Hallo, Hallo dear hearts,
I recently discovered a new voice in Regency Romances – Cassandra Dean, of whom I have a feeling I am going to love reading! Ahead of a print or audio release within this lovely new series for the Lost Lords I decided to host an interview with Ms Dean to get better acquainted with her writing style, the series as it is evolving forward and to highlight a story which truly tucked at my readerly heart! I love how this particular story focuses on a hero who has a learning difficulty – which happens to be reflective of my own – even if we had to deal with it differently or were afflicted by it differently – it is lovely to find a hero who has dyslexia for a girl who grew up dyslexic and the condition was never even broached! Not in school and surely not in literature!
This week I have been talking about my being dyslexic as I featured another story about learning difficulties wherein I was cross-relating how whichever learning difficulty you have you can empathise with others who are facing their own struggles. Also, it is nice to find learning difficulties being focused upon in stories today as like I had said – when I was growing up (in the 80s/90s) it was all rather swept under the rug for reasons I never understood. I was thankful I had a supportive family who encouraged me to find what I was passionate about and also never gave up the hope I’d love to read. In doing so, I not only garnished a keen interest in reading but I developed my own voice as a writer.
Ever since I was a young girl of around nine years, I’ve been smitten with Regency Romances!! I still remember receiving my first ‘anthology’ of Regencies – set at Christmastime and just finding myself drawn into their world. I would continue to seek out stories set in the Regency before branching into stories set in the Victorian era as well. To this day, I still fondly reflect on my love and admiration for the Regency and try to find new voices of Historical Romance who are penning the stories I wish to be reading next! This is why I am delighted to be hosting Cassandra Dean today and spotlighting her lovely new series the Lost Lords!
I hope you will brew your favourite cuppa & settle into this convo today especially if you are a Historical Romance reader yourself and were seeking out a #newtomeauthor as much as I was myself! Let’s champion Regencies together and I look forward to hearing from you if you’ve previously read Ms Dean’s stories and/or simply love the Regency as much as I do!
The girl he finally remembers
Eleven years ago, a shipwreck robbed Lord Maxim Farlisle of his memory. Recovering himself, he journeys to his childhood home to find Waithe Hall shut and deserted. Unwilling to face what remains of his family, Maxim makes his home in the abandoned hall…only to have a determined ghost hunter invade his uneasy peace.
The boy she never forgot
Fascinated by spirits, Lady Alexandra Torrence cannot disregard the opportunity to investigate the estate she knew so well. She arrives at the shuttered hall to discover a ghost of a different kind—the boy she thought to never see again. Maxim had been the boy next door, her best friend, her soul mate…and then he’d vanished.
As the two rediscover their connection, the promise of young love burns into an overwhelming passion. But the time apart has scarred them both—will they discover a love that will draw them together or will the past tear them apart forever?
Enjoy an extract from the novel “Finding Lord Farlisle”:
It was eleven years ago. The pain had faded, but had never truly left. Alexandra had thought she’d learned to live with it. But now…now Maxim was here?
A thunderous scowl on his face, he made a noise of impatience. “I do not have the inclination for this, girl. Tell me why you have come.”
His voice crashed over her. That, too, had deepened with age, but it was him. It was him.
“It is you.” Joy filled her, so big it felt her skin couldn’t contain it. Throwing herself at him, she enveloped him in a hug.
He stiffened.
Embarrassment coursed through her. What was she thinking? Immediately, she untangled herself from him. “I beg your pardon,” she stammered. Always before they’d been exuberant in their affections. They’d always found ways to touch one another, even though that last summer, the one before he’d gone away, she’d begun to feel…more….
Clasping her hands before her, she brought herself to the present. Much had changed, now they were grown and he, apparently, had not died.
Maxim had not died.
A wave of emotion swept her, a mix of relief, joy, incredulity…. It buckled her knees and burned her eyes. He was alive. Maxim was alive.
“Finding Lord Farlisle” is the first novel of three stories within the Lost Lords series – did you initially plan to write a trilogy when you set down to write this novel or did it organically develop into a series thereafter? Or is there a hidden back-story about the Lost Lords and how it was developed?
Dean responds: Finding Lord Farlisle was initially a standalone story but I fell in love with the characters. I wanted to know what happened when Maxim was finally reunited with his family, how his elder brothers felt at the return of their younger brother, and I wanted to explore Alexandra’s family in greater detail. Thus, the Lost Lords series was born. Read More
