Today's Special - - Donna MacMeans

Donna MacMeans is in the house!  Donna is the author of sexy Victorian romances that keep me reading way past my bedtime.  Her latest, THE CASANOVA CODE, kicks off her new series, The Rake Patrol.  (Read my review here.)  It's a wonderful book that I highly recommend and Donna is here today to tell us a bit about it.  Welcome, Donna!


You can find more information about Donna and her books at her website and on Facebook.

Thank you PJ for inviting me to talk about THE CASANOVA CODE.

I love this book!  It’s fun.  It’s sexy.  And it’s the first of a new series built around Victorian personal ads.  Yes - they had personal ads in the 1890s.  They’re mentioned in Sherlock Holmes, and also in the secret code books that I used in research.

Secret code?  What has that to do with personal ads?  Well, I’ll tell you.

Originally, I wanted to show that my heroine, Edwina Hargrove, was analytical so I thought I’d have her enjoy working crossword puzzles.  However, I discovered that crossword puzzles didn’t become popular until world war I, which is far later than the setting of my book.  A facebook fan suggested cryptograms and I found that those had been around for a long, long time.

Then I discovered a reference in a code book to Victorian personal ads.  It seems that some individuals used the personals as a way of communicating to individuals they really shouldn’t be communicating with.  By putting their messages in code, they assumed such messages would be private - and they would be, unless you can break code, like my heroine Edwina.  Actually, I read a story in one code book about a code-breaker in 1890 who had been following a conversation between a man and woman in the personals.  The code-breaker placed a message in the newspaper using their rather simple code, suggesting that the woman be more judicious in her choice of paramours.  The woman replied to her lover that their secret had been discovered.

Once I learned of the connection between secret codes and Victorian personal ads, the book took off.  I tossed in a secret organization connected with Japanese erotica and the Casanova Code was the result.

Here’s the blurb:

“A refined gentleman, age 25, of wealth and education, seeks the acquaintance, with a view to matrimony, of a high-minded, kind-hearted lady who prefers an evening of quiet conversation to the lively demands of society.”

Edwina Hargrove knows that this “gentleman” was, in fact, Ashton Trewelyn, a rake notorious for seducing the young and naive. In fact, five decent women have already been tricked and bundled off to the continent for scandalous purposes. There was a way to thwart his scheme though—by shadowing this devilishly handsome Casanova and warning his prey.  If only it were that simple.

Wounded and weary, Ashton Trewelyn returns home to London from the King’s Royal Rifles but soon discovers a coded message that has implications for the Crown and his family.  His only hope to unravel the mystery lies in the enigmatic Edwina’s ability to recognize patterns.  Even as he leads her on a path of secret societies and risque temptations, he discovers she arouses his jaded soul with temptations of her own.  Must they risk everything to decipher Casanova’s code?

I hope you give it try.  To help the process I’ll give away a copy of THE CASANOVA CODE to two people leaving a comment on today.s blog.  If you were writing a personal ad, what qualities would you include in the advertisement?

Thanks, Donna!  Okay, everybody, let those creative juices flow!