Gina Rae Mitchell

The Widow Wore Plaid by Jenna Jaxon (The Widows Club) | $20 Giveaway, Excerpt, Author Discussion & Review

A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.

Book Details

The Widow Wore Plaid by Jenna Jaxon
Series: The Widows' Club #6
Published by Zebra on 12/28/2021
Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 352

The Battle of Waterloo made them widows, but each has found new happiness. And Jane, Lady John Tarkington, intends to keep her freedom, even if love—and one particular gentleman—are determined to claim her heart...

It is a truth rarely acknowledged—at least in public—that a wealthy widow is free to pursue a great many adventures. For two years, Jane has privately enjoyed her independence. Why should she remarry, even when the gentleman proposing is as wonderful as Gareth, Lord Kinellan? She entreats him never to ask her again. But as her Widows' Club friends—now all joyfully remarried—gather at Castle Kinellan, Jane begins to wonder if stubbornness has led her to make a terrible mistake...
Kinellan needs a wife to give him an heir, and he wants that wife to be Jane. They are perfect together in every way, yet she continually refuses him. Just as he is on the point of convincing her, a series of accidents befall Gareth and point to an enemy in their midst. He has promised Jane a passionate future filled with devotion, but can he keep them both alive long enough to secure it?

Source: Goddess Fish Promotions, Received from the author or publisher for review.

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Excerpt from The Widow Wore Plaid

Throwing up his hands, he groaned and sagged against the wall, his banyan sliding half off him. “Have your way with me, woman. I surrender myself into your hands. Do with me what you will and I swear I will enjoy it.”

Panting, she stepped back from him, seeing the sculpted muscular form, strong arms, and dark eyes glazed with smoldering desire as if for the first time. This man wanted her or had wanted her to be his wife for a long time. No one would ever make her feel this way again, no matter how many lovers she might take. She could look for the rest of her life and not find a man as kind or generous or loving as he. And she had all but thrown his love away with both hands. The revelation devastated her and she hung her head.

“Jane?” Kinellan straightened, peering into her face.

Sobbing, she threw her arms around him, laying her head on his broad chest, the only place she wanted it to be. Tears pricked her eyes. The fast beat of his heart beneath her ear should have given comfort, but did not, for her own heart was tearing asunder. The trickle of tears became a flood.

“Darling.” He slipped his arms around her, cradling her close. “What is wrong?”

“I…I don’t want to leave.”

“Sweetheart.” He cupped her chin and turned her face up to his. A thundery frown marred his brow. “Who has asked you to leave? Was it Aunt Prudence? Fiona?”

“N…no.” Jane sniffed, trying to blink back the tears and regain her composure.

“Someone else?” His frown grew darker.

She nodded. “You.”

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Purchase Links for The Widow Wore Plaid

Amazon     Bookshop/IndieBound     Kobo

AppleBooks/iTunes     The Book Depository

Waterstones     GoogleBooks 

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My thoughts on The Widow Wore Plaid

While The Widow Wore Plaid is the sixth book in Jenna Jaxon’s Widows Club series, it’s the first book I’ve read. Occasionally, I felt like there was a bit I might be missing from the earlier books, but it in no way diminished my enjoyment of the tale.

Historical fiction is a favorite genre of mine. Set it in Scotland, and I’m in!

The book has incredibly described settings; whether it’s a ballroom, estate gardens, gowns, or even a rustic forgotten hunting lodge, the author excels at putting the reader in the middle of the scene.

Jane seems to have her life figured out. After losing her husband in the battle of Waterloo, she has settled into widowhood and is quite happy. Love and marriage will only complicate things by taking control of her finances and life out of her hands. However, she begins to question whether she was wrong to discourage the offers of marriage from her lover, Lord Kinellan.

Gareth, Lord Kinellan, is a perfect hero for Jane. He respects her wishes yet knows there is more for them if they acknowledge their love. He sets out to win her over. Along the way, there are murder attempts and mysteries. This book certainly has enough plot to keep you turning page after page.

There were occasional instances that pulled me out of the story, but certainly not enough to take away from my recommendation of The Widow Wore Plaid. I can’t wait to read more from Jenna Jaxon.

 

I received a copy of the book for the tour. This review is my honest, unbiased opinion.

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I love my Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription. So many books, so little time!

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Author Discussion

What a Sight to See: Sightseeing in The Widow Wore Plaid

One of the plot points in The Widow Wore Plaid is that the hero, Kinellan, plans to steal his soon-to-be wife away from her friends for a day. In order to accomplish this, Kinellan arranges for the company to go sightseeing to several local places so they will be out of the way while he and Jane spend the day together. A great subterfuge, but as the author, I had to figure out where the heck these people were going to go.

I’d been to Scotland before, actually visited Inverness, which isn’t far from where the fictional Castle Kinellan is located. But that was literally back in the Stone Age, and as I was writing the book during a global pandemic, I had to rely almost completely on the internet to find interesting spots for my characters to visit. This is actually not difficult in some cases. When I wrote the first book, To Woo A Wicked Widow, I managed to find an actual walking tour of the village where a major part of the book is set and it was invaluable for creating an outing for the guests of her heroine’s house party.

So I started digging into the area and came up with several places of interest or beauty that guests during the Regency would likely have visited. The first was the Heights of Brae, four huge stones that are all that is left of an ancient cairn. The second sight was Knockferrel, an ancient vitrified fort, meaning a fort built of stone that was set ablaze and the fire turned the stone to glass. Not the most exciting of places according to our modern tastes, but Regency folk were keen to see as much of nature and unknown parts as they could (remember, there were no photographs of such things, only paintings and those would be scarce).

Once I located these sites, I had to find pictures via Google Images, Wikimedia Commons, and Deposit Photos, so I could describe the sites and hopefully do them justice in making them interesting not only to my characters but to my readers as well. This was not all that easy, as these sites are fairly obscure. Most of the pictures I found were from hikers who had hiked around those sites and posted pictures. Therefore, the pictures didn’t always give me the information I needed to describe the places specifically, but “seek and ye shall find” was my motto, and I ended up being able to create the perfect outing for my characters.

I plan to head back to Scotland this coming summer and I will do my own sightseeing tour of places in this book like Loch Kinellan, Rogie Falls (where Kinellan took Jane), and the Heights of Brae and Knockferrel. So watch for my pictures! I’m sure they will tell a different story than most.

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Purchase The Widow Wore Plaid online from a local book store.

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Giveaway!

Jenna Jaxon will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Official Tour Page

Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!

Full Tour Schedule

January 10: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Intervi
January 11: Mythical Books
January 12: All the Ups and Downs
January 13: Literary Gold
January 14: The Key of Love
January 17: Romance Novel Giveaways
January 18: Lynn’s Romance Enthusiasm
January 19: Christine Young
January 20: Viviana MacKade
January 21: Gina Rae Mitchell – review
January 24: Westveil Publishing
January 25: Jazzy Book Reviews
January 26: Readers Roost
January 27: Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books! – review
January 28: It’s Raining Books
January 31: Dawn’s Reading Nook
February 1: Long and Short Reviews
February 2: Fabulous and Brunette
February 3: Harlie’s Books – review
February 4: Booklover-Sue