Rounding up a Particularly Charming Month!

30/09/201630/09/2016 ~ Cass ~ 4 Comments

So! September draws to a close, and so do our recent travels, both actual and virtual!

Earlier this month, I took myself off to the annual Jane Austen Festival in the beautiful city of Bath in search of our characters and, more particularly, Jane Austen herself, as Ada and I had a few pertinent questions for her!

At this stage, I can’t reveal how successful or otherwise this quest was, but aside from that adventure, I did make some exciting discoveries during my brief trip, including spotting The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen on the bookshelves in the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street, the Bath Visitor Information Centre near the abbey and as part of an Austen-themed display in Bath Central Library!

As for our virtual travels, we’ve had a busy month! Firstly, we were delighted to visit talented author Karen King on her blog for her Friday Reads Blogspot a few weeks ago, where we answered questions about our writing habits, our inspirations and more, and you can read all about it here!

Then, Sophia Lykke Illner Thorsen interviewed me for her Blog, Interests of a Jane Austen Girl, where I answered several questions, including ones on my favourite Austen novel, my favourite Darcy and even my favourite Pemberley!

You can read this interview here, and soon Ada and I will back to visit Sophia, when she will interview us about the story and characters of The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen and the potential sequel! (Shh, we’re not talking about it!)

This week we also had the honour of being featured guests on Being Anne, a lovely Blog where we had the chance to talk about the some of the inspiration behind the story, and you can read this post here!

There is also a GIVEAWAY! All you have to do is enter the draw for a paperback or eBook copy of our book (winner’s choice), open internationally.

Then, to round off a wonderful month on the ‘road’, we have been delighted by three lovely reviews of the book from popular bloggers, Susanne at Meditative Meanderings, Meredith at Austenesque Reviews and Kelly at Sweet is Always in Style!

You can read Susanne’s review in full here, but we did love these quotes:

What a wonderful “ride,” ladies, and congratulations on a delightful book!

And how in the world do two authors write in tandem so seamlessly??? So very impressive!!

Meredith’s full review can be found here, and as you might imagine, we were over the moon with this lovely, thoughtful and fun reflection on the story and characters, especially seeing them all through Meredith’s eyes!

We particularly loved this:

A tale of dear friends coming together, a mystery turned adventure, and more than one budding romance – Ada Bright and Cass Grafton seamlessly blended and perfectly balanced every ingredient of this novel. Each component was well-crafted and it is impossible to tell where one author’s writing ends and one begins. Hats off to such a stellar writing team!

And also, for those who recall how Ada and I first met:

I love it when characters geek out over Jane Austen! Not only did this book show that in abundance, but they threw in some Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings geekery for us multi-fandom book lovers! Readers who love these series will be pleased to find so many references and nods to these stories. I loved how they all tied together.

Kelly’s review was full of enthusiasm and so enjoyable to read, and we particularly loved this:

I was completely captivated by this story and the characters, so much so that there was a huge void in my world when I finished it. I missed the characters so much and visiting their world each day like you wouldn’t believe!

and also this:

The men in this book were also a huge plus. They were utterly adorable and downright gentlemen. James, Rose’s boss was sweet, kind and cute and I liked that he and Rose got on so well outside of work and that he looked after her. As for Doctor Aiden Trevellyan, there was just something irresistible about him, maybe it was the passion he had for his work and his good looks, or maybe it was the fact that he was so unaware of Rose’s feelings, which in turn made him seem a little mysterious. I don’t know, but whatever it was, I loved him and I still miss him…..

And you can read the full review here!

What next for us? Well, we still have our virtual passports in our pockets as we have several more Blog visits coming up between now and the end of the year and also quite a few reviews due to come in (cue serious nail biting on our side!), so we will continue to summarise things here in case you miss anything!

Aside from that, it seems we may have a little bit of writing to do ourselves… 😉

48 hours left for 1/2 off!

16/09/2016 ~ Ada ~ 1 Comment

Only 48 hours (from LA time) left to get The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen on sale at only $2.99! That’s a 50% saving on the usual price of $5.99!

Read more about it and a couple of excerpts on the About the Book page here!

