Hello everybody, it’s a great pleasure to be here today, and thank you to Beverley for inviting me. Many congratulations to The Season on the upcoming second anniversary!
I’m here today to talk about NOTORIOUS, the fourth book in my Scandalous Women on the Ton series. All the books in the Scandalous Women series are linked, both by the characters and by the theme of Regency women doing unusual and sometimes outrageous things.
I loved exploring the idea of what would outrage Regency society. Because women’s lives were considerably more circumscribed than in the modern world I took as my inspiration those exceptional ladies who travelled or set up their own businesses or became involved in the politics of the day in order to improve the lives of women or to help the poor. Once I started to research the topic I found many unusual, strong and determined women who had done amazing things. Then there were scandalous romantic entanglements to draw on as well; elopements, affairs, divorce and in NOTORIOUS, annulment. The two different threads of scandal come together in each book.
Both annulment and divorce were expensive and difficult to achieve in Regency society, which is why it took several years and an act of parliament for Lottie’s husband to divorce her in book 2 of the series, ONE WICKED SIN. In NOTORIOUS, Susanna and Dev are married in Scotland where the marriage laws were different from England and annulment was called “nullity of marriage.” Grounds for annulment in Scotland included the famous one of impotence, but also that one person was already married, that either or both partners were under sixteen years of age, that they were too closely related, that the marriage was not registered properly or that they did not freely consent or believe the marriage valid. There was plenty of potential there for complications!
Dev, the hero of NOTORIOUS, first made an appearance in Book 1 of the series, Whisper of Scandal, and I could not resist giving him his own story both because readers asked for it and because I love writing linked books and seeing how my characters change and develop. In WHISPER OF SCANDAL, Dev was young, successful, handsome, a rake and what my grandmother would have described as “cocky.” In fact he was asking for trouble and I was happy to provide it in the shape of Susanna, who is just the woman to take him down a few pegs. Susanna and Dev’s relationship is passionate, intense and not always comfortable, but under Susanna’s influence Dev might just become the man he was meant to be…
I’ve got a signed copy of NOTORIOUS to give away so please comment for the chance to win!
Dangerously seductive and sinfully beautiful, Susanna Burney is society’s most sought after matchbreaker. Paid by wealthy parents to part unsuitable couples, she’s never yet failed to accomplish her mission of diverting a groom-to-be. Until her final assignment brings her face-to-face with the man who’d once taught her an intimate lesson in heartache….
Meets London’s most disreputable rake…
James Devlin has everything he’s always wanted: a title, a rich fiancée and a place in society. But the woman who’s just met his eyes across a crowded ballroom threatens it all. Not because she’d once claimed his heart, or that every sinuous swirl of her ball gown takes his breath away. But because the secrets she carries could cost him everything. To put the past to rest once and for all, Dev just might have to play Susanna at her own wicked game….
Let the seduction begin!
About the Author:
Nicola Cornick developed a passion for history at a young age through watching costume dramas and reading her way through her grandmother’s collection of historical fiction. She studied history at London and Oxford and in her spare time she works as a historian and guide in a stately home. She loves chatting with readers, writers and history fans on her blog at www.nicolacornick.co.uk/blog at www.facebook.com/nicola.cornick and on Twitter @NicolaCornick.
Nicola,
Have had such fun following your tour and discovering new blogs.
Best wishes for success of Notorious.
NOTORIOUS looks amazing, and the story line sounds interesting and fresh. Can’t wait to read
I love the idea of a matchbreaker, rather than a matchmaker. That’s a unique twist on a common theme. I’ll be looking out for this one.
Hi Nicola,
Congrats on the release of Notorious. I am looking forward to adding this series to my TRL.
I always enjoy reading your books. The Brides of Fortune were some of my favorite. Thank you for sharing today. Have enjoyed your tour for Notorious so far..
