FREE this week, LORD ASHLEY'S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI! Also a LYON you want to take home with you!

The Lyon who’ll Always Have Paris
She left him without a word. He would take her back in an instant…if he only knew where to find her.

Years ago in a crowded Paris boulevard, Charles Winters scooped up Blythe Dandridge to save her from a runaway horse. He took her home, tended her scrapes and cuts—and showed her the true meaning of kindness. She promptly fell in love with him.

But war invaded their lives—and Charles had to leave France and planned to take Blythe Dandridge with him.

But as he stood for hours in the rain waiting for her, he realized he waited in vain.

Now in a crowded London street, Charles acts on instinct once again. He rushes out to save an older woman and a little girl. When he offers them tea, they insist on hosting him. The woman who comes to them to exclaim over the near catastrophe in the street is none other then Blythe.

The woman he loved in Paris is still alive. But she tells him she is about to marry a man whom Bessie Dove-Lyon has arranged for her.

Yet for a man who believes that all problems have good solutions, Charles will never believe that what he had in Paris was all he would ever have of the woman he loved.

Will Bessie bow to Charles’s plan?

And can Charles find a way to save Blythe from the catastrophe that took her from him years ago?

Because he had always had lovely memories of Paris, but he knows that this extraordinary act he does now is right and good, and it will be right today, and for all their tomorrows.
https://www.amazon.com/Lyon-wholl-Always-Have-Paris-ebook/dp/B0HP44SVPB

"We'll always have Paris, Charles...but I must marry another!" And here's why!

BUY LINK: https://amzn.to/4kowkfM

     As ever, in THE LYON WHO’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS, I bring you real history in this romance.
    You learn that Blythe’s mother was French and the daughter of an aristocrat. But the estate was absorbed by the National Assembly during the Terror.            Though she and her male cousin on her maternal side visit Paris during the Peace of Amiens and appeal to the Consulate to get the family’s lands returned, the properties are not.
    This is true of the majority of those French who returned to France during that period (and others). They failed at seeing their estates returned.
Why?
Confiscating them was largely an act of revenge upon the upper classes by revolutionaries. But it was also an economic maneuver. 
How so?
The government declared all aristocrats’ estates forfeit. They were to be for sale and the proceeds were to go to government treasury in lieu of taxing the public.
This did not happen.
Why?
Bankers and prospectors bought up the lands, chateaux and the large houses in Paris (hôtels particulier), took the furnishings and contents. They said they would sell the properties and items, then give the profits to the government. Most did not. Those properties they kept for themselves, became the basis of their own wealth.
Furthermore, these financiers banded together in groups which colluded to defraud the government of any rightful due. One such group was called the  Black Band (La bande noire). Another was a group of bankers, many previously Swiss or German, who controlled the new central Banque de France. They could not control the inflation nor Bonaparte’s constant need for higher revenue to pay for his army.
Another problem I discuss here is the inability of women like Blythe who descended from wealthy ancestors to lay claim to inherited property.
Throughout the period from the start of the revolution through the Revolution of 1830, laws changed constantly concerning the rights of French women. At some points, women could claim money, land and titles. At some points, they could only claim if they agreed to “bend the knee” to the rulers in power at that time.
Much of this disregard was inherited bias from the medieval period when females in French territory inherited nothing through their maternal nor paternal lineage.
Finally, the picture I give you of the chaos in May 1803 in Paris is real. Bonaparte suddenly declared war on Britain and any British in Paris scrambled to leave. Thousands rushed to the borders. Many were caught and hundreds marched to prisons and kept there for years.
Reading about this chaos in Paris spoke to me of the famous wartime movie, CASABLANCA, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The scene of him standing in the rain, waiting for her always strikes me as a man, confused and heartbroken. Bogart lost her not once but twice. In THE LYON WHO’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS, I bring you an HEA for Charles, who gets the woman he adores and wins the day!
I hope you are reading all the books in my series SCARLETT AFFAIRS. You see many of the minor characters here as those who are integral to the romantic stories of struggle ending in glorious triumph.
Happy Reading!
Cerise

How did Bonaparte treat Jews and slaves?

Portrait of Madeleine, also known as Portrait of a Black Woman 

(French: Portrait d'une femme noire or Portrait d'une negresse), 

is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Marie-Guillemine Benoist, 

created in 1800.

Napoleon Bonaparte was a product of the radicalism of the Terror. He Provided the opposite of the chaos: He came and provided order and to many, his power meant stability in the state. How did he treat those less fortunate than his white French constituents? 

He waited until 1808 to stride a modus operandi with his Jewish citizens.

His actions on the rights of black residents of France and its colonies is vastly different 

Treatment of French Jews:
In 1808 Napoleon organized the "Consistoire central des Israélites de France", the administrative agency for all French Jews. Judaism became a recognized religion and under government control. Traditionally, the Consistoire has had a member of the Rothschild family as president.
 