You can obtain a Kindle copy at this special price at Amazon.com orAmazon.co.uk (and hopefully every other Amazon site there is!)

The price reduction probably won’t be reflected in the Nook, Kobo and Apple stores anymore, but if you go to Smashwords.com here and enter the code LK28F at checkout the 50% reduction will still be applied!

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A Particularly Charming Offer! 50% off the eBook!

08/09/201608/09/2016 ~ Cass ~ 4 Comments

Woo hoo! Friday, 9th September kicks off the annual 10-day Jane Austen Festival in the beautiful city of Bath, and to celebrate, the eBook of The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen is on sale at only $2.99 for the whole duration of the Festival! That’s a 50% saving on the usual price of $5.99!

Set in the city during the very same Festival, this is a story of friendship and fun (too many ‘f’s?), it’s a mystery and a bit of a rom-com, and as if that isn’t a wide enough variety of genres, there’s also the small matter of a little bit of fantasy woven into the story – something for everyone!! (Except vampire lovers. There are no vampires. Or zombies. Or… well, you get the gist!)

Read more about it and a couple of excerpts on the About the Book page here!

Jane photo of San — Photo Credit: Jane Odiwe

You can obtain a Kindle copy at this special price at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk (and hopefully every other Amazon site there is!)

The price reduction should also be reflected in the Nook, Kobo and Apple stores, but sometimes it takes a while to filter through. If it still shows the $5.99 normal price, then please go to Smashwords.com here and enter the code LK28F at checkout and the 50% reduction will be applied!

(Any problems finding your favourite eBook format at the reduced price, including PDF, let us know in the Comments below, and we will do our best to sort it out!)

How to Eat Your Way Thru Our Book!

05/09/201605/09/2016 ~ Ada ~ 7 Comments

One unexpected result of writing our book was that Bath became more than a setting in The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen. The city has such a unique feel to it, a really lovely regal quaintness. Anyway, we strived to paint a picture of this place the way we know it very, very accurately. We knew exactly where each of our characters would live, socialize and… just as importantly, where they would eat!

I’m not sure how this became such a priority for us, but I think it started with Las Iguanas. Cass wanted to make sure I tried their fajitas (which is a favorite food of mine), and we had such a nice seat by a big window overlooking an attractive little courtyard that we immediately agreed the moment had to be mirrored in the book.

From there, the idea took root. By the time we were together again for the book launch we pretty much exclusively went to the restaurants that our characters had gone to.

The Boater is a cute little pub close to where we (and one of our characters, Morgan) stayed. It is a little dark, in a homey sort of way, and only about two tables wide (though it goes back quite a bit and there are other levels, including a garden!).

Bill’s Restaurant is a nice restaurant, very amenable even when your very large, loud group want to stay to close out the place. They had the BEST spicy chicken sandwich. I tried to get Cass go to back only to there the whole rest of the trip.

Las Iguanas, as I’ve already mentioned, has a really nice location and very good food. After a few days without salsa, my California soul starts to shrivel up, so they were incredibly refreshing.

Speaking of location, Graze has an incredible one:

They are on the top floor of a building near the train station so not only do they overlook the tracks, but the city centre below. We had some lovely blue skies which shone through the 360 degree windows when we ate there and the food was great (and the scene set here is a fav with some of our readers – we know, because they told us so!)

The Chequers feels like more of a secret Bath location, though I’m assured they are well known. It’s very nice inside, with easy seating and the menu feels straight out of a reality show cooking competition.

Hall & Woodhouse has special significance because this is where our two female lead characters meet face to face for the first time. It is one of those bars that has a ton of character. The outside feels very traditional Bath, and the large sprawling inside is inviting and warm even though it’s spread over two floors – and it has an awesome roof terrace!

Finally, there’s also a key scene set in the Roman Baths Kitchen. We didn’t get to eat there together (though Cass is a bit of a regular!), but they did us the most awesome buffet for our post book launch party… party!!

Basically, even if you have no interest in Jane Austen or the Roman Baths, Bath is still a wonderful place to spend some time at and, oh yes, with more than a few delicious fares to choose from.

“If you’re going to Bath – take it (The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen) with you – it’s also a wonderful guide to some of the best pubs and restaurants in town.” – Jane Odiwe