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
Hello! It’s lovely to be here today and thank you for the warm welcome. Liz, the blog tour has been such fun and I really appreciate you coming on it with me! Carol, thank you. I’m so pleased you enjoyed my Brides of Fortune Series. Jen and Sharon, I’m glad that the matchbreaker idea appeals to you – I thought it would be interesting to explore.
What an interesting idea to be a heart-breaker for a career!!
This story promises to be most entertaining and original. Would love to read it!
Thoroughly enjoyed the first three Scandalous books. I’ve got Notorious in ebook, but would love to have a book signed by you! I was debating keeping it until the next two in your Scandalous series are out, but now I’m seriously tempted to start it next.
I am looking forward to Notorious!! It should be a great read.
The “desolution” of marriage has fascinated me since hearing about my own
grandmother’s problems with it in the early 1900s. It seems no matter what it
was always the woman’s fault. Not so with my age group… “no fault divorce”
was wonderful for me and even with 2 young children took only 3 months
from beginning to end! (I divorced for the same reason my grandmother did
only a LOT of years between the two).
Good luck with Notorious! I’m sure it will be a hit… I know it will be one with me!!
I recently finished “One Wicked Sin” and loved your characters and the very original plot you created. Looking forward to reading “Notorious”. (BTW, the books in this series have been given the most beautiful covers!)
Notorious sounds interesating:)
Hi, Nicola!
You are one of my favorite authors and I try to get all your books. Notorious is a must have for me. I am looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the giveaway!
Congrats on the release of Notorious. It sounds like a great read.
Hi Kirsten, and thank you! I hope you will enjoy Notorious if you pick it up. Lynne, let yourself be tempted!
Betty, it’s interesting that even well into the 20th century divorce was so complicated and difficult. When my parents divorced in 1970 it was considered scandalous by the older generation and that left quite an impression on me as I was only five years old at the time. That was why when it came to books like One Wicked Sin and Notorious I didn’t want to make it seem easy for the couple to untie the knot.
I have enjoyed reading some of your other books. This one sounds rqually as good. Hope you are having a nice relaxing summer.
Susan Laura, I am so pleased you enjoyed One Wicked Sin. Thank you! I do think I have been very lucky with my gorgeous covers and the cover of book 5, DESIRED, is even more glorious IMO.
CEP, thank you so much! JCP and LUSReader I hope you enjoy Notorious and let me know what you think!
Thanks so much for dropping by, everyone!
As you can tell from my review here at The Season, I loved Notorious, All the best for it’s release Nicola! Your characters are always memorable~
A matchbreaker is a unique idea that I have never read before.
I have been hearing a lot of good things about his book and it on my to buy list. Love the concept of the story so I will have to have this one for sure.
A matchbreaker = brilliant! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Your new release looks like a wonderfully fun read and congratulations on getting it published. Thankyou for the chance to win a copy!
I so have this book in TBR pile,all I need is more time!!
Notorious sounds so good. I’m going to see if I can buy it for my kindle
This book sounds great. I’ve never read this author before, but I’d sure like to. Thanks for the giveaway!
Nicola –
I love your storeis and one of the things I look forward to when reading your books is for a favorite character to show up and finally to find out those nagging questions I had in previously “meeting” the character. When I read Whisper of Scandal I knew there had to be more to learn about Dev and I’m thrilled that Notorius is finally going to answer all the questions you left me with. I love how you seamlessly weave the characters so meeting them again is like running into an old friend that you’ve missed.
I was curious if there was any person in history or literature, male or female, that broke the rules or stuck an independent track that gave you the inspiration for Susanna becoming a matchbreaker?
I’ve enjoyed many of your books so I just know this one has to be a winner too and what a gorgeous cover!!
Hi Nicola. Great post. Notorious sounds wonderful.. I love the cover.
