7-Year Blogoversary Party - Guest Post by Roseanna M. White + Giveaway!

I can't believe it is already the third week of the 7-Year Blogoversary Party! Crazy how fast this has gone by. Today we have Roseanna M. White stopping by with a guest post and giveaway. She is one of my favorite historical romance writers and if you haven't read her books you definitely should check them out.

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Check out the series on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2Hrk1dR

Guest Post by Roseanna M. White

The Linguist, the Violin Prodigy, and the Leader

Some of my friends thought it would be a hard sell, pitching a series about a family of thieves to a Christian publisher like Bethany House. I wasn’t particularly worried about the subject matter though. Because though the characters in the Shadows Over England Series are thieves by trade—at first—their stories are largely about their redemption, and the move of their family from the world of shadows and street gangs to the world of light. Still, it was fun to craft this family who had survived decades on the mean streets of Edwardian London by their wits and determination. And it was especially fun to get to know the three oldest members of this patchwork family who would be my heroines and hero in each of the three books.

Rosemary Gresham captured my attention first. The oldest of the girls, second oldest in the clan of orphans who decided to stick together, Rosemary has a way with a needle. She’s a real whiz as a seamstress, and though she doesn’t exactly enjoy the work, it has enabled their family to blend in with a society high above their own. Rosemary’s secret weapon though, which has gained her the attention of one mysterious Mr. V, who starts each character on their adventure, is that she apparently has a bit of a knack for languages. She set out to learn German a few years ago so she could identify the correct manuscript for “the British Museum Job” and picked it up far better and more quickly than anyone would have guessed. Which is why Mr. V sends her to Cornwall, into the home of Peter Holstein, suspected German sympathizer. And so begins the fun of book one, A Name Unknown, as Rosemary enters the world of the reclusive adventure novelist whose stammer often keeps people from seeing his heart of gold…and whose chaotic library might just be the death of Rosemary, who he hires to order it.

Willa Forsythe was already vying for her story to be told, however. Just a bit younger than Rosemary, Willa has the same grit that her “sister” has, with an extra streak of stubbornness for good measure. But what makes her the perfect agent for a new task assigned by Mr. V—traveling to Wales and stealing a cypher key from a famous violinist, Lukas De Wilde—is that Willa is a violin prodigy. Though too poor to ever have had a real lesson, she found an old violin when she was twelve, picked it up, and unlocked music in the depths of her soul. As she finds herself in the world of an orchestra for the first time, Willa’s greatest dreams are realized…along with her deepest fears. Because though she can play with the best of them, she knows what they don’t—that she’s just a thief, stealing her time among them, and sooner or later, when she doesn’t have a clue what all their terminology means, she’ll prove herself a fraud. Toss in a former playboy who has finally woken up to what he should be focusing on, and his genius little sister hiding out from the German army in Belgium, and you have A Song Unheard, which just released.

But then there’s Barclay. Through the sisters’ stories, we learn a lot about the big brother of their clan. It was Barclay who patched them together, not into a gang but into a family. Barclay who continually finds new orphans to add to their numbers. Barclay who taught them all how to pick a pocket, how to avoid a bobby…and Barclay who is just as at home with an academic book in his hand as a lock-pick. By the time his story opens in An Hour Unspent, he’d made the whole family swear off stealing, as long as they’re working for Mr. V…but it isn’t just because he doesn’t want to risk endangering their new jobs. It’s because faith is beginning to unfurl in his soul. He doesn’t quite understand it all yet, but he wants to. And when Barclay Pearce sets his mind to understanding a thing, it might as well consider itself understood. As the focus turns his way in the final installment of the series, Barclay isn’t just trying to figure out the clockmaker he’s been assigned to recruit into helping the Admiralty…he’s trying to puzzle out said clockmaker’s daughter. But Evelina Manning, suffragette and newly abandoned fiancée, has her own puzzling to do, and at the top of the list (after determining how to avoid her controlling mother and aunt) is figuring out this bizarre family who has just moved in a few street over. They are in some ways everything she has ever dreamed of being, of having…and in other ways, everything she has worked against.

I can’t begin to tell you how much fun I had writing this family. Because though their situation is completely fabricated, their love is very much based on my own extended family. As I was writing An Hour Unspent last year, my great-grandmother passed away at 103 years old, and listening to everyone remember her at her funeral made it clear why I had these ideas of family. It’s because I was raised with the sure knowledge that it wasn’t birth that made a family, it wasn’t a name. It was love. That we serve first the Lord, then each other. That there is never a good enough reason to give up on those you love. I hope the way this family of orphans live that out will touch my readers, as they touched me. And that we’ll all recognize the truth behind their family motto: With the greatest risks come the greatest rewards. Especially when those risks are to your heart.
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GIVEAWAY!

Enter for a chance to win a print copy (US only) or eBook (INT) of EITHER A Name Unknown or A Song Unheard. Giveaway ends 3/5.

How to enter: Sign into the Giveaway Tools form below (it might take a moment to load) and submit each entry you complete. Commenting alone will not get you entered – you must click enter on the form. Happy entering!

Entry-Form

Open only to those who can legally enter. Winning entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by Giveaway Tools and announced here as well as emailed and will have up to one week to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Giveaway Tools or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. I am not responsible for any packages lost or damaged in the mail. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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