A Country Cotillion [Hardcover]

Sandra Heath (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

Beautiful Elizabeth French had learned both the pleasure and pain of love as the bride of James French. But now that irresistible and infamous libertine was dead—and Elizabeth chose to wed a handsome lord as different from James as day from night. Sir Alexander Norrington was dark where James had been so fiercely exciting. Surely it was better thus, Elizabeth told herself—until she met Marcus Sheridan, the Duke of Arlington, who was so much like James as to set Elizabeth's pulse racing, even as she desperately tried not to fall prey again to a man who would win her heart only to break it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sandra Heath is the award-winning author of more than 60 novels, including Breaking the Rules, Easy Conquest, Playing with Fire, and Second Thoughts. She is a past winner of the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards for Best Regency Author and Best Regency Romance.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Robert Hale; Reissue edition (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0709086598
• ISBN-13: 978-0709086598
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,273,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Have you ever read a book and wished you could write one too? Have you ever followed someone else's characters and thought you would have them behave differently? Well, that's how I was. I read and read and read, especially historical fiction, but I secretly yearned to write a title of my own. Strangely, it took my three-year-old daughter's urgent admission to hospital with meningitis to finally get me going. She was so ill and I was so distracted, that after a while my father gave me a little portable typewriter 'to help take my mind off things'. By the time my daughter Sarah came out of hospital, well on the road to recovery, my first book was also well on the road.

I wrote and wrote and wrote, standing in the kitchen on one leg like a stork, with the typewriter on a work surface while my daughter played around my feet. My first ten books were medieval historicals set in England, and since then I have mostly written in the English Regency period - for which living in Britain is a definite advantage! I love romantic stories, and if I can weave history, traditions, myths, legends and sometimes Gothic elements into them, I'm happiest of all. These were the sorts of story I couldn't get enough of before I became a writer, and I'm glad to say my readers like them too.

Sandra Heath isn't my only pen name, for you'll also find me as Sandra Wilson, Jeannie Machin and Sarah Stanley. Some of these titles you'll recognize from before, but some you won't. Most of my medievals were written as Sandra Wilson, and as Sarah Stanley I've produced two new sensuous Regencies, STAR-CROSSED SUMMER and MIDWINTER MARRIAGE, which follow the same characters and should be read in the order of the titles. I hope to follow them with two more in the same series, but at the moment I have so much else to write that it may be a little while.

Sooo, over sixty-five books after my first ever title, I'm still wearing out keyboards, and loving every minute of it.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars! Pure romance., May 10, 2009

By 

Detra Fitch "Always hunting good books." (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Country Cotillion (Hardcover)

Elizabeth is the young widow of James French. Their marriage had started out so lovingly. But her happy days with James were few because he changed. Elizabeth's days of wretchedness at his hands had seemed endless. So this time Elizabeth has agreed to wed Sir Alexander Norrington, a man opposite James in every possible way.

Eighteen-year-old Lady Isobel Crawford has never had any interest in her cousin, Elizabeth. Yet when Isobel falls in love with Sir Alexander at first sight, she decides to steal Elizabeth's prospective bridegroom. Isobel plots and schemes shamelessly to be with Sir Alexander often and prove herself to be so much better for him. When Elizabeth and Sir Alexander decide to leave town for awhile, Isabel engineers a way to go with them. Events could not have happened more perfectly for Isabel as the trio find themselves snowed in at Rainworth, the estate of Marcus Sheridan, eighth Duke of Arlington.

Marcus had come across Elizabeth once in town while she was being accosted by footpads. He went after the thieves and retrieved her stolen item, but she was gone when he returned with it. They never learned the names of each other. But when he sees her alight from the carriage of Sir Alexander, who happens to be a friend from his past, Marcus offers his home for them to stay the night. When his guests get snowed in, Marcus quickly begins to see what Isobel is up to.

***** There is no life threatening danger in these pages. The story reads exactly like the Regency novels I used to love so much (but were canceled about ten years ago). Flirting, betrayal, parties ... it is all here. The author writes with her usual aplomb, giving her readers the romance they long for. Sandra Heath writes pure bliss. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

3.0 out of 5 stars Not my favorite, November 20, 2009

By 

Flower Girl (MN, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Country Cotillion (Hardcover)

Unfortunately, this book did not do for me. Ms. Heath usually has ability to describe and present a story in such believable and engrossing manner, but I felt this story was so dragged on--it did not quite have her usual crispness; and the language was a bit contemporary for Regency period... I just wasn't quite into the story.