Tags
Art Gowns, Black Wolf Books, Book review, Chess, Georgian England, Jewel thieves, London Jewel thieves, Marraige in Georgian England, Resa Mconaghy, Shehanne Moore, Splendor, The Starkadder Sisterhood, Women in Georgian England
“Never judge a book by its cover, unless there’s a gown on it.” – Resa McConaghy.
Genre: Historical Romance.
Much like a game of chess; this tale has moves, and counter moves. Is it checkmate, or stalemate? Read the book to experience the final play!
Although a woman in days when women were mostly property, Splendor finds a self chosen path. She will marry Gabe, the man of her breast’s heart. He will become a man of the cloth. Together they will help the poor.
Enter: the Earl of Stillmore, a chessboard, two Kings, two Queens, four Bishops, four Rooks, four Knights and sixteen Pawns.
Shehanne’s characters are vivid, interesting and all with purpose. I particularly adore the settings she recreates of time and place. I’m amused by the very appropriate, and humorously creative names Shehanne has given her characters. All throughout the novel her wry sense of humour prevails, but never assails nor assuages.
The thing is, it is romance. It’s romance with all the ardour lovers find in love’s wake. The main scene of passion is quite worth the reading and waiting for. It reaches just a tad deliciously beyond cutting to waves crashing on rocks, fireworks or a volcano erupting.
Furthermore, the Art Gown in me feels a hearty prick of the needle at the main peril Splendor puts herself in. Drawn like a moth to the flame of fine silk every time she passes Madame Renare’s shop and without means, Splendor finds herself sinking deeper into debt. T’is dire! The turnkey of the debtor’s prison workhouse is upon her doorstep.
“In italicized quotations” are excerpts from the book.
“Mrs. Ferret set the beribboned hair comb Splendor had found impossible to resist, the robin’s egg blue one with the tiny cream rosettes attached,”
A bill is presented:
“She had spent a little money, it was true. She hadn’t meant to, but now she was back in credit again. Why shouldn’t she have the odd this and that?”
Splendor is a Fashionista:
“she had perhaps gone a little far with the silk parasol and the shoes to match, but if she hadn’t, Topaz would have stolen them and ended up in Newgate. Then there was the matter of just how respectful Madame Renare had been when she’d seen the address and the name, the new one she’d furnished herself with. Lady Winterborne, Countess of Stillmore.”
Although unrequited, Splendor retains her arrogant impudence:
“And that comb, this peignoir, the new day dress with the lace insert in the bodice, were all very nice. Too nice to leave feeling neglected in the shop. And the comb had been reduced by half a guinea. She had saved him half a guinea by buying it.”
❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦
I needed to ask Shehanne, whose blog runs the tagline “Smexy Historical Romance”, a few questions.
1. What does SMEXY mean?
A…an easy one this. It means smart and sexy which I like to think my heroines are even though they can behave incredibly stupidly at times.
2. Where does the historical location inspiration come from… the castles and halls near where you live?
I squirrel. I find locations and ideas everywhere. With Loving Lady Lazuli– another book in the series–it was from visiting Mount Grace Priory, especially the monk’s cell there. It’s in Yorkshire actually and not what we’d know as a 
cell either. Catterton House in Splendor was based on a Georgian cottage where I then lived in Newport-On-Tay, except it wasn’t a cottage. It was a mansion build down the cliff face.
3. London Jewel Thieves – Where will I be able to read the ongoing serial?
As we speak Loving Lady Lazuli which features Sapphire as the heroine and Ruby and Pearl as her sidekicks, is being formatted for kindle.. Now I have my rights back to this series I will be giving you the stories of Diamond, Jade and Amber. I may even yet turn Ruby into a heroine. I have an idea there.
Shehanne Moore is an author who writes historical romance novels. If you visit her Home Page , you will find out about all of her books.
Take some time to visit Shehanne’s Blog Page, and you will realize that a very cute Pack of Hamsters have hijacked her book reviews, interviews and other relevant endeavours. If you haven’t visited her blog, you should. You will enjoy the Hamsters & get to read a fab post! As crazy as it seems, I was inspired to draw a Hamster in a hamster gown, Hamstor Splendor. I hope Shehanne & all of her Hamster pals enjoy it!
You can pre-order “Splendor” in ebook format, on Amazon! It comes out October 1, 2018, with a hard copy following soon after.
Click on “Splendor” to pre- order!
