Please join me in welcoming Mary Davis (the author of my most re-read contemporary romance novel) to the blog today to chat about her new historical romance, The Debutante’s Secret!
Bestselling, award-winning novelist MARY DAVIS has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her books include her award-winning QUILTING CIRCLE series, her bestselling PRODIGAL DAUGHTERS series, and Newlywed Games. Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-seven years and a super-senior Norwegian Forest cat. She has three adult children and three adorable grandchildren. She enjoys playing card and board games, rain, and cats. She would enjoy gardening if she didn’t have a black thumb. Her hobbies are quilting, porcelain doll making, sewing, crafts, crocheting, and knitting.
You can connect with Mary on her blog, Facebook Readers Group, Amazon, BookBub and Goodreads.
THE DEBUTANTE’S SECRET
SERIES: The Quilting Circle #4
GENRE: Inspirational Historical Romance
PUBLISHER: Mountain Brook Ink
RELEASE DATE: August 5, 2021
PAGES:
Will Geneviève open her heart to a love she never imagined?
Washington State 1894
Geneviève Marseille, a French socialite, has only one purpose in coming to Kamola—stopping her brother from digging up the past. She has reluctantly journeyed alone to the quaint college town in central Washington State. Kamola is so different from her beloved Paris that she is tempted to abort her mission, but the kindness of a handsome deputy tempers her desire to flee.
Deputy Montana has lived a simple life. But when a fancy French lady steps off the train and into his arms, his modest existence might not be enough anymore. Even though he’s warned he can have no future with Miss Marseille because her grandparents would never accept him, he is drawn to her at every turn. Can he make himself worthy of her?
Mystery surrounds Aunt Henny. She is aunt to all but related to no one in Kamola. When a nemesis from her past arrives, she must decide whether to flee as she’d done all those years ago, or stand her ground in the town she’s made her home and risk going to jail.
When secrets come out, will the lives of Geneviève, Montana, and Aunt Henny ever be the same?
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Hi Mary! Welcome back to the blog!
Mary: I don’t like cold, so winter is out. But I don’t care for endless sunshine, so summer is iffy. But given the two, I shall choose summer with many, many doses of rain. I love rain, and warm summer rain is preferable to cold winter rain. So if I can have rain, then summer it is!
Carrie: I love winter but I would prefer warm rain to cold rain any day. If it’s going to precipitate in winter I want it to snow.
Mary: This is a tough one. I love the mountains with the varying landscape and trickling streams. My dad took me and my siblings backpacking many times in the mountains. So beautiful up there. But I also love the swooshing sound of waves on the shore and the calling of the seagulls. I can remember walking for hours along the beach on the Olympic Peninsula as a child.
Carrie: I always say I want both haha
Mary: I like both, but I prefer card games. I loved it when I got old enough to play pinochle with my parents. I remember playing two-handed pinochle in 1st or 2nd grade with my mom when I was home sick from school.
Carrie: i have never played pinochle but always wanted to learn
Mary: Definitely print. I like the feel of the pages in my hand. Being a visual person, I like to see how big the book is, how far along in the book I am, and how many pages to the next chapter. And an ebook will never have the smell of a print book.
Carrie: very true! (though ebooks are much easier to read in bed at night lol)
Q: Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. Way back in 2019 (before the world went crazy haha) you said you wanted your superpower to be stopping time so you could catch up on your to-do list (amen). What would it be today?
Mary: My superpower would be to instantly beam myself to anywhere I want to be. Then I could visit my grandchildren in another state during the day and sleep in my own bed at night. I could visit my daughter a half of a continent away and give her a much needed hug. Or to fly like a fairy. That would work too.
Carrie: wouldn’t that be so wonderful?!?
Q: If you knew you were only going to be allowed FIVE books for the rest of your life, besides the Bible, which five would make the cut?
Mary: Five oversized, huge blank journals with thousands of pages each so I could write down the numerous stories still floating around in my head. And of course an endless supply of writing implements to fill all those pages.
Carrie: i am an office supply nut – i adore pens & blank notebooks! 😀
Q: Which character in The Debutante’s Secret was the most difficult to write?
Mary: Geneviève was a challenge because I knew I would be walking a fine line with her. She is a society gal from France with an anxiety disorder who is afraid in Wild West that everyone is either an outlaw or an Indian, and she doesn’t like our beloved Aunt Henny. I needed to make her sympathetic from the start for people to read far enough to want to find out why she is the way she is.
Carrie: ooo I’m intrigued! I’m by no means a society girl but I do know about anxiety and I can definitely sympathize with being anxious in the Wild West. I mean, if any place can bring out a society girl’s anxiety it would be the Wild West haha!
Q: Did you have the whole plot outlined before you started writing The Debutante’s Secret, or did you let the characters dictate what came next?
Mary: Yes and no. I knew the major plot points and the skeleton of the story, but I asked for input now and then from my characters as to how we might get from one plot point to the next. For instance, would they like to go fishing or to the theater?
Carrie: I still don’t understand how that author-character thing works but it fascinates me!
Q: What do you most want readers to take away from The Debutante’s Secret?
Mary: I don’t know if this is what I want MOST for readers to take away from The Débutante’s Secret, but it’s one of the things. Making assumptions can lead you in the wrong direction and you can miss out on some really good stuff.
Carrie: there’s so much of that in the world right now, too – a very timely lesson to remember.
Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.
Mary: I have a WWII novel releasing in February 2022 called Mrs. Witherspoon Goes To War. A Women Airforce Service Pilots set off on an unauthorized mission to rescue three US soldiers being held captive.
Also, book 5 in the Quilting Circle series, The Lady’s Mission, releases in October 2022. Lamar hasn’t been able to find that one special lady to share his life with. Could the giggly Cordelia be the one?
Mary Davis is offering an ebook copy of The Widow’s Plight (book 1 in the Quilting Circle series) to one of my readers! (Open internationally except where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.
What about you? What makes you want to read The Debutante’s Secret by Mary Davis?
I’ve never read a Mary Davis novel and the story line for The Debutante’s Secret surely gets my attention. I would imagine that a socialite and a lowly deputy clashing should be pretty amusing. It definitely makes me think that I’d like to read this one!
you must read one of her books soon, Perrianne! She’s a fabulous author 🙂
Perrianne, I hope you get a chance to read one of my books. From August 6th-10th, book one in this series, The Widow’s Plight, is free on ebook. Blessings, Mary =0)
I would love to read this book, I have finished with the first 3 books and I loved them all.
Judi, I hope you get a chance to read this one. You will learn much about Aunt Henny. Blessings, Mary =0)
A heroine and hero from different social classes and countries plus a mystery about Aunt Henny will make for a very interesting story.
Roxanne, I had fun writing this story and learning more about Aunt Henny. Blessings, Mary =0)
Thanks for sharing!
Amelia, You’re welcome. I enjoyed writing this story. Blessings, Mary =0)