Hi everyone. Today we are talking about Victoria Hamilton's New Release: "Lady Anne and the Haunted Schoolgirl." It is a Historical Paranormal Mystery that will keep you turning the pages. It is the fifth book in the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries series. So make sure to check out how to snag the rest of the books below. We also are featuring Victoria Hamilton in a special guest post. Happy reading :).
●◎●──CREATING THE DIFFICULT HEROINE──●◎●
by: Victoria Hamilton
"I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." - Jane Austen, on writing ‘Emma’.
Lady Anne Addison: wealthy, opinionated, passionate and particular. I had in mind Jane Austen’s infamous words concerning Emma Woodhouse when I created Lady Anne; I was pretty sure some readers would not like how outspoken and challenging she could be. My thoughts were prophetic. I have seen criticism of Lady Anne, in particular concerning her treatment of her love interest, the intensely magnetic Anthony, Marquess of Darkefell. One reviewer was particularly put off and said no man would fall in love with a woman like Lady Anne, who talked back, was stubborn, and refused to do as she was told.
I beg to differ. There are and always will be men who are unafraid of being challenged by strong women. The marquess is one such man.
In creating Lady Anne Addison, a Georgian era daughter of an earl, I had in mind several Georgian and Regency ladies who truly existed. The foremost pattern for Lady Anne Addison and another heroine I created (Miss Emmeline St. Germaine, heroine of my books A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder and Some Touch of Madness) is the forthright, intelligent and self-reliant Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of Mary Shelley), writer, philosopher and women’s rights advocate.
At one point in the first book of the Lady Anne Addison mystery series, Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark, Anne expresses her frustration that she lacks the formal education that would have put her on an equal grounding with the men about her. Mary Wollstonecraft addressed just that issue in her treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) in which she argues that women are not mentally inferior to men, they just appear to be so because of tragically inferior education. She was a true revolutionary, and I think she would have been in complete sympathy with Lady Anne, who worries that marriage will unutterably change her life for the worse, since after marriage her identity will merge with her husband’s. In essence, she will become her husband’s chattel, something, as Anne states, between a beloved pet and a favorite carriage.
I think that the reviewer who criticized Lady Anne’s stubborn refusal to back down to the marquess’s commanding manners did not consider how she would deal with such a society. Every single right we have today, as women, was unheard of then; free movement to go where we want when we want; our own money; our own bodies, and decisions when and if we wish to have children. Imagine a world without those rights (some women in today’s world don’t need to imagine it, it’s how they live) and think how you’d do.
So Lady Anne’s behavior, though it may seem outrageous to some, is the result of strong feelings and a determination to be herself. And there will always be men who appreciate that.
In Lady Anne and the Haunted Schoolgirl readers will meet other women who defy societal expectation, albeit because in their cases, they must to live. The Misses Sophia, Harriet and Anne Lee were real women who, in the 1780s, created a school for girls in Bath, England. With no man who could – or would – take care of their needs (their father was dead and their brother occupied with finding his own way in the world) the sisters, using money the eldest earned with a successful play, created a thriving school that may even have educated one of the foremost Gothic authors of the late Georgian early Regency period.
To find out more, read Lady Anne and the Haunted Schoolgirl, and the afterword about the remarkable Lee sisters!
Happy reading, my friends.
──●◎●──ABOUT THE AUTHOR──●◎●──
Victoria Hamilton
Victoria Hamilton is the national bestselling author of four mystery series: the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries; the Merry Muffin Mysteries; the Lady Anne Addison Historical Mysteries and the Gentlewoman’s Guide Regency Mysteries.
Victoria loves to read, especially mystery novels, and enjoys good tea and cheap wine, the company of friends, and has a newfound appreciation for opera. She enjoys crocheting and beading, but a good book can tempt her away from almost anything… except writing!
She now happily writes about vintage kitchen collecting, muffin baking and dead bodies – among other mysterious topics - for publisher Beyond the Page.
Visit Victoria’s website and sign up for her newsletter!
Follow Victoria at the Following Links:
──●◎●──NEW RELEASE──●◎●──
Lady Anne and the Haunted Schoolgirl
Lady Anne Addison Mysteries # 5
by: Victoria Hamilton
Genre: Historical Paranormal Mystery
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When a childish prank is linked to murder, Lady Anne Addison must investigate the death of a young woman at the hands of a ghoulish fiend . . .
As her wedding to Lord Darkefell approaches, Lady Anne is summoned by a local girls’ school to help them with a young student troubled by ghostly apparitions. She’s quick to respond, and quick to discover the trickery behind the so-called ghosts. But despite her efforts to demonstrate to the student that she’s been the victim of a cruel hoax, the young woman apparently jumps to her death the very next night. Stunned and saddened by the turn of events, Lady Anne soon realizes that what she thought was a prank was a dark precursor to foul play.
Certain that someone closely connected to the school murdered the young woman, Lady Anne promptly begins questioning students and staff alike to root out the culprit. Confronting calculating young classmates, pompous instructors, and even the shockingly callous relatives of the victim, she still feels no closer to exposing the killer. Then a pattern emerges suggesting exactly who was behind the foul deed, and Anne will put her life on the line to find justice for a young woman who lost her own life too soon . . .
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Praise for the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries:
“If you are looking for a historical mystery with romance, suspense, and a suggestion of paranormal, then read Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark.” —Fallen Angel Reviews
“[Hamilton] excels at imbuing her realistic characters with subtle depths . . .” —American Library Association
“[The author] has set up a well-drawn Gothic horror setting here, so the atmosphere is fantastic, what with it being chilling, mysterious, and menacing all at once.” —Mrs. Giggles
Don’t miss the rest of the series!
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──●◎●──GIVEAWAY──●◎●──
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