Congratulations to Caroline Warfield on the release of her lovely The Price of Glory. It has all the elements this reader enjoys: a determined woman busy with her own life who falls in love when she does not in the least wish to; a kind and capable hero who is decidedly not in the market for a bride, adventure and danger, travel, a couple of usefully evil villains, even a cameo appearance by a favourite Warfield friend from previous books. (If I may make so bold as to claim His Grace as a friend.)
Warfield always delivers, and is a one-click buy for me, but when I found she was writing a story set in Egypt and Nubia, with a hero on a quest for artifacts, I started counting down the days. I have been intrigued by that ancient civilisation since I was a small girl. I wasn’t disappointed. This book is a five star for me, and I strongly recommend it.
The Price of Glory continues the family saga begun in the Regency in the Dangerous series and continued into the Victorian age in Children of Empire and now Children of Empire: The Seekers.
A splash of Indiana Jones and a dash of Amelia Peabody in an adventure all its own: The Price of Glory.
The Price of Glory tells the story of one man’s pursuit of knowledge that will bring him fame and respect, only to find it upended by a woman determined to serve the people of Egypt. Neither has any idea where this journey will take them when they embark down the Nile toward Nubia and its mysteries, ancient and modern.
Richard Mallet comes to Egypt with dreams of academic glory. He will be the one to unravel the secrets of the ancient Kushite language. Armed with license to dig, he sets out for Meroë, where the Blue Nile meets the White. He has no room in his life for dalliance or entanglements, and he certainly doesn’t expect to face insurrection and unrest.
Analiese Cloutier seeks no glory—only the eradication of disease among the Egyptian women and children of Khartoum. She has no interest whatsoever in romantic nonsense and will not allow notions about a lady’s proper role to interfere with her work. She doesn’t expect to have that work manipulated for political purposes.
Neither expects to be enchanted by the amorous power of moonlight in the ruins of Karnak, or to be forced to marry before they can escape revolution. Will their flight north take them safely to Cairo? If it does, can they build something real out of their shattered dreams?
Preorder now for delivery on 7 July: Amazon US
Excerpt
Kisses can subjugate. They can enslave. They can humiliate. Ana knew these things from past experience. But this—this tender exploration of her person—lifted her up, left her breathless, cherished, and wanting. She understood now that kisses could seduce. Coupled with the gentle touch of his hands she knew with bone deep awareness how easily he could do it.
I should stop this.
His hands grasped her waist, and he lifted her effortlessly to perch on a fallen block of stone, so that their faces were even. She put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself, and he gave a gentle tug so that she fell forward into his arms, her feet still firmly planted on the edge of the block. “Better,” he murmured, planting a swift kiss on her chin. “My neck ached from bending.” He began spreading those gentle seductive kisses along her jaw line.
She knew she ought to put a stop to their lovemaking, but she began to follow his lead, moving her mouth to the edge of his and over to his ear. Somewhere deep inside a familiar voice warned her; men come, take what they wish, and leave. She ignored it.
Children of Empire, The Seekers
Raised by a pair of scholars absorbed in the classical world of Greece and Rome, the Mallet siblings set out to make their own way in the expanding Victorian empire. Each one seeks to dirty their hands in the search for more than knowledge—glory, respect, and riches.
Charles Wheatly, Duke of Murnane, accepts an unofficial fact finding mission to the East India Company’s enclave in Canton, China on behalf of the queen. He anticipates intrigue, international tensions, and an outlet for his grief over the death of his young son. He isn’t entirely surprised when he also encounters the troublesome offspring of his mentor, the Duke of Sudbury, but the profound love he discovers for the determined young woman is unforeseen and untimely. Charles certainly doesn’t expect to also face his troubled marriage in such an exotic locale. The appearance of his estranged wife in the company of their enemy throws the entire enterprise into conflict, and tensions boil over when the woman he loves is put at risk by his wife’s scheming—and the beginnings of the First Opium War.
Award winning author Caroline Warfield has been many things: traveler, librarian, poet, raiser of children, bird watcher, Internet and Web services manager, conference speaker, indexer, tech writer, genealogist—even a nun. She reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows where she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and the far-flung corners of the British Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart.