PERFECT IN EVERY WAY, a compelling new forced proximity, romantic mystery in the Manors and Mysteries series from New York Times Bestselling Author, Kristen Ashley, is available now!
Scroll down for an excerpt!
The Duke is arrogant, gorgeous and loyal…and maybe Perfect In Every Way.
Historical fiction writer, Vivienne Dupree, is hoping to unravel the mystery of her WWII soldier, great-grandfather’s doomed love affair with the lovely Lady Harmony. A woman he met convalescing at the sweeping English country estate, The Downs.
Vivienne jumps at the invitation to spend time at this magnificent property, doing so with unfettered access to family papers.
What she doesn’t expect is to come face-to-face—and immediately go head-to-head—with Battle Talyn, the ludicrously handsome, imposing, ridiculously arrogant Duke of Burleigh.
From the start, Vivi and Battle match wits, but it doesn’t take long for Vivi to realize something is amiss at The Downs. She dives into her research to figure it out, at the same time Battle launches a campaign that Vivi doesn’t quite understand.
The game is on, and a mystery is afoot.
What kept the doomed lovers apart all those years ago? What’s happening in the ballroom? Is there a curse on The Downs?
And what does all of this have to do with Battle and Vivi?
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“…a captivating tale where the past and present collide…” ~Danielle, Red Cheeks Reads
Check out Danielle’s 5 SMOOCHES review!
EXCERPT:
Chapter One
The Downs
I idled outside the ornate, twenty-foot-high gates, not thinking about the grand adventure that, for months, I’d been so excited to embark on, I could barely stand myself.
Instead, I was concentrating on the sudden bizarre feeling I had, which I’d never felt before.
A feeling that assaulted me (and that violent of a word was an apropos descriptor) the second I saw those gates.
It was a feeling so strong, I was idling in the road in front of the gates of a drive I was supposed to be turning into, a drive on a fortunately not very busy road, and yet for some reason, I was unable to turn in.
I didn’t understand what I was feeling. It was, in my cadre of as yet experienced emotions, undefined.
I was exhilarated, yet alarmed.
Excited, yet terrified.
It was kind of like the sensation you get before you go into a haunted house.
You know it’s going to be fun, but even so, you’re facing the unexpected.
What you further know is, what’s about to happen will be completely out of your control.
But in order to face that unexpected—though what you could expect was that you were going to have the pants frightened off you—you had to let go, put one foot in front of the other, trust, and know things are going to scare you, but in the end, you’ll be laughing.
It took some effort to pocket this strange emotion so I could peer down the lane beyond the gates.
The lane was shaded with beautiful old trees and carpeted with vibrant green lawns.
It was then, out of nowhere, although this time predictably, I felt a strong pang of melancholy.
I did this even though I’d never met him. He was gone before I was alive.
Even so, I knew my great-grandfather had seen these gates.
He’d been driven through them.
He’d stayed in the massive house that lay beyond the intricate wrought iron and parkland. In that house, he’d convalesced.
In that house, he’d fallen in love.
In the end, he’d left this extraordinary estate with a broken heart.
And I was there to tell his story.
On that thought, taking a bracing breath, I turned into the lane, stopped beside the security speaker and noted it had a camera.
I hit the button to roll down my window and was about to reach out and hit the one that would call to the house, but the speaker squawked at me before I could even raise my hand.
“Ms. Dupree?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Can you please hold your passport or some other official photo identification to the camera?” the speaker requested.
Unsurprised by this request, for I knew what lay beyond those gates, and thus I knew they wouldn’t let anyone through them who shouldn’t be going through them, I turned to my bag, pulled out my passport, opened it to the picture page and held it to the camera.
“One moment please,” the speaker said. Although I wasn’t surprised they had security, and it was not just a couple of Ring cameras, I wondered what they could do with my passport information that would take a moment.
Could they check it?
And if they could, how did they get access to that kind of data?
As far as I knew, only government and law enforcement agencies could do something like that.
I mean, if they could, that would take this security to a new level.
I pocketed that emotion too as I slid my passport back into my tote and waited.
I waited some more.
And longer.
I was just about to say something when I heard a mechanism start churning, the gates started opening and the speaker squawked again.
“Thank you for waiting, Ms. Dupree. Please drive through.”
“You’re welcome. And thank you,” I replied.
As the gates slowly opened, I took my foot off the brake.
I was a writer, but I’d been a researcher first.
Therefore, I didn’t come here blind. I knew all about The Downs and the family that had lived there for more generations than my country had even been a country.
But as I drove through the opened gates, taking in the vast manicured lawns under the sprawling canopies of mature trees, I was blown away.
Everything was better in real life than in pictures.
However, this was something else, and “better” didn’t cover it.
And when the trees gave way and I started to see the house…
“Holy crap,” I whispered as more, and more, and more of it was unveiled.
I’d seen pictures of this too.
But…
Good God.
WANT MORE? Click HERE to read the first 3 chapters!
About Kristen Ashley:
Kristen Ashley is the New York Times bestselling author of over eighty romance novels. She’s a hybrid author, publishing titles both independently and traditionally, her books have been translated in fourteen languages and she’s sold millions of books.
Kristen, born in Gary and raised in Brownsburg, Indiana and was a fourth-generation graduate of Purdue University. Since, she has lived in Denver, the West Country of England, and she now resides in Phoenix. She worked as a charity executive for eighteen years prior to beginning her independent publishing career. She now writes full-time.
Although romance is her genre, the prevailing themes running through all of Kristen’s novels are friendship, family and a strong sisterhood. To this end, and as a way to thank her readers for their support, Kristen has created the Rock Chick Nation, a series of programs that are designed to give back to her readers and promote a strong female community. You can learn more about Kristen and the Rock Chick Nation on her website.
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USA Today Bestselling Author Lacey Black is a Midwestern girl with a passion for reading, writing, and shopping. She carries her e-reader with her everywhere she goes so she never misses an opportunity to read a few pages. Always looking for a happily ever after, Lacey is passionate about contemporary romance novels and enjoys it further when you mix in a little suspense. She resides in a small town in Illinois with her husband, two children, and three rowdy chickens.