Viscountess of Vice by Jenny Holiday ~ Blog Tour, Excerpt and Giveaway

Title: Viscountess of Vice (Regency Reformers #3)
Author: Jenny Holiday
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publising
Release Date: January 25, 2016

Secrets and lies, scandals and spies.

All Lady Catharine, Viscountess Cranbrook, wants is a little excitement. Bored of playing the role of the ton’s favorite slightly scandalous widow, she jumps at the chance to go undercover as a courtesan to help with an espionage mission. After all, beneath her outrageously low bodice beats the heart of a patriot.

Social reformer James Burnham is conducting a study of vice in England’s capital. Driven by his own secrets, he is methodical, intelligent—and wickedly handsome. Catharine is the last sort of woman the upstanding James should want. But want her he does, though she stands for everything he opposes.

When Catharine and James are forced to band together to advance their causes, they’ll be drawn into a web of secrets and lies that endangers their lives—and their hearts.

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Excerpt

Being a prostitute was hard work. Catharine poked a finger under the feathered mask she wore, trying to target an especially itchy spot near her hairline.

Correction: posing as a prostitute was hard work. An honest-to-goodness lady of the evening wouldn’t have to wear this blasted mask. The itching was driving her to distraction, never mind the sweating. It was a good thing she never took off the feathered confection, even when entertaining. The sight of her red, shiny face would have been enough to drive off even the most, ahem, enthusiastic of gentlemen.

Of course, an honest-to-goodness lightskirt would also have to have honest-to-goodness relations with any number of men, so on balance, what was a little itching?

The wig was no better. She glanced around the overheated drawing room, taking a deep breath and fighting the urge to tear the flame-orange, elaborately -coiffed contrivance off her head and hurl it into the fire.

At least the discomfort provided a welcome distraction from her nerves. Here she was, nearly a month in, and she still felt that same fluttering in her stomach before the first gathering. And she wasn’t the nervous type—far from it. She was Catharine Chambers, the Viscountess Cranbrook, for God’s sake. Slightly scandalous widow, woman of action. Not that anyone here knew that, hidden as she was by her disguise. Still, she had not expected to find herself a nervous mouse every time. Didn’t expect it, and more to the point, didn’t like it.

Several young men filed in, talking quietly among themselves, joining the handful already present in the crowded room. Good. Once the gathering began, she could lose herself in her role. It was never as bad as she imagined, once the evening got underway. No, in truth, it was usually very dull—that was the great irony of the whole absurd situation. Sitting straighter, she turned her head, displaying the white length of her neck to best advantage. Suppressing a sigh, she affected a bemused smile.

The ten o’clock crowd was typically young, eager, and always the politest of the evening’s three groups. The men she sought were not likely to possess any of those qualities. Why did she even bother with the first gathering? Because Blackstone insisted? He was rarely here to check up on her and would never know if she slipped away to her room for a nap—just what she needed to fortify herself before the midnight gathering.

A footman entered with a tray of champagne glasses, a sign of Madame Cherie’s imminent arrival. Too late to escape. Resigned, Catharine accepted a glass, willing her hand not to shake. A sense of obligation would have kept her here anyway. Yes, she appeared dutifully at the ten o’clock gathering twice a week because underneath her scandalously low, black-ribbon-trimmed bodice beat the heart of a patriot. A very nervous patriot.

Noble motivations and stage fright aside, this was supposed to have been entertaining. That was the whole point, really. In that sense, it was all very disappointing. Who knew that in addition to being exceedingly itchy, prostitution could manage to be so very dull?

Meet the Author

Jenny Holiday started writing at age nine when her fourth grade teacher gave her a notebook and told her to start writing stories. That first batch featured mass murderers on the loose, alien invasions, and hauntings. From then on, she was always writing, often in her diary, where she liked to decorate declarations of existential angst with nail polish teardrops. Later, she channeled her penchant for scribbling into a more useful format, picking up a PhD in geography and then working in PR. Eventually, she figured out that happy endings were more fun than alien invasions. You can follow her on twitter at @jennyholi sand @TropeHeroine or visit her on the web at jennyholiday.com.

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Giveaway

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ARC Review: The Miss Mirren Mission (Regency Reformers #1) by Jenny Holiday

Title: The Miss Mirren  Mission (Regency Reformers #1)
Author: Jenny Holiday
Source: NetGalley
Genre: Historical Romance - Regency
Length: Novel
Release Date: March 24, 2015
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Rating - 4
Sexual - 3

Loving her would be his downfall…

To society, the Earl of Blackstone cuts a mysterious figure. He is eligible, withdrawn, and endlessly fascinating. Yet as an integral part of London’s underground spy ring intent on defeating Napoleon, Blackstone has no mistress but the cause.