Louis_Gaudin, Casino de Paris, 

Josephine Baker. 1930

Status of Laws on Slavery:

   During the Terror, Danton and his clique declared blacks were free and had full citizenship February 4, 1794. The devastatingly violent revolt in Saint-Domingue three years earlier was the influence as well as the need to implement the rule of equality among all men. The world-wide news of the brutality of sugar and coffee plantation owners and the enormous death toll demanded a proper outcome.

   But by 1802, Napoleon re-instituted slavery in French colonies.
 

   Slavery was again abolished in France in 1848 when the French assembly repealed the Code Noir (Black Code)—the 1685 royal decree.
 

The French acceptance of their black colonials meant that when American black soldiers went abroad to serve in France, they were received better than they were at home. But by American officers, American black soldiers were put into harsh combat zones to ‘try them out.” After their discharge, many American blacks remained in France or returned there after the war and took official residence. 

 

FAKE Authors write fake books! AI strikes us all! How to tell what's real?

These two are Rafe and Zephora 

from my latest!

 

We are all being hit by AI.

Whether it is a data center hitting your area, taking your water and electricity—or if you are an author. And I tell you now, if you have not heard, many data corporations are using AI to write novels.

They do not tell you they are fake.

But we do begin to notice what the covers look like...and how the prose is rather SEE SPOT RUN and stilted.

ANother way to tell if they are fake is that the authors do not appear in person anywhere on any social media. They have logos, or cartoons of their "persona." 

I tell you I do not use AI for anything. 

I write my own stories word for word.

It is hard work...and none of my colleagues are rich. I am not either.

But I love to write stories and I have been writing fiction for more than 4 decades.

So I know grammar, punctuation, logic and plotting. AI does not yet know it all. In fact, I am sure you have heard of how ANTHROPIC AI stole so many of our novels to teach its data how to write fiction. They were sued. Thank God.

They took 13 of my books. And I was able to document that they had taken it and that I owned those works.

Please be careful what you buy. Take samples to read before you do buy, if you need a help to ID false books.

Be careful about books that are double and triple spaced. These are usually created by what we call BOOK FARMS. Their stories are copied from legitimate authors who work hard to make a living.

Authors are going to soon come up with a logo, at the very least, to notify you the buyer that we write our own books.

News soon on all of this!

In the meantime, if you see a book cover that looks just oh too familiar to another, or you read a book that sounds similar to one you have read last year or years ago, know that you may have bought a bogus book. Return it! Ask for your money back.

And rely on authors who appear with their shining faces showing and who talk to you on screen and who write BLOGS! LOL! 

https://books2read.com/SirDurhamsDisarmingAsset

 

THE LYON WHO'LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS kisses like a dream! Excerpt!

 Need a few kisses today? Why not? Here is Charles Winters!

BUY LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Lyon-wholl-Always-Have-Paris-ebook/dp/B0HP44SVPBref

 

Excerpt, THE LYON WHO’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS, Copyright, Cerise DeLand, 2026. All rights reserved.

“Blythe,” he whispered her name in that rough bass that made her tingle, “you are engaged in discussions with the Black Widow of Whitehall.”
 

She closed her eyes, but melted in his warmth, her head swirling in his subtle cologne—and his surprising knowledge of the Widow. 
 

He put a hand to her chin. “Look at me. Tell me why you’d go to see her.”
 

He was too alluring, too much man to refuse. She could stand here and lie to him, prevaricate, drag this out to a delayed, yet still sordid conclusion. But she would not. 

“You know what I did. I asked her to arrange marriage for me.”
 

He stared into his eyes. “To just any man?”
 

She would not answer and see the fire of distaste flare in his gaze.
 

“Whoever he is, do you know this man?’
 

“I know him. He does not know me. But he knows of me.”
 

“So from what I understand, Mrs Dove-Lyon arranges marriages of those in need of fortune. Or redemption. Or restitution to society.”
 

She shook her head, frustrated, caught by his charm and his demand. He had learned all this from O’Neill and Duggan, she supposed. 
 

His lips were on her ear, the hollow beneath, her jaw, her cheek. His voice came to her from the realms of her own bottomless despair. “What is your reason to marry, my darling?”
 

He was too near, too sweet, too persuasive.  He knew how he eroded her resolve.
 

She could not kiss him. But he was the only man whom she could never refuse.
 

Her arms went around his shoulders. Her fingers twined in his silken hair. Her lips met his, soft, firm, wild. Once was not enough. Twice was surrender. On the third time, he crushed her close, his lips taking all of hers, his need of her all she had remembered, all she could not forget. 
 

His hand went to her nape and held her still as his mouth and tongue took her to a new haven of need. “You cannot marry anyone but me.”
 

