Coffee Pot Book Tour: The Potential for Love by Catherine Kullmann

October 19, 2020

Coffee Pot Book Tour: The Potential for Love by Catherine Kullmann

Welcome Readers to a spotlight stop of the Coffee Pot Book Club blog tour!

Today we shine a light on Catherine Kullmann's The Potential for Love, a Regency period romance. Catherine is giving us a sneak peak inside her book with an excerpt. First a few detail about the book:

The Potential for Love: A Regency Novel By Catherine Kullmann

Publication date: 31 March 2020

Genre: Historical Fiction/Historical Romance/Regency Romance/Historical Women’s Fiction

Publisher: Willow Books

Print Length: 414 Pages

Book Blurb:

1816

For over six years, Thomas Ferraunt’s thoughts have been of war. Newly returned to England from occupied Paris, he must ask himself what his place is in this new world and what he wants from it. More and more, his thoughts turn to Arabella Malvin, but would Lord Malvin agree to such a mismatch for his daughter, especially when she is being courted by Lord Henry Danlow?

About to embark on her fourth Season, Arabella is tired of the life of a debutante, waiting in the wings for her real life to begin. She is ready to marry. But which of her suitors has the potential for love and who will agree to the type of marriage she wants?

As she struggles to make her choice, she is faced with danger from an unexpected quarter while Thomas is stunned by a new challenge. Will these events bring them together or drive them apart?

We are celebrating the release of the special hardback edition of The Potential for Love during this tour. With a beautiful dust jacket over an elegant laminated cover, it will enhance any library and is the perfect gift for lovers of historical women’s fiction and historical romance.

Meet the Author:

I was born and brought up in Dublin and moved to Germany on my marriage in 1973. Before my marriage, I was an administrative officer at the Department of Finance in Dublin. I worked as attaché at the Irish Embassy in Bonn until my eldest son was born. Following a twelve-year stint as a full-time mother, I joined the New Zealand Embassy in Bonn, where I was administration officer. My husband and I returned to Ireland in 1999 and in 2009, following a year’s treatment for breast cancer, I took early retirement from my position as Director of Administration and Human Resources at a large Dublin law firm.

I have always enjoyed writing, I love the fall of words, the shaping of an expressive phrase, the satisfaction when a sentence conveys my meaning exactly. I enjoy plotting and revel in the challenge of evoking a historic era for characters who behave authentically in their period while making their actions and decisions plausible and sympathetic to a modern reader. In addition, I am fanatical about language, especially using the right language as it would have been used during the period about which I am writing. But rewarding as all this craft is, there is nothing to match the moment when a book takes flight, when your characters suddenly determine the route of their journey.

The first quarter of the nineteenth century was one of the most significant periods of European and American history, a period whose events still resonate two hundred years later The Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland of 1800, the Anglo-American war of 1812 and the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 all still shape our modern world. The aristocracy-led society that drove these events was already under attack from those who saw the need for social and political reform, while the industrial revolution saw the beginning of the transfer of wealth and ultimately power to those who knew how to exploit the new technologies.

I write historical fiction set against this background of off-stage wars, of women frequently left to fend for themselves in a patriarchal world where they have few or no rights but must make the best lives they can for themselves and their families. While real people sometimes have walk-on parts, the protagonists and their stories are pure fiction. As well as meeting their personal challenges, they must also cope with external events and the constraints imposed by society. The main story arc is romantic. I am particularly interested in what happens after the first happy end—how life goes on around the protagonists and sometimes catches up with them.

Follow Catherine on Social Media:

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Excerpt:

From Chapter Ten

At a Ball

“Is Matthew still in Oxford?” Ruth demanded. “I was relying on him to stand up with me. When will he be back?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Arabella said briefly. Matthew would not thank her if she encouraged Ruth to think she had a claim on him. Still, this was Ruth’s first outing in the ton. Arabella introduced her to the others in the group and had the satisfaction of seeing her engaged for a respectable number of dances before the music started.

“Here. Write their names on your fan,” she murmured, handing Ruth the little pencil when there was a slight lull. “Otherwise you won’t remember.”

“Thank you, Bella. I was wondering how to manage without muttering their names in turn as if I were reciting my multiplication tables. You know; number one, Hugo, number two, Mr Nugent, number three, Mr Neary.” She giggled. “I don’t think it would make the best of impressions, do you? I wish the dancing would start. I’m so excited.” She looked over to the staircase that led down into the ballroom. “Surely all the guests are here now. I have never seen such a crush.”

“This is nothing out of the ordinary,” Arabella assured her but Ruth wasn’t listening.

“There they come. Isn’t she beautiful? It’s so romantic.”