This is so sweet!!! Thank you, Shehanne! I like that you added my name to the quote. I had thought of doing that, but I didn’t want to take away from the post being about you and Splendor. Maybe my saying will become famous! I also love that you took the Enter the Earl of Stillmore …. line & put it with a pic of the book!!!!💥💥💚
Cheers and best wishes for great sales! -Resa xoxo
Oh no no, I am thrilled by everything you did AND away now to put you name on that meme card about enter the Earl too. I LOVE it.
Oh Thank you for adding my name to the meme! I just nipped over to GLaM for a bit!
Hey, I get to like this twice! xx
I meant to add it at the start… I was just harassed by this and that at the time.. AND given my lousy internet connection i clicked save… upload… x
Great review and interview. I love the illustration. Come on Cossacks we dance. xxx
Indeed ve do
Love
e cossackkk Hammmsterrsss x
❤
Pre-ordered and looking forward to it Great cover!
Cat you are just something else xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I mean that. I have the one for Lazuli…. OOOOOH. x
Beautiful cover art!
The best bit? After some of the covers I have had to ‘Swank’ out there courtesy o publishers, this one I got the image in a sale for next to nowt and found a fabby graphic designer for not much more AND I am proud to show this one cos it’s my book. So thank you espesh on behalf of my graphic designer . xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Woot!!!
Ps. I am doing the build up now for him but the Lazuli cover is….. WTG xxxxxx
My prolific and endearing friend. Can’t wait to read your latest and greatest. Between you and the Mr., your family will be keeping me busy!
Hee hee.. Aw, what I love to hear. I will be getting back on with the writing soon again, finishing all my series. Oh and there’s still Destiny to come xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Keep on going, Lady Shey!❤️❤️❤️
If I have to hobble… x
Congrats to you both on a fabulous cover. Have pre-ordered ebook already but cannot wait for the hardcopy in my hand. Always special. Clearly the dudes see the writing on the wall! Hang in there, guys.
Aw Kate, you are so kind. I have it all ready to go in print but they don’t do pre-order on print so I will just hit publish on the 1st. it is all I have left to do there. I can’t wait to have it in my hand either. For me, there is nothing like a print book. x
those little rascals
wrote quite the
smexy tail 🙂
Those little rascals
rather like
this xx
Such a wonderful review, Shey, you must be thrilled. Your pictures are lovely too.
I am thrilled. Wonderful of Resa. Glencoe is a lovely place and we found the most amazing hill to do in terms of scenery the last time we were there, it’s hard to get a bad pic, I just didn’t want to put a whole load up this post. That was a nice recipe you had tonight. Hope you are over the worst of your flu and bronchitis and feeling a lot better now.
Look at that amazing cover! And those words from Resa are WOWOWOW! Well done xo
Well Christy, I have to say that that old moniker, if you want something done, do it yourself, sure ain’t so bad. Finally I have a cover on this book I like, that gives me the book, and I want to show off. What is more it never cost me the earth either, for the image, the license or the designer. He did a great job with it and with my Lazuli one which I will show off soon. These words from Resa are the very best. She’s an icon that woman xxxxxxxxxxxx
Great post, Shey.
Love the Glencoe pictures, and the review is great. Descriptive, analytical and gives just enough of a hint to entice without giving away plot. Some good questions at the end, too. It’s always interesting to hear about inspiration.
Oh I am a squirreller sure enough Cath. That house was always an interesting one locally cos everyone thought it was a wee cottage and it stood next to what was until recently an abandoned one that WAS just a cottage but turned out to have its own harbour and all. Anyway, having heard this one was in fact a huge house, I had a nosey at the schedule when it came up for sale and inside it was pure untouched Georgian, stone spiral staircase, stone sinks in the kitchen flagged floors, amazing reception rooms. THAT was when I squirrelled it away! I always have a stock of places and people and situations they were in in their lives. Even Farnborough Workhouse found its way into this book because I had ancestors there. I love the review. So good of Resa and glad you liked the pics. I had a ton more…. including a ton of the on a string summit–god these mountains are cruel… I will sue them another blog x
Great interview, a fantastic review, and a very beautiful quote by Resa! Its all done best! Best wishes! Michael
Michael thank you. It was so good of Resa. (To be truthful the gown swung it.) Thank you for the good wishes. The time has come to stride out on my own x
Yes, its a good thing, Shehanne! Resa’s gowns and her feeling for and presenting art is fantastic. Thank you too, and have a successful week ahead. Michael
Thank you. You too. One thing I am enjoying after six years at this chalk face is going at my pace. The free time it is giving is great x
Ah white roses. I love them xxxxxxxx
But,,, you are much more lovely my dear Shehanne.
