Aloha to Jude Deveraux and SCARLET NIGHTS

On this day, 92 years ago, women's suffrage celebrated a victory.  From the Library of Congress,

On June 4, 1919, Congress, by joint resolution, approved the woman's suffrage amendment and sent it to the states for ratification. The House of Representatives had voted 304-89 and the Senate 56-25 in favor of the amendment.

Women's suffrage served as the backdrop for Jude Deveraux's 2000 novel, TEMPTATION.  As Kathe Robin wrote for RT Bookreviews:

Jude Deveraux has a winner with this storys engaging that blends Beauty and the Beast with The Taming of the Shrew. The wonderful backdrop of the early women's rights movement, centering on the outdated laws against women's freedoms and their place in society, are brought to the fore, but not at the expense of the wonderful, utterly engaging and entertaining love story. This novel is a fine example of the reason why we read and love the genre.

11 years later, Jude Deveraux continues to gives us examples of why we read romance.  Today we celebrate SCARLET NIGHTS:

Engaged to the charming and seductive Greg Anders, Sara Shaw is happily anticipating her wedding in Edilean, Virginia. The date has been set, the flowers ordered, even her heirloom dress is ready. But just three weeks before the wedding, Greg gets a telephone call during the night and leaves without explanation. Two days later, a man climbs up through a trapdoor in the floor of Sara’s apartment, claiming that he is the brother of her best friend and that he’s moving in. While Mike Newland is indeed telling the truth about his identity, his reason for being there reaches far deeper. He’s an undercover detective, and his assignment is to use Sara to track down a woman who is one of the most notorious criminals in the United States—and also happens to be the mother of the man Sara plans to marry.

Mike thinks the job will be easy—if he can figure out how to make a “good” girl like Sara trust him, that is. But Mike has no idea what this mission has in store for him. He’s worked hard to keep private his connections to Edilean, which date back to his grandmother’s time there in 1941. But as Mike and Sara get to know each other, he can’t help but share secrets about himself that he’s told no one else. And in return, Sara opens up to Mike about things she could never reveal to Greg. As the pair work together to solve two mysteries, their growing love begins to heal each of them in ways they never could have imagined.

SCARLET NIGHTS is one of four books that centers around Edilean.  As Publisher's Weekly wrote, "Family ties, small town values and unexpected love...Readers will find it hard to resist the charms of Edilean."  Perhaps it is family ties that reader appreciate from Jude.  Her website offers a genealogy chart for the characters from the seven founding families in the Edilean series.   The founding families, of course, are descendant of a Scot - Laird of McTern - from DAYS OF GOLD.  The series also includes LAVENDER MORNING, and PROMISES.

Pocket Books generously donated a copy of SCARLET NIGHTS to SOS Aloha.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about your family's history - can you name one place from where your ancestors are concentrated? 

2.  This giveaway is open to all readers.

3.  Comments are open through Sunday, June 5, 10 pm in Hawaii.  Since I am departing for the mainland on Monday, June 6, I will email the winner Sunday and mail on Monday - so make sure I know how to contact you (if I don't already know it, send your email address to sos.aloha@yahoo.com).

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Stafford

Jude's Author Page offers more tidbits:

Q. With whom in history do you most identify?

A. Queen Elizabeth I

Which may be why my favorite Jude Deveraux book is A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR.  Modern day heroine Dougless Montgomery was touring England with her horrid boyfriend and his even more horrid daughter.  After an argument, they abandon Dougless in Ashburton, where she cries upon a effigy of Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck.  The rest is literary history.

Ashburton is an ancient stannary town on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon (near where Granny Millie lived).  When we lived in the Netherlands, I took my children to visit Devon and retrace some of my favorite childhood memories.  I had just read A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR so I visited St. Andrew's Church.  While I did not expect to find an effigy of Nicholas, I did enjoy sitting in the church, soaking up the history.