Book Title: The Husband Criteria
Series: The Lorings, Book #3
Author: Catherine Kullmann
Publication Date: 24 August 2023
Publisher: Willow Books
Page Length: 297
Genre: Historical Romance / Regency Romance
Twitter Handle: @CKullmmannauthor @cathiedunn
Instagram Handle: @thecoffeepotbookclub
Hashtags: #RegencyRomance #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub
Tour Schedule Link: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/07/blog-tour-husband-criteria-by-catherine-kullmann.html
The Husband Criteria
Catherine Kullmann
Blurb:
London 1817
The primary aim of every young lady embarking on the Spring frenzy that is the Season must be to make a good match. Or must it? And what is a good match? For cousins Cynthia, Chloe and Ann, well aware that the society preux chevalier may prove to be a domestic tyrant, these are vital questions. How can they discover their suitors’ true character when all their encounters must be confined to the highly ritualised round of balls, parties and drives in the park?
As they define and refine their Husband Criteria, Cynthia finds herself unwillingly attracted to aloof Rafe Marfield, heir to an earldom, while Chloe is pleased to find that Thomas Musgrave, the vicar’s son from home, is also in London. And Ann must decide what is more important to her, music or marriage.
And what of the gentlemen who consider the marriage mart to be their hunting grounds? How will they react if they realise how rigorously they are being assessed?
A light-hearted, entertaining look behind the scenes of a Season that takes a different course with unexpected consequences for all concerned.
The Husband Criteria by Catherine Kullmann Blog Tour of The Coffee Pot Book Club
Guest Post
Why Write or Read Historical Fiction?
Why do we write and read historical fiction? First, I suppose, because it takes us out of ourselves—transports us to an unfamiliar society recreated partly from familiar facts and partly from a myriad of tiny, new details so that it seems as real to us as our world of today. The setting rings true and the characters’ actions are determined by the laws, morals and customs of their time, not ours. Sometimes this horrifies us; at other times we find it liberating and long for more romantic, more adventurous, perhaps simpler bygone days.
Contemporary fiction instinctively reflects/portrays the world as it is at the time of writing. Historical fiction considers the past through the prism of the present, the author drawing on research rather than personal experience to create an authentic setting and story. But, while we cannot forget what we already know—that Germany lost both world wars, that the Allies under Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo or that the US won the War of Independence—reading the right author, we are willing to suspend our belief, to become so caught up in the story, that we experience those events as if they were happening today. And within these grand story arcs there are so many smaller arcs concerning fictional characters with uncertain outcomes or gaps in the known narrative that informed imagination can fill so that no matter how well we think we know a period or an episode, there is always something new to discover.
With history becoming more and more of a niche subject at schools and universities, it is historical fiction that offers millions of readers a connection to the past, a past which casts long shadows. We need only look back two hundred years to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland of 1800, the Anglo-American war of 1812 and the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 are all events that still shape today’s world. At the same time, the ruling aristocracies were being challenged by those who saw the need for social and political reform, while the industrial revolution which led to the transfer of wealth to the manufacturing and merchant classes was underway. Powerful voices demanded the abolition of the slave trade and women, who had few or no rights in a patriarchal society, had begun to raise their voices, demanding equality and emancipation. It is the beginning of our modern society.
Following the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens in 1803, the United Kingdom was at war with Napoleonic France until 1815. Like Hitler in 1939, Napoleon swept eastwards conquering all before him until he stood at the gates of Moscow. Unlike other combatants in this long war, Britain was spared the havoc wrought by an invading army and did not suffer under an army of occupation. War was something that happened elsewhere, far away. For twelve long years, ships carrying fathers, husbands, sons and brothers sailed over the horizon and disappeared. Over three hundred thousand men did not return, dying of wounds, accidents and illness.
What did this mean for those left behind without any news apart from that provided in the official dispatches published in the Gazette and what little was contained in intermittent private letters? The question would not leave me and it is against this background of an off-stage war that I have set my novels. How long did it take, I wondered, for word of those three hundred thousand deaths to reach the bereaved families? How did the widows and orphans survive? What might happen to a girl whose father and brother were ‘somewhere at sea’ if her mother died suddenly and she was left homeless?
It is against this backdrop of an off-stage war in a patriarchal world where women are both second-class citizens and held to impossibly high standards that I have set my novels. My characters and their stories are fictional but the world in which they live is very real and there are no twenty-first century solutions to their dilemmas.
Good historical fiction informs us about the past. It provides insights into yesterday and helps us understand today. It encourages us to persevere or warns us to change direction. It can reveal past, hidden wrongs, teach us to value the struggles of those who went before us and inspire us to preserve and build upon their achievements.
In The Husband Criteria, we take a look behind the scenes of the Marriage Mart that was the London Season. In a world where wives have no rights and divorce is next to impossible, three cousins are determined to discover the real men behind their suitors’ public facades, a task made more difficult by the many unwritten rules that govern any interaction between the sexes and the risk of social ruin an infraction may incur. The decisions they make now will shape the rest of their lives.
© Catherine Kullmann 2023
Buy Links:
Universal Link: https://mybook.to/criteria
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CBKZCBVX
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBKZCBVX
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CBKZCBVX
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CBKZCBVX
Author Bio:
Catherine Kullmann was born and educated in Dublin. Following a three-year courtship conducted mostly by letter, she moved to Germany where she lived for twenty-five years before returning to Ireland. She has worked in the Irish and New Zealand public services and in the private sector. Widowed, she has three adult sons and two grandchildren.
Catherine has always been interested in the extended Regency period, a time when the foundations of our modern world were laid. She loves writing and is particularly interested in what happens after the first happy end—how life goes on for the protagonists and sometimes catches up with them. Her books are set against a background of the offstage, Napoleonic wars and consider in particular the situation of women trapped in a patriarchal society.
She is the author of The Murmur of Masks, Perception & Illusion, A Suggestion of Scandal, The Duke’s Regret, The Potential for Love, A Comfortable Alliance and Lady Loring’s Dilemma.
Catherine also blogs about historical facts and trivia related to this era. You can find out more about her books and read her blog (My Scrap Album) at her website. You can contact her via her Facebook page or on Twitter.
Author Links:
Website: http://www.catherinekullmann.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CKullmannAuthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherinekullmannauthor
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/catherine-kullmann
Amazon Author Page: http://viewauthor.at/ckullmannamazonpage
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15549457.Catherine_Kullmann
When Angels Fly 