Blinded By Grace (Cotillion Ball Series)
In 1858 New York City, Halwyn
Fitzpatrick thinks he's off the hook for attendance at the annual Cotillion
Ball. He has no sister to shepherd down the grand staircase this year and no
real desire to go through the rituals of courtship and betrothal himself.
Besides, he'll know the right girl when he sees her, especially now that he has
new spectacles. But his mother has other plans for him. At twenty-seven years
of age, her son is in dire need of a wife.
Grace Wagner needs a husband
by July in order to inherit the trust her father has left for her. Her
stepfather, though, has plans for the money that don't include Grace, and the
last thing he wants is for her to find a husband before she turns twenty-one,
thereby fulfilling the terms of the trust.
She's been in love with Halwyn since
she was thirteen, but he hasn't noticed her at any of the balls they've been at
over the years. With the aid of his new glasses, he spies Grace from across the
room and they share a dance. Grace decides to present him with a business
proposition that will satisfy them both. But can a clueless knight in shining
armor and a desperate damsel in distress find a way to turn this marriage of
convenience into something more?
Excerpt:
Amazon best-selling author
Becky Lower has traveled the United States in search of great settings for her
novels. She loves to write about two people finding each other and falling in
love amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it in America on a covered wagon
headed west or in Regency England. Her Cotillion Ball Series features the nine
children from an upscale New York family prior to and during the Civil War. Her
first Regency, A Regency Yuletide, received the Crowned Heart and has been
nominated for the prestigious RONE award from InD’Tale Magazine. A regular
contributor to USA Today’s Happy Ever After section, her books have been
featured in the column on ten separate occasions.
Facebook–http://facebook.com/becky.lower
Twitter–http://twitter.com/BeckyLower1
BookBub– https://www.bookbub.com/authors/becky-lower
Becky’s blog: http://beckylowerauthor.blogspot.com
What’s the first book
you remember reading?
I read everything I could get my hands on from an early age,
but the first ones I can remember were the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and the
Trixie Belden series. I guess that’s why I’ve written a series myself. My
Cotillion Ball series is set in America in the years leading up to and into the
Civil War, so I tip my hat to Ms. Wilder.
If you could
interview one person (and it doesn’t have to be a writer) who would it be?
I’ve been fascinated by Jedediah Smith for years now. In
fact, I credit him for starting me on my writing journey. I saw a program about
his fascinating life and I was so disappointed with the way his life ended. I
wanted to write a new ending to his life. I’ve written the story about five
different ways now, but it’s still under the bed.
If you were given a
chance to travel to the past where would you go and specifically why?
I’d love to have attended a Rocky Mountain Rendevous in 1825
or so. Maybe I could have met Jed Smith there.
What is your favorite
tradition from your childhood that you would love to pass on or did pass on to
your children?
We didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up, and I
come from a large family, so food was always scarce. Except at Thanksgiving.
That was the one day when I could have seconds. And thirds, if I wanted. So
now, as an adult, whenever two or more of my siblings get together, we
celebrate with a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner, regardless of what the
calendar says. This year, we had three generations together to celebrate the
holiday early. And we passed on the tradition that the date on the calendar
doesn’t matter. It’s the people you choose to celebrate with.
Tea or Coffee? And
how do you take it?
Coffee, please, with a dollop of cream. I’ve never been able
to drink it black.
What will always make
you smile, even on a bad day?
I moved to North Carolina last year and there’s one road
that I try to take whenever I have to go to town. It’s a tree tunnel, with
towering pine trees on either side of the road, so close to the road you can
almost touch them from your car. Whenever I take it, regardless of how my day’s
going, it makes me smile.
Becky is graciously offering two copies of her Cotillion Ball books Blinding by Grace and The Duplicitous Debutante. To enter the drawing, leave a comment and your email so we can contact you.
If you could go back in time and meet someone, who would it be and what would ask them?
As we leave the long, cold tundra of Minnesota for the warmth of Las Vegas, for our oldest sons wedding, I feel both both joy and a bit of sadness. 
