Grace Burrowes Guest Blog and Giveaway!
Today, historical romance author Grace Burrowes has a best blog and giveaway of her brand new release, Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal. I have recently read this book, I really liked it and rated it 4 stars! (read my review). Without further ado, help me welcome Grace Burrowes to the blog:
What Have I Lost That I’ve Been Desperate to Retrieve?
This is an interesting question, because in Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal, Maggie’s loss develops in layers. Initially, we learn she’s lost her reticule, then we learn that something in the reticule (which she will not disclose to her swain) is more important than the reticule itself.
Then, we see that the reticule is a symbol of Maggie’s iron grip on her retiring, lonely life—which she’s also lost. Benjamin Hazlit is determined that she remains permanently dispossessed of that life, and instead find her way to a new life with him.
I’m forever muttering the St. Anthony prayer (I was raised Catholic) which goes something like this: “Dear St. Anthony, please come around. My _________ is lost and cannot be found.” St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost articles, but he’s also supposed to be sympathetic to those who are lost.
I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve searched frantically for something vital—my passport, my wallet, a client file—said that prayer, and had the item turn up. Like Maggie, though, my more significant losses have been losses of my life as I knew how to manage it. I turned up pregnant without benefit of matrimony in my final year of law school, and life as I knew it evaporated in a matter of weeks.
Before Beloved Offspring was two years old, I was laid off with one day’s notice. I had my first mortgage payment ever coming due, no money in the bank, and a child to support. Lost my balance yet again.
When relationships ended, I’d lose my balance all over again.
Being a published author has helped me find ways to anchor myself in the midst of change and upheaval. For example, I’ve learned that I can have lots of excitement and angst without causing myself any difficulties, if I limit my big adventures to works of fiction. My personal life can stay placid and sweet, and yet, in the course of a day as an author I might vicariously fall in love, get my heart broken, and outwit two Big Black Moments. This is a good deal—passion and peace on the same day, in the same life (sorta).
I’ve also learned that romance heroes (and heroines) who focus on honor are onto something wise. They realize that life can take much away from us—possessions, loved ones, even mental or physical abilities—but our honor, our ability to be kind and honest, will be what defines us. This helps when the reviews feel unfair or the awards unearned. What matters is do we try our best, help others along the way, and give credit for all the many helpers we encounter on our journey?
So maybe, when I felt like I was losing my grip on a predictable, safe life, what I was really losing was a false sense of security, much like Lady Maggie. And when she did give up that false sense of security, she opened herself up to a life full of love.
Not a bad trade, if you ask me!
LADY MAGGIE’S SECRET SCANDAL BY GRACE BURROWES – IN STORES MAY 2012
You can find this book at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository 
Lady Maggie Windham Has Secrets…
And she’s been perfectly capable of keeping them…until now. When she’s threatened with exposure, she turns to investigator Benjamin Hazlit to keep catastrophe at bay. But Maggie herself intrigues Benjamin more than the riddle she’s set him to solve. As he uncovers more and more of her past, Maggie struggles to keep him at a distance, until they both begin to discover the truth in their hearts…
Praise for Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal
“Delicious… Burrowes delivers red-hot chemistry with a masterful mix of playfulness and sensuality, and her themes of healing and familial strength give this page-turner unusual depth. Charming and original with superb characters ready to walk off the page, this is a splendid addition to any Regency fan’s bookshelf.” —Publishers Weekly Starred Review
“An unconventional tale of strikingly unique characters with realistic emotions and exciting antics. It’s always a delight to read one of Burrowes’ creations…” —RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Burrowes is a prolific and award-winning author of historical romances. Her debut, The Heir, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and was selected as a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for 2010 in the romance category. Both The Heir and its follow-up, The Solider, are New York Times and USA Today bestsellers. She is a practicing attorney specializing in family law and lives in a restored log cabin in western Maryland without a TV, DVD player or radio because she’s too busy working on her next books. Please visit http://www.graceburrowes.com/, follow her on Twitter: @GraceBurrowes, and check out www.sourcebooks.com for more information.
In honor of Grace’s new release, Sourcebooks Publishing is sponsoring a Giveaway! 1 winner from the US/CAN will win a print copy of Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal.