You are much too kind xxxxxxxxx
Beautiful cover Shey. You are rockin new publishing business too! And at least you have dudes to assist you while you write. Right? Lol. I thought not. 🙂 xxxxx
Oh they do it all Debs………………………………………………………. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx you. I am going to reveal the Lazuli one soon. I just love what the artist has done xxxxxxxx
Fabulous girl! You know what they say, things happen for a reason and when they do, new doors open! Just look at your beautiful books evoking what YOU want them to.! xxxxxxxxxxx
Aw Sisath, thank you. Truly. I was unsure about the backlist books offer at the time but I didn’t listen to myself in that I thought it would take all this off my plate. But thing is you are right. The books now do evoke what I want. I’ve even managed there just now to sort some cover issues with the print biz in order to have the print spread I ordered, so yeah it is all falling into place. xxxxxxxxxxx
Lovely post. I enjoyed the photos of your trip to Glencoe as well of the review and the cover of Splendor. 🙂
Carol… u have no idea of how the planets just aligned here as I sit revamping Lady Lazuli and hoping it is okay to use your words re this book which I have never forgotten. … ‘Sometimes we are drawn to people with terrible flaws in them because passion overrules reason.’ at the start of chapter one in italics and with your name there, print and ebook x.
Hamster Splendor is beautiful! It’s great to see a collaboration between such a talented author and artist/designer as you and Resa.
PS Thank you so much for the review on Greyhounds of Sorrento! I saw it on Goodreads and I was so happy! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
You are so welcome. I loved it. Take a bow. Looking forward to more greyhounds now! Hamster Splendor is something else, I must say. She is quite the thing. and will be making more appearances here. Resa is an a mazing lady. Her gowns are beyond beautiful. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Carolee.
I’ve re-posted my reviews to the new editions… Can’t wait for Lady Fury to come out! I would like to get the paperback (sorry I’ve been sitting on the copy you sent me, as I’m having trouble reading PDFs or any kind of ebooks at the moment due to technology being lame). xoxoxo
THNAK YOU. YOU are the best. I will get a link up later today when I have done my little quota of print book work on Laz. (We unexpectedly don’t have the wee man today so I have all this time.) I made some changes to Fury… Once I didn’t have to make her sympathetic–she was written at a time when you kind of had to–I made her slightly different. Much more there’s plenty times when she think she will just rescind her rules cos she can deal with him and she can, instead of fearing for her heart etc… but then he does things that so piss her off, so she breaks his balls some more, deciding stuff this, might as well. Look I had huge problems last week over downloading to my kindle on the pc and icloud. I had changed my password cos I could get into my amazon account. Happening a lot now I have a publishing one. Anyway it was torture and I wanted to order Cat’s book. After ai said to you today and I went on to get your book… I remembered I had once again changed my password but it was okay. PUHEW…
Ciao! qualcuno dei tuoi romanzi storici è pubblicato in italiano? Mi piacerebbe leggerne uno 😊.ma non parlo inglese 😔.
Grazie .
Mamma mia. Ho visitato il tuo bellissimo paese due volte e lo adoro. Al momento, non sono MA, se so che qualcuno vuole leggerne uno, prenderò in considerazione la possibilità di esaminarlo.
Grazie 😍😍😍 un super abbraccio !
Un abbraccio più grande per te. Per me, la cosa più bella di questo business è incontrare persone da tutto il mondo che condividiamo. E probabilmente ho bisogno di tradurre i miei libri visto che il mio primo concerto è stato a Genova, un omaggio al tuo bel paese e alla tua gente. xxxx
Fantastic Shey and have changed your covers for this book and Lady Lazuli in the bookstore.. will do an update next Friday. They look amazing. hugs to the Dudes.. xx
Sally, that is so kind of you. It’s been really hectic. Just Finished checking over the kindle formatting for Lazuli there just now, so away to get it on Amazon pre-order for 8th October in the next half hour. Steep learning curve here. But going at my pace is actually great. I am thrilled with what the Fiverr designer did with two images. Super back cover for print too. I feel now they are branded as a series and since I have my right back to that series Instead of having to give first shout when I was kind of done there, I will now finish this series. I have all the ideas for the remaining books. xxx
Fantastic Shey.. it will be worth it in the end and all under your own control which is a great feeling. Looking forward to sharing them..hugs xxx
Thank you Sally. Sometimes I have family things you know and then my back is to the wall meeting deadlines…so this is actually nice in a way. But I am specially pleased with being able to choose my covers to reflect my books instead of being seeing one when it’s actually out there and thinking… omg… xx
I love that Sally featured Splendor via my book review! It’s all so exciting. Many FB shares, as well! YAY!!!
