Guest Post with Maggie Robinson and Giveaway

Please welcome back the super awesome Maggie Robinson. Maggie is celebrating the release of her newest book, In the Heart of the Highlander and has stopped by to chat.

Maggie Robinson is a former teacher, library clerk and mother of four who woke up in the middle of the night, absolutely compelled to create the perfect man and use as many adverbs as possible doing so. A transplanted New Yorker, she lives with her not-quite perfect husband in Maine, where the cold winters are ideal for staying inside and writing hot historical romances.

Places to find Maggie:

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Dani, thanks so much for having me here! This is a banner year for me, with four books and one novella in an anthology out. Of course, that means I have to promote them, and for someone as shy as I am, sometimes that’s hard. I want to say something different and unique each time, but it’s been pretty easy with In the Heart of the Highlander since I am so in love with Mary and Alec! Elsewhere I’ve spoken about the inspiration for the setting, the opportunities for women in the early 1900s, the changes that heralded modernization (Jazz! Phones! Typewriters! Cars! Impressionism!) and today I’m going to talk about clothes.

In the Heart of the Highlander is the second in the Ladies Unlaced series, so of course corsets are involved. The preferred Edwardian figure looks rather odd to us today. Corset construction shaped the body into an‘s’ curve—one’s bosom stood out in front, the booty in the back. Tiny waists were deemed ideal and doctors warned that some women were corseted so tightly that they scrambled their internal organs! Delicate feet meant some ladies jammed their toes into shoes far too small for them, but hats…the bigger the better!

And you didn’t just get dressed once a day if you were a member of society. There were tea gowns, walking dresses, visiting gowns, dinner gowns, and specific costumes for young women to play and watch sports in. Horse-racing, bathing, boating, archery, tennis, bicycling, croquet and golf were popular. It must have been hard not to trip on one’s skirts running after a ball!

The heroine of Highlander has been masquerading as an old woman for four years. All she’s worn is black, so when she gets the chance to dress her age, she goes shopping—at second-hand clothing stores. She’s never gone to fancy dinner parties or dances before, but she knows what’s required:

“She knew her dinner gown was exquisite, a glove-tight column of ecru satin dipped low and accented with spangled bows at her cleavage and shoulders. A bib of cobweb-fine ecru lace stitched to the bodice reached to and ruffled her throat, covering her freckles yet projecting an air of nudity. She had paste yellow diamond clips in her hair, and a mother-of-pearl fan which she used to fend off the heat from equally elegantly-dressed bodies in the room. Mary looked like an heiress, and only she knew she’d purchased the dress at a second-hand clothing shop. The train had been stained, but it had been a matter of minutes to chop it off and hem it.”

See the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900s_in_fashion for more information and images. Alice Roosevelt (daughter of Teddy) and her spectacular hat is lovely. The other vintage photo is of my grandmother and her sisters! Do you think you would have been happy dressed in Edwardian finery? Do you have any luck at thrift and resale shops? I’ll give away a signed copy of In the Heart of the Highlander or In the Arms of the Heiress, or any book from my backlist!

Ever since Mary Evensong’s elderly Aunt Mim got sick, Mary’s masqueraded as the owner of the Evensong Agency, finding housemaids, husbands and solving pesky problems for the peerage. Someday she’d like to shake off her silvery wig and spectacles and be the young woman she truly is. But desperate clients are waiting for “Mrs. Evensong” at the office.

Like a scandalous Scottish baron. Honor forbids Lord Alec Raeburn from explaining the suspicious circumstances surrounding his wife’s death, but he knows who’s responsible. He just needs to hire an actress to lure the scoundrel into a trap.

After listening to Raeburn’s story—and seeing him in his kilt—Mary knows the perfect person.

Letting her red hair down, she heads off to the Scottish Highlands to pose as a seductress, but soon finds herself with more than her virtue at stake in a tug-of-war between two powerful men. She could wind up in danger—or in the heart of the highlander.

Purchase: | Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository |

Check out the Ladies Unlaced series:

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Check out what's up for grabs.

Up For Grabs:

• 1 copy of either In the Heart of the Highlander or In the Arms of the Heiress

To Enter: 

• Please answer Maggie's question: Do you think you would have been happy dressed in Edwardian finery? Do you have any luck at thrift and resale shops?
• Please fill out the Rafflecopter form.

Good Luck! 

Special thanks to Maggie Robinson for sponsoring this giveaway.

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