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Friday, April 14, 2017

Duels & Deceptions Blog Tour: How to Insult a Regency Gentleman!




Publisher: Swoon Reads
Pub Date: April 11th 2017
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Miss Lydia Whitfield, heiress to the family fortune, has her future entirely planned out. She will run the family estate until she marries the man of her late father's choosing, and then she will spend the rest of her days as a devoted wife. Confident in those arrangements, Lydia has tasked her young law clerk, Mr. Robert Newton, to begin drawing up the marriage contracts. Everything is going according to plan.

Until Lydia—and Robert along with her—is kidnapped. Someone is after her fortune and won't hesitate to destroy her reputation to get it. With Robert's help, Lydia strives to keep her family's good name intact and expose whoever is behind the devious plot. But as their investigation delves deeper and their affections for each other grow, Lydia starts to wonder whether her carefully planned future is in fact what she truly wants…
Whenever she is not sitting at the computer, throwing a ball in the backyard, gardening or reading, Cindy can be found—actually, not found—adventuring around the world with her hubby.

She has lived on three continents, had a monkey in her yard and a scorpion under her sink, dwelt among castles and canals, enjoyed the jazz of Beale St and attempted to speak French.

Cindy loves history, mystery and... a chocolate Labrador called Chester. Love, Lies and Spies is her debut novel.
Follow Cindy: Website | Twitter | Facebook
How to insult a Regency Gentleman—or spoiling for a duel
By Cindy Anstey

Duels, as you might assume, figure prominently in my book Duels & Deception. It was, in fact, stumbling across the causes more than the rules of this dangerous, pointless practice that piqued my interest. Can you imagine placing your life on the line because of an insult?

So then, what would constitute an insult in the Regency World? What would cause a young man to grab his best friend and meet a foe with his best friend in a field at dawn? With sword or pistol in hand, they would try to do one another harm to compensate for the harm that was done them—all in an honorable manner, of course!

Some affronts are obvious, such as name-calling: bacon-brained, bird witted, chucklehead, fatwit, nincompoop or slow top (different ways of calling someone stupid). However, this kind of insult was only worth dying over if there were witnesses to said name-calling.

Insinuating that someone cheated at cards, or any other gambling endeavor, was tantamount to waving a red cape in front of a bull. The Regency gentleman took his gambling very seriously and if anyone impinged on his good name, no one would ever trust him again. Meaning, he could no longer offer up a bet. Surely satisfaction must be demanded (invitation to duel) here!

Were one gentleman to strike another, they would meet on the field of honor. A slap or a fist would do the trick… but it could be as minor as a jostle. If someone was spoiling for a fight they could insist on a pistol at dawn.

Duels were also fought to win back the honor of ladies if a man had taken liberties. (Notice that I did not say gentleman… for a true gentleman would never take advantage of the *cough, cough* weaker sex.) Taking liberties could be as insignificant (to 21st century eyes) as standing with a young lady in the shadows without a chaperon to eloping with her to Gretna Green. Worse still was running off with said innocent and not high-tailing it to Gretna Green. (Gretna Green was a village in the south of Scotland famous for runaway weddings.)

So as you can see, there was no shortage of reasons to be insulted and to look for redress on a field of honor. If a Regency gentleman was looking for trouble, he was likely to find it.


Brittany: Thank you so much for this informative and wonderful guest post, Cindy! :D
April 10th
FLYLÄ“F Reviews — Review
To Be Read — Review
In Love With Handmade — Review
A Book Addict’s Bookshelves — Guest post

April 11th
Book Briefs — Review
Bibliobibuli YA — Interview
Abooktropolis — Review
Whatever You Can Still Betray — Excerpt
With Love for Books — Review

April 12th
Rattle the Stars — Review
The Blacksheep Reader  — Review
Arctic Books — Interview
Awesome Book Assessment — Review
Quite The Novel Idea — Review

April 13th
SERIESous Book Reviews — Review
A Dream Within A Dream — Excerpt
Booker T’s Farm: Books & Nails & Puppy Dog Tales — Review
Betwixt the Pages — Review
What Cathy Read Next — Review

