The independent and alluring Lady Philippa decides to prove she can run as wild in love as she does on the hunting fields. Lady Philippa Raynard-Wakefield is a wealthy young widow convinced that she will never marry again; in fact, she's chosen to reside in her late husband's Leicestershire hunting lodge to avoid the fortune-hungry suitors she frequently meets in more fashionable locales. A keen rider, Philippa would like to join in the local sport, but the fast pace, rough terrain, and ill-mannered participants of the hunts are considered unsuitable for ladies. Even Viscount Rochford, with his mesmerizing gray eyes, will not permit her to join his hunt - although he doesn't object to her company on other occasions. If Rochford won't give his approval, then Philippa will have to take matters into her own hands...
Amanda Scott, USA Today Bestselling Author and winner of Romance Writers of America’s RITA/Golden Medallion (LORD ABBERLEY'S NEMESIS) and Romantic Times’ Awards for Best Regency Author and Best Sensual Regency (RAVENWOOD'S LADY), Lifetime Achievement (2007) and Best Scottish Historical (BORDER MOONLIGHT, 2008), began writing on a dare from her husband. She has sold every manuscript she has written.
Amanda is a fourth-generation Californian, who was born and raised in Salinas and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in history from Mills College in Oakland. She did graduate work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializing in British History, before obtaining her Master’s in History from California State University at San Jose. She now lives with her husband and son in northern California.
As a child, Amanda Scott was a model for O’Connor Moffatt in San Francisco (now Macy’s). She was also a Sputnik child, one of those selected after the satellite went up for one of California’s first programs for gifted children. She remained in that program through high school. After graduate school, she taught for the Salinas City School District for three years before marrying her husband, who was then a captain in the Air Force. They lived in Honolulu for a year, then in Papillion, Nebraska, for seven. Their son was born in Nebraska. They have lived in northern California since 1980.
Scott grew up in a family of lawyers, and is descended from a long line of them. Her father was a three-term District Attorney of Monterey County before his death in 1955 at age 36. Her grandfather was City Attorney of Salinas for 36 years after serving two terms as District Attorney, and two of her ancestors were State Supreme Court Justices (one in Missouri, the other the first Supreme Court Justice for the State of Arkansas). One brother, having carried on the Scott tradition in the Monterey County DA’s office, is now a judge. The other is an electrician in Knoxville, TN, and her sister is a teacher in the Sacramento area.
The women of Amanda Scott’s family have been no less successful than the men. Her mother was a child actress known as Baby Lowell, who performed all over the west coast and in Hollywood movies, and then was a dancer with the San Francisco Opera Ballet until her marriage. Her mother’s sister, Loretta Lowell, was also a child actress. She performed in the Our Gang comedies and in several Loretta Young movies before becoming one of the first women in the US Air Force. Scott's paternal grandmother was active in local and State politics and served as president of the California State PTA, and her maternal grandmother was a teacher (and stage mother) before working for Monterey County. The place of women in Scott’s family has always been a strong one. Though they married strong men, the women have, for generations, been well educated and encouraged to succeed at whatever they chose to do.
Amanda Scott’s first book was OMAHA CITY ARCHITECTURE, a coffee-table photo essay on the historical architecture of Omaha, written for Landmarks, Inc. under her married name as a Junior League project. Others took the photos; she did the research and wrote the text on an old Smith-Corona portable electric. She sold her first novel, THE FUGITIVE HEIRESS - likewise written on the battered Smith-Corona in 1980. Since then, she has sold many more books, but since the second one she has used a word processor and computer. Twenty-five of her novels are set in the English Regency period (1810-1820). Others are set in 15th-century England and 14th- through 18th-century Scotland, and three are contemporary romances. Many of her titles are currently available at bookstores and online.
Romance novel I'm proofing. Not something I would usually pick up, but I am enjoying the regency-era details. Curious about how steamy it's gonna get, since I've never read a romance novel.
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Mistress of the Hunt, or, A Would-Be Feminist Gives In and Learns to Love a Condescending, Controlling Man Whom She Fears. GROOOOOOOOAN. It never even got steamy.
I must admit, though- it's extremely well-researched. Good narrator, too. I guess this is probably pretty realistic and might appeal to some readers who love Jane Austen. But I'm glad Ms. Austen doesn't have her heroines continually "dimpling" and "twinkling" at menfolk. I mean, come ON. At least now I know I don't like romance novels.