Constance Atkins wants distance from danger and marriage alike. Instead, she gets a one-way trip to Regency England, where rebuilding her life requires courage, culinary skill, and a willingness to question what she thought she wanted.
What would you do if safety
came with an impossible choice? For Constance Atkins, the answer begins with a
wish. She is not searching for romance, adventure, or a dramatic change of
scenery. After being widowed twice and threatened by the people connected to
her second husband’s murder, she wants a chance to remain alive and make her
own decisions.
Then the impossible intervenes.
A good deed for a young neighbor leads Constance to an extraordinary 3D-printed dragon. By the following morning, she is no longer in her apartment, her city, or her century. She has landed in 1814, a time when survival depends on resources she cannot simply order, skills she must prove, and people who may not understand where she came from.
That displacement gives The Widowed Bride its first major theme: reinvention. Constance is modern, capable, and professionally confident, but none of those qualities guarantee an easy place in Regency society. Her work as a chef becomes more than an occupation. It is her language, her leverage, and one of the clearest ways she can build independence in an unfamiliar world.
The novel also asks whether protection and freedom must be opposites. Constance has every reason to guard herself. Marriage has brought her grief, and the possibility of becoming dependent on another man is hardly comforting. Yet Damien Delacroix is not simply a romantic escape route. As the Earl of Granville, he carries responsibilities of his own, including two children who need stability after losing their mother.
Their attraction develops alongside practical questions. Can Constance trust a man with her safety? Can Damien recognize the woman in front of him rather than trying to fit her into a convenient role? And can either of them imagine a future when the past—and even time itself—refuses to stay quiet?
Against the lively backdrop of the Great Frost Fair, the story balances danger with wit, historical detail with fantastical invention, and guarded hearts with the possibility of connection. Constance’s journey is not about becoming someone else. It is about discovering that a new life can still belong to her, even when it begins in the most unexpected place.
Available now:
Print: https://www.amazon.com/Widowed-Bride-Susanne-Marie-Knight/dp/B0HHSHQM5H
eBook: https://www.amazon.com/Widowed-Bride-Susanne-Marie-Knight-ebook/dp/B0HH9CM13Q
Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/31vd9l
Happy Reading!
Susanne Marie Knight
Read outside the box: award-winning Romance Writing with a Twist!
