On her journey to make her London debut, beautiful heiress Charlotte Foxleigh witnesses the aftermath of an accident. The two men she encounters figure prominently in this well researched novel, in which Charlotte finds that fashionable Regency society hides a lot of dark secrets, some of which involve her own past in some way. Our heroine is courted by many suitors, but only one man interests her romantically, and he seems to be the only man who doesn’t wish to be one of them. Interweaving the story is the story of Beauty and the Beast, finding many parallels in the events that are unfolding. Charlotte starts to unravel many of the mysteries that she encounters, making for herself a few dangerous enemies and finding herself in some situations that take every ounce of her ingenuity to resolve, as well as some intervention by the man that society has dubbed The Beast.About me - I grew up in the shadow of the ruins of Newstead Abbey, the home of Lord Byron, so in a way it was inevitable that I grew up fascinated by the Regency period. As a teenager, I devoured the books of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, although I was equally in love with the world of music, I always had a hankering to be writer and historian. I studied opera at the Birmingham School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music and had embarked upon my career, fortunate enough to have sung my favourite role, Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, at the beautiful Buxton Opera House very early on. However, on starting a family, I soon realised that bringing up two toddlers while my partner (who was a member of the music staff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, therefore out from early morning until late at night) was not compatible with my life as a freelance singer. I became a P.A. - not totally leaving opera behind as I was involved behind the scenes with a project to build an opera house in the Capability Brown landscape of a historic country house. However I was still writing away at my Regency (and present day) stories and romances whenever I had the opportunity. Many life changing events later, my children have (finally!) flown the nest and I have the time and mental energy to really concentrate on my writing, and I'm loving it! The Thane Legacy is a world away from its first incarnation when I came up with the idea in between feeds and changing nappies, and is, I believe, the better for it. I do hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.
