After much browbeating on my part, Mr. Milan has finally picked a winner. Through ways that are mysterious and masculine, he read through all the entries, laughing from time to time, and finally has said that the winner is:

Laney, for: “In America, you go to war. In Victorian times, war comes to you.”

But wait! There’s a random winner, too. And the random winner is… Rene! Rene and Laney, send your snail mail addresses to courtney@courtneymilan.com.

For those of you interested in winning other things, this quarter I’m giving away a prize pack of six debut historical romance authors, all awesome in their own right.

• Elizabeth Essex’s The Pursuit of Pleasure is a wonderful book about a woman who marries a man who is going to die for freedom, and then has the bad fortune to fall in love with him. I meant to post about this book when it came out, but it came out right in the middle of sudden-death deadlines and a couple of other things that completely ate up my November and December. Trust me, this book is wonderful, and the prose is elegant. I loved it!
• Tiffany Clare’s The Surrender of a Lady. Tiffany definitely pushes some boundaries with this one. It’s set in a harem in Victorian times, and it’s as much about emotional freedom as it is about sexual freedom.
• Vicky Dreiling’s How to Marry a Duke. A long, long time ago, Vicky and I finaled in a writing contest together with two unpublished manuscripts. We started talking. I told her she was going to sell her book, even though I hadn’t read it. I just felt sure it was true. And it was! Now that her book is out (it just came out yesterday), I can see why it sold. The premise is unbearably cute–think “The Bachelor” in Regency times, and the execution made me laugh.
• Ashley March’s Seducing the Duchess. A gorgeous book about two people–married–who each do something that is absolutely unforgivable to the other, and then have the ill luck to fall in love. It was a deeply emotional book, filled with angst…and yet it was also funny, too, which pretty much makes me excited.
• Grace Burrowes’s The Heir. Another gorgeous book about a man who falls in love with his housekeeper. The language is exquisite, the romance is hot, and I have to say–this is just between you and me–I love a scene where people know how to use their hands, and this book has lots of them.
• Jeannie Lin’s Butterfly Swords. One of my favorite new authors. I started writing a post about Butterfly Swords months ago–I still have a draft saved–I couldn’t figure out how to express my adoration in a few hours. I have to actually write this out at some point, even though I’m unforgivably late. It’s like a martial arts movie crossed with a happy ending.

Six debut historical romance authors, wildly different in tone and setting and place, and all excellent. If you want them, you have to enter my website contest.

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