She gasped, maybe to answer, but she never had a chance.
 

“You love me,” he growled. “Always have.”
 

At once, she was off her feet, in his arms as he carried her to the chaise longue. He laid her down, hovering over her for more kisses, more possession.
 

She should never let him go!

Been told you should not read romance? Reasons you should!

My latest series starring women who get IT DONE! 

Critics are out to take your novels and throw them in the trash.

A few reasons exist for that.

1. People who read tend to be empathetic. So in a group (any size, gender, religion, etc.) where literacy is down or non-existent, a  fair view of "other" people is fair game.

2. Women read more than men. That is because females latch on to how to read more easily than males. True. Women read for fun. Peace and quiet. Escape. But they also read to learn about the past, the future and other people...just cuz they can.

3. The public library system used to be the place everyone went to get books. Now, and since COVID, folks like to get their goods on line. But Amazon costs money. Good news is FREE books are out there...but you have to be on line to know what and when and how to get them. That is called limitation of resources. Unlike the library which is public and FREE. 

4. Women also like to have happy endings to stories. Why not? They work hard. Stats say they work and earn 1/3 less money than a man. They still tend to do most of the housework even when in a relationship. They take of children who are not often cooperating. So life can be not only FILLED, but IRRITATING. Happy endings to stories provide a smile and a sense of confidence that everything can work out well...even if on some days it does not appear to do so.

5. Women like justice. Stats tell us that even when they have been attacked, raped, stolen from and more, then tend not to be believed by law enforcement. So yeah. Women like stories that show that the bad guys get theirs.

6. Women need validation. Support. Help. (Here in Texas where I live, they even need an ob/gyn who will agree to serve them when they have a problem with a pregnancy. Hundreds of women here have died from lack of care.) So yes. A woman can, should and must read stories with Happily Ever Afters and Justice.

So they can go to bed at night and rest. 

7. Some women, as girls, are kept in the dark about intimacy. Their mothers and fathers tell them little or nothing, glossing over small descriptions that give no information about the act of intercourse. Women are uneducated and then shocked by the invasion of their bodies. The repercussions can be mental as well as physical. Reading romances that are more graphic tell details that may not only improve a woman's chances of enjoying the act of intercourse, but also improve her chances of enjoying the act. This too can also improve her relationship with a significant other and make for a happier union.

8. Inexpensive fun! Dollar for hour spent, reading is the least expensive form of entertainment.  

How long does it take you to read 100 pages? Clock yourself. Or choose a number of pages that fit your schedule. Compare the cost of a $2.99 ebook that is 400 pages long to the amount of money you spend on: movies, games, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and more! I know you save money, gain serenity and perhaps even avoid a few arguments with others in the family about what to watch tonight! 

You like a smart woman who defies the villain...and the hero? Here's your gal!

This woman is too smart for the deputy chief of police...and the hero. She gets herself into the worst messes...even surrenders to the villain to do her duty to her country. But the hero is a wise man. Perhaps disheartened by her devotion to her cause, he nonetheless still adores her.

So when he hears that she needs help, that he must walk into the villain's clutches himself to save her, he goes.

 

 

Romantic suspense at its 5 STAR finest, LORD RAMSEY'S RED HEADED RUIN is the book for you. 

Paris? Been there? These novels are not your visit to that Tower. No. But to Napoleon's Paris!

Do you know the real Paris? The one before Hausmann changed it in the 1860s. Before that famous tower was built in the 1880s.

If you love Regency period in England, then knowing Paris during the same time is what's up your alley!

Try any of these: Each has 5 STAR REVIEWS! 

https://books2read.com/LordRamseysRedHeadedRuin

While N. N. Light loves SCARLETT AFFAIRS, hundreds of others love the series.

I bet you will too. 

Watched 'A Tale of Two Cities"? How to know what happened and what to tour when you visit Paris!

Starting tomorrow, I teach a course October 15 - October 30 that you want to take especially if you love the Regency period, know nothing about Paris during the Napoleonic wars...and you plan a visit soon!

For a small fee, you can learn about the real Paris, during the Terror and afterward. Who lived there, who loved there and who traveled there will surprise you.

Plus you will learn what perfume Josephine wore. What a 'Recamier' is. Why you need to take the tour beneath the Louvre. Oui.  

This course is open to the public. The fee is $35.00 for a non-member of the Regency Fiction Writers group or $20.00 for a member.

An offer that is timely and inexpensive!

https://regencyfictionwriters.org/academe/ 

Shocking! Napoleon's Paris does not include the Eiffel Tower. It is the Regency period and you should know about it!

 

This is Josephine Bonaparte's Rosa_Josephine_de_Beauharnais Imperatrice, so named after her by a French botanist. She was an avid collector of seeds and cuttings...even through the double blockade of British and French troops along the coastlines of both countries. 

