Emily May's Website

cherry blossom image © Abi Gee 2007; cover images © Harlequin Mills & Boon, 2008, 2009. 2010; web site © Emily Gee 2010

"Bottom line: This is a MUST BUY for Regency fans."

To read an in-depth review of The Earl's Dilemma at Rakehell.com, please click HERE.

The Earl's Dilemma has been out a while, so there aren't many copies left. Last time I looked, it was still available as a paperback from Mills & Boon (here) and from Amazon UK (here). The eBook version is available from Harlequin (here).

To Beauty and the Scarred Hero page

To The Unmasking of a Lady page

Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) is mentioned a number of times during the course of The Earl's Dilemma (and in particular, the character of Mr Collins and his search for a bride). If you haven't read or seen Pride and Prejudice, you must! I can particularly recommend the six-part 1995 BBC adaptation, which is excellent. There's also a fabulous film version of Sense and Sensibility (another Jane Austen novel, written in 1811, that is mentioned in The Earl's Dilemma), also filmed in 1995--see it, if you have the chance!

James Hargrave, Earl of Arden, urgently needs a wife -- and who better than his best friend's sister? He isn't looking for passion in this marriage of convenience, and plain Kate Honeycourt has been on the shelf for years.

But things don't go according to plan when Kate firmly refuses his offer of marriage and sets out to find him the perfect bride.

The more potential brides he meets, the more aware James becomes of Kate's attractions. Maybe love isn't as impossible as he'd once thought...

ISBN 978-0-263-86814 (UK Dec 2009)

ISBN 978-0-373-30559-9 (US Dec 2008)

ISBN 978-073359856-2 (Aus/NZ Jan 2010)

The hero of The Earl's Dilemma, James Hargrave, fought in the Battle of Waterloo and bears both physical and mental scars as a result. While I was researching this book, I read quite a lot about the Napoleonic Wars. Of particular interest to me were letters, diaries, and memoirs written by soldiers who fought at Waterloo, describing the battle and its aftermath. HERE are a couple of short excerpts from one of them.

Kate has always longed to travel abroad. She dreams of visiting Italy and Greece. During the course of the novel, she and her friend Lizzie read Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia, &c, by Henry Holland, which was published in 1815. To read a couple of short excerpts describing Holland's visit to Meteora in Greece, please click HERE. (Meteora is in northern Greece, a stunning place where monastries perch on top of massive, sheer pillars of rock. Go there, if you can!)

One of the bridal candidates, Eudora Wilmot, is something of a scholar. The translation of Homer's Iliad that Eudora quotes in The Earl's Dilemma is based on Alexander Pope's 18th century translation. To read a short excerpt of Pope's translation (and compare it to Eudora's translation, if you wish), please click HERE.

The heroine, Kate Honeycourt, has a love of gothic novels. The excerpts in The Earl's Dilemma are entirely made up, but if you're interested in reading one of the gothic novels that was available during the Regency, here are some that can still be found today:

Matthew Lewis, Ambrosio, or The Monk

Mrs Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho

Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otrano