Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Spotlight & Giveaway: The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn



Releasing Tuesday, January 27th!


I'm excited to bring you a little excerpt from Julia Quinn's final novel in the Smythe-Smith Quartet! Read on to see how Richard is so nervous he continuously sticks his foot in his mouth! Its quite enduring! Follow the tour here to find the first two chapters! Be sure to join the giveaway to win a print bundle of the whole quartet! 




Sir Richard Kenworthy has less than a month to find a bride. He knows he can’t be too picky, but when he sees Iris Smythe-Smith hiding behind her cello at her family’s infamous musicale, he thinks he might have struck gold. She’s the type of girl you don’t notice until the second-or third-look, but there’s something about her, something simmering under the surface, and he knows she’s the one.

Iris Smythe-Smith is used to being underestimated. With her pale hair and quiet, sly wit she tends to blend into the background, and she likes it that way. So when Richard Kenworthy demands an introduction, she is suspicious. He flirts, he charms, he gives every impression of a man falling in love, but she can’t quite believe it’s all true. And when his proposal of marriage turns into a compromising position that forces the issue, she can’t help thinking that he’s hiding something...even as her heart tells her to say yes.





“She sent me in her stead,” Winston went on. “She said it would not do for our family to be unrepresented this year.” He glanced over at Richard. “She was most firm about it.”
“Please do offer her my gratitude,” Miss Smythe-Smith said. “If you’ll excuse me, though, I must—”
“May I ask you a question?” Richard interrupted.
She froze, having already begun to twist toward the door. She looked at him with some surprise. So did Winston.
“Of course you may,” she murmured, her eyes not nearly as placid as her tone. She was a gently bred young lady and he a baronet. She could offer no other response, and they both knew it.
“How long have you played the cello?” he blurted out. It was the first question that came to mind, and it was only after it had left his lips that he realized it was rather rude. She knew the quartet was terrible, and she knew that he must feel the same way. To inquire about her training was nothing but cruel. But he’d been under pressure. He couldn’t let her leave. Not without some conversation, at least.
“I—” She stammered for a moment, and Richard felt himself floundering inside. He hadn’t meant to—Oh, bloody hell.
“It was a lovely performance,” Winston said, looking as if he’d like to kick him.
Richard spoke quickly, eager to rehabilitate himself in her eyes. “What I meant was that you seemed somewhat more proficient than your cousins.”
She blinked several times. Bloody hell, now he’d gone and insulted her cousins, but he supposed better them than her.
He plowed on. “I was seated near to your side of the room, and occasionally I could hear the cello apart from the other instruments.”
“I see,” she said slowly, and perhaps somewhat warily. She did not know what to make of his interest, that much was clear.
“You’re quite skilled,” he said.
Winston looked at him in disbelief. Richard could well imagine why. It hadn’t been easy to discern the notes of the cello through the din, and to the untrained ear, Iris must have seemed just as dreadful as the rest. For Richard to say otherwise must seem the worst sort of false flattery.


JULIA QUINN started writing her first book one month after finishing college and has been tapping away at her keyboard ever since. The New York Times bestselling author of twenty-four novels for Avon Books, she is a graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and is one of only fifteen authors ever to be inducted in the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

                                 

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