Miss Emily Mirren is considered “unbiddable” by the ton. She wields a fierce intellect, which she channels into her own secret cause—writing an abolitionist newspaper column under a male pseudonym.

When Emily’s aims clash with Blackstone’s, they stray into a dangerous game of attraction and subterfuge, and secrets are the going currency. And in order to complete the most important mission of his career, Blackstone must thwart Emily, even if it breaks both their hearts.

This was a very fun romance.  Emily is on her way to becoming one heck of a bluestocking, and she's proud of it.  She reads about anything and everything - which I always like in a character - and it's given her a unique perspective on quite a few things.  She's also a reformist.  She wants to abolish slavery and punish those that are still illegally buying and selling them.  When her goals of finding information on a slave trader interfere with an investigation in process she finds herself caught up in quite an adventure.

Blackstone is a spy.  He's trying to find who has been trading English secrets to the French and suddenly Emily is in his way.  He finds he rather likes her there - it's making his life interesting.  But he owes a debt to her father and finds his wishes don't align with his mission for a change.  So he writes a new mission - the Miss Mirren Mission.

Watching these two dance around their growing feelings was actually very fun.  It didn't get overly tedious as they both discussed why they would never marry.  It was just a part of who they were.  As this romance involves spies - there is quite a bit of adventure and intrigue mixed in and it merges just about seamlessly with the romance until they are all tied together.

Such a fun historical with a lot of really great characters.  Hopefully, I get to see a few of them again when book two comes out.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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More on Jenny Holiday

Jasmyn's Review of Saving the CEO (49th Floor #1)

Interview With Jenny Holiday

Jasmyn's Review of Sleeping with Her Enemy (49th Floor #2)

Guest Post: My Journey to Becoming an Author

Guest Post with Author Jenny Holiday

I always love hearing how authors got started writing for the first time.  I really enjoy Jenny Holiday's books and she has a bit of a different approach to how she got started - and I totally agree about Pride and Prejudice!

My journey to becoming an author – Jenny Holiday

I decided to try to become a romance author not long after I started reading romance. I was a late bloomer on the romance front, though, not discovering romance novels until I was in my early 30s. This was probably because I was a late bloomer on discovering Jane Austen (I blame my high school. Hello, what kind of high school doesn’t make you read Pride and Prejudice?!). After I gobbled up her books, I found my way to Regency romances. My initial experience of the subgenre were the Harlequin historicals I got from the library. When you read enough category romances from the same imprint, you begin to understand the pattern. Now, I’m not knocking category romance here—I write it, after all. But there are certain norms that govern category romance. I hesitate to call it a formula, but…you know what I mean. It’s like you’re Neo and you can suddenly see the Matrix.

I had always been pretty good at writing according to formulas. By day, I worked as a PR writer. I’d had jobs that required me to get a very specific message out in a very specific way: write a magazine story about X that will make people donate money to our cause, that sort of thing. And I loved this kind of work—I thrived on taking a problem and solving it with words under a particular set of constraints.

You can probably see where I’m going here. At some point, I looked up from a book I was reading and said, “How hard can this be?”

Ha ha ha ha ha. Pride goeth before a fall and all that.

It turned out I really didn’t know how to write a romance novel. But I learned. I wrote a book that really wasn’t very good, though I couldn’t see that at the time. Probably the smartest thing I did was join a couple RWA chapters. Through RWA, I gained access to critique groups and contests and classes that gradually chipped away at my ignorance—and I met some critique partners who are with me to this day.

I also hired a freelance editor to take a look at that first awful book because although my attempts to query agents were getting me lots of requests for manuscripts, the book itself was being universally rejected. I hoped this editor’s feedback would help me get the book into good enough shape to get me an agent. Her honest counsel was probably one of the critical turning points in my career. She helped me see why that book wasn’t working, and gave me some tools to start fixing it. I rewrote the book, but when I got to the end (again), I had to face the fact that, though improved, this book never going to be good enough for a major publishing deal. So I let it go and started over. It was hard at the time—I even passed up a couple unsolicited offers from smaller publishers—but it was the smartest thing I could have done.

After that, things were kind of…easy. That’s the wrong word, obviously, because there was a ton of work involved, and a little luck (and as with everything in publishing, every step took months if not years). But I wrote a new book. That book got me exactly the kind of agent I was looking for: someone who was into career-building and had the chops and the connections to do major deals. That agent sold that book—and two sequels. She also suggested I try writing a contemporary novel, which was not something I had ever considered. So I wrote a contemporary book, and she sold that—and two sequels.

And then? I guess I lived happily ever after!

