It’s Release Day! A Beautiful Disguise

It’s Release Day! A Beautiful Disguise

Welcome to the Launch Day Celebration for A Beautiful Disguise!

If you’ve been hanging out with me much online in the last couple months, you likely know how excited I am for the beginning of this new series, The Imposters. The concept is just so…much…FUN.

I mean, two aristocratic siblings forced to become private investigators to make ends meet after their father leaves them all but bankrupt? Who have special skills from the performers who had peoples their childhoods…and on whom their father had wasted all that money? A retired circus family now filling in as servants on the estate, with their exotic animals taking up the stalls in the stables?

YES. ALL THE YES. =)

Live Event!

Join me for a Facebook Live video tonight, Tuesday August 22, at 7 pm Eastern! (You can watch it afterward too, and I’ll try to answer any questions in the comments!)

  • Behind the scenes
  • Fun facts
  • Short author reading
  • What’s coming next

And I couldn’t be more excited to welcome you all into that Imposters world with book 1, A Beautiful Disguise! This book is primarily about the older sister of the two siblings, Lady Marigold, and their latest, too-noble client, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Merritt Livingstone.

Marigold is known among society for her ostentatious, haute couture fashions. But it’s all just intended to mask the real her, so that she can learn things for their cases. People are so used to just noting her hat or dress that they fail to look at her or pay any attention to what she’s doing. Handy thing for a PI.

Sir Merritt earned his knighthood serving among the Coldstream Guards in the Boxer Rebellion, where he rescued a family of missionaries that remain some of his closest friends. He landed behind a desk thanks to pneumonia, and now he’s tasked with helping in the formation of England’s first unified intelligence force, combining the divisions of the army, navy, and police. But he soon discovers something that looks like treason…and which he’s too ill to investigate alone. He calls on the Imposters for help.

And their lives change forever. =D

Introducing Lady M’s Fabulous and Frugal Fashion Column!

Marigold has a secret though–her high fashions don’t come from Chanel in Paris. They come from her own attic. She uses the dresses that were her mother’s and grandmother’s, remakes them for current cutting-edge trends, and dyes or bedecks them. Basically, she creates new looks for next to nothing.

And Lady M has brought her fabulous and frugal advice to the blog! (With the help of a few wonderful ladies you can meet when you follow the link below.)

You can read the advice up already and check back regularly for new fashion tips, because Lady M has a lot to share with you! You can even write to her with your questions, requests, and suggestions!

More from the world of the Imposters

There’s So Much to Explore!

Learn more about the Edwardian circus that defined the Imposters’ childhood, get fashion tips from Lady M, explore the theater of the day, meet the team, pet the animals, go behind the Top Secret stamp to learn about intelligence in the early 20th century, train yourself to be a private investigator, and dive into some fun and games!

Shop the Imposters Collection

Spy gadgets, handmade vintage style bags, peacock stationery, and more!

Giveaway

US entrants, enter to win a copy of A Beautiful Disguise
(or another book of your choice) + a $25 gift card to my shop!

International entrants, enter to win a copy of any of my books, shipped from your usual online retailer.

Cover Reveal – A Noble Scheme

Cover Reveal – A Noble Scheme

A missing child.
Friends (or more?) turned enemies, forced to work together to save him.
Disguises and theater training and hidden, buried corridors beneath a manor house.

Welcome to a new aspect of the world of the Imposters! Here, nothing is quite what it seems, but the bonds of blood and friendship run deep, faith lights the path forward, and the quest for Truth underscores everything they do.

I am so excited for the first book in the Imposters series to launch in just a few short weeks! And, yes, okay, it feels odd to be sharing a cover for book 2 before you’ve even read book 1. But I’m gonna do it anyway. Because I can. 😉

In book 1, A Beautiful Disguise, we focus on the Fairfax siblings, with all their acrobatic skills and derring-do. In book 2, A Noble Scheme, they’re obviously still around, but the focus shifts to the other two members of the Imposters team: Gemma, journalist and shorthand expert who excels at theater, and Graham, whose architectural prowess helps them get into and out of a lot of literal tight (and secret) spaces.

