I’m delighted to be a part of the blog tour of Carolyn Miller’s newest release, Dusk’s Darkest Shores.
As a preview to my review, I’m happy to have Carolyn answer some questions on the blog today and to share a bit about the book. Be sure to enter the giveaway!
ASKING CAROLYN
Q: Please introduce us to your new Regency Wallflowers series, and specifically to your latest release, Dusk’s Darkest Shores.
After writing nine books in the Regency Brides trilogies, I wanted to focus on stories that were less about the rich, beautiful, and titled aristocracy and more about ordinary people. Specifically, I wanted to tell the stories of women who were slightly older and who were considered “wallflowers” or those with very few, if any, matrimonial prospects. I have found that Regency fiction is often populated by an amazing number of single, rich, young, and handsome dukes instead of these far more relatable women and situations. With the Napoleonic Wars having killed many young men in Regency times, it seems a fair assumption that not all women would have married, so I wanted this new series to focus a little more on what that would have been like, and the challenges a woman might have faced given these extremely limited circumstances.
For Mary Bloomfield, the heroine of Dusk’s Darkest Shores, she is crucially aware that her age and situation mean she is unlikely to wed. She helps her father, the local doctor, and is content with her lot in life, until Adam Edgerton, a local war hero, returns. He’s the victim of an insidious disease which has crippled his prospects. As Mary helps Adam fight to find a future, frustration and antipathy develop into friendship and esteem, then into something deeper. This story is set in England’s beautiful Lake District, and the setting as well as the social and medical challenges of that time make for fascinating reading—something I really enjoyed researching, and I’m sure readers will enjoy too.
Q: What drew you to write Regency fiction? What are some of the popular trademarks of stories set in the time period?
I’ve been a fan of Jane Austen’s works for many years (decades!), and then my sister introduced me to Georgette Heyer, a British novelist whose books essentially established the Regency genre. Once I started reading Heyer, well, I knew I had found my niche. After writing several prize-winning contemporary romance stories, I was told that US publishers wouldn’t want them due to their Australian settings and characters, so I challenged myself to write a Pride and Prejudice–style novel, with some of Georgette Heyer’s wit, and an unapologetic faith thread. That first book drew a publisher’s attention and became The Elusive Miss Ellison, the first book in the Regency Brides: A Legacy of Grace series, which led to two more Regency Brides series.
Some of the hallmarks of Regency fiction include the focus on aristocracy and its trappings, such as the country estate and the town house, balls, and marrying for money versus marrying for love. Many of these books try to emulate Georgette Heyer’s witty dialogue, and focus on the importance of social behavior and its impact on society as much as on the details of gowns. It seems rare to find Regency fiction that focuses on the lives of the working classes or those for whom finances were not so easy to attain, probably because it doesn’t offer the glamour of a Mr. Darcy–type strolling around the hallowed halls of his magnificent Pemberley estate. Many of those Jane Austen–style romances lead people into a fantasy of life in the Regency era. While I’ve written my share of fairy-tale-type fiction, I like to write stories that present relatable people with realistic challenges, woven with faith, love, and humor.
Q: Tell us more about England’s Lake District in the 1810s. What was life like for women especially?
Like many places of this time, the Lake District in the north of England was suffering the effects of many of its men being involved in war, which severely impacted the small villages and rural farming communities. These sheep-tending communities saw the women take on roles that perhaps were not considered as usual when the men were around and able to fulfil their farming and regular duties.
For many women in this time period, their lives were certainly not focused on the latest fashions from London but rather on ensuring they had enough food to feed their families by whatever means possible. Families might grow some of their own food, but many women had to turn their hand to whatever they could to make ends meet. It was a hard life, a very practical life, with little room for whims and fancies, especially for those in the middle and lower classes. That is why village functions such as dances were considered the ultimate in entertainment. Women were often at the beck and call of their family and social obligations, with little room for indulging the softer emotions, let alone the luxury of falling in love.
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.”
ABOUT THE BOOK
How can a meek wallflower help a returning war hero whose dreams are plunged into darkness?
Mary Bloomfield has no illusions. Her chances for matrimony have long since passed her by. Still, her circumstances are pleasant enough, especially now that she has found purpose in assisting her father with his medical practice in England’s beautiful Lake District. Even without love, it’s a peaceful life.
That is until Adam Edgerton returns to the sleepy district. This decorated war hero did not arrive home to acclaim and rest, but to a new battle against the repercussions of an insidious disease. Mary’s caring nature cannot stand to see someone suffer–but how can she help this man see any brightness in his future when he’s plunged into melancholic darkness, his dreams laid waste by his condition?
Adam wants no charity, but he’s also no coward. If this gentle woman can work hard, how can he do less? Together they struggle to find a way forward for him. Frustration and antipathy slowly develop into friendship and esteem. Then a summer storm atop a mountain peak leads to scandal–and both Mary and Adam must search the depths of their closed hearts for answers if they hope to find any future path with happiness at its end.
