An Excellent Traditional Romance in the Style of Georgette Heyer

 The Country Gentleman by Dinah Dean received a rave review on a social media site which intrigued me enough that I bought it.

I’m a cranky critic and I’d give it six stars if book ratings went that high. It’s that good.

What did I love about it?

This is a traditional Regency romance set in a village among gentry and common folk. No titles, no fabulous balls, and no sex. A Georgette Heyer or Jane Austen sort of novel, with some wit, deft characterization, and a smooth, clear style.   

Excellent writing in addition to the style: no grammatical infelicities, no typos that I noticed (except one or two introduced by the scanning process (the book was originally published in 1986).

Ms. Dean’s grasp of the period goes well beyond the average. The characters are not 20^th or 21^st century people in costume; their attitudes and behavior feel right for the period. They eat what people actually did eat at the time (not a chocolate or a scone in sight, because bon-bons and scones as we know them did not yet exist).  She knows that while in the Regency “Corinthian” referred to a sporting gentleman, earlier it meant something quite different (“a very impudent, harden’d, brazen-fac’d fellow”, from a 1699 dictionary of cant terms).

Her descriptions of Woodham and the surrounding countryside are so rich and convincing that the background is almost another character.    

If you enjoy romance in the Georgette Heyer manner, you should not miss this book. I’m going to go on a Dinah Dean reading binge.

PS: I don't know if I ever posted a link to my (very occasional) newsletter. If you're interested in Georgian trivia, news about my upcoming releases, special offers, etc., here it is: https://18thcenturyromance.com/subscribe-to-my-newsletter-2/

A Westminster Wedding Advance Reader Copy available

A Westminster Wedding

The Barding earldom may be doomed. A shocking suggestion might provide another potential heir.

Miles Halliwell, Barding’s man of business, owes everything to the earl. Does loyalty to his employer require him to deal with a known criminal and incite forgery? Unfortunately for Miles’s peace of mind, it may.

 To protect her family's reputation, Julia St. John, daughter of a baron, has given up everything to live in obscurity with an illegitimate son. She has no better future in sight, until Barding's man of business offers a possible solution and a new life…at the cost of a few more lies.

Back in January, I announced that my seventh novel would probably be out in a few months. The release date is June 20, 2022. As with all my historical romances, it's a little bit like some of my favorite authors, including Georgette Heyer and Jane Aiken Hodge, with a scintilla of Jane Austen, and maybe a soupçon of Philippa Lodge (her Châteaux and Shadows series). 

There's no sex. Yes, I know it's a disappointment, but not every novel needs or should have explicit sex scenes. 

But my books are not "sweet". Sometimes there's "language", quite often there is crime and malfeasance and bad manners.     

 The Advance Reader Copy (ARC) is available now (for free!) at https://booksirens.com/book/FJUHJD6/P1H3US6.

This is the first time I’ve offered an ARC. I never even wondered how a book could already have reader reviews on its release date; apparently I’m a slow learner.