It's (past) release day!

Copperplate Books
August 08, 2024

Hi everyone!

Yesterday was The Picture of Desire’s release day! And I am… exhausted.

Hah. (But also seriously. Thankful, happy, but knackered.)

This book has been one of the most difficult to write, in part because it deals with a lot of complex issues and deep-seated trauma, but also because neither of its characters are your usual Regency fare. Louisa is challenging because she does so much growth—from the shallow (yet kind) girl she was, to the hardened woman she became, and then finally to a place where she can open up to love once more.

Henry had his own faults: he put perceived duty before happiness, both his own and others’, and carried the burdens of those consequences. Oh and he’s another man who thinks (initially) that it’s his way or the highway. We all know someone like that, right?

So, as one reviewer stated:

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With seemingly insurmountable obstacles, they navigate a slow and painful path toward forgiveness and trust.

Slow and painful is the word. This is a slow burn, folks. Although as other reviewers have said:

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The spice, when it hits, is definitely worth the wait!

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I enjoyed the sexual tension and the back-and-forth between the main characters

So don’t worry, I haven’t neglected the spice. They just need to build up to it.

This was a hard book to write, and for some people, it will probably be hard to read (I’ve had some readers get back to me to say as much!). Theirs is not a light, happy, fluffy story of two people finding each other again. But, for all its difficulties and the unreasonable amount of angst they caused both each other and me, I have given my heart and soul into this book, and I adore every word. And I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me make its launch so special.

If you haven’t got it, you can read it on Kindle Unlimited!

Enough about that… What’s next?

Looking forward, I have my Curves & Cravats release, two other C&C August releases by two other amazing authors (yay!) and two other promos I’m part of! If you love Steamy Regency Romances, check out this amazing promo with a bunch of your favourite steamy authors.

Or, if you’re always chasing that new high, why not check out these historical new releases!

I’ll be back soon to scream about Caroline and George and how much I love this body-positivity, sexual liberation novella of mine, but for now, enjoy this fun quote from it:

“My lady,” her maid said from behind the door. “The gentleman has arrived.”

Finally. As she waited for his quick step, she told her traitorous heart to calm and fluffed her hair, looking critically at her reflection. At five-and-thirty, she was no longer in her prime, but she prided herself that her looks had lasted reasonably well—better than she might have hoped at the tender age of twenty. The silken robe she wore drew attention to her breasts and the shadowed dip between them. In the flickering candlelight, the silk also caught on the rounded swell of her lower stomach, and she ran a hand across it.

When compared to the natural slimness of some of her peers, she had once been self-conscious of her plumpness. But as she had grown into a woman, she had welcomed her curves, understood what an asset they were. Now she loved every soft line of her body: her full breasts, the creases in her side, the way her stomach rolled when she bent.

How could one ever be a connoisseur of beauty and not learn to love the soft roundness of the female form?

The door opened and George stepped into her dressing room, his gaze running lazily over her figure. She met his eyes in the mirror, thoughts of her own body fading as she came to consider thoughts of his.

She smiled. “Hello, George.”

“I have not stopped thinking about you since we parted,” he said roughly, and it was as though his words ran fingertips along her skin. She shivered. “I think it might be madness.”

“I didn’t know Hatchards could inspire such passion.”

He came to stand behind her, his face at the gilded top of her mirror. Both fair, his broadness perfectly matched her plumpness. The sight gratified her a tad too much, and she turned, letting her robe fall open. His gaze, predictably, travelled downwards.

“Here. I brought you something,” he said, and draped a pink topaz necklace around her neck, the coolness of the metal soothing the flush that had arisen at the sight of him. “A beautiful necklace for a beautiful lady.”

Until next time!

Big love,

Terri x