COMPROMISING
MISS TISDALE
By
Jessica Jefferson
BLURB:
Ambrosia
Tisdale is the very picture of propriety and the epitome of what a respectable
young lady should be. Haunted by a memory and compelled by her family, she
pursues perfection to a fault.
The
Earl of Bristol, Duncan Maddox, has returned to London after years of familial
imposed exile. As the second son, he has led a life filled with frivolity,
leisure, and a healthy dose of debauchery. Now his older brother has died,
leaving the family’s flailing legacy in Duncan’s unwilling arms.
At
the behest of his uncle, Duncan is advised to do the one thing that could
provide instant fortune and respectability – he must marry. But there is only
one prospect who meets the unique requirements to solve all the Earl’s problems
– the lovely Miss Ambrosia Tisdale. But securing the prudent daughter of a
Viscount’s hand proves to be more challenging than this scandal ridden second
son of an Earl has bargained for.
With
scandal, extortion, treachery, and even love itself threatening to keep him
from his goal, will Duncan succeed in compromising Miss Tisdale?
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EXCERPT
4:
He
stepped forward, a twig snapping under the force of his right boot.
She startled and turned.
She
had been crying. Even in the shadows he
could see that her eyes were red and face blotchy from the trails of
tears. For once, Miss Tisdale did not
look her best, and in that imperfection he found her to be the most enticing
she had ever been.
Duncan
fell into her eyes, endless pools framed with wet clumps of black lashes that
drew him towards her. And then her lips,
already full, now swollen from her sobbing, parted slightly.
He
was lost. God help him, he was no longer
intoxicated by brandy alone, but rather the beauty of one woman.
Duncan
reached up and cupped her face in his hands.
Without any words or pretense, he simply swooped down and kissed
her. It wasn’t a gentle kiss, nor was it
rough. It was certain and decided. He kissed her ardently, holding her face and
savoring the salty taste of her tears still wet on her lips.
He
waited for it to stop, for her to slap him or push him away. But then she did something totally
unexpected. She grabbed his arms and
kissed him back. The action left him
disarmed and completely infatuated. This
was the woman from the library whom he had come to remember. And her kiss was not tentative as it once was
- but now firm and without trepidation.
WHAT
KIND OF WRITER AM I?
Great,
expert, conscientious? Gifted, talented,
impressive?
None
of those.
I’d
love to say I spend hours honing my craft, participating in workshops, and
developing my technique with the help of studying greater literary works and
reading writer development books.
But
I don’t. I did major in English for some
time, but now I’ve forgotten most everything I might have learned. Back in my college days I wasn’t much on
committing anything to memory. And I
have the grades to prove it.
So,
what kind of writer does that make me?
An
honest one. I write from the heart and
don’t try to improve my writing by utilizing a standard regimen of literary
boosting devices – like alliteration for the sake of using alliteration. I don’t use the synonym feature on Word to
take my small words and make them more pretentious. I write what I think is funny, and I hope
readers find it funny too.
I
don’t try and make the reader work too hard.
I like to think I write a solid story with conversational dialogue that
most readers can follow without the use of a thesaurus. I write about heroes that are fallible. I
write about heroines with faults. I
believe these imperfections are the qualities that most readers can relate to.
I
want readers to read my work and be entertained. My books should be a romantic escape from the
everyday, but with roots firmly anchoring certain aspects of my story to
reality.
So,
what can of writer am I?
Entertaining,
diversionary, and frivolous.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION:
Jessica
Jefferson makes her home in northern Indiana, or as she likes to think of it –
almost Chicago. Jessica originally
attended college in hopes of achieving an English degree and writing the next
great American novel. Ten years later
she was working as a registered nurse and reading historical romance when she
decided to give writing another go-round.
Jessica
writes likes she speaks, which has a tendency to be fast paced and
humorous. Jessica is heavily inspired by
sweeping, historical romance novels, but aims to take those key emotional
elements and inject a fresh blend of quick dialogue and comedy to transport the
reader into a story they miss long after the last page is read. She invites you to visit her at
jessicajefferson.com and read her random romance musings.
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