Spotlight & Giveaway: A Lady Would Know Better by Emma Theriault

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Emma Theriault to HJ!

Hi Emma and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Lady Would Know Better!

 
Hello! Thank you so much for having me!
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

A Lady Would Know Better is a slow burn Victorian romance about a stern earl and the beguiling amnesiac he finds on his land and reluctantly allows to recover in his wintry estate (thanks to some goading by his sisters). The woman’s identity might be a mystery, but one thing is certain: he needs her as much as she needs him, even if he doesn’t know it yet.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Surrey, December 1877

“Jasper, are you ready?”
His eyes lifted from the tired correspondence without much reluctance. “I rarely am,” he replied to his sister, who stood framed in the doorway to his father’s study.
Jasper’s study this past year, now that he was the Earl of Belhaven.
Hell of a position for a second son to end up in.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• A Lady Would Know Better was inspired by my love of romance series that follow a set of siblings, like Bridgerton or the Ravenels.
• I started to write it while debuting my first novel (a YA fantasy) in 2020. I was feeling terribly isolated and turned to historical romances for comfort. After reading about 75 in a row, I decided to try writing one of my own.
• The works of Jane Austen feature prominently in the novel. My FMC “Jane” chooses her name because she can recall her love of Pride and Prejudice even when her past is inaccessible to her.
• Keen-eyed readers will be able to spot the romantic pairings for books two and three while reading it.
• I couldn’t help but include a lovably menacing kitten named Mr. Darcy (see fun fact #3)

What first attracts your main characters to each other?

Jasper’s life is nothing but grim duty. He lost his parents and his fiancée a year before, and so he has sworn off love entirely in order to keep what remains of his family going. Jane is terribly unmoored. She recalls nothing from her life before her accident and fears she may have been running from something too terrible to face. They are at odds in the beginning, but as their walls come down, Jasper is drawn to Jane’s warmth and cleverness and her unique ability to pull his family out of their grief. For her part, Jane is pulled in by Jasper’s steadiness and the belief that underneath all of his sternness lies a most attentive and passionate man, one she would very much like to meet.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe your main characters”love affair?

Swoony, forbidden, simmering, secret, healing.
 

The First Kiss…

takes place in a library! Shout out to all of my Atonement library scene fans, this one is for you.
 

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

In a classic case of romance novel miscommunication, Jane overhears Jasper saying some unkind things about her (that he didn’t mean, I’d explain but you should probably just read the book) and very rationally decides to flee into a coming storm. Jasper goes after her as the storm picks up in earnest, and they are forced into a confrontation that shifts very quickly into something warmer.

Jane’s breath hitched in her chest. They stood improperly close now, but neither of them withdrew. Rather, her eyes seemed to feast upon him, grazing over the contours of his jaw, his throat, his shoulders. For once, he didn’t smother the heat that was building inside him. For once, he let himself feel it, let Jane feel it. He banished his doubt, his guilt, his regret. Damn the consequences. They were two people standing in the heart of a storm. What could possibly reach them there?

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

Crucial to the story is Jane, who has just awoken in an unfamiliar place without any memories to ground her, choosing a name for herself. Jasper is eager to discover her real identity and send her on her way so he can go back to brooding in peace, but Jane has little to offer him in terms of clues. This is the first crackling of heat between them, eventually it grows into an inferno.

“My lady,” he began, causing her to wince. He paused, waiting for an explanation.
“I need a name,” she said at last, her frustration evident in her tone. “I need to start thinking of myself as someone.”
“Well what do you suggest we call you? Since I don’t imagine you’re very close to simply remembering who you are, despite how much trouble that may save us.”
“Call me whatever you like, my lord,” she replied through gritted teeth. “I have no preference.”
Jasper was sure the honorific had never sounded quite so insulting, giving him leave to match her enmity. “What about ‘Patience,’ then, since you seem to have it in droves.”
Her cheeks reddened. “I find I have some preference, my lord.”

Readers should read this book …

If they love classic tropes with a modern twist, grumpy x sunshine pairings, slow burns and found families. If you’ll allow me to borrow from my Publishers Weekly review: “Lovers of historical romance won’t want to put this one down.”

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

The sequel to A Lady Would Know Better is almost complete, and I am so excited for readers to discover the next love story in the Annabelle House series! The main characters are the duo early readers have asked me about most, so I can’t wait to reveal them!

I also have another series (not historical romance) I’m not allowed to talk about yet, but I can’t wait to share more soon!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: So happy to offer a giveaway copy of A LADY WOULD KNOW BETTER by Emma Theriault for readers of HJ!