How to Enter: Simply leave a comment about this post. Please leave a meaningful comment: share a story about a time when YOU lost something, comment about the guest blog, comment about the series, etc… Also, please include whether you live in the US/CAN so I am sure to count your entry.
Disclaimers: Must live in US/CAN to enter and be at least 18 years of age to enter the giveaway. Winner will be chosen randomly by number. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to notification email before I choose another winner. Book Savvy Babe is not responsible for damaged or lost products, lost emails, etc…
May 2, 2012 at 5:38 am
I’ve been married 13 years to a wonderful man. It hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows, as anyone who has ever been married will tell you. I was a stay at home mom for four years after our second and last child was born. We struggled a bit but it worked. Then my husband lost his job. I didn’t even know how to wrap my brain around it. Just stunned me to my core. I’m not much of a crier and I remember going to pick my girls up from preschool and just sobbing to the teachers. Sometimes it just takes a complete upheaval to set things right though. We are in a much better space and place now. Wasn’t pretty getting here but it works for us.
sionedkla@gmail.com
May 2, 2012 at 6:11 am
Kassandra, I was laid off twice, the second time I had a six month old infant, a two month old mortgage, no savings (it had all gone into the down payment for the house), and no family within 600 miles. You find out who your friends are, for one thing, and what you’re made of for another.
And you cry. After about six weeks unemployment, I was still in that “how do I wrap my brain around this?” place. Things worked out, but that is indeed a rough patch. Glad you came through to a better place.
May 2, 2012 at 6:44 am
I am a Hindu and we don’t have a patron saint for lost things. I am a tidy person by nature so I rarely misplace things, but of course that doesn’t include the ones outside my control. Your story of being laid off touched something within me. But what doesn’t kill us…
I remember what my sister does when she has misplaced something. Usually they’re simple things, for example: pens. She goes around the house, looking up and down and chanting in a sing-song voice, “Come on, Pen? Where are you? If I find you, I promise we’ll get you married to the pencil. Please, Pen, come back now.”
It always makes us laugh because it’s unbelievable how many times this actually worked!
–
I am not a resident of USA/CAN. Just wanted to share my thoughts.
May 2, 2012 at 8:18 am
Shriya, thanks for stopping by, I’m not Catholic, but I still prevail on St. Anthony. There must be something effective at the level of the subconscious because your sister’s chant works as well as my “prayer.”
May 2, 2012 at 7:09 am
Kassandra,
I know it doesn’t make your family’s situation any easier, but I have been laid off five times in the past 15 years. It is heart breaking, and can really hurt your self confidence. Sometimes I have been lucky, and found a new job within three months or so (this last time, it was only a matter of weeks!); other times, it has taken the better part of a year to find a new job–and it doesn’t help that I am over 50 now.
What has kept me sane and healthy in this is that my wife has been strong, understanding, supportive, and has continued to believe in me. Your husband is similarly lucky to have you!
And as noted by all above, we CAN come through these times better than we were before them. We now live in a lovely part of the country, have fulfilling jobs, and are pretty comfortable. Good luck.
And Grace, thanks for continuing to make my heart happy with your books.
Bill
May 2, 2012 at 8:20 am
Love will get you through times of no money, better than money will get you through times of no love… sometimes the country songs hit it on the nose.
For me, a keeper shelf full of good romances helps too.
May 2, 2012 at 9:28 am
Thanks for such a heart warming post! I’ve been fortunate to not have had very many “bad” things happen in my life. When I was in high school, I did have a serious medical scare (leukemia) but I’ve been free and clear since then. So… I take what life gives me and roll w/ the punches. When things get rough, I always remind myself to breathe and calm cuz “this too shall pass”. I’m usually pretty good about not losing things. When someone around me does, I’m the one that usually finds it
I love your books and I can’t wait to get my hands on this latest
May 2, 2012 at 10:21 am
Erin, I found myself reading an article about depression in older Americans, which is supposedly rampant except for one group: Cancer survivors are not prone to depression. Seems a brush with major illness death can get your head on straight, which probably qualifies as the ultimate blessing in disguise. Glad you like the books,and thanks for stopping by.
May 2, 2012 at 9:32 am
No amount money can make you truly happy. The only thing I can think of that I truly lost is not be being able to have children. That hurts more than anyone understands and knows. We were lucky to be able to adopt a wonderful son whom I love to pieces. It still hurts though I cant have children of my own even though my son is my child in everyway.
