Spotlight & Giveaway: Blame it on the Earl by Jane Ashford

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Jane Ashford to HJ!

Hi Jane and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Blame it on the Earl!

 
Hello to HJ readers!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Two strangers marry to avert a scandal, though his parents fight to thwart them. Sarah Moran’s attempt to save Kenver Pendrennon—the heir of an earl—as he slips off the Cornwall cliffs sends them into each other’s arms and into a seacave overnight. Now, marriage may be the only option to keep a scandal at bay. But what started as a terrible mistake may be exactly what both of them needs…

As they fall deeply in love, a young man must come into his own authority and a young woman learn her own worth.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“You are a hero,” Sarah said as she and Kenver returned to their suite later that morning.
“Only because I was inspired by you,” he replied. “No wonder all those knights of old tried so hard in their jousts and on their quests. They wanted to demonstrate their love for the fair maidens.”
“I don’t want to be just a spectator waving the hero on.”
“You shall be whatever you wish, my dearest love.”
“No,” Sarah replied sadly.
“Why not? I will see to it.”
“You can’t.”
“You don’t know what I can do.” He gestured grandly.
“But I would really like to be a mighty sorceress with a host of arcane powers.”
Kenver laughed and pulled her into his arms.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The working title was — Once and Future Fling.
• The hero has to go shopping for a chamberpot.
• The couple’s first house has a resident hermit.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

They are drawn together by the way each of them responds to a perilous experience — with kindness, good sense, good humor, and imagination. As well as by a sizzling attraction, of course.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

The character Merlin often made me smile.

“Where do you come from?” asked the duchess. “Who is your family?”
“I am Merlin from the hollow hills,” he answered, gesturing at the cliff behind the house. “I sprang from the realm of faery, and I rule this place.”
The duke sighed. Sarah again noted the change in the man’s accent.
“We’ve brought a picnic,” Cecelia said. “Would you like a cup of tea?”
“You’ve got tea?”
“Yes. And cakes.”
Merlin’s eyes lit. Sarah revised her idea of his age downward.

Readers should read this book….

For a welcome break and a sweet, tender love story.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I am writing book five in the Duke’s Estates series — The Duke’s Best Friend. It involves Henry, the brother of one of the previous heroines, and a vastly irritating young lady he met in book 4, A Gentleman Ought to Know (March 2023).
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of Blame it on the Earl by Jane Ashford

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Excerpt from Blame it on the Earl:

Sarah opened one of the portmanteaus. Her nightclothes were there, with her hairbrush and other necessities. She went to the other trunk and pulled out the bedsheets she had stolen from Poldene. Each member of their new household had been told to bring their own linens. She suspected that Elys had provided more than one set from the Poldene stores. She carried hers to the bed, a rather grand four-poster that had been stored in pieces in the cellar.
They had piled her luggage and Kenver’s all together in this bedchamber. No one had asked for direction. They had simply assumed they would share the room.
Sarah’s heart beat faster. They weren’t precisely alone here at Tresigan, but at least they would face no disapproving glares. Well, except for Merlin’s, but that wasn’t personal. Any expectations, any rules, would be their own. She started to spread the linens over the bed.
“You don’t need to do that,” said Kenver’s voice behind her. “I will call Gwen.”
Sarah started and turned. “I want to.” When he looked uncertain, she added, “Small tasks help make a place one’s own.”
“I don’t like to see you doing menial work.”
“I don’t consider the bed menial.” Hearing her own words, Sarah blushed.
He stepped closer. “Shall I help you?”
Very conscious of his nearness, Sarah grew even warmer. “If you like.”
He took hold of the other side of the sheet, and they pulled it over the feather mattress together. Sarah smoothed it. He mimicked her. It was a curiously intimate movement.
“You tuck in the corners like this.” Sarah demonstrated a crisp fold.
He tried it, fumbled, then got it right. “That’s clever.”
“You’ve never done this before?”
“No, have you?”
Sarah nodded. “At school. We had to keep our rooms tidy.”
“Ah.”
He hadn’t gone to school, Sarah remembered. He’d never lived anywhere but Poldene, where he’d been waited on hand and foot. And remained firmly under his mother’s eye.
“It must have been grim if you had to make beds,” he said.
“Oh no. It was the happiest time of my life.” Meeting Kenver’s gaze, Sarah realized that this had not been the most tactful thing to say. “Till now,” she added. She turned back to the trunk and extracted two pillows.
“I forgot to pack any linens,” Kenver said, his voice constrained. “In the…flurry of departure I left them behind.”
Flurry or fury, Sarah thought. It was no wonder bedsheets had slipped his mind. “I didn’t bring a coverlet,” she answered, just noticing this. “I hope it won’t be cold.”
“Perhaps I could keep you warm,” he said.
Sarah turned. He looked as if he was uncertain of her answer.
“Of course I know you may need time to…”
“So much time has been taken from us already,” Sarah interrupted. She held out a hand.
He moved around the bed and took it.
It was odd to be shy when they had been married for weeks. She knew him better, but there was still much unresolved between them. She was longing for his touch. Sarah decided to throw caution to the winds. What was she thinking? She’d tossed any shred of caution to the tempest long since.
But he dropped her hand and moved away.
“Of course there is no lock on this door.” Kenver tugged at one of the trunks, pulling it in front of the closed panels. “I’ve had enough interruptions. Far more than enough! It we don’t stop him, we’ll have Merlin coming up to inquire whether we have noticed the extraordinary size of his radishes.”
Sarah choked on a laugh. “He promised he wouldn’t intrude upstairs.”
“I don’t think he actually understands that concept. Nor Jowan either.”
“We will have to teach him. Jowan, I mean. Merlin is…”
“Intractable. And I don’t wish to talk about him right now.” He straightened and came back to her, stopping so close it seemed she could feel the heat of his skin.
“What do you wish to talk about?” Sarah murmured.
“Nothing! That is, I don’t wish to talk.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Sarah.”
She heard yearning in his voice. She could not be mistaken. She reached up and laced her arms around his neck. Their lips met in a searing kiss.
He pulled her tight against him as the kiss went on and on.
Desire blazed through Sarah, all the more urgent for having been thwarted so long. She arched up to meet him.
His hands roamed her body. She felt they ought to give off sparks, they were so enflaming.
No knock came, no nagging voice intervened to pull them apart. There was only the slight clumsiness of unfastening their clothes, and then they fell onto the sheets they had smoothed together.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Jane Ashford brings you on a romp through the English countryside in her newest Regency romance perfect for readers of Mary Balogh, Ella Quinn, and fans of Bridgerton.

Sarah Moran’s attempt to save the future earl Kenver Pendrennon as he slips off the Cornwall cliffs plunges them both into scandal. Now, marriage may be the only option to save their reputations. But what started as a terrible mistake may be exactly what they need most…
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Meet the Author:

Jane Ashford discovered Georgette Heyer in junior high school and was captivated by the glittering world and witty language of Regency England. That delight was part of what led her to study English literature and travel widely. Her books have been published all over Europe as well as in the United States. Jane was nominated for a Career Achievement Award by RT Book Reviews. Born in Ohio, she is now somewhat nomadic. Find her on the web at janeashford.com and on Facebook at facebook.com/janeashfordwriter, where you can sign up for her monthly newsletter.
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