Thank you so much for all the lovely comments about Notorious (and thank you very much for the review, Karyn. I am thrilled that you enjoyed the book!) The matchbreaker idea was something that grabbed me when I thought of all the times wealthy parents must have been despairing over their offspring making unsuitable matches. I thought then how useful it would be for them to pay someone to come between an heiress and a fortune hunter, or a wealthy young nobleman and a penniless nobody.
Jeanne, great question! I’ve read about a number of independent women who broke society’s rules in real life but probably the two characters I thought of when imagining a woman becoming a matchbreaker were Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, who tried to steal her daughter’s beau, I believe, and Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair. I could imagine her setting up as a matchbreaker!
Notorious sounds awesome!
I want to read about this matchbreaker!
Sound like a fun plot! I’ve not read any of your books and I’d love to start! Hope I win.
Hi, Nicola, and welcome.
I have read so many things about Notorious and am very anxious to read it. Congratulations on your release.
I’m looking forward to reading Susanna and Dev’s story, it sounds fantastic.
A matchbreaker! That is a clever premise for a story, Nicola. I look forward to reading Notorious and Susanna and Dev’s story. Sounds like Dev has met his “match”!
I have always enjoyed Nicola’s books. This one should be no exception.
I care about many of the characters I read about and I also love seeing them evolve in a series. Even if former primary characters later on become secondary characters (or vice versa) in later books it’s a great way to catch up with them.
I love the cover for your book…the red dress is beautiful..I’m sure the story is equally as wonderful.
Hello, Nicola !! (waving madly!) Cannot WAIT to read your latest !!! I LOVE the concept of Notorious ! What were some of the most interesting cases you researched that lead you to writing this book?
Hi Nicola,
Your new book looks really good! And I love the cover, I love red! I really enjoyed reading your blog post 🙂
Hi Nicola I’m look forward to reading your new book
Sounds delicious. I have enjoyed your books and am waiting for this series to be complete before reading them. I am not a patient person when it comes to waiting for the next book in a series to come out. For me it is much more enjoyable to have the complete series on hand and be able to read it straight through. The characters and story arc are much richer that way.
I look forward to seeing what you will have in store for us next.
Hope the release of NOTORIOUS is a great success.
Hi everyone and thank you so much for all your comments and good wishes for Notorious. I am so excited about the release and so appreciative of all the support and encouragement. Louisa, lovely to see you here and thank you for your question. There was a really curious case I researched of a Yorkshire family in the 19th century where there was a note in the family archives recording a payment to a young man to “make him go away” or words to that effect. My imagination leaped into overdrive at that point as I knew the family had an heiress daughter and I could just imagine him trying to run off with her and the parents stepping in to pay him off! Fascinating.
Pat I was very interested to see that with series you wait until you have the set before reading all the way through. I’m not bad with delayed gratification but that shows real restraint!
The first three were great and I look forward to the rest of this series.
Hi Nicola,
Loved reading about your research and background for this series. And I have to say, the more I read about this series, the more I know I’m going to love reading it. I do have the first 3 books on my ever growing TBR heap. Don’t have Notorious yet….maybe I’ll get lucky here in your giveaway. LOL
While the cover of Notorious is beautiful, I think it is a little misleading about the time period of the book. Makes me think it is set more in the Georgian period rather than Regency. Wish TPTB over bookcovers would pay closer attention to those little details. Guess that’s why I like looking at a pretty cover but never judge a book by it’s cover either!
BTW, how many more books in this series are planned?
what a gorgeous cover, and i’m intrigued by the concept of a professional marriage breaker
I love following you in all your interviews and articles that you make available to your fans on facebook. This was a really nice one. Thanks!
Hello everybody, it’s a great pleasure to be here today, and thank you to Beverley for inviting me. Many congratulations to The Season on the upcoming second anniversary!
Nicola,
Have had such fun following your tour and discovering new blogs.
Best wishes for success of Notorious.
NOTORIOUS looks amazing, and the story line sounds interesting and fresh. Can’t wait to read
I love the idea of a matchbreaker, rather than a matchmaker. That’s a unique twist on a common theme. I’ll be looking out for this one.