May 2, 2012 at 10:23 am
Victoria, I”m guessing it hurts especially when you see all the people who take their reproductive ability for granted, and make lousy parents without giving it a second thought. One sees a lot of this in foster care court, but your son needed you to adopt him, and that might not have come to pass had you never considered reproductive issues.
May 2, 2012 at 9:45 am
Sounds like a great title and I have one of Grace’s books downloaded to my Nook
right now. I need to get reading soon
May 2, 2012 at 10:24 am
Joy, not sure which book you already have, but the first three–The Heir, The Soldier, The Virtuoso–were available last week for NOOK as “The Duke’s Obsession Bundle” with a price tag of $4.99. THAT is a deal.
May 2, 2012 at 10:48 am
Well I am one of those people who misplaces things all the time. One night I was getting ready for bed and I couldn’t find my cell phone. I used my husbands phone to try and find it, but I have hearing problems and couldn’t place where the ringing was coming from. My husband was asleep, I went and got my 20 year old son who was still awake to help me. So I called my phone again and my son started walking towards the ringing and his eyes got very big and he looked back at me and said MOM YOUR PHONE IS IN THE TRASH CAN! Some how It was wrapped up in the newspaper and when I threw the paper away my phone went with it. I would love to say that this was a one time thing, but that would be a lie. This is just one of many things I have done. If I have to hear this story one more time from my family (they just love to tell this story to EVERYONE). But sadly it’s not the only one. LOL!
May 2, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Mary, genius is doomed to be misunderstood. I’m forever scouring the house for my sunglasses, even while I have one pair pushed up into my hair, and another pair hanging around my neck. And keys…. don’t get me started on the ability of keys to hide in the alternate universe that is the bottom of my purse…
May 2, 2012 at 2:38 pm
I am constantly misplacing items, generally small things like pens, bracelets, etc. I have been trying to do better and always put things where they are supposed to be but sometimes forget. Then I have to stop and either think about the last time I saw/had the object or retrace my footsteps. Generally though, when I can not find something is after my nieces & nephews have been around, LOL.
The new book sounds great. I don’t know why but purses/reticules are easily to forget sometimes. I know I have left mine at places when I was younger and had to go back to get it.
June
May 2, 2012 at 7:36 pm
June, I think we’ve all been attacked by that hollow, uh-oh, bad words, bad words, feeling when we realize we a) can’t find our purse, and b) have only a hope that we know where we left it. There’s something quintessentially female about the purse, like it holds part of our identity that a guy’s wallet just doesn’t measure up to.
Gotta watch those nieces and nephews, though. I’m told grandkids can have the same effect.
May 2, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Hi Grace, Congrats on your new release! I have prayed to St. Anthony many times and had my prayers answered. I recently went through that crying rut when my husband lost his job after be with that company for over thirteen years. I have been on disability for over ten years because of daily chronic back pain–sometimes so bad, I can barely walk, and when he lost his job I went through such a major guilt trip because I’m not allowed to work and we weren’t going to have health ins. and how where we going to pay the mortgage. But we luck out, he found another job after being unemployed only two weeks, yet it was the longest two weeks of my life. I’ve always thought that we are only given what we can handle, but who knows how much that is. Granted things are still tight, but we have a roof over our head and food on the table and a lot of people don’t even have that. I also think our past helps us in our future, we will see what happens.
May 2, 2012 at 4:16 pm
I’m sorry I forgot to mention that I live in the US.
May 2, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Tina, that is a tough situation to be in, when the household wage earner is rendered jobless. I’ve never felt so chronically scared as when I was laid off, and even though my brain knew my parents, siblings and friends were not going to let me end up on the street with my baby, there’s still such a tremendous potential for loss and upheaval. It’s not something you forget. I hope things are looking up for you and your family long term. Hang in there, and re-read your keepers!
