Free (nook/Kindle/Kobo) The Bargain [Science vs Ghost Investigative Regency Romance]

[ATDrake]

The Bargain by Jane Ashford is apparently retroactively a prequel novel to her upcoming new The Duke's Sons series of f/m Regency historical romances, this reprinted installment a romantic mystery of sorts starring an actual Duke's son who's apparently also a rigidly skeptical and dogmatically "logical" "scientist" (of the stereotypical sort written by authors who don't seem to actually understand how science works, according to the customer reviews; every so often I want to wave that Scully thought-box from one of the old X-Files tie-in comics at people like that: "Science is a method of data processing, not a belief system!") who's called to investigate a supposedly haunted house and the "ghost" within it, with the aid of the daughter of the possible haunt, free courtesy of publisher Sourcebooks' Casablanca imprint, who are e-printing it from its original 1997 Fanfare edition.

Apparently the new series which this is being made free to promote will be starring the original Duke's son's brothers, of which there are at least 5 more of them. I feel sorry for their fictional mother, what with the period-era deficiencies of hygiene and medical knowledge and birth control, not to mention non-opiate drugs for repeated childbirths under suboptimal conditions. Couldn't you just stop at an heir and a spare and maybe a sister or two to star in their own books?

Currently free @ B&N (may also drop in the UK), Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK), Kobo & Google Play (both available to Canadians). May also drop @ iTunes, which usually also gets the Sourcebooks freebies.

Description
A scientifically minded nobleman

Lord Alan Gresham is the sixth son of the Duke of Langford and, as such, has been allowed to remain at Oxford to pursue his scientific studies. When the prince regent asks him to debunk the "ghost" of a dead actress haunting Carlton House, he cannot refuse, and is forced back to the Society he deplores. But upon meeting the daughter of the alleged ghost, his calm, logical investigation is disrupted.

Learns the breathless chemistry of desire

Ariel Harding doesn't believe in ghosts, but she's determined to investigate this haunting. Her mother recently committed suicide, and Ariel is desperate to find the reason. She'll work with Alan because he has access to Prinny's resources, but she never dreamed she'd make a perilous bargain with a man who's as maddeningly arrogant as he is confoundedly attractive...