Brazen by Katherine Longshore Blog Tour Stop + Giveaway!

About the Author

Katherine Longshore grew up on the northern California coast. At university, she created her own major in Cross-Cultural Studies and Communications, planning to travel and write. Forever. Four years, six continents and countless pairs of shoes later, she went to England for two weeks, stayed five years and discovered history. She now lives in California with her husband, two children and a sun-worshiping dog.


☆ How to find Katherine ☆
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About the Book

Mary Howard has always lived in the shadow of her powerful family. But when she’s married off to Henry Fitzroy, King Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, she rockets into the Tudor court’s inner circle. Mary and “Fitz” join a tight clique of rebels who test the boundaries of court’s strict rules with their games, dares, and flirtations. The more Mary gets to know Fitz, the harder she falls for him, but is forbidden from seeing him alone. The rules of court were made to be pushed…but pushing them too far means certain death. Is true love worth dying for?

☆ How to find Brazen ☆
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How to be BRAZEN
Make a Choice. I don’t mean choice as a political act, I mean any kind of choice. Choosing a life partner, choosing a career, choosing to travel or have babies or marry or not marry. Even choosing your own clothing or the people you hang out with. For centuries these things were denied most girls.

In BRAZEN, Mary doesn’t get to choose her husband or her “career” as one of Anne Boleyn’s ladies-in-waiting. But she does get to choose her friends. And in the end, her brazen choices are what give her the ability to choose the life she most wants to lead.

Get an Education. To many Tudors (and many societies before and after) an educated girl was a menace, an inconvenience, or at the very least a waste of time. Some aristocratic girls would be taught to read and write and possibly a foreign language or two. A few learned Latin. Even fewer learned mathematics and science. But the majority of women learned little beyond how to run a household and stay quiet.

History tells us that Mary Howard FitzRoy knew how to read and write, so she was one of the lucky ones.

Be Heard. The old adage—children should be seen and not heard—could be applied to women throughout the ages, as well. Their opinions didn’t matter, they were uneducated (and therefore ignorant and unable to discuss anything of interest), they were taught to agree with and defer to the men in their lives. A woman who spoke up for herself and expressed her beliefs and desires—especially if there were in opposition of men—was a dangerous woman. Look at what happened to Anne Boleyn.

In BRAZEN, Mary’s mother, Elizabeth Stafford Howard, is seen as shrill and shrewish because she speaks out. And it is completely within her husband’s rights to lock her up and withhold luxuries because of it. One of Mary’s greatest fears is to end up like her mother, but even she can’t suppress her desire to speak her mind.

Fall in Love. As I said before, girls often couldn’t choose their life partners. These decisions were made for them—to further family power plays and extend family property, sometimes even just to stop the girl from draining family resources. And once you were married, you were expected to have babies. Boys.

In many ways, Mary’s life in BRAZEN is a lucky one. She’s married at age fourteen, but thinks her husband is handsome and can entertain at least the possibility of falling in love with him. Her friends have a little more trouble. Madge falls in love—or at least has crushes—far too easily, and hurts and gets hurt along the way. And Margaret is subject to the whims of her uncle, the king, who controls her life and her choices with the law. Falling in love had to be worth the risk in the Tudor court.

Make the First Move. This is something that some people still consider brazen. I don’t pretend to be an expert on this—and can’t speak for men—but some of my most successful relationships came about because I was a little more assertive. Ideally, you want any friendship or couplehood to be equal, and if one person is always waiting around for the other to make a decision and do something about it, that’s not very equal.

In BRAZEN, Mary takes that first step and has to live with unexpected consequences. But you’ll have to read the book to find out what they are!




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This is a tour hosted giveaway!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
1 winner will receive all 3 books signed International.
2 winners will receive signed copies of Brazen US Only


a Rafflecopter giveaway

☆ The Tour ☆
Week One:
6/2/2014- Literary Exploration- Review
6/2/2014- The Anne Boleyn Files- Guest Post
6/3/2014- Romantic Reads and Such- Interview
6/4/2014- Page Turners- Review
6/5/2014- Magical Urban Fantasy Reads- Guest Post
6/6/2014- Parajunkee's View- Interview


Week Two:
6/9/2014- Gone With The Words- Review
6/10/2014- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Interview
6/11/2014- Bewitched Bookworms- Guest Post and Review
6/12/2014- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post
6/13/2014- Mundie Moms- Review
6/13/2014- Fiktshun- Interview