My new release, A Perfect Engagement, kicks off my next series The Maidens of Marbury. The series is about a tight-knit group of friends who all belong to a gothic novel book club. One day while perusing the shelves at their local bookshop in Marbury, they find love letters tucked in between the pages of several books. The circle of friends is determined to investigate the identity of the letters’ author and find out if the lovers had a happy ending. In A Perfect Engagement, the letters help Charlotte decide what she really wants, keep her perfect reputation, or risk reaching for love.
The mysterious author of the letters the ladies find is quite over the top in expressing his love and longing. I had so much fun writing these letters! Have you ever received a love letter? Perhaps a love email? Many years ago, my husband and I were apart for three months, and I asked him to write me love letters, handwritten…in the mail. He was so sweet and sent several, even though we often talked and texted. My husband is not much for flowing words of love but his letters still melted my heart.
The effusive letters run the gambit from sweet to sensual. The mystery of the letters will thread through the series, and each lady will be influenced in different ways by the lover’s unfolding story. Here is one of the first letters they find in the bookshop:
My dearest love,
It is torture to be so near you but not able to reach out and caress the smooth skin of your cheek. To taste the sweetness of your lips. I should have never accepted the invitation knowing we would have to act as strangers for the protection of your reputation and mine. But the chance to see you, to hear your melodious voice was too much temptation.
Our time together this summer haunts my dreams, filling them with images of you. Your face turned up to the sun, the tall seagrass, and the blue sky framing your beauty. Your laughter as I regaled you with stories. Your eyes alight with fire just for me as we lay in bed. I wish I had any talent for drawing. For if I did, I would have sketched a thousand pictures of you. I would wallpaper my bedroom with your likeness. But alas, all I have are my words.
Please know my dearest, I love you with a passion which cannot be doused by time or distance. Keep hope that we can be together sometime soon.
Always, J
I hope you will check out A Perfect Engagement, book 1 in The Maidens of Marbury series!
About the Author
From the time she read fairytales as a child, Karla Kratovil was hooked on stories that ended in Happily Ever After. Now as an author of sexy historical romance she gets to craft her own happy endings. Karla lives right on the edge of Northern Virginia’s wine country with her college sweetheart, two terrific teenagers, and two blond terriers. She is a Taurus. Like any good earth sign she loves good food, good wine, and getting her hands dirty growing things in her garden.
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