It’s release day!
I’m delighted to say that The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is out! It feels like it’s been a while….
Secret Lives is the first of my Doomsday Books duology. It stars Joss Doomsday, a professional smuggler on Romney Marsh, a remote part of Kent, and Sir Gareth Inglis, law clerk unexpectedly promoted to baronet. Gareth and Joss have a Past; the question is whether they can have a present, or indeed a future.
Features: multiple difficult relatives, smuggling shenanigans, dark secrets, a shepherd’s hut for two, beetles.
I’m really happy with how this book came out, both in terms of the text, and the gorgeous cover and print book. (Art by Jyotirmayee Patra, edited by Mary Altman, published by Sourcebooks.) It’s available in print, e and audio (performed by Martyn Swain).
AND as if that isn’t enough I also have the cover for book 2, so you can feast your eyes on the loveliness of this matched pair.
Book 2 is set some 13 years after book 1, starring another member of the Doomsday family who you will meet in Secret Lives. More on that later; it’s out 19th September this year!
Secret Lives is getting some pretty amazing reviews (including starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and Book Page plus a Library Reads pick).
“As always, Charles combines masterful prose, thrilling romance, fantastic wit, and gripping stakes. Her characters feel as real and relatable as a bruise. She is, in my opinion, a titan of her genre.”–Talia Hibbert
“Smuggling! Blackmail! Secret rendezvous! Scoundrels! Sweethearts! Big feelings! KJ Charles is one of the best romance novelists writing today and The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is proof. Historical romance at its finest.” – Sarah MacLean
I hope you enjoy it!
Congratulations! My local bookstore just called to tell me they have the copy I pre-ordered, and also said it would be this month’s choice for their romance book club. I can’t wait to read it!
I started it yesterday, realised it was too good to rush so I am reading a mediocre hockey romance to really whet my appetite.
Purchased as an ebook and read the same day. It’s so good!!! Really looking forward to the second book. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Love the slight ominous/foreshadowing note toward the end, too. 😀 (pointing to book 2, I mean)
At the risk of SPOILERS, I love the importance of names and naming.
I did enjoy it! So much so I stayed up until 2am on a night I really shouldn’t have stayed awake that late 😀
I’ll be reading it this weekend, so I won’t lose sleep on a work night; I know that I won’t be able to stop reading once I start! I can hardly wait for book two to release. I must admit, the cover brought to mind your post about the importance of writing sex scenes that move the plot forward; your list of possible effects ended with “The desk on which they’re shagging breaks, and MCs discover the long lost will in the wreckage.” Since this was the only option on the list not yet used, and the two protagonists are leaning on a (not terribly sturdy-looking) desk, possibly this will make an appearance here!
Cool – Secret Lives is the first featured book this week in the Freading app. 🙂 (one of the places I get library books from) Editor’s pick. 🙂