Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Feature Tour: Excerpt + #Giveaway: America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie

We are absolutely thrilled to bring you the Blog Tour for Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie’s AMERICA’S FIRST DAUGHTER, a historical fiction novel is published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, and releasing March 1, 2016!

AMERICA’S FIRST DAUGHTER is a compelling, richly researched novel by bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie. Drawing from thousands of letters and original sources, the authors reveal the fascinating, untold story of Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter. Patsy was one of the most influential women in American history: not only the progeny of a founding father – and the woman who held his secrets close to her heart – but a key player in the shaping of our nation’s legacy. And her story is one seldom told, until now. Make sure you grab your copy today!

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In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph—a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.

From her earliest days, Patsy Jefferson knows that though her father loves his family dearly, his devotion to his country runs deeper still. As Thomas Jefferson’s oldest daughter, she becomes his helpmate, protector, and constant companion in the wake of her mother’s death, traveling with him when he becomes American minister to France.

It is in Paris, at the glittering court and among the first tumultuous days of revolution, that fifteen-year-old Patsy learns about her father’s troubling liaison with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age. Meanwhile, Patsy has fallen in love—with her father’s protégé William Short, a staunch abolitionist and ambitious diplomat. Torn between love, principles, and the bonds of family, Patsy questions whether she can choose a life as William’s wife and still be a devoted daughter.

Her choice will follow her in the years to come, to Virginia farmland, Monticello, and even the White House. And as scandal, tragedy, and poverty threaten her family, Patsy must decide how much she will sacrifice to protect her father's reputation, in the process defining not just his political legacy, but that of the nation he founded.

EXCERPT

Jeff’s Stabbing

My daughter Ellen returned to the dining room, ashen, overseer Bacon behind her, sweating and breathless from his ride. “It’s Jeff,” Ellen cried, her eyes flitting with fury to her older sister. “Your worthless malignant husband stabbed our brother!”

As my heart leapt into my throat, the napkin fell from my father’s hand. Papa rose to his feet at once. “Where?”

“Charlottesville,” Bacon answered. “They came to blows in the courthouse square. I had them carry your grandson inside Leitch’s store and put him upon a bale of blankets, but . . . he can’t be moved. He’s bleeding badly and the physician doesn’t expect him to live until morning.”

Those words ringing in my head in all their horror, my legs went out from under me. The next moment, I was on the floor staring up at the fireplace where fickle Fates carved in Wedgwood danced in blue mockery before my eyes.

“Loosen her stays,” Ellen insisted while my other daughters crowded around me, fanning my face. In my continued illness from childbirth, I’d swooned away like some delicate damsel when all I wanted was to get to my son.

“Jeff,” I gasped. Servants rushed in to help and all the while I kept saying, “Tom, please take me to Jeff.” But Tom wasn’t there. My husband, the new governor of Virginia, lived now in Richmond, a thing I’d somehow forgotten in the fog of my terror. “A carriage—someone get me a carriage. I must go to my son!”

“No, Martha.” The long absent steely edge of fatherly command returned to Papa’s voice. “If Charles is on a drunken rampage again, he’ll come here next for Ann.”

“He can’t have done this,” Ann sobbed. “Charles isn’t drinking anymore. He wouldn’t stab my brother for no reason!”

“He is drinking again, Mrs. Bankhead.” Bacon accepted a glass of water and chugged it down. “He literally rode his horse into a tavern. Your brother confronted him. Jeff said something to him about abusing you, and Mr. Bankhead sprang on him with a knife. I had to pull your husband off your bleeding brother myself.”

Ann backed away from the truth of Bacon’s words. “Not for my sake. This can’t have happened for my sake!”

As deeply as I felt her anguish, I could think of nothing but Jeff. I struggled into a sitting position and grasped at Ellen’s shoulder. “Get the carriage.” The elegant arched room spinning around me, I looked up at Papa, then to Bacon. “Get the carriage now. Please!”

“Patsy, you’re not well enough,” my father snapped, using my childhood name to command me. “Stay with the girls. Bolt the doors. Hide if Charles comes. I’ll post Burwell, Beverly, and Bacon to stand guard over you.”

Ellen rose and stepped in front of my father. “You’re not riding out by yourself, are you?”

“Fetch my horse,” he instructed the servants in a tone that brooked no opposition. “Eagle.” Eagle was a far more accommodating mount than the spirited Caractacus had been, but still we worried.

The servants wouldn’t oppose Papa, but Ellen did. “Grandpapa, it’s cold and dark. You can’t go galloping into the winter night!”

But that’s exactly what my seventy-five-year-old father did, hurtling himself up into the saddle like a man half his age, applying the whip, and, with only the moon as his guide, disappearing in a clatter of hooves off into the snowy forest.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

STEPHANIE DRAY is an award-winning, bestselling and two-time RITA award nominated author of historical women’s fiction. Her critically acclaimed series about Cleopatra’s daughter has been translated into eight different languages and won NJRW's Golden Leaf. As Stephanie Draven, she is a national bestselling author of genre fiction and American-set historical women's fiction. She is a frequent panelist and presenter at national writing conventions and lives near the nation's capital. Before she became a novelist, she was a lawyer, a game designer, and a teacher. Now she uses the stories of women in history to inspire the young women of today.

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Laura Kamoie has always been fascinated by the people, stories, and physical presence of the past, which led her to a lifetime of historical and archaeological study and training. She holds a doctoral degree in early American history from The College of William and Mary, published two non-fiction books on early America, and most recently held the position of Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy before transitioning to a full-time career writing genre fiction as the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty books, Laura Kaye. Her debut historical novel, America's First Daughter, co-authored with Stephanie Dray, allowed her the exciting opportunity to combine her love of history with her passion for storytelling. Laura lives among the colonial charm of Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and two daughters.