Winner of the Golden Quill and Barclay Awards for Best Novella, The Accidental Duchess, set in Victorian London and Scotland, features alpha Highlanders, history, humor, a chocolate cake recipe and romance. Destitute governess Rachael O’Leary finds shelter during a blizzard in a shuttered London townhouse, knowing nothing of its owner or why it stands empty. Needing a few weeks of peace in order to sort out his financial problems and secure his childhood Highland home, Connor Kenroe, the Duke of Kilgory, returns to his closed London townhouse after a long sojourn in Egypt to find a lovely slip of a woman asleep in his bed. When his shocked mother and ex-fiancée arrive unexpectedly at the bedroom door, he spouts the first lie that comes to mind, trapping himself and his feisty trespasser in a complicated web of lies they now have to unravel. This novella was originally published in the anthology How to Marry a Duke.
Author
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. Award winning author Sandy Blair has slept in castles, knelt in cathedrals where kings and queens have been crowned, dined with peerage, floated along Venetian canals, explored the great pyramids, misplaced her husband in an Egyptian ruin (she continues to deny being the one lost,) and fallen (gracefully) off a cruise ship. Winner of Romance Writers of America© Golden Heart for Best Paranormal Romance, Sandy’s debut release A MAN IN A KILT also won the 2004 National Readers Choice Award for Best Paranormal Romance and was a 2005 RITA finalist. Sandy loves writing about the past. "I find it easier to suspend my own disbelief when thoroughly immersed in a time when nobody worried about political correctness; when men were wonderfully alpha and had no idea they even had a feminine side, much less worried about getting in touch with it." She often adds a touch of the paranormal to her tales believing the very possibility expands the imagination, which in turn gives her latitude with humor. Her second release, A ROGUE IN A KILT, received Romantic Times Magazine’s 4 ½ star Top Pick rating and was a National Readers Choice Awards finalist. Her third, The Accidental Duchess in the anthology HOW TO MARRY A DUKE, won the 2006 Golden Quill Award for Best Novella. Her books are now available in four languages and can be found in a dozen countries. When not writing, Sandy dabbles with watercolors, is a charity fundraiser, and loves to entertain family and friends at home. She claims the secret to hosting a successful dinner party is setting a pretty table and serving lots of wine before the meal. She currently resides in Texas with her husband.