In this part of the adventure, these two–who are CLEARLY at odds in book 1, though we don’t know why–are thrown together to rescue a kidnapped child. And sparks–and tears–fly. This one deals with some heavy topics of grief and loss, but as always, there’s also some lighthearted humor, clever wit, and lots to smile about.

This cover came in while I was in the middle of a writing retreat for another book, which naturally meant that I was terribly, wonderfully distracted. Because OH. MY. GOODNESS.

I’d given some specific-ish wants. It’s winter, and there’s snow. So a nice snowy background would be great. Most of the action takes place on-assignment on the southern coast of England, in Weymouth, which boasts the same white chalk cliffs as Dover, being very near it. I wanted to see Gemma in a blue or green dress, to keep with the cool scheme. Though her hair was actually “dyed” red with carrot and beet juice at that point in the story, I did NOT want that on the cover, LOL. I asked for her actual blond (and then said the natural dye was fading at one point, to appease all the readers who haven’t read this note, ha ha).

And man, did they deliver! Are you ready to see?

Ready…

Set…

VOILA!

Gaaaahhhhh! Right?? Don’t you just love that cool, icy blue, offset with gold and white? I sure do. And I love the dress. And that gorgeous archway! Zero changes requested from me on this one! I’m in love!

What are your thoughts?

Here’s the official back cover copy:

Gemma Parks is known throughout high society as G. M. Parker, a columnist renowned for her commentary on the cream of society. Behind the scenes, she uses her talent to aid the Imposters in their investigations by gathering intel at events and providing alibis for the elite firm’s members through her columns. Yet her clandestine work would be more exhilarating if it weren’t for the constant presence of the gentleman who broke her heart.

Graham Wharton has never had eyes for anyone but Gemma, and she left his soul in tatters when she walked away from him. When the Imposters take on a new job to recover a kidnapped boy mistaken for his aristocratic cousin, Graham is determined to use the time with Gemma not only to restore the missing boy, but also to win back the only woman he’s ever loved. As they trace the clues laid out before them, Graham must devise a noble scheme to save the boy’s life and heal their hearts.

Christy Award-winning author Roseanna M. White whisks you away to Edwardian-era England in an exhilarating tale of glamor, intrigue, and romance set among high society’s most elite–and most dangerous–families.

Release Day for Yesterday’s Tides!

Release Day for Yesterday’s Tides!

The Story Behind the Story

I feel like I say this a lot, LOL, but this is one of those books that has traveled with me for a loooong time. I first wrote this story over the summer of 2004, in the months following my college graduation. This was the first story to ever wake me up in the middle of the night and NOT LET ME GO. There was just something about Louisa and Rem…something about the Outer Banks setting…something about the idea of love blooming where it shouldn’t that held me in its grip.

That original story, which was only about Louisa and Rem and not at all the time-slip it has turned into, was a contemporary. Louisa was still the handy-woman daughter of an innkeeper in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Rem was still in intelligence, but was an analyst for the CIA. His mom was still a piece of work. 😉 But what made me love these characters and their story so much was, I think, their hearts. Louisa would give up anything, anything for love of her family. She would take any risk, make any sacrifice if it was for the good of those she loved. Rem was a man of deep intelligence, deep faith, and deep heart who wanted to give Louisa her dreams but was afraid he’d stand in the way of them instead.

That first version, written nearly two decades ago, was called Unrequested, Unrequited. I eventually decided that was a bit of a mouthful, LOL, and when I rewrote the book to pitch it to editors back in the 2010s (still as a contemporary romance), I retitled it Yesterday’s Tides. And once again, when I pulled the manuscript out, it held me fast and wouldn’t let me go.

But then I began to get contracts for historicals. My genre was set, my brand began to develop. So what would I ever do with this story that was off-brand, these characters that I thought of every…single…year when my family vacationed in the Outer Banks? It was my best friend/critique partner, Stephanie Morrill, who eventually said, “Make it a historical! Set it during the First World War or the 1920s or something!”

Stephanie is brilliant. 😉

So I planted Remington Culbreath in Room 40, and I waited. I waited for my chance to tell his story.