She purchased a house for herself just south of Paris and created a garden that still is tended today in her honor. Among the flowers are roses, asters, and hundreds more.

But do you know how long she took to bathe and dress each morning? Or what her perfume was? Or how she fared after Napoleon divorced her? Or of what condition, at age 50, she died on the very day Napoleon set foot in France after his escape from Elba?

I tell you this and more in a course I developed for REGENCY FICTION WRITERS. It starts October 15. The cost is $35 for non-members and $20 for members!

Join me and we will have a discussion about those places that will give you ideas for new plots for your historical novels!

Regencyfictionwriters.org/academe

 

 

A man who changes a woman's despair and shows her how love cures all!

She never wanted to marry again. Not even for love. 

But he's determined to show her how wrong she can be!
After Waterloo, Drayton Worth watched the woman he loved suffer because of his failures. Riddled with guilt he tries to improve Emma Bedlow’s existence, while cursing his never-ending desire for her.

Five years later, when he finally has the chance to persuade her to share his life, she declares no man will control her ever again. She desires only an interlude with the charming baron. 

https://books2read.com/InterludewithaBaron

   But Dray is determined to convince her they deserve more.  

They deserve forever.

 https://books2read.com/InterludewithaBaron

If you missed the first one and need to see how it all started...here we go!

  Nibble of my first cherry in this series? YES!

LORD ASHLEY’S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI, Book 1, SCARLETT AFFAIRS, by Cerise DeLand

BUY LINK: https://books2read.com/u/mdPpVd

Excerpt, Cerise DeLand, LORD ASHLEY’S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI. 

Copyright 2024, All rights Reserved.

“As of minutes ago in the salon, I became your champion. Now I can become more.”

She swallowed loudly. Temptation shimmered through her bloodstream. She ran her fingertips down the supple silk and satin of his waistcoat and frock coat. “We are friends. I never do more.”

“We can pretend—”

Dazed by his offer, she stilled—and thrilled to the temptation.

He stared at her lips. “We could give the world a fine act.”

“Kisses are dangerous.” Yours would be devastating.

“Not as dangerous as that man’s attentions.”

“How do I know you will remain true to your word?”

“I would never harm you. In any way. I have my own reputation to uphold.”

“You once were a rogue. Aside from your actions on the Malmaison road two years ago.” She swallowed, having given him more information than she should.

He snorted. “You have a dossier on me, do you, Augustine?”

“I have word of your past on good authority.”

“I would have to know why you have such information.” He arched a brow, his gray eyes glittering. “Or we could agree you have purpose of your own. Then, to foil that man Vaillancourt, we would play at being lovers.”

Her heart told her to accept. Her old fear told her to reject him. “I—I must think on it.”

He stepped backward, his palms in the air in the manner of surrender. “Do that. But decide quickly. Vaillancourt’s pride has been pricked. A man like that never waits too long to take revenge.”

 

 

 

 

BUY LINK coming soon but if you follow me on most of these, you will always learn when and how to buy a new book!! 

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Website - http://cerisedeland.com

 

5+++ STARS for "intoxicating" romance that is "best" series this reviewer has ever read!

"Sir Durham’s Disarming Asset is a breathtaking historical romance with tortured characters and a love that defies explanation. 

Cerise DeLand has penned an intoxicating romance in a tumultuous time period I couldn’t put down. I love this series and each book is better than the last. 

In this book, we find two characters who are in desperate need of each other, much more than they realize. The heart wants what the heart wants. The descriptive narration is immersive and will sweep you away. The romantic tension will have you reading late into the night. One of my favorite historical romance reads of the year."

N. N. Light Reviews! October 1, 2026 

BUY LINK: https://books2read.com/SirDurhamsDisarmingAsset 

FREE today! 5 STARS for romsuspense with Real History and STEAM!

Today LORD ASHLEY'S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI is FREE!

Something is wrong with Blogger today and it will not allow me to post any cover or movie. 

So I do hope you will go and take advantage of this offer!

To find ASHLEY and all the books in this 5 STAR series, please go to any of the following to find it:

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0089DS2N2

Website - http://cerisedeland.com

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Travels with Cerise YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCba82P_Q1kUrJUVVW0CwJmw/


 

 

October's GIVEAWAY! Nothing to do to qualify! Just subscribe!

Part of an award-winning series of romcoms, LADY MARY'S MAYDAY MISCHIEF is a sparkler!

Sign up for my newsletter: https://cerisedeland.com/newsletter/ 

                *****

Follow me on most of these, you will always learn when and how to buy a new book!! 

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0089DS2N2

Bon Bons Blog - https://cerisedeland.blogspot.com/

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cerise-deland

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Website - http://cerisedeland.com