Jenny Holiday's Latest

Sleeping With Her Enemy by Jenny Holiday

Release date: February 23, 2015

Amy Morrison is supposed to be at her wedding. But when her husband-to-be jilts her at the altar, a distraught Amy runs to the only place she feels safe—her office. Besides, everyone who works on her floor is at her wedding...except him. Dax Harris. Playboy, executive, and Amy's official office enemy.

While he and Amy don't see eye-to-eye on the best of days, Dax can't help but feel badly when he sees Amy mid-meltdown. Next thing he knows, he's gotten her good and drunk, and they're making out like two teenagers. And since neither of them want anything serious, why shouldn't they be frenemies-with-benefits? Because there is no possible way they could ever fall for each other...

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About Jenny Holiday

Jenny Holiday started writing in fourth grade, when her awesome hippie teacher, between sessions of Pete Seeger singing and anti-nuclear power plant letter writing, gave the kids notebooks and told them to write stories. Most of Jenny's featured poltergeist, alien invasions, or serial killers who managed to murder everyone except her and her mom. She showed early promise as a romance writer, though, because nearly every story had a happy ending: fictional Jenny woke up to find that the story had been a dream, and that her best friend, father, and sister had not, in fact, been axe-murdered. From then on, she was always writing, often in her diary, where she liked to decorate her declarations of existential angst with nail polish teardrops. Eventually she channelled her penchant for scribbling into a more useful format. After picking up a PhD in urban geography, she became a professional writer, and has spent many years promoting research at a major university, which allows her to become an armchair astronomer/historian/particle physicist, depending on the day. Eventually, she decided to try her hand again at happy endings--minus the bloodbaths. You can follow her twitter accounts @jennyholi and @TropeHeroine or visit her on the web at jennyholiday.com.

Find Jenny Online

Website - Twitter - Facebook

More on Jenny Holiday

Jasmyn's Review of Saving the CEO (49th Floor #1)
Interview With Jenny Holiday
Jasmyn's Review of Sleeping with Her Enemy (49th Floor #2)

ARC Review: Sleeping with Her Enemy (49th Floor #2) by Jenny Holiday

Title: Sleeping with Her Enemy (49th Floor #2)
Author: Jenny Holiday
Source: Entangled Indulgence
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel
Release Date: February 23, 2015
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Rating - 4
Sexual - 3

He'll complicate all her plans...

Amy Morrison is supposed to be at her wedding. But when her husband-to-be jilts her at the altar, a distraught Amy runs to the only place she feels safe—her office. Besides, everyone who works on her floor is at her wedding...except him. Dax Harris. Playboy, executive, and Amy's official office enemy.

While he and Amy don't see eye-to-eye on the best of days, Dax can't help but feel badly when he sees Amy mid-meltdown. Next thing he knows, he's gotten her good and drunk, and they're making out like two teenagers. And since neither of them want anything serious, why shouldn't they be frenemies-with-benefits? Because there is no possible way they could ever fall for each other...

Amy Morrison was amazing!!!  I totally loved her.  I also loved Dax's sister, Kat, and his family.  There were so close to perfect you wanted them to be your's, but had enough "family drama" that kept them real.  We even get to see the couple from book one a quite a few times (they do all work in the same building/floor).

Notice I haven't said much about Dax yet?  He was fun, he was great, but the other characters overshadowed him a bit.  He had a good reason for avoiding relationships - and it took him a looong time to get over it, but you could see him making progress the whole way through the book.  I really liked that part of him.  He was also amazingly spontaneous - there's a scene at a baseball game that made me completely fall in love with him.  I just wish he had shone more in the scenes that involved other strong characters.

They had an almost accidental romance.  They definitely weren't planning on one or looking for one - it just kind of showed up one day.  I loved how much fun the story was.  I was grinning through most of it just because everyone was having so much fun throughout the whole story.  Even the conflict was done in a way that you couldn't help but smile just a little because you just knew these characters could get through anything together.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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 More Posts About Jenny Holiday

Review by Jasmyn: Saving the CEO (The 49th Floor #1)
Author Interview

Author Interview with Jenny Holiday

I would like to introduce Jenny Holiday - author of Saving the CEO, a new contemporary romance from Entangled Publishing.  I had a chance to ask her a few questions about her life and her writing and she has some very interesting responses.

In your bio, you list that you have a degree in urban geography.  What exactly is that, and why did it draw you?

"It’s about cities and human landscapes—how they got to be the way they are and how people use them. A concrete example is the practice of redlining in the 1960s. This refers to banks refusing to make mortgage loans to people in certain neighborhoods—drawing a red line around them on a map. So of course these areas, which tended to be home to poorer people, started to decline.  We might look at some of these areas today and see slums, but in fact there was a clear reason these places became the way they are. Urban geography is about untangling all that.

I got into it because I had a great prof as an undergrad. I was an undecided about my major, and I heard her give a presentation. I had always thought about geography as memorizing the state capitals, but she showed us it was so much more."

