Spring Muslins

by Melinda Hammond

A Sparkling Regency Romance. Upon the death of her father, Miss Lucia Luckington returns from school to discover that her meagre inheritance is not enough to keep herself, her cousin Grace and their old governess, Miss Morrison. Something must be done. Lucia comes up with a Grand Plan to make Grace a successful seamstress, but it will require the efforts of all three ladies to make it work. However, what seemed such a simple idea when they were in Little Furzewell becomes much more complicated in fashionable London, and brings Lucia into direct conflict with that notable Corinthian, Sir Darius Claversham. Together with her cousin and her friend, Lucia works hard to make a success of her Grand Plan but in the end, the results are very different from what she had envisaged! "…Melinda Hammond writes a heart-warming, Austen-ish style historical romance…" (Romance Reader at Heart, Thoughts & Ponderings)

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 10, 2019

About the author

I write under the names of Melinda Hammond and Sarah Mallory.

I have been telling stories for as long as I can remember - many of them born of frustration when I was stuck in a classroom longing to be rescued! I love anything romantic, whether it is a grand opera or a beautiful painting. It doesn't necessarily have to be happy, as long as it is inspiring.

I was born in Bristol and grew up on Barton Hill, an area of small terraced houses built in the nineteenth century between the mills and the railway. I think my love of adventure stories is due to the fact that I grew up with three older brothers and lived in a street full of boys! My love of history and the English language was fostered at grammar school, where I soon discovered the delights of Georgian and Regency fiction, first of all with the works of Jane Austen and then Georgette Heyer.

I left school at sixteen to work in companies as varied as stockbrokers, marine engineers, biscuit manufacturers and even a quarrying company, but I never lost my love of history, and when I wasn't reading and researching the Georgian and Regency period I was writing stories about it.

When I was at home with my first child, I decided to try my hand at writing seriously, and my first historical novel, Fortune's Lady, was published by Robert Hale in 1980. I have now published more than twenty novels, over a dozen of them as Melinda Hammond, winning the Reviewers Choice award in 2005 from Singletitles.com for Dance for a Diamond and the Historical Novel Society's Editors Choice in 2006 for Gentlemen in Question. Writing as Sarah Mallory for Harlequin Mills & Boon, The Earl's Runaway Bride won a coveted CataNetwork Reviewers Choice award for 2010 and the RNA's RoNA Rose Award in 2012 and 2013.

For many years I lived in an old farmhouse on the edge of the Pennines in West Yorkshire, literally a stone's throw from open moorland. Now I live by the sea in the wild Highlands of Scotland. I love walking to think up my latest plot, or just to clear my head ready for another session of writing.

Reviews

[GG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable regency. Lucia, Grace, and Miss Morrison's friendship made the story. Sir Darius not so much. Even so there were HEAs to go around. Even one for her cantankerous aunt.

[Isabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in German, somewhat puzzled at some of the plot twists.