Today's Wednesday Wonders features the medieval novel,
Courting Cassandry by Joyce DiPastena
About
the Book:
Is it too late for second chances when the girl you loved in
your youth comes back into your life?
Gerolt de Warenne became guardian to a child-heiress named Cassandry when he was only nineteen-years old. As he watched her grow into a lovely young woman, he found himself falling in love with her, but Cassandry viewed him as an older brother. So, burying his feelings, he gave permission for her to marry another.
Twenty-four years later Gerolt and Cassandry meet again. With the loss of their respective spouses, Gerolt hopes to finally court Cassandry, but she desires to remain a widow. Instead, they agree to a betrothal of their children.
Matters become complicated as their friendship begins to evolve into the romance Gerolt has always wanted. But by the law of the medieval Church, Cassandry and Gerolt can’t marry if their children do. Can they find a way to be together? Or must they sacrifice their future for the love of their children?
"Courting Cassandry" is a “Hearts in Autumn” romance, medieval romances revolving around heroes and heroines “in the autumn of their years.” Because love isn’t only for the young!
Gerolt de Warenne became guardian to a child-heiress named Cassandry when he was only nineteen-years old. As he watched her grow into a lovely young woman, he found himself falling in love with her, but Cassandry viewed him as an older brother. So, burying his feelings, he gave permission for her to marry another.
Twenty-four years later Gerolt and Cassandry meet again. With the loss of their respective spouses, Gerolt hopes to finally court Cassandry, but she desires to remain a widow. Instead, they agree to a betrothal of their children.
Matters become complicated as their friendship begins to evolve into the romance Gerolt has always wanted. But by the law of the medieval Church, Cassandry and Gerolt can’t marry if their children do. Can they find a way to be together? Or must they sacrifice their future for the love of their children?
"Courting Cassandry" is a “Hearts in Autumn” romance, medieval romances revolving around heroes and heroines “in the autumn of their years.” Because love isn’t only for the young!
Excerpt:
Cassandry sniffed dismissively. “Boyhood mischief. You grew out of
it. Samson did not.”
“I might not have. There was worse ‘mischief’ as I grew older.
Gambling and drinking. We had begun to walk a dangerous road together, Sam and
I. Do you know what stopped me?”
She shook her head, grappling with the implausible portrait he had
drawn.
“You.” Gerolt turned his head to meet her shocked gaze. “Had my
father not died and left you in my care, I might have remained as reckless and
undisciplined as Sam. But suddenly I was responsible for raising a
nine-year-old girl, and I knew I could not do so if I drank away my days in a
tavern. You were still grieving for your parents. Even after a year in my
father’s wardship, you still carried that lost, lonely look in your eyes. The
day after I buried my father, I vowed I would find a way to make you smile, to
win your trust, to raise you to be as fine a lady as my mother had been. I did
not have a notion how to do any of it, but there was something about you that
made me determined to try. It was not easy. I made a great many mistakes.”
“I do not recall a one,” she protested.
He grinned. “You were small, and, as you said yourself, age has
dulled your memory.”
She swatted playfully at his shoulder. “It is not that dull.”
He laughed, sending up another scolding from Jenny Wren. He
pressed a finger to his lips, signaling silence until the bird settled back
down. By then Gerolt had grown sober again. He straightened, folding up his
stretched out legs.
“I hoped fatherhood would steady Sam, as caring for you did me.
But instead he went off on that wretched crusade.”
“What, so now I was a daughter to you? Or did raising me merely
make you feel ancient?”
That brought the twinkle back to his gray eyes, but another
expression lurked behind it, something warm but cautious. “And what was I to
you? A brother?”
Her breath caught a little. “Yes . . . then.”
The twinkle faded at the little pause between her words, but if
anything, his eyes grew brighter. “And now?”
She did not answer, but neither could she pull her gaze away from
his. Not until he shifted his position and his face slowly drifted ever so
close to her own. Then her lashes brushed against her cheeks as she closed her
eyes and waited for his hand to tenderly touch her face, his breath to brush
her lips . . .
About Joyce DiPastena:
Joyce DiPastena dreamed of green medieval forests while growing up in
the dusty copper mining town of Kearny, Arizona. She filled her medieval hunger
by reading the books of Thomas B. Costain (where she fell in love with King
Henry II of England), and later by attending the University of Arizona where
she graduated with a degree in history, specializing in the Middle Ages. The
university was also where she completed her first full-length novel…set, of
course, in medieval England. Later, her fascination with Henry II led her to
expand her research horizons to the far reaches of his “Angevin Empire” in
France, which became the setting of her first published novel, Loyalty’s Web (a
2007 Whitney Award Finalist). Joyce is a multi-published, multi-award winning
author who specializes in sweet medieval romances heavily spiced with mystery
and adventure. She lives with her two cats, Clio and Glinka Rimsky-Korsokov, in
Mesa, Arizona.
Purchase Links:
Author Links:
Website Author Blog Medieval Research with Joyce
Facebook Twitter: @JoyceDiPastena Pinterest Board for book
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