From author JULIA JUSTISS--"SISTERS OF SCANDAL"--Despite their charm and beauty, the Lattimar twins are tainted by the reputation of their notorious mother--known as the offspring of a man not their legal father, they are the Scandal Sisters

A Most Unsuitable Match
(Sisters of Scandal Book 1)

Shunned by the ton

How would she find a husband?

Part of Sisters of Scandal: After her mother’s latest outrageous affair, innocent Prudence Lattimar has fled to Bath.

With her dubious background, she must marry a man of impeccable reputation. A clergyman with a title and a considerable income would be perfect.

She must steer clear of Lieutenant Johnnie Trethwell—his family is as notorious as hers, no matter how funny, charming and unfailingly honorable he is!

MY REVIEW:  Julia Justiss is a gifted author of Regency Romance, writing wonderful characterizations while giving the reader an absorbing view of life in the Regency Era. With "A Most Unsuitable Match", we are introduced to the scandal-ridden Lattimar sisters--notorious not through their own making, but through the unsavory reputation of their mother. Having reached a later age without a proper introduction to society, Prudence Lattimar finds her hopes further dwindled by her mother's latest amorous adventure. Retreating to the lesser societal light of Bath, Prudence hopes to meet a reputable gentleman of good character with whom she would find harmonious married life and happiness in motherhood. However, the man she meets who captures her attention and sets her heart aflutter is Johnnie Trethwell, a charming scoundrel home from service to heal a wounded leg. Johnnie needs to make a quality match as well--a lady with a genteel reputation and a generous dowry to refresh his dwindled family fortune. However, he is quite taken with Prudence, whom he finds not only lovely, but also witty and kind. Prudence sees beyond the gossip around Johnnie, knowing him to be her true friend and champion. While they both realize that they are not what the other is seeking, a certain spark and an appreciation of each other's intelligence and true character adds a deeper longing for their friendship to become something more. Can love give them the courage to reach past society's strictures and grab a future filled with happiness? "A Most Unsuitable Match" will captivate readers, and they will be most eager to read "The Earl's Inconvenient Wife"--the story of Prudence's sister, Temperance.

Book Copy Gratis Author


“A Most Unsuitable Match is a marvelous read” —All About Romance on A Most Unsuitable Match

“Julia Justiss writes another winner!” —Goodreads on A Most Unsuitable Match


 

The Earl's Inconvenient Wife
(Sisters of Scandal Book 2)


The obvious solution:

A marriage of convenience!

Part of Sisters of Scandal: Temperance Lattimar is too scandalous for a Season, until finally she’s sponsored by Lady Sayleford. The whole charade feels wrong when she doesn’t want a husband, but Temper feels awful when MP and aristocrat Gifford Newell is appointed to “protect” her at society events. With her past, she knows she’s not an ideal wife…but then a marriage of convenience to Giff becomes the only option!

MY REVIEW:  "The Earl's Inconvenient Wife", Book 2 in the "Sisters of Scandal" Series, continues the story of the Lattimar sisters, this time focusing on Temperance. Author Julia Justiss is a marvelous storyteller, creating compelling characters and involving story lines, and all the while infusing her work with rich historical details. In the Regency Era, spirited, intelligent young women with minds of their own were often repressed by the rigid restrictions of society. Any breath of scandal associated with their family often doomed them socially and greatly lessened their chances of making a suitable marital match. Temperance Lattimar, long a subject of vicious gossip to her own mother's unsavory reputation, hoped to avoid marriage and travel the world as her own woman. She cannot do that without funds, however, and her father will not release her dowry until she is presented to society and suffers through one season. A longtime friend, Gifford “Giff” Newell, suggests that his godmother, the unquestionably respectable Lady Sayleford sponsor Temperance, and he will provide safe escort. Giff, a second son, is devoted to his career in politics. When he marries, he must choose a lady whose reputation is above reproach, but that doesn't stop him from wishing that Temperance could be more than a friend. Fate steps in when a cruel trick is played, and Temperance and Giff are forced into a marriage of convenience. They care very much for each other, but now their lives will be quite different than they ever imagined. Will love clear away the shadows, silence the doubts, and let in the light of true happiness? "The Earl's Inconvenient Wife" is a lovely historical romance from very special storyteller Julia Justiss.

 
"A lovely and tender' friends to lovers story." - Goodreads

"The strongly-written heroine and excellent hero – and their very genuine feelings for one another – buoy The Earl's Inconvenient Wife to a high recommendation." - All About Romance


Julia Justiss
 


Julia Justiss grew up breathing the scent of sea air near the colonial town of Annapolis, Maryland, a fact responsible for two of her life-long passions: sailors and history! By age twelve she was a junior tour guide for Historic Annapolis, conducting visitors on walking tours through the city that was a hotbed of revolutionary fervor. (Annapolis hosted its own tea party, dispensing with the cargo aboard the "Peggy Stewart," and was briefly capital of the United States.) She also took tourists through Annapolis's other big attraction, the United States Naval Academy. After so many years of observing future naval officers at P-rade and chapel, it seemed almost inevitable that she eventually married one.

But long before embarking on romantic adventures of her own, she read about them, transporting herself to such favorite venues as ancient Egypt, World War II submarine patrols, the Old South and, of course, Regency England. Soon she was keeping notebooks for jotting down story ideas. From plotting adventures for her first favorite heroine Nancy Drew she went on to write poetry in high school and college, then worked as a business journalist doing speeches, sales promotion material and newsletter articles. After her marriage to a naval lieutenant took her overseas, she wrote the newsletter for the American Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia and traveled extensively throughout Europe. Before leaving Tunis, she fulfilled her first goal: completing a Regency novel.

Children intervened, and not until her husband left the Navy to return to his Texas homeland did she sit down to pen a second novel. The reply to her fan mail letter to a Regency author led her to Romance Writers of America. From the very first meeting, she knew she'd found a home among fellow writers--doubtless the largest group of people outside a mental institution who talk back to the voices in their heads.

Her second goal was achieved the day before her birthday in May, 1998 when Margaret Marbury of Harlequin Historicals offered to buy that second book, the Golden-Heart-Award winning novel that became THE WEDDING GAMBLE. Since then, she has gone on to write fourteen novels, three novellas and an on-line serial, along the way winning or finaling for historical awards from The Golden Quill, the National Reader’s Choice, Romantic Times, and All About Romance’s Favorite Book of the Year.

Julia now inhabits an English Georgian-style house she and her husband built in the East Texas countryside where, if she closes her eyes and ignores the summer thermometer, she can almost imagine she inhabits the landscape of "Pride and Prejudice." In between traveling to visit her three children (a naval officer son stationed in Washington, DC, a textiles and design major daughter who cheers for University of Texas at Austin, and a mechanical engineering major son also at UT Austin) keeping up with her science teacher husband and juggling a part-time day job as a high school French teacher, she pursues her first and dearest love--crafting stories.

To relax, she enjoys watching movies, reading (historical fiction, mystery, suspense) and puttering about in the garden trying to kill off more weeds than flowers.

http://www.juliajustiss.com/