Young Viola ran away leaving Guy Thurlow, the Earl of Easton, at the altar. Now Cressida Williams, she is shocked when Guy moves back to his family estate. He doesn’t recognise her and they begin falling in love, but how can she tell him who she is without losing him?

Cley-next-the-Sea author, Louise Allen, has WON the Shorter Romantic Novel Award with her novel, The Earl’s Mysterious Lady, for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) annual Romantic Novel Awards for 2023. The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms.

Louise lives on the North Norfolk coast with her husband and a garden that fights back. She is the author of over 70 historical romances and several non-fiction history titles. Almost all are set in the years spanning Jane Austen’s lifetime, a period on the threshold of the modern world that she finds endlessly fascinating. When she isn’t writing and battling the garden she enjoys traveling and collecting original Regency prints.

She commented, ‘I was thrilled to be shortlisted for a Romantic Novel Award and beyond delighted to have won in my category, the Shorter Romantic Novel. The community of writers that make up the Romantic Novelists’ Association create books that stir the emotions, celebrate life and provide a wonderful dose of positivity in a world that sorely needs it. It is an honour to be part of that community and to have received this award.’