Since it’s the season of scaring – what superstitions do you have and what monster keeps you up at night?

"The monster that keeps me up at night is four years old, and he lives in my house. He is not a fan of sleeping.

I do get a little spooked by the idea of ghosts, especially if I’m staying somewhere I’ve never been. You know those people who go around hunting ghosts with special equipment and stuff? CRAZY PEOPLE. And when I was a kid, a babysitter let me watch a made-for-TV remake of Psycho. (Who does that?) As a result, for two years, I refused to take a shower without my mom in the bathroom with me, standing just on the other side of the shower curtain.

As far as superstitions, I don’t really have any."

What is the hardest part of the story to write and how do you get through it?

"Writers talk about “the sagging middle,” and that is definitely the challenge for me. I come out of the gate with a bang, but around about 20,000 words, I think, “are we done yet?”

Part of your new book, Saving the CEO is about breaking your own rules.  How often do you break your own rules?

Remember that four-year-old I mentioned? I’m still working shedding on the “baby” weight from being pregnant with that kid. I pretty much break a rule every single day on this front. I have an incredible weakness for M&Ms. But beyond that, I don’t think I really have big-time rules for myself like the hero of the book. He’s much more tightly-wound than I am!"

Many romance novels use the theme of love at first sight, or soul mates.  Do you believe in love at first sight or is it something that belongs in the stories?

"I believe in attraction at first meeting, which I guess is a slightly less dramatic version of love at first sight. And I’m not just talking about physical attraction. I think it’s possible to “click” with a person right away, and that can lead to love. I also think “lust at first sight,” which is what happens to the main characters in Saving the CEO, is possible. Part of this book was about imagining how lust could lead to love when the characters were resistant to the idea of love."

Quickfire Questions:

Favorite ice cream?

Strawberry

Cats or dogs?

Neither. (I am preparing to be booed.)

Favorite childhood TV show?

Scarecrow and Mrs. King

Lights on or off?

Are we talking about what I think we’re talking about? On—but dimly!

Author Bio:

Jenny Holiday started writing at age nine when her awesome fourth grade teacher gave her a notebook and told her to start writing some stories. That first batch featured mass murders on the loose, alien invasions, and hauntings. (Looking back, she’s amazed no one sent her to a kid-shrink.) She’s been writing ever since. After a brief detour to get a PhD in geography, she worked as a professional writer, producing everything from speeches to magazine articles. More recently, her tastes having evolved from alien invasions to happily-ever-afters, she tried her hand at romance. A lifelong city-lover, she lives in Toronto, Canada, with her family. She is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Greenburger Associates. 

Author Links

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More Posts About Jenny Holiday

Review by Jasmyn: Saving the CEO

Review: Saving the CEO (49th Floor) by Jenny Holiday

Title: Saving the CEO (a 49th Floor Novel)
Author: Jenny Holiday
Source: Entangled Indulgence
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel
Release Date: October 20, 2014
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Rating - 4
Sexual - 3

Real estate mogul Jack Winter has rules. Lots of rules. After all, a man doesn’t build
an empire without a little discipline. And on page one of the rulebook? Don’t sleep with your employees. Especially when there’s a multimillion dollar real estate deal at stake...

Luckily for Jack, Cassie James isn’t really his employee. She’s a hot bartender who just happens to be the math genius he needs, and if they share a wicked chemistry? Well, that's just a sexy little perk. So they strike a deal: Cassie helps Jack with the merger. And until the deal goes through at Christmas, they can indulge every sexy little impulse they desire. But the more rules Jack makes, the more he seems to break...

Cassie was such a great character.  She was a real woman - not your typical romance heroine - and she faced some pretty serious real-life style problems.  Struggling to make her way through college and get her degree in mathematics, Cassie works as a bar tender at a trendy restaurant.  Here is where she stumbles into being acquainted by Jack - a CEO with one heck of a math problem.

Jack has so very many rules - he's quite an uptight man and his reaction to Cassie is completely out of character for him.  But maybe if he just breaks one rule - it'll be OK.  He can still go back if it's just one.  Well, maybe two - or three - and soon he finds himself sliding down a steep slope where all his precious rules are getting thrown out the window.

They grow to care for each other as they work on Jack's math problem for his company - and they learn a lot of really cool little things about each other.  Like Cassie's fascination with the stars - I loved that she was so impressed with such a simple thing.  It made her even more likable than she already was and played a good part in the story-line several times as well.  In fact, all the little facts and figures that are introduced along the way play important parts as the story unfolds.  It was very well done.

This was a very sweet romance with a lot of  intense moments that gave it just enough spice.  I loved how the characters related to each other, and Jack's business deal was wrapped up and handled in a way I thought was just about perfect.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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