Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The House by Sebastiana Randone

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The House
Sebastiana Randone

Genre: Adult fairy tale, regency romance, past-life romance, paranormal/fantasy, time-travel

ISBN:   978-1-4836-1371-0
ASIN:  B00DAMPQ8Q

Number of pages: 148
Word Count: 50,000

The House is the tale of a woman, who is so absorbed with historical novels   that her own reality ceases to offer any hope of romance and beauty.

One day this dreamy idealist finds herself in a mysterious forest. How she arrived there is unknown. She encounters a ramshackle house, wherein magical rooms that transport to parallel worlds lay in wait.  She is transported to historical England, where she interacts with a collection of character's whose dysfunctional lives become apparent immediately.

The first tribulation involves a nefarious lord, an archetypal embodiment of the monstrous creatures that often haunt fairy tales. The ramification of this confrontation sets the tone for the narrative.   

Before long, the folly of disdaining her mundane reality is realized, and she desires desperately to return to her former predictable life.

A hidden portal finally enables escape from the austere Georgian dwelling. She is spirited back to the enigmatic house, where a journey to Regency London ensues. A large cast of eccentric identities present themselves.

One day a handsome, despondent poet arrives, following a period in Florence. His introduction to the time traveler offers promise of restoration and love. But upon the face of it, and much to his chagrin, this union cannot be consummated. There are a few more obstacles ahead before her destiny in this strange adventure is made apparent. In the end a past life connection starts to reveal itself.  And like all good fairy tales, the ending is pleasing, even though the means of getting there are dark and at times, sinister.     

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Excerpt:

Page 93

The intellectual prowess of Artemisia overwhelmed and excited the young
poet, whose engrossment with the workings of her mind was such,
that any enquiry as to her domestic arrangements was quite overlooked.
It is true to say however, that during their parting hours he did wonder
about her private life, but whenever the two met, these curiosities were
often usurped by matters more engaging and fascinating. Her beauty
was matched by an incisive and far reaching mind that would often wax
lyrically on a numerous range of topics, which rendered the absorbed
poet helpless to enquire about more mundane matters.
As with all developed intellects, an inquisitive nature was handed to
Artemisia from an early age, this set in motion a life time appetite for
knowledge. Amongst her many virtues, was that of a linguist, which
meant that she was able to communicate to David in his native tongue. It
appeared that life had only just started when they met, and that all other
experiences had become unimportant. Therefore, it was of no great
surprise to learn, notwithstanding the immeasurable anguish generated,
that she was in fact already married.
The Contessa de Luce resided with her substantially older husband,
the Count Giacomo de Luce in the opulent confines of Palazzo del Oro.
The couple met in Venice, Artemisia’s birth place, five years prior to her
encounter with David. The sixty-one year old count met his future wife
at one of the many lavish balls hosted by the doge, where Artemisia
cut a fine and graceful figure as she danced sinuously around the grand
Venetian hall. Instantly struck by her beauty and carriage, the count
assumed her to be from a noble family, which was very much not the case,
as this exemplary figure of refinement was in reality a courtesan. A fact
well obscured by a personality that combined gentility and forbearance,
the latter trait being quite unfounded in the typical coquettish concubine.
Thus it was not due to naiveté that had led the Count de Luce to believe
otherwise, it was the innate aura of elegance that Artemisia exuded, that
belied any hint of the licentiousness that one invariably connects to this
ancient profession.
She had been introduced to this work early in her years. A distant
aunt had taken the adolescent to meet with her destiny in a house famed
for its training of young women. She was given the name Artemisia and
was placed under the auspices of a ‘signora’, who in time tutored the
young lady in the art of giving pleasure.
 
 
About the Author:

Sebastiana Randone lives in Melbourne, Australia, and is from a dance background.

From an early age, Sebastiana developed a passion for reading, and from that moment has never been without a book.

The desire to write ‘one day’ had been pursuing for a long while. Finally that goal was realized with the debut release of “The House”; an adult fairy tale set in the Regency era.

Sebastiana is presently writing her second book; a paranormal romance novel based in New York late 1980’s. 

 
Images provided by Bewitching Book Tours.  

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