Midnight’s Budding Morrow by Carolyn Miller (Blog Tour and GIVEAWAY)

 

Do you consider yourself to be a “wallflower” or are you more the life of the party?

Midnight’s Budding Morrow is the second book in the Regency Wallflowers series.  I read and enjoyed the first book as well.  This book can be read as a standalone.

Sarah Drayton is invited by her friend Beatrice to visit her family estate, the run-down castle of Langley which is located by the sea.  Sarah hopes they do not run into Beatrice’s brother, James, who is a drunken rake that had forced a kiss on her at a dance.  Sarah finds things not happy at the castle as it fallen into disrepair and the servants don’t seem to be doing much work.  Beatrice is unhappy as she is in love with a man that her father does not approve.  Sarah soon finds herself in a marriage of convenience with the dreaded James.  Will Sarah be able to find happiness?

I enjoyed this novel.  I love marriage of convenience stories.  I really liked how this book delved into whether a person can really change or not.  James has what would now be PTSD from his service for the crown in the Napoleonic Wars.  He finds God and works through his demons while recovering and wants to start afresh with Sarah.  It’s hard to make true changes and start over with a spouse that you barely know. 

Sarah is an orphan and looking for family and a place to belong.  Old Mr. Langley enjoys her skills running a household, but neighbors look at Sarah more as a servant than the lady of the house.  Will she find her place in the household, neighborhood, and with her husband?

The novel has some slight Gothic elements.  Nothing scary, but it did have a treasure hunt, shut up rooms, a falling down castle, and the mysterious death of old Mrs. Langley years before.

Overall, Midnight’s Budding Morrow is an intriguing regency romance.

Book Source:  Review Copy from Kregel Publications as part of the Audra Jennings PR Book Tour.

About the series:

While most stories set in Regency England focus on the rich, the young, and the beautiful, award-winning author Carolyn Miller decided she wanted to give readers something different for a change. Her new Regency Wallflowers series follows the commoners, away from the hustle and bustle of 1810s London, out in the Lake District of England. She tells the stories of women who are slightly older and have few prospects for marriage, women who might be considered “wallflowers.”

Midnight’s Budding Morrow is the second book in the Regency Wallflowers series. The first book in the series is Dusk’s Darkest Shores.

 

About the book:

Can real love grow between a wallflower and an unrepentant rogue?

Sarah Drayton is eager to spend time with her best friend at her crumbling Northumberland castle estate. Matrimony is the last thing on her mind and the last thing she expects to be faced with on a holiday. Yet she finds herself being inveigled into a marriage of convenience with her friend's rakish brother.

When James Langley returns to his family's estate, he can't be bothered to pay attention to his responsibilities as the heir. War is raging and he wants only distraction, not serious tethers. But his roguish ways have backed him into a corner, and he has little choice but to obey his father's stunning decree: marry before returning to war, or else. Suddenly he finds himself wedded to a clever and capable woman he does not love.

Sarah craves love and a place to belong, neither of which James offered before returning to the battlefront. Now everyone around her thinks she married above her station, and they have no intention of rewarding her for such impertinence. It isn't until her husband returns from war seemingly changed that she begins to hope they may find real happiness. But can she trust that this rake has truly reformed?

When tragedy strikes, this pair must learn to trust God and his plans. Will they be destroyed . . . or will they discover that even in the darkest depths of night, the morning still holds hope?

 Click here to read an excerpt.

 

About the author:

Carolyn Miller is an inspirational romance author who lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children.

A longtime lover of romance, especially that of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer’s Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English literature and loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. She enjoys music, films, gardens, art, travel, and food.

Miller’s novels have won a number of RWA and ACFW contests. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Australasian Christian Writers.

Learn more about Carolyn at www.carolynmillerauthor.com, or find her on Facebook (Carolyn Miller Author), Instagram (@CarolynMillerAuthor), and Twitter (@CarolynMAuthor). 

GIVEAWAY:

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