Welcoming Catherine Kullman and her book - The Potential for Love: A Regency novel - to my blog.

Today I'm welcoming Catherine Kullmann and her book - The Potential for Love: A Regency novel - to my blog as part of the blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club (founded by Mary Anne Yarde). 

Delighted to share a review with you all, but first I'll introduce the book.

The Potential for Love by Catherine Kullmann

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.

Publication date: 31 March 2020

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

Publisher: Willow Books

Print Length: 414 Pages

You can purchase a copy of the book via the following links -

 Amazon: mybook.to/PfLhardcover

Amazon Kindle: mybook.to/ThePotentialForLove

The Potential for Love HB Waterstones: https://bit.ly/2XdXjzx

The Potential for Love PB Waterstones: https://bit.ly/2WWqtmt

The Potential for Love HB Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/2OXTE45

The Potential for Love PB Barnes and Noble : https://bit.ly/3f9kxNn

Now for the review -

I sat down, with a cold refreshing glass of juice in one hand and a copy of The Potential for Love: A Regency Novel in the other and so this brief but fulfilling love affair began. What drew me to this book is the cover. Usually, Regency Romances, have some dashing hero and windswept heroin on the cover, but this book has a portrait from the era, and I think this really set the tone for this book.

The story was tantalisingly delicious, as were the characters. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but Catherine Kullmann knows how to write a dashing hero and a strong, yet feminine heroine. Their love story is the kind that makes a reader smile. There is just the right amount of romance and conflict, but as one would expect, there is a joyful, happy ending. Likewise, the historical setting has been brought back to life.

My advice to you, dear reader, is to think Jane Austen rather than Tessa Dare when you read this book, but if you like your romances sweet and your story sweeping then this novel may be right up your street.

I was given a copy of this book by the author for review consideration.

Catherine Kullmann

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.

You can connect with Catherine Kullmann on the following platforms -

Website: https://www.catherinekullmann.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CKullmannAuthor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15549457.Catherine_Kullmann

You can also find out more about the book by visiting the other blogs on this tour. Details here-

I do hope you check out Catherine Kullman's work.

Till the next time.

Take care Zoe