Roses in Red Wax: A Scottish Regency Historical Romance
About this ebook
1820 Scotland. Amidst the smoke-choked alleys of Glasgow and the untamed beauty of the Highlands, a spellbinding tale of love and rebellion unfolds.
Jane Stuart has lost everything. Her betrothed, her ancestral castle, and her cherished orchard—her life’s work—have all been ripped away. Now, exiled and adrift in the cold fog of Glasgow, she's numb to the weight of her grief, resigned to a desolate future shrouded in loneliness and grey.
But fate has a different plan.
Percy Sommerbell is a musician, a free spirit who holds nothing but disdain for his industrialist father. But when familial duty forces Percy to travel to Scotland, he’s confronted with a painful truth—a truth that threatens to unravel the very fabric of his carefree existence. His family’s money, the fortune that funds his hedonistic enjoyment of all life’s pleasures, is generated by the suffering of children in his father's mills.
In the midst of Glasgow's smoke and shadows, Percy encounters Jane, a mysterious Highland beauty whose sad eyes and luscious curves promise both distraction from his guilt and inspiration for his music. Against all reason, Jane falls under Percy's spell. But when the mills become the first spark in a violent radical insurgency, their budding connection faces a perilous trial beyond anything they could have imagined.
“A beautifully told story that perfectly blends the sweet, tender emotions of love, the tragic pain of loss, and the healing powers of love and acceptance with the realism of the world.” - Reader review
Roses in Red Wax is the first book in the Darnalay Castle Series, although all of the books in the series can be read as standalones. For fans of Bree Wolf, Lily Baldwin and Julia Brannan, this novel is the perfect mixture of realistic history and heart-wrenching romance. It contains strong language and several spicy open-door scenes.
Ratings and reviews
About the author
Louise Mayberry writes books set in the early industrial age—a volatile time of radicals and romantics, capitalists and aristocrats. Her novels savor the connections between the past and present, tell stories rather than tropes and feature heroes (and heroines) who prefer to be called by their given names rather than labeled as alphas or cinnamon rolls.
Louise lives with her family in the Upper Midwest where she savors the summers and survives the winters. When not writing, she can be found wandering in her garden, attempting to talk her her kids into eating healthy food, or curled up in a pool of sunshine with a cup of tea and a good book.