Splendor Hamster is fair struttin’. Resa, this is all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to you and your lovely words xxx
Hee hee hee, oh what a post! The little sketch of a hamstah dudette is precious. Oh, how fun if there was a picture book of the hamstah dudes’ quest to retrieve the…um…Carrot Cake of Happiness from the Evil Meall Mor monster!
This review so lovely, too. I love Resa’s point about the dress–when there’s an item that bespeaks to both character and theme, why not make it the centerpiece of the cover? Wonderful as always, Shey, and thrilled to hear more stories are brewing. 😉 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jean, I am getting these backlist books back out there having given up waiting and grateful that I signed nothing. Then I will attend to Destiny , then get on with finishing this and the Time Mutants’ series. AND starting some new series. I chose the cover image cos yes for me the gown gives me Splendor…real name, Dora. But this is how she sees herself, this is the fortune she squanders on clothes, this is the glittering world she gets caught up in. and when I considered this book, coverwise, there was so much I could have run with. I thought duel, chess, her dressing as a man, the Cinderella moment on the stairs when the clock strikes twelve and she flees. The fact she has a fiance,. But out of it all, the main them really is in her as a character. Also it gave the idea of branding the whole series with only the heroine on the cover.
Yes! Both beautiful and functional, and gives your work on the other covers an immediate focus to cut down on their creation time.
I’m so excited for you to explore your other serieseseseses….(that’s how I usually end up saying that word. 🙂 I’ve still got lots of plotting and such to do for books 3-5 of mine, not to mentionall that marketing and the editing of book 2 and finishing up those short stories, but I’d LOVE to start fleshing out my Shield Maidens series now that it’s completely in my creative power, and to work on the WIP fantasy adventure based on my sons.
It’s an exciting time to be a writer. 🙂 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dinnae you fash yourself wi a plot. Just you write.. I never plot. I just have an idea and go from there. … xxxx
Shey Love the new cover it is simply stunning- it is sensuous and romantic. It really captures the spirit of Splendor’s personality and the motivation for the book- partly to pay off the dressmaker – as the gal does love to be turned out nice! Excellent choice! Love Paul XX
She does love to be turned out nice. She just can’t help herself that way. And she does see herself in this way even though there’s times she tries not to. SO out of the whole book and everything in it, this was what I settled for. Also that glittering world does draw her into more debt… I felt the time had come to do her justice on the cover and I am thrilled you like it. x
I like this one 🙂 congrats on the new work too
Thank you so much. Resa did a great job even down to the fab drawing of Splendor hamster. x
I adore Resa’s artwork of a beautiful Dudette! Those hamstahs must have a Big Crush of her! 💖💜💗
Resa is amazing!!
Also, I loved this post full of you and your adventures! You look awesome in those boots! The scenery is breathtaking, too!
I love the golden gown of Splendor! Your newest book cover designs are fabulous, Shehanne! 💞💟
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Resa was so kind to do this AND I LOVE Hamstah Splendor. She will be here in the next post. That was a great weekend at Glencoe that one. Everything was just perfect you know. We didn’t even mess up that hill, unlike the last time we took a go at it. The best bit was we were away in bits we’d never seen before and the scenery there was unbelievable. It sure pays to follow hill instructions… I am thrilled you like the gown. I looked at a lot of images before coming across it, wen through a lot of ideas, but when I found it I thought yep… And it gave me the idea of the overall look for this series which now I have my rights back to, I will finish. x
I’m also excited about your newest writing endeavors and will look forward to the Time Mutants series as the Female Jewel Thieves series is already the Best writing around in this particular romance- adventure- intrigue style Ever!!
xxxxxxxxxxxx ❤️ xxxxxxxxxxxx
Robin you are way too kind. I am excited to be working for myself actually. I can go at my pace and not have to meet deadlines. So I will now finish the Time Mutants… fortunately Soulmate don’t contract for a series, the Jewel Thieves, get Destiny out there, it’s finished but I wanted the backlist books back out first and felt enough time had been wasted waiting for the co that offered to take them to get to them, and I even have an idea for a follow up there to Destiny So it is just so much easier. xxxx