Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Shana Galen to HJ!
Hi Shana and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord!
I’m excited to be here!
Please summarize the book for the readers here:
The book is a Regency romance about two people from vastly different worlds who realize they have much more than they realized in common. One character is from the prestigious Kildare family. It’s a close-knit family of 4 boys and one sister whose father is an Irish earl. The family is in dire financial straits, and the brothers want to prevent the marriage of their little sister to an ancient duke, so they make a wager as to who can marry an heiress first. A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord focuses on the second brother, Garret. Garret is pretty outgoing, and he thinks he can easily woo an heiress. That’s until he meets Tamsin Archer. She’s dressed in servants’ livery and climbing out the window of a ball. Her pockets are stuffed full of items she’s stolen. Garret is taken by her, and she’s into him too, but they are of two wildly different classes. It cannot work between them. Or can it?
Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:
His hands seemed to burn into her flesh through the layers of livery she wore. She was in his arms— sort of— and she knew this would never happen again.
She did the one thing she’d been wanting to do for two years.
She leaned close to him and kissed him.
Please share a few Fun facts about this book…
Some of my influences for this book were the song “Close to You” by Gracie Abrams. At the start of the book, Tamsin has been in love with Garret for years, but he doesn’t even know she exists. That Gracie Abrams song really taps into the yearning and longing I imagined Tamsin was feeling. I was also influenced by research I did on automatons, especially a very cool video of an automaton that can write poetry in French.
What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?
For Tamsin, the attraction to Garret is his kindness. He’s handsome, but he’s generous and sees her as a person, not just one of the poor masses. For Garret, he likes Tamsin’s strength and cleverness. She’s constantly surprising him with her bravery and ingenuity.
Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?
He needed to touch her more than he’d ever needed anything in his entire life. “It’s a really
bad idea,” he said, his voice low.
“Because I’m dressed like your groom?”
“Because if I kiss you now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.”
“I won’t want you to,” she whispered and closed the space between them. Her hand went to his neck, and her lips claimed his in a kiss he should have expected but found himself wholly unprepared for. She was no meek lady he kissed in an alcove at a ball. This was a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to take it.
Readers should read this book….
if they enjoy romances with class differences like the latest season of Bridgerton, the series The Artful Dodger, or movies like Pretty in Pink!
What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?
I’m currently working on a book set in the same world as The Heiress Hunters but featuring a BAD GUY, a criminal underlord named the Baron of Blackfriars. The book is titled Bride of Blackfriars and should be out in early 2027.
Thanks for blogging at HJ!
Giveaway: one finished copy of A SHOP GIRL’S GUIDE TO WOOING A LORD, open to US only
To enter Giveaway, please share this post on your Socials and Leave a comment below to this Q: Who’s your favorite couple from different social classes?.
🎉 Giveaway Rules 🎉 ✨ Must be 18 years or older to enter. ✨ MUST leave a comment answering the giveaway question. ✨ Bonus Entry:Share this post on your social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and drop a comment below letting me know you've shared it. ✨ Winner(s) will be selected at random. ✨ No purchase necessary—just enter and cross your fingers! ✨ If you win, I'll need your full name and mailing address to send your prize. This information will be shared with the author, publisher, or publicist solely for prize fulfillment purposes. ✨ Giveaway closes 3 days from the date this post is published.
Excerpt from A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord:
Garret lunged forward, catching the thief right before she fell to the cobblestones. She was far too light, and if he hadn’t spoken to her and seen her face, he might think she was little more than a child.
“Miss?” he said, looking into her face now. Her skin was pale, and her eyes closed. Garret scooped her up, lifting her easily. He turned back to the pawnshop, but the owner— a big man named
John— shook his head.
“Oh no, sir. I don’t want trouble.”
“Then open the damn door before I kick it in.”
The woman in his arms was limp and cold. Garret wasn’t about to argue with the pawnbroker. He’d been singularly unhelpful, refusing to answer Garret’s questions, and now he was refusing to help an unconscious woman.
“Take ’er to the coffee shop,” the pawnbroker said.
“I’ll take you to the magistrate.” The threat worked, and the pawnbroker swung the door open, allowing Garret to carry the chit inside.
“On yer way now!” the broker told the people who had begun to gather. “Ye’ll ’urt yer neck if ye stretch it further.”
Garret carried the woman to a table in the center of the shop, which was cool and dark. With a sweep of his arm, he cleared the bric- a- brac and laid her on the smooth wood.