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Despite her amnesia, Jane remembers things like Pride & Prejudice and how to dance a competent polka. Is there anything so imprinted upon you that you would remember it even if you forgot your own name?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Excerpt from A Lady Would Know Better:

He made it to the door before she spoke.
“My lord?” Her voice was small but not coy.
Against his better judgement, he paused at the threshold. “Yes?”
“Thank you for—” she stopped, apparently not quite willing to admit that he had carried her through the corridors of Mulgrave Hall. “Just… thank you.”
There was his pesky need to put her at ease. “It’s nothing I haven’t done for you before.” As soon as he said it, he knew it was a mistake.
Jane picked up on his meaning at once. “You’re the one who found me out in the storm?”
“I was out with Helena and Isobel. We came upon you in the road, yes.”
“I had assumed…” He could hardly see in the dark, but he knew she stood, as if electrified by his admission. “I had assumed a footman found me. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask otherwise.”
Jasper did his best not to stare as she walked across the room, stepping into the slivers of pale moonlight that shone in through the window, the light illuminating her for a few brief seconds, long enough to torment him.
He cleared his throat as she neared. “Yes, well. I apologize for not telling you sooner.”
She shook her head, indicating it didn’t matter. “Did I say anything to you?”
It struck him that deep down, she seemed to know that she had. And then the memory of her covered in blood, begging him to protect her, filled his mind. He blinked it away, dragging himself back to the present, and weighed his options. He could tell her the truth, and add another layer of mystery to the story of Jane. Or he could preserve what little progress she had made. Would it even help to know she had been in some sort of danger? If Jane’s memories were ever restored and she needed their aid, they would surely do everything they could. But for now it was safer for everyone that she be allowed to regain them at her own pace.
“No,” he said, swallowing his guilt. “You were unconscious the whole time.”
She nodded, tucking away the falsehood he had given her. Eventually, she offered him a small smile. “Thank you for telling me.”
He couldn’t speak lest he fall apart completely, undone by Jane’s trust in him, trust he did not deserve. She didn’t seem to notice the turmoil he was in.
“I’m so very sorry about your parents and your brother.”
The words wrapped around him, warm and comforting. Normally he would turn away from someone’s pity, but he knew Jane was not offering something so hollow as that. Jasper’s grief had been an intensely private thing, causing him to turn inward. Jane’s words made no attempt to pull him out of it. They were words of understanding, coming from somewhere deep within her. “Thank you,” was all he could say.
“For what it’s worth, I consider myself very lucky to have been found by you and your sisters.”
“Why’s that?” His voice was a rasp. Did she notice? It seemed impossible for her to miss it, not when she seemed to catch everything else.
She looked up at him through dark lashes. “As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s a cruel world we live in. I could have been found by highwaymen or worse. Instead, I was found by the Maycotts.” She paused, tilting her head as she tried to decipher him. “What I’m saying is you’ve done a good job holding your family together, my lord.”
“Jasper,” he corrected without thinking.
“What?” Even the hall candlelight couldn’t disguise her blush, and nothing could have prevented him from noticing how it spread to her chest, sinking below her neckline. The sight of it set his own skin aflame.
To hell with it. “Call me Jasper.”
“Jasper,” she echoed, his name sounding like an incantation on her lips. “You know, a couple more rescues on your part and my debt to you will be impossible to repay.”
There was a coyness in her voice this time, a slight teasing to suggest her words were meant in jest, but it did nothing to smother the uncomfortable awareness that flared to life in Jasper’s chest, the one that told him there was no debt between them, and that he would have gladly ruined himself completely if it meant saving her.
He took the coward’s route once more, and fled.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Get ready to swoon for this dreamy, forget-me-not romance that’s filled with the delightful tartness of Jane Austen and the sweeping, unputdownable drama of Bridgerton.

There are many things an English lord might encounter on the grounds of his wintry estate. Trees. Birds. Perhaps a wandering gamekeeper. Instead, the Earl of Belhaven finds a woman in the snow, unconscious and nearly frozen to death. Then her luminous gray eyes open just long enough for her to plead, “Don’t let them get me.”

Now Jasper Maycott has his hands full with a woman who has absolutely no memory of who she is or where she came from―to say nothing of her name! Just a gold ring, some fine clothes, and a penchant for pert conversation. But while “Jane” dresses and speaks quite like a lady, Jasper can’t make any assumptions. After all, she could be a crafty fortune hunter…albeit a charming and unutterably beautiful one.

Only there’s no room for romantic love in the Earl of Belhaven’s world. There is just grim duty, a lingering sense of loss, and the knowledge that love―in any form―can only bring heartbreak in its wake.

But while a lady should know better, the heart heeds no rules…even if its every beat portends the danger she was running from.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Emma Theriault was born and raised in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, and thus has a penchant for Gothic Revival architecture and a constant craving for Beavertails. She has been everything from an enthusiastic bookseller (who once sold a book to Prime Minister Trudeau) to a purveyor of whitewater rafting adventures in the Interior of British Columbia. She uses both her incomplete history degree and insatiable sense of curiosity to help her write stories for readers of all ages, including her debut novel, Rebel Rose, which was a Canadian Children’s Book Centre starred selection for Best Books for Kids and Teens. When not writing about curses, true love, or the curse of true love, she can be found on adventures big and small with her partner, or cuddling with her cats, Gatsby and Harriet.
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