During another vacation, I found myself flipping through a book on the islands and reading some of the WW2 history, and I thought to myself, “Why did all the interesting stuff happen here during the Second World War? That’s not ‘my’ war!” Then it hit me–TIME-SLIP!!! I could not only write Louisa and Rem’s story in the WW1 setting I’d already created for them in my mind, I could also tell another story that had come to me over the years, the story of Evie and Sterling, at the same time, but set in WW2.

Cue the confetti!!

So while this story is, in many ways, vastly different from that book I first feverishly typed out in 2004, it is also, in some ways, more the story I held in my heart, the one that held my heart. So I threw everything I had at it.

This story is what I call my “key to all mythologies.” (Bonus points if you get the Middlemarch reference, LOL.) In short, there was a character searching for a key that would link every world mythology together. Well, this is the story that combines ALL my stories! We’ve got the Culper Ring, the Ladies of the Manor, the Shadows Over England and Codebreakers worlds. We’ve got a reference to the Secrets of the Isles. We’ve got it ALL, my friends! And I couldn’t be more pleased with how this story turned out.

The cover. The time-slip. The edits. The characters. Be still, my heart!

Or rather, go ahead and race! Because finally, FINALLY Yesterday’s Tides is more than just a story carried around in my heart and mind. It’s one I get to share! This calls for some serious celebration!!!

My Wonderful Readers

I have been blessed with incredible readers and launch team members! Search #YesterdaysTides on social media to see all of their wonderful creations! You can find a few below.

The Official Back Cover Copy

In two world wars, intelligence and counterintelligence, prejudice, and self-sacrifice collide across two generations.

In 1942, Evie Farrow is used to life on Ocracoke Island, where every day is the same–until the German U-boats haunting their waters begin to wreak havoc. And when special agent Sterling Bertrand is washed ashore at Evie’s inn, her life is turned upside down. While Sterling’s injuries keep him inn-bound for weeks, making him even more anxious about the man he’s tracking, he becomes increasingly intrigued by Evie, who seems to be hiding secrets of her own.

Decades earlier, in 1914, Englishman Remington Culbreth arrives at the Ocracoke Inn for the summer, but he doesn’t count on falling in love with Louisa Adair, the innkeeper’s daughter. When war breaks out in Europe, and their relationship is put in jeopardy, will their love survive?

As Evie and Sterling work to track down an elusive German agent, they unravel mysteries that go back a generation. The ripples from the Great War are still rocking their lives, and it seems yesterday’s tides may sweep them all into danger again today.

Bestselling and award-winning author Roseanna M. White whisks you away to two periods fraught with peril in this sweeping and romantic dual-time tale.

What People Are Saying

Visit Robin’s website HERE.

Visit Carrie’s website HERE.

Visit Sarah’s website HERE.

Visit Kristy’s website HERE.

FACEBOOK LIVE

In honor of release day, I’ll be doing a Facebook Live tonight at 7 pm EST! Join me then for more behind the scenes, some fun facts, a bit of the history behind the story, hear me read a short excerpt, be entered into a BONUS giveaway just for commenters, and ask any questions you have!

SEA GLASS PRAYER JEWELRY

What is sea glass prayer jewelry? Well, in the story, the WW2-line heroine, Evie, takes daily walks along the shore. She prays, and she collects sea glass and shells. Each item she picks up becomes linked in her mind with whomever she’s praying for at the time. Later, in her studio, she turns those pieces of glass and shell into jewelry…and every time she wears it or works on it, she yet again remembers to pray for the person. Often, rather than keeping it, she’ll give the jewelry to the person in question or their family.

I loved this idea so much when I came up with it, that I immediately went in search of some sea glass jewelry to put in my shop. I love the designs of this jeweler, and I printed up little cards to explain the “prayer jewelry” aspect. Each one you purchase comes with the card and is just waiting to be linked in your heart and mind with a prayer request, so that its vibrant colors can remind you of it each time you wear it!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the giveaway!

To celebrate this long-awaited release, I will be giving away THREE prizes to US-addressees and ONE prize to an international winner!

