Guest Post/Giveaway–Taming Miss Tisdale (Regency Blooms #2) by Jessica Jefferson

                                                         Published April 30th 2014 by Soul Mate Publishing

Miss Tamsin Tisdale believes herself to be completely unsuitable for London life. After a myriad of social mishaps, and the potential ruination of her family name, she’s shipped away to her cousin’s northern estate. Only after she comes to her senses will she be welcomed home.

Marcus Winston, the Duke of Grayson, has a lackluster reputation. The last in a dying line, he’s endured a protected life—rank with privilege, encumbered by isolation. After a brief encounter with rebellion, he learns the devastating consequences of his carelessness and willingly accepts living life from inside his gilded cage.

However, a chance meeting with the brazen Miss Tisdale gives Marc the opportunity to reinvent himself into the man he’s always dreamed of being. When his deception comes to light, and ghosts from both their pasts threaten to unravel the intimacy they’ve come to cherish, will either of them set their fears aside long enough to embrace love? Or will Miss Tisdale’s stubbornness divide them?

I want to issue a warm welcome and a heart felt thank you to my guest, Jessica Jefferson and her thoughts on a question that I ponder every time I read a regency romance. 

What’s the appeal of regency?

I find myself often writing on this topic.

I was sitting in my office one day and my coworker asked – why do people still read that stuff? Of course, he was referring to my regency romance novels. From his perspective, the plots were all too similar and couldn’t understand why anyone would want to read the same tired storylines.

I have to admit – the genre may be a bit formulaic. When I pick up a regency, I can be certain that there will be a hero and heroine, a conflict that keeps them apart, and a happily ever after in the end. This will all happen against the backdrop of the London season, or a country house, and chances are someone with a title will make an appearance somewhere in the book. So why do people keep coming back for more? What makes regency romance so tremendously popular?

The regency period was relatively short, but it’s left an indelible mark on romance. It was a time of impeccable manners, rules, and etiquette. It was also the transition between the loose living Georgian and tightly wound Victorian times. This makes for an interesting dynamic and throughout literature, the struggle one must have felt to live within these conflicting confines becomes readily apparent.

Regency romance provides a form of escapism that most readers can appreciate. The lives of these heroines couldn’t be more different from my own. Whereas they may wear gowns to dinner, I’m lucky if I make it out of yoga pants once a week. But at the same time, there’s a good amount in these stories that is completely relatable. Even though the fashion and settings may be different, the human emotion at its foundation is the same as it is today.

The genre has provided a framework, and most writers are able to weave individual stories without losing the key elements that readers of regency depend on. It’s a comforting kind of predictability. So, why do readers keep going back? These authors are still able to infuse new and interesting ideas, keeping the formula from getting stale. I always know my hero and heroine will end up together, but no two journeys are ever really the same.

Jason looked bored. “Get to the important part, Grayson. Was she beautiful?”

Again, Marc was ill-prepared to answer such a question. Taken individually, that large mouth, those plump pink lips, her long nose, red hair, and freckled skin—nothing about her was spectacular by any means. But together, all those odd pieces and parts, which seemed so ordinary at first glance, fit together to form the picture of a particularly stunning woman.

“Yes,” he answered quite simply. No need to give Jason any more fodder for discussion by rambling on like some sort of awful poet.

Jason grinned from ear to ear. “Well, that is quite eventful, indeed.” He swept a crumb off his jacket sleeve. “Does this original have a name?”

Marc stopped suddenly, his coffee halfway to his lips. “Name?”

Jason laughed. “Yes, her name. This unique creature has to have a name. Diana?Aphrodite? Venus, perhaps?” Then Jason stopped laughing as realization spread over his face like a mordant rash. “You don’t know her bloody name, do you?”

Marc set his cup down on the table and stared at it. “She never volunteered the information and I never bothered to ask.”



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Jessica Jefferson makes her home in northern Indiana, or as she likes to think of it—almost Chicago. She is heavily inspired by classic sweeping, historical romance novels, but aims to take those key emotional elements and inject a fresh blend of quick dialogue and comedy. She invites you to visit her at jessicajefferson.com and read more of her random romance musings.



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