Hi Nicola,
Congrats on the release of Notorious. I am looking forward to adding this series to my TRL.
I always enjoy reading your books. The Brides of Fortune were some of my favorite. Thank you for sharing today. Have enjoyed your tour for Notorious so far..
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
Hello! It’s lovely to be here today and thank you for the warm welcome. Liz, the blog tour has been such fun and I really appreciate you coming on it with me! Carol, thank you. I’m so pleased you enjoyed my Brides of Fortune Series. Jen and Sharon, I’m glad that the matchbreaker idea appeals to you – I thought it would be interesting to explore.
What an interesting idea to be a heart-breaker for a career!!
This story promises to be most entertaining and original. Would love to read it!
Thoroughly enjoyed the first three Scandalous books. I’ve got Notorious in ebook, but would love to have a book signed by you! I was debating keeping it until the next two in your Scandalous series are out, but now I’m seriously tempted to start it next.
I am looking forward to Notorious!! It should be a great read.
The “desolution” of marriage has fascinated me since hearing about my own
grandmother’s problems with it in the early 1900s. It seems no matter what it
was always the woman’s fault. Not so with my age group… “no fault divorce”
was wonderful for me and even with 2 young children took only 3 months
from beginning to end! (I divorced for the same reason my grandmother did
only a LOT of years between the two).
Good luck with Notorious! I’m sure it will be a hit… I know it will be one with me!!
I recently finished “One Wicked Sin” and loved your characters and the very original plot you created. Looking forward to reading “Notorious”. (BTW, the books in this series have been given the most beautiful covers!)
Notorious sounds interesating:)
Hi, Nicola!
You are one of my favorite authors and I try to get all your books. Notorious is a must have for me. I am looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the giveaway!
Congrats on the release of Notorious. It sounds like a great read.
Hi Kirsten, and thank you! I hope you will enjoy Notorious if you pick it up. Lynne, let yourself be tempted!
Betty, it’s interesting that even well into the 20th century divorce was so complicated and difficult. When my parents divorced in 1970 it was considered scandalous by the older generation and that left quite an impression on me as I was only five years old at the time. That was why when it came to books like One Wicked Sin and Notorious I didn’t want to make it seem easy for the couple to untie the knot.
I have enjoyed reading some of your other books. This one sounds rqually as good. Hope you are having a nice relaxing summer.
Susan Laura, I am so pleased you enjoyed One Wicked Sin. Thank you! I do think I have been very lucky with my gorgeous covers and the cover of book 5, DESIRED, is even more glorious IMO.
CEP, thank you so much! JCP and LUSReader I hope you enjoy Notorious and let me know what you think!
Thanks so much for dropping by, everyone!
As you can tell from my review here at The Season, I loved Notorious, All the best for it’s release Nicola! Your characters are always memorable~
A matchbreaker is a unique idea that I have never read before.
I have been hearing a lot of good things about his book and it on my to buy list. Love the concept of the story so I will have to have this one for sure.
A matchbreaker = brilliant! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Your new release looks like a wonderfully fun read and congratulations on getting it published. Thankyou for the chance to win a copy!
I so have this book in TBR pile,all I need is more time!!
Notorious sounds so good. I’m going to see if I can buy it for my kindle
This book sounds great. I’ve never read this author before, but I’d sure like to. Thanks for the giveaway!
Nicola –
I love your storeis and one of the things I look forward to when reading your books is for a favorite character to show up and finally to find out those nagging questions I had in previously “meeting” the character. When I read Whisper of Scandal I knew there had to be more to learn about Dev and I’m thrilled that Notorius is finally going to answer all the questions you left me with. I love how you seamlessly weave the characters so meeting them again is like running into an old friend that you’ve missed.
I was curious if there was any person in history or literature, male or female, that broke the rules or stuck an independent track that gave you the inspiration for Susanna becoming a matchbreaker?