PRIMARY GIVEAWAY:
Three lucky winners will receive a signed copy of the book PLUS a piece of sea glass prayer jewelery!

INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY:
One winner will receive a copy of Yesterday’s Tides via BookDepository.

Cover Reveal – A Beautiful Disguise

Cover Reveal – A Beautiful Disguise

Edwardian circus.
Aristocratic private investigators spying on their own.
A brother and sister using acrobatic feats to get into–and out of–impossible situations for their investigations.

Welcome to the world of the Imposters! Here, nothing is quite what it seems, but the bonds of blood and friendship run deep, faith lights the path forward, and the quest for Truth underscores everything they do.

I have been so excited for this series and absolutely LOVE how it’s going so far! The funny thing is that even before I started writing book 1 (as in, MONTHS before), I had to turn in a very thorough document for the cover design team. I had to come up with a title, describe the characters, tell them about the plot and write summaries of it, pinpoint all the setting details, figure out what she’d be wearing on the cover…and I had no clue. As in NO CLUE. This was due while I was still working on Yesterday’s Tides, and you can well imagine me looking at the due date with wide eyes and a bit of panic as I realized, “I know none of this!!” LOL.

But I took a day and sorted it all out. I plotted and planned and researched and fell more deeply in love with the concept. I chose a beautiful, rugged setting in Northumberland. I learned all I could about the Edwardian circuses that had informed so much of my characters’ childhoods and, ultimately, their lives. I researched espionage and the spy mania that had seized England pre-1910 thanks to novels (!!!!) by a fellow named William Le Queux. I explored the world of haute couture in 1909. And I turned in that document with a big grin on my face.

Cue the months of waiting. I wrote the book. I loved the book. I loved especially that Lady Marigold, my heroine, chose fashion as her mask for her work. She wears the most ostentatious gowns and hats any time she goes out in public, so that people notice the clothes instead of her face…and then the clothes can appear somewhere else on a friend, and it provides an alibi for her while she’s about her clandestine work. Because if Lady M’s hat was in Hyde Park on that afternoon, then surely she was too, right?

In truth, Lady Marigold Fairfax and her brother, Yates, an earl now, are in dire straits. If they don’t earn a living, they’ll lose everything and be unable to support the retired performers who they love like family and who have made their home now at Fairfax Tower.

When the email arrived in my inbox with the cover for A Beautiful Disguise, I had one of those jaw-drop moments that I always hope for. Gorgeous background of a Northumberland manor house–check. Beautiful dress in vibrant colors–check. Enormous hat–check. I absolutely LOVE that we can’t see Marigold’s face here, because that is such a key part of the story–she always hides her face in public under her hats. The only addition that I asked for was peacock feathers on her hat (which had ostrich feathers already). Both kinds of feathers are featured in the book, so I hoped they’d agree…and they did! Which made it PERFECT!!!

So…are you ready for your first glimpse? Here it is! A Beautiful Disguise!

I am 100% in love with this cover, from the lighting to the background to the colors to those requested feathers. It’s definitely one of those that I keep pulling up to stare at whenever I need a bit of inspiration to finish my work on the story (which I’m revising right now). I can never really rank my favorites of my book covers (so many gorgeous ones), but this is right up there, not only because of its beauty, but because of how perfectly it captures the story. Yay!

What do you think? I’d love to hear your opinions! Post your comments below!

Giveaway – Worthy of Legend Release Day!

Giveaway – Worthy of Legend Release Day!

It’s release day for Worthy of Legend! Thank you for joining me on this journey as we explored the Isles of Scilly together. I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as I did. Read on for some reader fun and GIVEAWAY!

About the Book

1906

After a summer of successful pirate-treasure hunting, Lady Emily Scofield and her friends are forced to hide the unprecedented discoveries they’ve made, thanks to the betrayal of her own family. Horrified by her brother who stops at nothing to prove himself to their greedy father, Emily is forced to take a stand against her family—even when it means being cut off entirely.

Bram Sinclair, Earl of Telford, is fascinated with tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table—an interest he’s kept mostly hidden for the last decade. But when a diary is unearthed in the islands that could lead to a secret artifact, Bram is the only one able to piece the legends together.

