. Nikoo, a mechanical engineer, is a born storyteller. She is all about characters and feeling. Jim is about action and sense of place. Together, they have crafted over forty fast-paced, conflict-filled historical and contemporary novels and two works of nonfiction under the pseudonyms May McGoldrick and Jan Coffey.

Their stories have touched the hearts and minds of millions of readers all over the world. Their work has been translated into over a dozen languages, and counting. Because of their success, they have been frequent guests on local and national radio and television. They travel regularly, speaking at writers’ conferences, libraries, classrooms, and book group gatherings.

For the past decade, Nikoo and Jim have been conducting workshops bringing 21st century collaboration and writing skills to students and teachers.

These popular and prolific authors write historical romance, suspense, mystery, and young adult novels. They are four-time Rita Finalists and the winners of numerous awards for their writing, including the Romantic Times Magazine Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Daphne DeMaurier Award, three NJRW Golden Leaf Awards, two Holt Medallions, and the Connecticut Press Club Award for Best Fiction. Their work is included in the Popular Culture Library collection of the National Museum of Scotland.

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USA Today bestselling author Ella Quinn’s studies and other jobs have always been on the serious side. Reading historical romances, especially Regencies, were her escape. Eventually her love of historical novels led her to start writing them.

She is married to her wonderful husband of over thirty years. They have a son and two beautiful granddaughters, and a Great Dane.

After living in the South Pacific, Central America, North Africa, England and Europe, she and her husband decided to make their dreams come true and are now living on a sailboat. After cruising the Caribbean and North America, she completed a transatlantic crossing from St. Martin to Southern Europe.

She's currently living in Germany, happily writing while her husband is back at work, recovering from retirement.

Ella loves when readers connect with her.

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Heather Snow is an award winning historical romance author with a degree in Chemistry who found she much preferred creating chemistry on the page, rather than in the lab.

She lives in the Midwest with her husband, two rambunctious boys and one very put upon cat.

She loves to hear from readers, and can be reached at Heather@HeatherSnowBooks.com.

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Her Royal Hotness, Sabrina York, is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of hot, humorous stories for smart and sexy readers. Her titles range from sweet & sexy to scorching erotic romance.

Visit her webpage, check out her books, excerpts and contests. Free Teaser Book

Get updates, alerts and giveaway announcements from Sabrina here. And don’t forget to enter to win the royal tiara!

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