I’ve enjoyed many of your books so I just know this one has to be a winner too and what a gorgeous cover!!
Hi Nicola. Great post. Notorious sounds wonderful.. I love the cover.
Thank you so much for all the lovely comments about Notorious (and thank you very much for the review, Karyn. I am thrilled that you enjoyed the book!) The matchbreaker idea was something that grabbed me when I thought of all the times wealthy parents must have been despairing over their offspring making unsuitable matches. I thought then how useful it would be for them to pay someone to come between an heiress and a fortune hunter, or a wealthy young nobleman and a penniless nobody.
Jeanne, great question! I’ve read about a number of independent women who broke society’s rules in real life but probably the two characters I thought of when imagining a woman becoming a matchbreaker were Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, who tried to steal her daughter’s beau, I believe, and Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair. I could imagine her setting up as a matchbreaker!
Notorious sounds awesome!
I want to read about this matchbreaker!
Sound like a fun plot! I’ve not read any of your books and I’d love to start! Hope I win.
Hi, Nicola, and welcome.
I have read so many things about Notorious and am very anxious to read it. Congratulations on your release.
I’m looking forward to reading Susanna and Dev’s story, it sounds fantastic.
A matchbreaker! That is a clever premise for a story, Nicola. I look forward to reading Notorious and Susanna and Dev’s story. Sounds like Dev has met his “match”!
I have always enjoyed Nicola’s books. This one should be no exception.
I care about many of the characters I read about and I also love seeing them evolve in a series. Even if former primary characters later on become secondary characters (or vice versa) in later books it’s a great way to catch up with them.
I love the cover for your book…the red dress is beautiful..I’m sure the story is equally as wonderful.
Hello, Nicola !! (waving madly!) Cannot WAIT to read your latest !!! I LOVE the concept of Notorious ! What were some of the most interesting cases you researched that lead you to writing this book?
Hi Nicola,
Your new book looks really good! And I love the cover, I love red! I really enjoyed reading your blog post 🙂
Hi Nicola I’m look forward to reading your new book
Sounds delicious. I have enjoyed your books and am waiting for this series to be complete before reading them. I am not a patient person when it comes to waiting for the next book in a series to come out. For me it is much more enjoyable to have the complete series on hand and be able to read it straight through. The characters and story arc are much richer that way.
I look forward to seeing what you will have in store for us next.
Hope the release of NOTORIOUS is a great success.
Hi everyone and thank you so much for all your comments and good wishes for Notorious. I am so excited about the release and so appreciative of all the support and encouragement. Louisa, lovely to see you here and thank you for your question. There was a really curious case I researched of a Yorkshire family in the 19th century where there was a note in the family archives recording a payment to a young man to “make him go away” or words to that effect. My imagination leaped into overdrive at that point as I knew the family had an heiress daughter and I could just imagine him trying to run off with her and the parents stepping in to pay him off! Fascinating.
Pat I was very interested to see that with series you wait until you have the set before reading all the way through. I’m not bad with delayed gratification but that shows real restraint!
The first three were great and I look forward to the rest of this series.
Hi Nicola,
Loved reading about your research and background for this series. And I have to say, the more I read about this series, the more I know I’m going to love reading it. I do have the first 3 books on my ever growing TBR heap. Don’t have Notorious yet….maybe I’ll get lucky here in your giveaway. LOL
While the cover of Notorious is beautiful, I think it is a little misleading about the time period of the book. Makes me think it is set more in the Georgian period rather than Regency. Wish TPTB over bookcovers would pay closer attention to those little details. Guess that’s why I like looking at a pretty cover but never judge a book by it’s cover either!
BTW, how many more books in this series are planned?
what a gorgeous cover, and i’m intrigued by the concept of a professional marriage breaker
I love following you in all your interviews and articles that you make available to your fans on facebook. This was a really nice one. Thanks!