May 2, 2012 at 5:46 pm
My mom swears by St. Anthony. I’m still on the fence lol. I am horrible when it comes to jewelry that is important to me. I lost a diamond earring that was my m-i-l’s, an Italian horn necklace my husband gave me (although I think it was stolen out of my hotel room), my diamond out of my wedding ring after 25 yrs. (my husband had another ring made for me, I was really devasted on that one) but a gold pinkie ring that my husband gave me for my 30th birthday got lost 3 times (with long times in between). Unfortunately, I haven’t found it yet this third time but I haven’t given up hope yet. Congrats on your newest book!
catslady5(at)aol.com
May 2, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Odd that you mention a propensity for misplacing jewelry–Her Grace turns out to be plagued by the same tendency. I hope your ring turns up, and more congrats on choosing a spouse who doesn’t get bent out of shape of material stuff. Sounds like he’s your most valuable gem.
May 2, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Currently I am missing a small jewelry box. I hid it before leaving for a trip in July of 2007 (you know in case my house was broken into while I was gone). I don’t wear jewelry often so I didn’t retrieve it when I got back home. Well almost five years later I still have no idea where the small box is! Ugghhh! I could use a saint or a metal detector LOL
I am in the US>
May 2, 2012 at 7:44 pm
Shannon, that is a reassuring tale. I am forever putting things in “special” places so I won’t forget where I put them, only to have not the clue three days later what I did with it. It’s as if my memory goes into sleep mode while I’m finding all these high shelves, tops of refrigerators, and empty drawers. I hope the box turns up soon–gold is going for premium dollars these days, yes?
May 2, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Oh I loved this book. I was lucky to get an ARC and I have to say it was just as good as the rest. I do believe I put a few Sherlock Holmes GIF’s in my review since Lucas and Ben reminded me of them. I was so excited to see the Ben from the first book gets his HEA!. Great Giveaway!
May 2, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Very nice post. I’m looking forward to reading all the books in the series. The series sounds very good.
May 3, 2012 at 6:39 am
I am NOT in the US/CAN but still wanted to say how much I enjoyed your blog and how true it is that sometime catastrophies turn out better than expected. I love the sound of your new book and will be adding it to my wish list.
May 3, 2012 at 8:17 pm
I will definitely be reading about Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal! The last time I lost something vital was my cell phone. It wouldn’t have mattered as much if didn’t contain my entire life in it and all my passwords. Luckily a clerk at the store that I had lost it in kept it at the counter. Crisis averted:)
*US
yadkny@hotmail.com
May 5, 2012 at 10:19 am
Historical Romance is my second favorite genre. This book sounds awesome. I have to get myself a copy. I would tell you all about losing my mind. But, I do that on a daily basis. I can tell you that one year about two years ago. I put $100 in cash with Christmas cards to give to my husbands family for that Christmas. Turns out my daughter got very sick and I mean sick, so we wound up not going to their house Christmas day. Never thought about the money and the cards again. This last Christmas I found the cards and the money. I felt like such a dope for not remembering. Oh well, it helped with this past Christmas.
Mary
mary_reiss @ hotmail.com
I am in the US.
May 5, 2012 at 10:02 pm
[...] Grace Burrowes guest blog and giveaway of her new release: Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal. Contest open to US/CAN, open through Tuesday, May 8. [...]
May 6, 2012 at 11:07 am
Ahhh! I love the middle diamond out of my engagement ring! I looked down at my hand and it was just GONE. I frantically searched by brain and just happened to remember something hitting the bathroom floor that morning after getting out of the shower. I had thought it was an earring but they were still there so I thought nothing more of it. When I remembered hearing that little sound, I ran to the bathroom and Thank God my diamond was right there in the middle of the floor just waiting for me to find it.
Psheww! That was a close one!
Thanks for the chance to win this book!
Colletta
May 8, 2012 at 8:18 am
This book sounds amazing! I’d love to read it. My biggest loss of all time would be the loss of my parents. My mother passed a year ago and my father when I was 20 (16 years ago). I can imagine no more devastation than this. Things mean very little to me. I have them, but they can always be replaced. But no one could ever walk in either one of their shoes. I miss them both terribly. My mother is the one who got me hooked on romance books. I started reading them when I was 12 and haven’t stopped since. We used to share books, and both of us could read one a day, easily. Brings back a lot of fond memories. I’m in the US. Thanks!
Michelle
michedt at yahoo dot com
May 9, 2012 at 7:09 am
this contest is now closed, thank you to everyone who entered for sharing your stories and thoughts! The winner is Colletta, congrats!