As Bram and Emily seek out the whereabouts of the hidden artifact, they must dodge her eager family and a team of archeologists. In a race against time, they must decide what makes a hero worthy of legend—is it fighting valiantly to claim the treasure . . . or sacrificing everything in the name of selfless love?

My Wonderful Readers

I have been blessed with incredible readers and launch team members! Search #worthyoflegend on social media to see all of their wonderful creations! You can find a few below.

Instagram Challenge

Exclusive IG Challenge! Shout out to @elizabethdmarie who created this INCREDIBLE Instagram Challenge for Worthy of Legend! Share your posts and use #EDMpages2022. You can jump in any time.

Bookish Things

Facebook Live Video Tonight!

Join me for a release day live video (it will be available afterward too!) at 7 pm Eastern!

Giveaway

Enter the giveaway via the form before or the link HERE. Open to US mailing addresses only. Void where prohibited. Giveaway open 9/13/22-9/20/22. One (1) winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and will be notified via the email provided. See roseannamwhite.com for more information.

  • The Secrets of the Isles series (signed paperback)
  • $25 Gift Card to Bookish Things

Cover Reveal! Yesterday’s Tides

Cover Reveal! Yesterday’s Tides

It’s one of my favorite days in the life of a book–the day I get to share the cover with the world! And I am SO, SO excited to share this one with you!

Yesterday’s Tides is a book that has been with me since the summer after I graduated college (so, you know…a little while. Ahem.) I’d originally written it as a contemporary, but as I dove into my historical world, my best friend/critique partner suggested I rewrite it in “my era,” and I loved the idea so much that I planted my hero, Rem, into my world of Room 40 in The Codebreakers series. =)

Then I got the idea for making it not only a story set in the First World War, but one that also included a storyline set in World War 2. I absolutely adore how the two lines worked together, and I was very curious as to what they’d decide to focus on for the cover. The answer: the World War II line, which doesn’t surprise me at all.

So whenever I get an email with a cover, I have to click to download the file before I can see it, and on this one, I literally squeezed my eyes shut and prayed, “Please be gorgeous, please be gorgeous, please be gorgeous.” And oh…oh my. Prayer answered.

Are you ready to see it?? Here it is, then scroll down to get my reation and share yours! Ready?

3
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2
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1
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Voila!

Isn’t it beautiful?!?!

The first thing that struck me, of course, was the color. I love that shade of teal! And the sea grass and dunes leading out to the water is absolutely PERFECT for the setting of Ocracoke, North Carolina, in the Outer Banks. I love seeing the 1940s heroine, Evie Farrow, from behind like that. And her dress! Perfect! She runs an inn so always makes sure she looks nice, but that she can still work in whatever she’s wearing. And of course, we have the ship and plane there to nail the era at a glance.

Overall, I am just in love with this cover and hope you’re as excited for the book as I am! This is the one that meshes ALLLLLLLL my story worlds! We’ve got the Culpers AND my English world in here. Codebreakers, spies, nobility, Southern charm, all rolled up into two storylines and one book. Gah! Just so excited!

Here’s the official blurb:

In 1942, Evie Farrow is used to life on Ocracoke Island, where every day is the same–until the German U-boats haunting their waters begin to wreak havoc. And when special agent Sterling Bertrand is washed ashore at Evie’s inn, her life is turned upside down. While Sterling’s injuries keep him inn-bound for weeks, making him even more anxious about the man he’s tracking, he becomes increasingly intrigued by Evie, who seems to be hiding secrets of her own.

Decades earlier, in 1914, Englishman Remington Culbreth arrives at the Ocracoke Inn for the summer, but he doesn’t count on falling in love with Louisa Adair, the innkeeper’s daughter. When war breaks out in Europe, and their relationship is put in jeopardy, will their love survive?

As Evie and Sterling work to track down an elusive German agent, they unravel mysteries that go back a generation. The ripples from the Great War are still rocking their lives, and it seems yesterday’s tides may sweep them all into danger again today.

Bestselling and award-winning author Roseanna M. White whisks you away to two periods fraught with peril in this sweeping and romantic dual-time tale.