Lord Franklin led his wife into the middle of the dance floor where they were joined by three other couples to dance an elegant quadrille.

“What a charming figure,” Arabella exclaimed, as the dance ended with the bride enclosed within an arch formed over her head by the arms of the gentlemen dancing on either side of her.

“It is called “Les Graces”,” Lady Alys Franklin, who had come up to them with Lord Marfield, explained later. “Generally, all couples would dance it in turn, but today we felt it fitting that only my brother and his wife should dance it. He chose Mr Fitzmaurice as the other gentleman because he was a witness at their wedding.

“You could call this version “La Mariée”,” Arabella suggested. “It is perfect for a bridal.”

“But first they should dance “Le Captif”, where the bride and bridesmaid bag the bridegroom,” Francis suggested.

“I have made a note of that for your wedding,” his sister informed him sweetly. “It shall be danced at your special request.”

“Who is that leading out Lady Alys?” a girl whispered behind Arabella. “Over there—the tall, black-haired officer. I haven’t seen him before. He looks positively grim.”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t he look deliciously dangerous?” her friend murmured. “I saw him dancing earlier. He moves beautifully but never smiles.”

“Our dance, I believe, Miss Malvin.” Lord Marfield bowed before her.

Arabella put her hand on his arm and let him lead her onto the dancefloor. She liked him and he was easy to talk to, but her heart did not beat any faster when he approached and she did not find herself thinking of him at odd moments. They were the fourth couple and, as the first two couples led off, she turned her head discreetly, trying to spy Lady Alys and her partner. There they were, nimbly chasséing to the right and the left so that they separated and returned to face one another. Lady Alys’s partner had his back to her, but there was something about the set of his head on his shoulders that was familiar.

The figure ended and he returned to Lady Alys’s side. Now she could see his face. It wasn’t! It couldn’t be! Arabella stumbled as Marfield drew her forward to begin the figure. She stole a last quick glance at the other couple. It was indeed Thomas. He was in town and had not called. And he could not plead as an excuse that he did not intend to move among the ton.

They were not in the same set, thank goodness. She had time to compose herself before they met—if indeed they met this evening. She had no intention of going in search of him. She forced herself to concentrate on her own partner and the other couples in her set, to resist the temptation to watch Lady Alys smiling up at him. The music stopped and she curtsied to Marfield, then accepted his arm for the obligatory stroll.

After the fourth set Thomas found his way to where the Malvins stood with the Nugents and the Halworths.

“This is indeed a pleasure,” he said, bowing to the group.

Arabella had herself well in hand and murmured a polite greeting. Her mother’s response was cooler. Was she also miffed that he had not called?

Ruth, of course, beamed at him, saying, “There is something particularly delightful in meeting someone from home in town, Major.”

“Indeed there is, Miss Halworth,” he replied.

Mamma had to present him to the Nugents but once the formalities were concluded, he turned to Arabella.

“May I have the pleasure of dancing with you, Miss Malvin?”

She smiled calmly. “I’m afraid, Major, that I am engaged for the rest of the evening.”

He did not appear downcast by the news.

“I should have expected it,” he said simply and turned to Ruth. “Miss Halworth, will you favour me with your next free dance?”

To crown Arabella’s misery, he danced the supper dance with Caro, afterwards leading her to join a merry group of officers and their ladies. Arabella resolutely shifted her chair so that she had her back to them and smiled at Mr Naughton.

“Do you think it was right to abolish income tax?”

“Major Ferraunt is wonderful,” Caro murmured to Arabella as they returned from the ladies’ retiring room. “So masculine, and those sinister looks; have you noticed how he prowls, like a black tiger? And, like all of Wellington’s officers, a superb dancer. How is it you have never mentioned him before?”

Arabella laughed. “I’ve known him all my life but hadn’t seen him for years until he came home last month. His father is our rector.”

“Oh.” Caro’s interest cooled rapidly. “I thought he was one of the Gloucestershire Ferraunts.”

“There is a connection, I believe, but it is quite distant.”

Thomas did not dance again after supper. Some of the other officers had also disappeared, Arabella noticed, but there was a steady trickle of guests arriving, coming on from other entertainments.

“Are you feeling quite the thing, Bella?” Francis asked quietly as he set his hands at her waist. “Not in the dumps, are you?”

She clasped his shoulders and shook her head as they revolved to the music. “Not at all. A little tired, perhaps, just for a moment. I don’t have to hide it from you.”

Wow, doesn't that sound good! Readers, I hope you've enjoyed this spotlight and excerpt of Catherine's wonderful new book. Click the Amazon button to see more details.