excerpt of Forever Lately | Catherine Castle

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Catherine Castle Wednesday Writers series, clean romance, excerpt of Forever Lately, Forever Lately, Linore Rose Burkhard, Regency Romance, Sweet romance

**Today’s Wednesday Writer guest blogger is Linore Rose Burkhard. She’ll be talking about her multi-award-winning, sweet and clean Historical Romance/Time Travel Forever Lately. Welcome Linore!**

Thanks, Catherine.

I wanted to write a Regency time travel for years. When I saw the movie “Kate and Leopold” with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman I thought, Oh no! Someone used my idea! But I needn’t have worried. Leopold was a Victorian gentleman, not from the Regency, first of all, and secondly, though I enjoyed the flick, I kept thinking it missed so many opportunities for humor. (Having written a screenplay since then, I realize now why it missed so many; tight scripts just don’t have room for all the scenes that could be fun.) When I wrote my story, however, not only was it fundamentally different and unique, but I was able to include the humorous scenes that had been floating in my head for eons. This makes the book a lot of fun–particularly when the Regency hero shows up in the present day. On a side note, I started the book years ago and then dropped it, mostly because I wanted to write it as a Christian romance like my other Regencies. But I kept running into roadblocks. And Christian publishers weren’t interested in time travel. Finally I realized I had to let God out of MY box and write the story He was giving me, not the one I thought He should give me. After that, it came together remarkably easily, and I think in a very fun way. Due to reader interest in a sequel, I’m now brainstorming that book.

BOOK BLURB:

“A writer of historical fiction travels back in time—and into the world of her characters. An enjoyable and dramatic era-spanning love story.”
Kirkus

1816, England
Julian St. John needs a wife. An oath to a deceased guardian must be kept. Miss Clarissa Andrews, a vexatious beauty, has dangled after him all season but he has no intention of choosing such a she-devil.

Maine, Present Day
Author Claire Channing is desperate to write a bestseller to save her failing career. She thinks she’s writing St. Johnʼs story. But when she discovers an old prayer shawl and finds herself in his Regency world, she falls in love with him, a man she thought she invented! But Miss Andrews is also real—and she’d rather see Julian dead than in another womanʼs arms!
Claire must beat the clock to prevent a deadly tragedy, but can love beat the limits of time itself?

SHORT EXCERPT:

“Allow me to congratulate you, Julian, on the excellent handling of your horse,” Clarissa purred. “I am infinitely relieved you have kept yourself in one piece, you must know. I should have been utterly cast down had you been harmed.”

He wished he could tell her to go to the devil, to plague him with her incessant fooleries, but he was too much a gentleman—by God, he would be a gentleman. So he said only, “You could have got someone killed.”

“Yes, you,” she agreed calmly, ignoring the steely blue glint of his eyes. “But here you are, as handsome and alive as ever.” She gave him a sweet smile, reminding him of what he found so vexatious in her. She had an innocent smile, delectable lips, but behind it all a black heart.

“Oh, come, Julian, you give me too much credit. No one was anything near being killed. You know it was naught but a lark, only a lark!”

“Only a lark?” His voice dripped ice. “Your coach came directly at me, and if I had been any less a rider, I’d have broken my neck. My horse might have died as well.”

She was thoughtful a moment. “We were not supposed to drive quite so close to you, I own. And why do you insist upon riding such an immense animal? We should have fared the worst, not you; only it did not work out the way I planned.” She spoke with barely a moment’s stopping. “And I warrant you would have come to rescue me in a moment if Margaret had not spoilt everything.” She pouted at him from within the reaches of a richly beribboned bonnet. “I was perfectly prepared to swoon for your benefit. You would have come to my aid, would you not?” She looked at him hopefully, but he made no answer. He directed his next words to the opposite wall of the coach.

“Are you all right, Miss Margaret?” He couldn’t see Miss Andrews’s younger sister, but a sniffle came from the darkness.

“I—I think so. Thank you, sir.”

“Margaret’s perfectly well!” Miss Andrews cried, moving forward so her ample bosom, half revealed in the formal dress of evening wear, was not only plainly in sight, but she blocked any possible view behind her. St. John looked away, refusing to admire her.

Other men did admire her, for she could have made any wall in the kingdom proud with her portrait. She had dark, lustrous hair, an ovaline face with a well-delineated nose, and dark, long-lashed eyes. She also had slim ankles and small feet, which he knew from attending many a ball or rout in town. But St. John could not admire Miss Andrews’s face or slim ankles, for her brazen impudence gave him a disgust of her.

In the past he would have taken advantage of her, welcomed her when she teased him with her alluring countenance and everything beneath it. At times he wanted nothing more than to take hold of her and…He forced his mind to concentrate only on her irksome behaviour. Tonight’s escapade, what she called a ‘mere lark,’ was the latest in a string of vexatious attempts by her to gain his attention. And it was merely a hoax, another of her tricks, to put him in her path.

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About the Author

Linore Rose Burkard is a serious watcher of period films, a Janeite, and hopeless romantic. An award winning author best known for Inspirational Regency Romance, Forever, Lately is her first Regency time travel novel. Linore has a magna cum laude English Lit. degree from CUNY which she earned while taking herself far too seriously. She now resides in Ohio with her husband and family, where she turns her youthful angst into character or humor-driven plots.