Enjoy a Regency Rogue for free.

Back in 1976 -- yes, I was a mere child!::cough:: -- I wrote the first draft of a novel I titled A Regency Rape. A different time, a different place, and a writer without a clue about her market. Perhaps it wouldn't have been such a bad fit in Britain, which we'd recently left. I don't know.

We'd emigrated to Canada and I didn't have a job, so my husband suggested that I write that book I'd always been meaning to. So I did, in longhand, it a big lined book. In time I typed some of it, on foolscap in purple ink and italic font. Here it is. I'd forgotten that back then Nicholas was Nicholas Moreton!

But I wrote it, and in it I created Nicholas and his group of friends from Harrow called The Company of Rogues. Well, they originally called themselves The Harrow Band, but I persuaded them it sounded too musical. As there were twelve of them they tried for something along the lines of the Knights of the Round Table, but Nicholas squashed that. They weren't noble heroes; they were formed as a mutual protection gang.

You can read more about how the Rogues ended up in print fifteen years later by clicking here.

More suitably titled An Arranged Marriage (but because of a rape -- you have been warned) the first Company of Rogues book was published in 1991 with a lovely cover that portrayed Nicholas and Eleanor very well. It was marketed as a traditional Regency romance, but was more of a Regency historical, with sex scenes and some strong elements.

Even so, it was a finalist for the RWA RITA award for Regency Romance, and won Romantic Times's Best Historical Novel of the year.

It's now available in print and e-book, but in my opinion the covers don't match that first one. I had control of the e-book cover and I'm not satisfied with it, but I couldn't find any male cover models that looked like Nicholas.

The new print edition below, by the original publisher, is pretty but doesn't fit the book at all.

Any opinions?

The cool news of the day, however, is that I don't have to try to sell you on my Regency Rogues, because right now UK readers can get the e-book of An Arranged Marriage free for Nook or Kindle. Click on the link and grab it quickly, for this won't last long. Of course I hope you're hooked.

In addition, the Kindle edition of a later Rogues book, The Dragon's Bride, which is published by my New York publisher, is supposed to reduce to $2.99 US$ today. That price should ripple around the world, but the ways of Zon are sometimes mysterious. I don't see the reduction yet, but if you'd like a copy, watch for it.

The Dragon's Bride, set on the smuggling coast of Devon, is the direct precursor to my new book, A Shocking Delight, which will be out in three days -- my first new Rogues book in seven years. With this publication I believe my Company of Rogues is the longest running, still live, Regency series, so I raise a glass of fine white port to them.

You can read a free sample here.

If you miss this special price, I recommend buying the e-edition of an omnibus called Three Heroes, which contains a novella, The Demon's Mistress, plus The Dragon's Bride and The Devil's Heiress for a really good price.

There's a short video about the first five Rogues books here.

For a complete list of the Company of Rogues in order, click here.
For a menu of all my books and novellas in e-editions, click here.

Are you a Rogues fan already? Which is your favourite book?

If not, will you get your free copy of An Arranged Marriage and see?

Do you like romance series based on a group of friends?

Jo