To Woo and to Wed comes out tomorrow!
it's fine I'm fine no feelings here
Four years ago this month, I sent my very first newsletter. It was on Tinyletter, I think there were about 50 people signed up, it was a sort of “hey my book comes out in two months and ahhhhhhhh also here have some recommendations!” jumble.
It’s weird to look back on that person of four years ago, blissfully unaware that a global pandemic was about to upend her entire debut experience and — more importantly, I suppose — everything about daily life for the rest of humanity, too. I was very, very nervous about my debut, about entering this frightening world of publishing, about everything to do with writing — but the beauty, I suppose, of debuting during the first weeks of a pandemic is that it puts things into perspective, and also teaches you the important lesson that there’s so much about a book’s performance that is completely and entirely out of your control, so you have to just write the book and then let it go. As a result, I’ve been fairly philosophical about my career ever since.
However, I am undeniably feeling some feelings (horrible, 0/10, do not recommend) as I prepare to send the fifth and final Regency Vows book into the world tomorrow. The last book in the series that changed my life! The book I’ve been building towards the whole time! Etc! But, despite the horrifying onset of feelings: I’d still love to celebrate with you!
book news: join me for a virtual book launch!
Since I can’t celebrate To Woo and to Wed in-person (there’s this pesky thing called the Atlantic Ocean in the way?? rude.), I’m looking forward to celebrating virtually with one of my favorite bookstores (The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, which has been so lovely and supportive of me & my career over the past few years), with one of my favorite people (brilliant author & dear friend Sarah Hogle, who, pssst, has her own book coming out this spring that you should preorder because it’s a delight!). It’s tomorrow, Tuesday, February 6th, at 7pm ET/6pm CT (or midnight GMT, for those keeping track of my time zone; I will be napping ahead of time and setting an alarm to wake up in time for the event, we’ll see how this goes). It will be streamed live on their Facebook & YouTube pages — more details here! I’ll also be going live with BookBub on Instagram at 12pm ET, if you happen to be on your lunch break & feel like hanging out with me for a bit!
There’s still time to get a copy with a signed bookplate (the bookplates are so cute) — you can order from The Novel Neighbor, Print, Flyleaf Books, Meet Cute Bookshop, The Ripped Bodice (BK & LA!), Love’s Sweet Arrow, and Last Chapter Bookshop. If you’re ordering online rather than buying in person, I’d recommend checking with the individual bookstore you’re ordering from, or at least putting a note in your order comments that you’d like a bookplate, so they can be sure to get you one or let you know if they’ve sold out of them. And, of course, you can get a copy sans bookplate basically anywhere books are sold.
I’m going to keep this short (“short”), and just say: thank you. Writing this series has given me so much happiness; it’s an encapsulation of all the things that I love. It’s silly, it’s banter-y, it’s full of jokes and hijinks and friendships that are just as important as the romances, and it’s — most importantly, to me — joyful. So thank you for experiencing some of that joy along with me, and for loving these characters like I do. There will be more books from me in the future (I’m writing two as we speak!), but this series will always feel incredibly special to me, and I’m so grateful that I got to end it exactly the way I wanted.
five recent faves: tea, books, indoor things
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
I adored Williams’ last book, Seven Days in June, and so I was very excited to get to read an ARC of this one, which is out tomorrow. It is so weird in a very fun way; it involves a love story with a fated mates vibe, and Williams just has the best, most unexpected sense of humor, which is my personal favorite thing about her books (at one point, someone is insulted by being called, to their face, a “sentient Buddha statue from Urban Outfitters” and I laughed out loud on the Tube).Albion tea from Fortnum’s
When I still lived in the U.S., I would spend a fair amount of money on international shipping to import my tea from Fortnum & Mason, so it is a true delight to be able to just brave the crowds and pop in in person when I need more tea now. My current obsession is their Albion blend, which is very strong (definitely my preference when it comes to black tea, since I always use milk) and just delicious, highly recommend grabbing a tin on your next visit to London (or being a lunatic like me and spending $30 a couple of times a year to ship a hundred dollars’ worth of tea across the ocean).The Phoenix Bride by Natasha Siegel
This doesn’t come out til next month, but I read it back in December and have been thinking about it ever since. It’s the loveliest romance about a widow from a wealthy family and her Jewish doctor, set in the weeks and months leading up to the Great Fire of London in 1666. Siegel’s debut, Solomon’s Crown, is also incredible — it’s an extremely fictionalized version of the relationship between Philip II of France and Richard the Lionheart, and she takes, again, extreme liberties with history to create a HEA. If you haven’t read it yet, you should read it now while you wait for The Phoenix Bride to come out in March! I love her writing so, so much — I’d describe her books as literary romance, I guess? the writing is just exquisite — and highly recommend both.Off Menu podcast
If you’re British you probably don’t need this recommendation, since I gather this is mega-popular here, but Americans, take note! A couple of friends introduced this podcast to me a few weeks ago, and I’m obsessed; it’s hosted by two comedians, with the conceit being that they own a dream restaurant (and one of them is a genie, just roll with it), and they invite on various celebrity guests to, basically, discuss their ideal meal—they ask them for a starter, main course, side, drink, and dessert. (I have considered my own dream meal at length; my starter is queso from a restaurant that no longer exists in my college town, I’m still working on the rest.) It is hilarious — like, laugh out loud funny, truly. I think the best way to approach it is to scroll through the episodes and find celebrity guests you find interesting and listen to those episodes (though I also have had a blast listening to episodes with guests I’d never heard of; it’s just there’s such a big back catalogue that I think focusing on some familiar names will make it easier for you to dip a toe in).Drive to Survive (🤦🏼♀️)
Yes, yes, I know I’m extremely late to the party, but I have zero interest in any sort of car racing, so I resisted watching this for years because I was like, “Who cares about Formula 1?! It’s just rich Europeans driving cars in circles!” Which is….pretty much true, actually, BUT, while I still have no real interest in watching F1 (the actual races are my least favorite part of DtS 😂), my friend influenced me to start watching the Netflix show, which is fascinating because it’s basically a workplace drama. I find the behind-the-scenes machinations of the sport really interesting — all the people working for each team, the constant musical chairs of drivers, the various team principals (Christian Horner is the worst [please note I deleted a much lengthier monologue about this subject 😂]; Toto Wolff can get it, omg; etc), the rivalries between the two drivers for each team, the way a team’s fortunes can fluctuate, etc. So anyway: I’m probably still never going to watch F11, but I will happily watch many more seasons of this on Netflix, and thought I’d share my ~journey~ here for anyone else who might have thought, like I did, that this show was definitely not for them.
That’s it for today; I hope to see some of you virtually tomorrow! And if you read To Woo and to Wed and are hungry for more, check my website on February 14th, because that’s the day the final bonus scene I’ve written for my readalong will go live. 🥰
Thank you all, again, for everything—
Martha
This feels like a real “famous last words” type of situation and please feel free to check back in once I’m all caught up on the existing seasons of DtS and actual F1 is airing, we’ll see if I change my tune.
Martha, thanks for staying up to chat with Sarah Hogle @ the Novel Neighbor. It was highly entertaining even though my copy hasn't come yet so I was pretty jealous you all three could actually substantively discuss the book.