From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress:
Happy book birthday to A Scholarly Pursuit, the fourth book in The Ellsworth Assortment series of stand-alone Regency romance novels written by Christina Dudley.
If you enjoy traditional Regencies, you will find great enjoyment in Dudley’s characters and stories. A Scholarly Pursuit includes all the romance and witty humor that she excels at.
I am happy to offer a preview of the novel and an exclusive excerpt supplied by the author. Enjoy!
BOOK DESCRIPTION
He’s paid to make promises he’ll never keep. She dreads nothing so much as empty words. But when he’s hired to win her for another, will feigned fondness become literal love?
Tyrone Ellsworth’s career as a literary lover-in-lieu began at university, where he found amusement and steady spending-silver in writing poetry, love letters and offers of marriage for fellow Oxonians. So when schoolmate Gareth Boulton purchases his pen to win the wealthy Miss Agatha Weeks, what could be the harm? The task will be all the easier, in fact, because Tyrone has known her for years as his sister’s dearest friend.
Miss Agatha Weeks has never felt for any young man what she felt for the one who broke her heart years earlier. And while she doesn’t pine for him any longer, she has begun to doubt there are any worthy, honest young men left. But then suddenly there are two! Mr. Gareth Boulton, whom she dismissed earlier as a callow fortune hunter, reveals new depths in his pursuit of her. And Tyrone Ellsworth—thoughtful, kind, comfortable through long acquaintance—if Tyrone cannot be trusted, no one can.
Murder will out, however, and so will mendacity. Can the deceiver escape the consequences of his own deception, or will the girl he deceived be lost to him forever?
♥ A Scholarly Pursuit is the 4th book in the clean Regency romance series The Ellsworth Assortment. Each book can be read as a stand-alone or in order. ♥
EXCERPT
Word spread quickly, and in Hall his cousins Benjamin and Austin descended to sit on either side of him. Both of medium height with pale complexions, Benjamin was dark of hair and eye as his French mother, while Austin was reddish-blond with a wide, humorous mouth.
“What’s this I hear, Ty?” Benjamin asked. “Warden Gauntlett aims to kill our gainsome, profitful venture?”
“Not ‘aims to.’ He has killed it.”
“That’s nonsense,” said Austin. “We’ll go on as usual. Winthorp wants a sonnet to a Miss Hinkle. I told him you would produce not just any sonnet, but one in alexandrines because her Christian name is Alexandra. And be sure to mention her light brown hair and green eyes.”
Tyrone’s own eyes brightened at the challenge, and he tapped out the meter on the table. “Brown-tressed Alexandra with her eyes of green—no. Stop. Tell Winthorp I won’t do it.”
“What do you mean, you won’t do it?”
Tyrone was not about to admit that he was afraid Gauntlett would deprive his cousins of some or all of their stipends. Benjamin and Austin might be relatively poor, but they were also spirited and perhaps heedless, and he knew they would urge him to fly in the face of the warden, let the consequences be what they might.
He shrugged therefore. “It was fun for a time, but with less than half a term left, I must apply myself to my studies.”
“What stuff,” said Austin. “When have you ever had to apply yourself to your studies?”
“And what do you mean you have only got half a term left?” asked Benjamin.
“I’ve decided to go back to Winchester,” he explained. “I don’t want to become a clergyman, nor have I got any ambition to tutor the younger fellows. Besides, there are so many senior fellows here that they outnumber every new, puling Winchester stripling five to one.”
“But what would you do in Winchester?”
“Write a book, perhaps. Teach my younger brother or my nephews.”
“You just said you didn’t want to teach!”
“I said I didn’t want to tutor Winchester scrubs.”
“What are Willie and Peter and Edward but future Winchester scrubs?”
“And my father would like me to learn the rudiments of estate management.”
“Whatever for?” Benjamin dismissed this. “Hollowgate goes to Florence when William Ellsworth is no more.”
“My stepmother has a life interest,” Tyrone reminded them. “And I don’t think she’s vastly older than Flossie. If I were never to marry, I might live at Hollowgate all my days, managing it first for my stepmother and then for Floss. Her husband is no squire.”
Their argument continued in the same vein, off and on, for several days, and they were at it again over another dinner in Hall when a trencher slapped down opposite them. The three Ellsworths looked up to find a long and pale young man with dark brown hair and mournful grey eyes.
“Boulton,” they greeted him. He was, strictly speaking a “commoner,” and custom dictated he sit with his ilk at a lower table, but such was the top-heaviness at New College in that era that the gentlemen-commoners’ high table was overstuffed, and the Ellsworths as often as not sat lower down in mixed company.
“Ellsworths. I would like a note. One signed, ‘An Admirer.’ For I must have something ready if I meet a golden vision.”
“Have you not heard? I’ve retired,” said Tyrone. “Gauntlett insisted.”
“Then unretire, for time presses.”
“What paragon is this whom you are so eager to prepare for?” asked Austin.
“Can’t be Winthorp’s Miss Hinkle because she has brown hair,” said his brother Benjamin.
“Or Peaches’ Miss Browne, because she’s a ginger like he is.”
“I don’t know the actual color of the young lady’s hair,” admitted Boulton. “Whether it be yellow, brown or green hardly matters. When I called her ‘golden’ I referred more particularly to the other golden aspect of her: her fortune.”
“You hope to meet an heiress in Oxford?” asked Tyrone politely.
“If Fortune favors me. Because I hear King has come. You know—Philip King, one of the Winchester fellows, to meet with the electors, I suspect. And he has brought his family, including his unmarried sister-in-law. Therefore, if I could arrange to meet her—”
“You can’t mean Aggie is here.” Tyrone stared. “That is—Miss Weeks?”
“You know her?” demanded Boulton.
“Of course I know her. She is my twin sister’s dearest friend.”
Chapter 1, pages 15-18.
AUTHOR BIO
Clean Regency romance author Christina Dudley’s books have been called “enchanting,” “sparkling” and “swoon-worthy” by reviewers like Austenprose and Austenesque Reviews. Her award-winning series The Hapgoods of Bramleigh contains six books: THE NATURALIST, A VERY PLAIN YOUNG MAN, SCHOOL FOR LOVE, MATCHLESS MARGARET, THE PURLOINED PORTRAIT, and A FICKLE FORTUNE. Her next series The Ellsworth Assortment introduces a new family in Winchester, beginning with Florence’s story in TEMPTED BY FOLLY, Lily’s in THE BELLE OF WINCHESTER, and Minta’s in MINTA IN SPITE OF HERSELF.
Dudley also wrote THE BERESFORDS, a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s MANSFIELD PARK, which the Seattle Times praised as “ingenious and entertaining,” and of which Austenprose’s Lisa Galek declared, “I would rank The Beresfords with some of the best Austen updates I’ve ever read or seen.”
She and her family live in Bellevue, Washington.
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BOOK INFORMATION
- A Scholarly Pursuit: A Traditional Regency Romance, by Christina Dudley
- BellaVita Press (September 13, 2023)
- Trade paperback, & eBook (412) pages
- ISBN: 979-8858902515
- Genre: Historical Romance, Regency Romance
We purchased a copy of the book for our own enjoyment. Book description, excerpt, author bio, cover image, & author headshot courtesy of BellaVita Press © 2023; text Laurel Ann Nattress © 2023, austenprose.com, an Amazon affiliate.
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Austenprose 
Color me intrigued! :)
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I still need to finish up the Hapsgoods, but this sounds like a fun series too.
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