“Oi! Ye’ll pay for that!” the pawnbroker said, closing the door and coming into the room. Garret ignored him. The woman’s white cap had come off her head, and her dark hair spilled over the
edge of the table. She wore a drab brown dress with a clean white apron over it.
“Bring me a lamp,” Garret ordered.
“Ye think I ’ave oil to waste? She’ll be fine.” The pawnbroker stomped to the side of the table and peered down at her. “Piece of bread and a cuppa tea, and she’ll be right as rain.”
“Fetch it then.”
The pawnbroker began complaining about orders and coins, but Garret waved him away and put a hand to the woman’s forehead. Her skin was cool to the touch, but her eyes fluttered. “Do
you know her?” he asked, interrupting the man’s ongoing complaints. The broker hesitated a moment too long, and Garret glanced up at him. “Of course you do. You lied earlier when I
asked about her. What is her name?”
“I don’t want trouble. Ye can ’ave the earbob and the comb.”
Garret raised his brows. “So you do have the stolen items? I don’t want them. I want her name.”
The pawnbroker looked down at the unconscious woman. “She’ll ’ave my ’ead if I tell ye.”
Garret looked from the broker to the woman. She was at least a foot shorter than the merchant and twelve stone lighter. “I’ll have your head if you don’t.”
The big man sighed. “Tamsin Archer. She works for Mr. Brown.”
Garret raised a brow in question. The broker jerked his head in the direction of the lane. “Brown’s Coffee Shop.”
“If she works at a coffee shop, why is she half- starved?”
The man put his hand up protectively. “Ye’ll ’ave to ask ’er.”
“Fetch me tea and toast,” Garret said, extracting a few coins from his pocket to stave off the man’s protests. The broker took them and disappeared into the back room. A moment later Garret heard a door slam. “Tamsin Archer,” he murmured to himself. “You stole what
must be for you a small fortune last night, and yet, you’re so famished you fainted. Either that or the sight of me frightened you into collapse.” Garret shook his head. He didn’t believe for a moment the woman who had brazenly kissed him last night would faint at
the sight of him. He spotted a fan among the pile of items he’d dislodged from the table and scooped it up. Snapping the fan open, Garret began to waft air over her. Wisps of brown hair fluttered at her temples and her eyelids blinked.
“Tamsin,” Garret said. “Open your eyes.”
She made a sound somewhere between a moan and a sigh. Her eyes fluttered open then closed again.
“Wake up now, Miss Archer,” he said, still fanning her.
This time her eyes opened. Her pupils were so large he could barely make out the blue of her irises. Her gaze was unfocused until she turned her head and looked at him. Then she gave him the most beatific smile he’d ever seen. He almost drew back from the sheer magnitude of that smile.
“You,” she whispered.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Book Info:
A down-on-her-luck shop girl and the son of an earl find they have more in common than they thought—including sexual chemistry they can’t resist—in this fresh Regency romance by Shana Galen.
Tamsin Archer might just be having the worst year of her life. And that’s saying something, considering her father is dead, her mother was maimed at work, and her family regularly sleeps under London’s bridges. But when her younger siblings go missing, Tamsin decides it’s time to step up and fight.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Tamsin’s more than willing to take a few risks to reunite with her siblings. But while disguising herself to sneak into homes and steal from the rich, Tamsin is caught by Garret Kildaire, the second son of an earl. Much to Tamsin’s surprise, Garret doesn’t want to turn her in. He wants to help her. Though Tamsin’s wary—she’s learned to never trust supposed “good luck”—the unlikely pair form an alliance, one that quickly muddles their class differences.
Garret knows he must be careful. Falling for a woman of a lower class could be the nail in the coffin for his family’s tenuous social standing, and there are eyes everywhere. Ignoring their attraction proves impossible, though, and soon the lines they’ve drawn around their partnership begin to blur. As more focus lands on Tamsin and Garret, they wonder if their red-hot connection means giving up everything—and everyone—they’ve ever known.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
Meet the Author:
Shana Galen is an award-winning writer and bestselling author of over fifty historical romances. Kirkus said of her books: “The road to happily-ever-after is intense, conflicted, suspenseful and fun.” RT Bookreviews described her writing as “lighthearted yet poignant, humorous yet touching.” Shana taught middle and high school English in Houston’s inner city for more than a decade. She is also dedicated to animal rescue and advocacy. She writes full time, surrounded by four rescued cats and one spoiled rescue dog. She’s happily married and has a daughter who is most definitely a romance heroine in the making.
Website | Facebook Instagram | GoodReads |
Please leave a comment