Blurb
Dr
Grace Harper has loved the stories of Robin Hood ever since she first
saw them on TV as a girl. Now, with her fortieth birthday just around
the corner, she’s a successful academic in Medieval History, with a
tenured position at a top university.
But
Grace is in a bit of a rut. She’s
supposed to be writing a textbook on a real-life medieval gang of
high-class criminals – the Folvilles – but she keeps being drawn
into the world of the novel she’s secretly writing – a novel
which entwines the Folvilles with her long-time love of Robin Hood –
and a feisty young girl named Mathilda, who is the key to a medieval
mystery…
Meanwhile,
Grace’s best friend Daisy – who’s as keen on animals as Grace
is on the Merry Men – is unexpectedly getting married, and a
reluctant Grace is press-ganged into being her bridesmaid. As Grace
sees Daisy’s new-found happiness, she starts to re-evaluate her own
life. Is her devotion to a man who may or may not have lived hundreds
of years ago really a substitute for a real-life hero of her own? It
doesn’t get any easier when she meets Dr Robert Franks – a rival
academic who Grace is determined to dislike but finds herself being
increasingly drawn to…
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Excerpt
It
was all
Jason Connery’s
fault, or
maybe it
was Michael
Praed’s?
As she
crashed onto
her worn
leather desk
chair Grace,
after two
decades of
indecision, still
couldn’t
decide which
of the
two actors
she preferred
in the
title role
of Robin
of Sherwood.
That
was how it had all started, ‘The Robin Hood Thing’ as Daisy
referred to it, with an instant and unremitting love for a television
show. Yet, for Grace, it hadn’t been a crush in the usual way. She
had only watched one episode of the hit eighties series and, with the
haunting theme tune from Clannad echoing in her ears, had run
upstairs to her piggy bank to see how much money she’d saved, and
how much more cash she’d need, before she could spend all her
pocket money on the complete video collection. After that, the young
Grace had done every odd job her parents would pay her for so she
could purchase a myriad of Connery and Praed posters with which to
bedeck her room. But that was just the beginning. Within weeks Grace
had become pathologically and forensically interested in anything and
everything to do with the outlaw legend as a whole.
She’d
watched all the Robin Hood films, vintage scenes of Douglas Fairbanks
Jr and Errol Flynn, Richard Greene, Sean Connery, and Barry Ingram.
As time passed, she winced and cringed her way through Kevin
Costner’s comical but endearing attempt, and privately applauded
Patrick Bergin’s darker and infinitely more realistic approach to
the tale. Daisy had quickly learnt to never ever mention Russell
Crowe’s adaption of the story – it was the only time she’d ever
heard Grace swear using words that could have been as labelled as
Technicolor as the movie had been.
The
teenage Grace had read every story, every ballad, and every academic
book, paper, and report on the subject. She’d hoarded pictures,
paintings, badges, and stickers, along with anything and everything
else she could find connected with Robin Hood, his band of outlaws,
his enemies, Nottingham, Sherwood, Barnsdale, Yorkshire – and so it
went on and on. The collection, now over twenty years in the making,
had reached ridiculous proportions and had long since overflowed from
her small terraced home to her university office, where posters lined
the walls, and books about the legend, both serious and comical,
crammed the overstuffed shelves.
Her
undergraduates who’d
chosen to
study medieval
economy and
crime as
a history
degree option,
and her
postgraduates whose
interest in
the intricate
weavings of
English medieval
society was
almost as
insane as
her own,
often commented
on how
much they
liked Dr
Harper’s
office. Apparently
it was
akin to
sitting in
a mad
museum of
medievalism. Sometimes
Grace was
pleased with
this reaction.
Other times
it filled
her with
depression, for
that office,
its contents,
and the
daily, non-stop
flow of
work was
her life
– her
whole life
– and
sometimes she
felt that
it was
sucking her
dry. Leaving
literally no
time for
anything else
– nor
anyone
else. Boyfriends
had come
and gone,
but few
had any
hope of
matching up
to the
figure she’d
fallen in
love with
as a
teenager. A
man who
is quite
literally a
legend is
a hard
act to
follow...
Author
bio and links
Jenny
Kane is
the author
of the
contemporary novel
Romancing Robin
Hood (Accent
Press, 2014),
the best
selling contemporary
romance novel
Another Cup
of Coffee
(Accent Press,
2013), and
its novella
length sequel
Another Cup
of Christmas
(Accent
Press, 2013)
Jenny’s
first children’s
book, There’s
a Cow
in the
Flat (Hush
Puppy Books)
will be
released later
this year,
and her
third full
length romance
novel, Abi’s
House (Accent
Press), will
be published
in Spring
2015.
3 comments:
Many thanks!! Jenny Kane xx
Hi, Kay! So you're Jenny?
Love the idea behind this book! I wish you great sales and super reviews.
Thanks hun!! Yes- I'm Jenny- some days I'm someone else as well!! Thanks for hosting me- just shout if you ever want the favour returned xxx
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