14 reasons to read ALIBI and all the stories in Scarlett Affairs!

1. The First Kiss is a Smacker! Our hero stands in the road to Malmaison and our heroine comes riding past. Why kiss her? Why is he there? In reality, he is there to abduct Bonaparte! Did this really happen? In June 1800 along the road leading to Malmaison, a group of revolutionaries (who may or may not have been supported with money and/or men by Britain) attempted to abduct Bonaparte on his way home to his wife! The attempt was unsuccessful, as were dozens of other attempts to assassinate Bonparte throughout his years in power. But this scene along a road that I have travels 3 times, is my introduction of my hero, Kane, to our heroine, Augustine! It is also their FIRST KISS!  https://books2read.com/u/mdPpVd
2. Kane, Lord Ashley, meets Bonaparte, the First Consul. What does Kane think of the fellow who is 8 inches shorter than he? (And frankly, not as handsome, either!) 
3. WAS BONAPARTE really a short man? At 5’6’ or 7”, he was average height for his time and his lineage. Often portrayed as a little fellow and even called the Little Corporal by the British, the derogatory remark was meant to belittle him. And it did. If one accepts that the aristocracy of Britain was affected by the Norman/Viking blood line, then perhaps our hero was indeed must taller than our Little Frenchman.
4. Reason #4: meet Josephine! Josephine holds sway over society. Her polite manners, her graciousness, her demure smiles that cover bad teeth maker her mysterious. What does she think of our heroine, Augustine?
5. Travel with Gus to wonderful towns in France!  Gus must find her missing friend, Amber St. Antoine who has fled Paris—and the deputy chief of police. The man is a true villain, ruthless and cunning. Gus goes first to a town north of Paris where their aunt owns a house. This town is one of the many Gus travels to in order to find her friend.
6. Travel with Gus to wonderful places in Paris!  Gus flees one day into old Montmartre to escape the police who track her. This part of town, before its greater popularity 50 years later as an artists’ haven, had a few characteristics that attracted residents. It was cheap. It was tawdry. It was on the hill above Paris where breezes blew and the climate beckoned many who could not stand the crowded nature of lower Paris. It was also away from the Seine and its filth. There were vineyards, a pottery factory and a small stone quarry. 
7. Gus has an idea that her friend Amber has taken refuge in a town north of Paris, Compiegne. But she cannot find her there. 
8. Gus joins with Kane and they go to the town of Reims. There, where French kings were crowned, they learn to travel on to another famous town.
9. Gus and Kane go to Varennes to look for Amber. In this small town, there is a  famous church where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were captured and returned to Paris to prison.
10. Facts you will learn about Bonaparte include when he began to cut his hair in more classical style, bathe more often, and insist on white stockings and red velvet frockcoats!
11. Gus and Amber were adopted when children by an Englishwoman who was a former mistress of the Prince Regent and the old Duc d’Orleans. This fictional character, their Aunt Cecily, actually existed. She was imprisoned, along with Josephine, during the Terror. I have made her real!
12. The four heroes of the first four books in this series are sent to France on official business. But beneath that cover, each man is an agent for the British Crown. They are sent by a woman who owns a merchant company. Is this a cover that was real? YES! Why? Because those how knew Europe best wear those who lived, worked and traded in European cities.
13. The romances in the first four of the series occur mostly in France. Lord Fournier’s story takes you to a German duchy along the Rhein. The duke became an ally of Bonaparte…for money. Bonaparte required the duke to conscript his citizens to fight for Bonaparte. This duke also conscripted my great-great grandfather in the Army of the Confederation of the Rhein. My ancestor survived the wars. I am shocked. The death rates of these soldiers was astronomical as they were often used in the front lines.
14. There will be a map in each of the romances so you can keep pace with where everyone is…and where they go! To each of these towns, these churches, these villages, these palaces, I have been. I loved each one…and I wanted you to get to know them more intimately.
15. Lastly, I have long introduced you in my historical romances to the sites, the food, the flavor of the places my characters live in. Dancing in the Moulin de la Galette (THOSE NOTORIOUS AMERICANS), strolling the stony beach of Brighton (CHRISTMAS BELLES), and getting married through newspaper advertisements (MATRIMONY!) are a few of the realities I paint for you in my historical romances. Here in SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I take you deep inside Bonaparte’s empire to show you the places he conquered, the problems he created…the ones he solved, and the love affairs I imagine endured all hardships during the years he took the world by storm.

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