April 14th
Library of a Book Witch — Review
Perks Be With You — Review
Brittany’s Book Rambles — Guest post
21st Century Once Upon A Times — Review


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26 comments:

  1. I love the regency era so I really loved this guest post. I so want to read this book!

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    1. I hope you read it and love it! Thanks for stopping by <3

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  2. I love anything regency era related so this is right up my alley :)

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  3. I loved the first book in the series, and I got the egalley of this, but had no time to get to it yet. :-( Love this little guest post about insulting a gentleman! Thanks for this fun post. Have a great weekend!

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    1. I hope that you love Duels and Deceptions as much as book one! Have a great weekend ^_^

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  4. Wonderful guest post. I'm not familiar with this series, so I really enjoyed hearing from the author about this book.

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    1. Yes, I really love this guest post! I'm so glad you have been introduced to this author and her books through it. Thanks for stopping by!

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  5. Hehehehehehe. *giggles for days* I'm sure Cindy has read a ton of adult HR -- the insults in those books can get so creative and hilarious. I loooove HR! Which makes it no surprise that I love these books. They are so much like adult HR, sans sexy times. I can't wait to read Suitors and Sabotage!

    Great post! Have a lovely weekend, Brittany. =)

    Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

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    1. I love the way people used to insult each other in this time period. It's so passive aggressive and prissy. I'm so glad that you love these books, I hope you have a great weekend too!

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  6. OOOOH! Another book that sounds amazing! Thanks so much for the chance to win Brittany!

    Aditi @ http://athousandwordsamillionbooks.blogspot.in/

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    1. The giveaway is provided by the Xpresso Book Tours, but I wish you good luck all the same ^_^ Thanks for stopping by!

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  7. I have been hearing so much about this book around the blogosphere! Alyssa, Danya and others loved it so I am really excited! Also, the guest post was really interesting and awesome! :)
    Prabhleen @ Booksarelife987

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    1. It's been getting a lot of buzz which is very exciting! I hope you love the book ^_^

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  8. I have had this one on my radar for quite some time! I love all of the different name-calling that was used back then! This is definitely one that I intend to check out soon. Thanks for sharing it. :)

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    1. Me too! The name-calling and the insults back then were so passive aggressive and prissy. We need to bring this back haha. I hope you love it! Thanks for stopping by ^_^

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  9. I love the cover for this one, and that guest post was such an interesting read! I can't wait to read this author's work!

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  10. This looks so fun! And interesting to know about duels- what a different society that was! I wonder how many lost their life to such silliness- although I'm sure to them it was silly but very important to protect one's honor. Thanks for sharing!

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  11. Haa, I love this. I have a friend at work who loves this kind of stuff, he even has a mug with a ton of different insults from the regency era on it. He would love this, I might have to direct him to this post! :D

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  12. I really enjoyed Duels and Deception! Anstey's books are fast becoming a go-to read of mine, if only because I know I'll have a great time reading it and they're usually full of hilarious characters, witty dialogue, and funny situations.

    Honestly though, I seriously can't imagine dueling as a way to fix an insult. Talk about some unnecessary deaths!

    - Aila @ Happy Indulgence

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  13. (I deleted my previous comment because some glitch caused a link to post. Weird...)

    OMG!! If I had known about this tour, I would have signed up!! I LOVE Regency romance novels!! And this novel has a definite Austen vibe! I don't know if it's the GORGEOUS cover, or the plot, but I definitely feel that this is a book Austen might have penned.

    I DEFINITELY want to read this book, and am adding it to my Goodreads shelves RIGHT NOW. Who knows, I might get lucky and win a copy! Thanks for the AWESOME giveaway, BTW!! And please thank Cindy for her highly entertaining, highly informative post!! HUGS FOR YOU & CINDY!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 :) :) :) :) :)

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  14. This one do look pretty awesome :D Lovely tour post sweetie. <3 Thank you for sharing about this book. Hope you are doing great Brittany :D

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