Readers will find themselves charmed by this historical romance of a woman dreading becoming a governess and the secretive plan she has that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Keep reading to get a tempting taste of My Dearest Miss Fairfax by Jeanette Watts, and learn more about the historical romance genre through the question I posed to the author, then stop by to learn even more about this book by visiting the other sites hosting this tour. In honor of this Austenesque story make sure to fill out the form below for the chance to win a handmade tea cozy too!
My question for Ms. Watts....In your opinion, what draws readers to the romance genre and how has this fueled the success of shows like “Bridgerton“?
JW: I would love to see a graph that charts the rise and fall of romance sales at the same time as the rise and fall of socio-economic stability! This a purely unscientific, unquantified opinion of my own with no research to back it, but I bet one of the most significant contributing factors to romances is the need for some escapism.
Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals were very popular in the 1930s in the middle of the Great Depression, and their movies NEVER talk about hard times and bread lines. Today, here we are with political upheaval, looming catastrophic climate change, an economy that is supposed to be strong, but most people are working three part time jobs with no benefits to try and keep a roof over their heads, and healthcare is crumbling away to a distant memory of when a doctor spent half an hour in the exam room with you, and there’s a war halfway across the world that has everyone watching – and painting things in their front yards yellow and blue. Let’s face it: it’s terrifying.
What are we supposed to do to try and make the world a better place, much less better our own lives and the lives of those immediately around us? We all do what little things we can that are under our control, but after that, we can feel a bit helpless. Like people in the Great Depression. So we can either escape into drugs or alcohol or other self-destructive things, or we can find a happy place. For many of us, reading is our happy place, and for huge, huge numbers of us, we specifically like reading romances.
What could possibly be happier than a romance? There’s a reassuring solidity to the social rules of times past. There’s something endlessly delicious about sexual tensions, yet there’s a safety that comes from knowing that, eventually, there will be a satisfying resolution of tensions and a happy ending. Yes, we know that real life doesn’t tend to work out like a romance novel. In real life, the handsome prince, or duke, or other rich guy, doesn’t exist, or he’s a nasty jerk, and by the way, none of us real people will ever be in these situations. That doesn’t matter. This is our happy place and we are living vicariously through heroines who are smarter, or skinnier, or taller, or shorter, or blonder, or darker, than ourselves.
As for the television adaptations of our favorite novels? Let’s face it. It’s fun to look at pretty people. In pretty clothes. Who are cavorting in pretty gardens. Or riding pretty horses. It’s all part of our happy place.
How much would you gamble for true love? Jane Fairfax dreaded her future as a governess. But genteel solitude seemed her fate. Then handsome, charming, rich Frank Churchill asked to marry her – IF his rich aunt agreed. If their secret engagement was discovered, Jane would be ruined. Frank seemed worth the risk; but the stakes got higher when the aunt refused her consent!
EXCERPT:
This was, perhaps, the hardest of all the things Jane had to face in keeping her secret. She wished she could simply tell Mrs Elton to stop looking for a situation for her, because she was not going to be a governess. She would be marrying Mr Frank Churchill, and be helping him take care of Mr and Mrs Churchill, until the time they had their own children to take care of – and find a governess for.
Unable to simply stop Mrs Elton’s intentions of helping by telling her the truth, she had to settle for the same excuses and vagaries she had been using over and over again, assuring her she would not at present commit to any engagements with any families. Mrs Elton refused to respect her wishes, and pressed her for the authorization to write to her sister on the morrow to accept.
Jane was uncomfortably aware that everyone in the party had now stopped talking, in order to listen to them arguing. It was time for a strategic retreat. “We have been sitting here so long, now, our legs are going to get stiff,” she stood up. “Shall we walk?” If Mr Knightley had been a gentleman with any manners, he would have long since interrupted Mrs Elton’s clearly unwelcome advances with a distraction. She appealed to his duties as a host. “Would Mr Knightley do us the honor of showing us the gardens? All the gardens? We can see how extensive and perfectly cared for his strawberry garden is. I should like to see the whole extent of the other gardens.”
Unable to simply stop Mrs Elton’s intentions of helping by telling her the truth, she had to settle for the same excuses and vagaries she had been using over and over again, assuring her she would not at present commit to any engagements with any families. Mrs Elton refused to respect her wishes, and pressed her for the authorization to write to her sister on the morrow to accept.
Jane was uncomfortably aware that everyone in the party had now stopped talking, in order to listen to them arguing. It was time for a strategic retreat. “We have been sitting here so long, now, our legs are going to get stiff,” she stood up. “Shall we walk?” If Mr Knightley had been a gentleman with any manners, he would have long since interrupted Mrs Elton’s clearly unwelcome advances with a distraction. She appealed to his duties as a host. “Would Mr Knightley do us the honor of showing us the gardens? All the gardens? We can see how extensive and perfectly cared for his strawberry garden is. I should like to see the whole extent of the other gardens.”
AUTHOR INFO:
Jeanette Watts has written three Jane Austen-inpsired novels, two other works of historical fiction, stage melodramas, television commercials, and humorous essays for Kindle Vella.
When she is not writing, she is either dancing, sewing, or walking around in costume at a Renaissance festival talking in a funny accent and offering to find new ladies’ maids for everyone she finds in fashionably-ripped jeans.
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI’ll be hunting down this book! As a Jane Austen fan, it sounds fascinating! Good luck with it!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jackie! When you’ve had a chance to read it, please go back and leave a review! Just 2 or 3 sentences about what you liked or didn’t like would be SO valuable!! ❤️
DeleteSorry, I didn't mean to publish that as anonymous...Jeanette
DeleteThank you so much for the thought-provoking question, and for having me on your blog today!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a very interesting book. Great cover!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sherry! My husband designed four different covers that readers voted on, the winning design was the one he had wanted to do from the start. Jeanette
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