Reginald Blackburn, second son of a duke, has been forced to travel to America to help his cousin, Charles Wynn, Earl of Lonsdale, find an American heiress to wed in order to shore up his family estate that is in desperate need of funds. Reginald himself has no interest in finding an heiress to marry, but when Poppy's grandmother asks him to give etiquette lessons to Poppy, he swiftly discovers he may be in for much more than he bargained for.
Published: September 3rd 2019
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
ISBN-13: 9780764231681
Interview with author Jen Turano
and Miss Poppy Garrison & Mr. Reginald Blackburn
I got the idea for the entire series after researching American heiresses who were all but sold off to aristocrats – their fortunes in exchange for a title. (One fabulous research book, if anyone is interested, is “To Marry an English Lord” which inspired Downton Abbey.) It bothered me that these young ladies didn’t balk at this practice, which is how the American Heiress idea came to be. But since the first book dealt with an heiress who runs away from New York high society, I thought it would be amusing to switch that around for the second book and have a lady who becomes a great heiress, but has never traveled in society. She suddenly finds herself pursued because of her fortune, which allowed me to twist the heiress idea around and keep the story fresh.
#3. What is your greatest strength and your greatest flaw?
Miss Poppy Garrison - My flaws are the easy question to address because I have so many of them – I’m rather clumsy, peculiar things happen to me all the time, and I’m slightly opinionated. I suppose my greatest strength would be that I like people and find making new friends to be a most excellent experience.
#4. If you could change one thing in your life, past or present, what would it be?
Mr. Reginald Blackburn – (or Lord Blackburn if you must know.) The one major thing I would change in the present is not misrepresenting myself to Miss Poppy Garrison because I don’t believe she’s going to react well to the notion that I’m the son of a duke.
#5. Tell us something funny, sad, embarrassing, whatever, that happened involving this book.
I was writing a scene where clotted cream is involved, but you see, I don’t care for clotted cream. However, one of my editors wanted me to describe the taste of it better, so off I went and got some clotted cream, and all I say is this – the clotted cream scene in the book was definitely inspired by that clotted cream I forced myself to eat, which again, I didn’t like in the least. |
Curiously enough, this book really didn’t give me many problems, which was wonderful, except Reginald didn’t like how I wrote him in the beginning and balked when I made him a little bit too snobby. We had words, numerous ones, and a compromise was finally reached.
I really hope that readers will find a few laughs between the pages of this book. There’s so much anger out there at the moment – mostly due to opposing political views, that I believe people have forgotten what’s important – kindness, compassion, the ability to not voice every opinion you may hold, just to name a few. Laughter is a great escape from the difficulties of life, so if I can provide even a slight bit of amusement to brighten someone’s day, I’ll take that as a success.
Named One of the Funniest Voices in Inspirational Romance by Booklist, Jen Turano is a USA Today Best-Selling Author, known for penning quirky historical romances set in the Gilded Age. Her books have earned Publisher Weekly and Booklist starred reviews, top picks from Romantic Times, and praise from Library Journal. She’s been a finalist twice for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards and had two of her books listed in the top 100 romances of the past decade from Booklist. When she’s not writing, she spends her time outside of Denver, CO. Readers may find her at www.jenturano.com or https://www.facebook.com/jenturanoauthor/ or on Twitter at JenTurano@JenTurano.
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It's Time For A Giveaway!
a Paperback copy of Diamond In The Rough