Pre-order for The Cavalier

In a change of policy, my publisher, Total-E-Bound has introduced big discounts for pre-orders - so it's a good time to check out, not just my English Civil War romantic novella, The Cavalier, but some of the other great stories on the site.

I've been very happy with TEB's attention to detail in creating a quality product, especially when it comes to copy edits. This is my third Beverley Oakley sensual historical romance and, like my other books, it's been copy edited five times.

I'm a freelance editor, myself, so I turn in a pretty clean product, but there are multiple editors who query everything from grammar points to whether a particular word used had entered the vocabulary of the day to whether the noise of cicadas or sparrows would be more appropriate to the setting. (This was queried in my very first paragraph.)

Here's the blurb and a bit about the novella in which:

A Puritan woman’s loyalties are tested when her husband is imprisoned by the Royalist lover she was forced to surrender through duty.

The Cavalier

by Beverley Oakley

Drummond Castle, home of staunch Puritan Silas Drummond and his beautiful wife, Elizabeth, has been besieged by Royalist forces. In a bargain to spare her husband’s life Lady Elizabeth has agreed to spend the night with the commander of the hated King’s Men.

Second-in-command, Charles Trethveyan, has other ideas. He’s planned this moment since Elizabeth chose to marry Silas eight years before.

When Elizabeth discovers that her former Cavalier lover has taken the place of his superior, she must decide whether Charles is motivated by love or revenge.

Either way, her response will have devastating consequences.

I usually write Regency Romances – either traditional under my Beverley Eikli name, or sensual or erotic under my pseudonym, Beverley Oakley. However this gritty, sometimes brutal story had been begging to be written for a long time. I love historical author Pamela Belle’s work. Her brilliant English Civil War Wintercombe series has resonated over decades with me.

I’ve also devoured everything I can find to do with seventeenth century diarist Samuel Pepys and his life. I feel comfortable with the time period. Honour and loyalty are two of my favourite themes and integral to a romance set against civil conflict when families and friends could be fighting on opposing sides. This short novella begins on the eve of battle and ends twenty-four hours later with the occupation of Drummond Castle. In the interim a lot of lives are lost or irrevocably altered but at least someone gets their happy ending. Writing it made me feel that the pen really is mightier than the sword.

You can read more by visiting my website or you can get the book here.