Wicked Wager by Beverley Eikli ~ GIVEAWAY ~ EXCERPT

Wicked Wager

by Beverley Eikli

Beverley will be awarding $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner during the tour. Please use the RaffleCopter below to enter. Remember you may increase your chances of winning by visiting the other tour stops. You may find those locations here. 

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BLURB:

WICKED WAGER

A dissolute rake, a virtuous lady, a ruthless society beauty, and a missing plantation owner with secrets – just another day in Georgian England…

1780

Wealthy Jamaican plantation owner, Harry Carstairs has disappeared – and everyone wants to know where he is…

Celeste Rosington knows her place in society, and while she may not be overjoyed at her upcoming wedding to her detached cousin, Raphael, she nonetheless hopes the marriage will be successful. When Raphael asks her for her help to save Harry, she agrees. But her decision costs her more than she knows…

Celeste’s clandestine visit to Harry’s home is witnessed, and her connection to Harry misconstrued. Harry’s secrets put Celeste into more danger than even Raphael understands, and throws her into the path of the ruthless, cunning, beautiful Lady Busselton and the dissolute, dangerous Lord Peregrine.

Raphael is invested in keeping Harry alive. Lady Busselton is invested in keeping him quiet. Lord Peregrine is invested in anything that staves off boredom. And Celeste is becoming increasingly invested in Lord Peregrine.

After all, what resistance does an innocent young woman have against something so deliciously wicked?

GENRE: Historical Romantic Intrigue

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Read My Review of Wicked Wager

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EXCERPT:

‘It’s time to take a turn about the gardens. Come, Celeste.’ With an imperious nod of her head Celeste’s aunt rose and put her hand on her niece’s forearm. ‘You are young and beautiful with the world at your feet, if you only knew how to engineer matters to your own pleasing. Do not make too much of your objections to Raphael. If he’s formed other interests, disregard them. It’s a wife’s duty to turn a blind eye, but do not forget that it also bolsters your own position when can follow your own interests after the line is secured.’

Celeste cast a horrified look at the older woman but was prevented from responding by the arrival of Lady Cowdril, who had left her indoors guests.

‘The weather is smiling on us, ladies. Come, let us walk. Cowdril is with the gentlemen, no doubt settling up after last night. I’ve been assured the damage is not too dire, though my husband declares he’s determined to win back what he lost at the whist table. Not that I have any great hopes on the matter, especially with the arrival of our new guest. Lord Peregrine is a notable player.’

Celeste froze. Lord Peregrine. The brother of the woman Harry Carstairs was to marry? Here? Her heart began to hammer and her throat closed up. She’d never met the gentleman who was considered a prize catch and a notable philanderer, and she never wanted to. Especially not now, for what if his sister had indeed recognised Celeste as the woman who’d rushed into the night with her betrothed, Harry Carstairs?


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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Beverley Eikli wrote her first romance when she was seventeen but discovered that killing her heroine on the last page was death to her burgeoning romance writing career.

She became a journalist, occupied for many years with life’s newsworthy - but often, unhappy - events until romance finally trumped after she met a handsome Norwegian bush pilot around a camp fire in Botswana’s beautiful Okavango Delta where she was running a safari lodge for a couple of months.

Unhappily, Beverley was due to return home the following day to marry her Australian boyfriend.

Happily, though, that fell through and after a whirlwind eight-month courtship based on regular 18-page letters between Botswana and South Australia, Beverley returned to live with her handsome Norwegian bush pilot in a thatched cottage in the middle of a mopane forest beside a flood plain of lurking wild animals, marrying her handsome bush pilot in Norway shortly afterwards.

Twenty happy years—and 12 countries later—Beverley is now back in Australia living a more conventional life with her husband, two daughters and a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy the size of a pony in a pretty country town an hour north of Melbourne.

She writes traditional Regency romance as Beverley Eikli and sensual historical romance as Beverley Oakley.

LINKS:  

Website: http://www.beverleyeikli.com/

Blog: http://beverleyeikli.blogspot.com.au/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeverleyOakley

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/beverley.eikli

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