19 May Sarah Mallory Rescued by the Rakish Lord #HistoricalRomance #RomanticAdventure #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @SarahMRomance @cathiedunn

FEATURED AUTHOR: SARAH MALLORY

It’s my pleasure to welcome Sarah Mallory as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held between April 29th – May 20th,  2026. Sarah Mallory is the author of the Historical Romance, Rescued by the Rakish Lord, published by Harlequin Mills & Boon on 23rd April 2026 (276 pages). 

Below are highlights of Rescued by the Rakish Lord, Sarah Mallory’s author bio, and a guest post about the historical setting of the novel.

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2026/04/blog-tour-rescued-by-the-rakish-lord-by-sarah-mallory..html

HIGHLIGHTS: RESCUED BY THE RAKISH LORD

Rescued by the Rakish Lord
By Sarah Mallory

Blurb:

A forced proximity, high society romance set in the late Georgian era

A man of such dubious reputation…

that he was called Devil Blackbourne!

When Lord Deveril Blackbourne meets Selina Wynter, he is intrigued. For she has all the accomplishments of a lady, but the fiery temper and spirit of a tavern maid! Then she is abducted by a dastardly suitor, and Deveril—for all his roguish reputation— can’t stand idly by…

Lord Deveril is Selina’s least likely rescuer, but when they’re stranded together in a snowstorm and her reputation is at risk, he surprises her with a gallant proposal! Deveril’s no honourable suitor, yet his actions say otherwise…

Just who is the real Devil Blackbourne? Selina’s determined to find out!

Any Triggers: mildly sexy, mild threat

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/3RE7wx

AUTHOR BIO: SARAH MALLORY

Sarah Mallory is an award-winning author who has published more than 40 historical romances with Harlequin Mills & Boon. She loves history, especially the Georgian and Regency. She won the prestigious RoNA Rose Award from the Romantic Novelists Association in 2012 and 2013 and nominated in 2022. She also won the RNA’s Romantic Historical Novel Award in 2024 for The Night She Met the Duke.

Sarah also writes romantic historical adventures as Melinda Hammond. She was born in the West Country but lived for many years on the Yorkshire Pennines, taking inspiration from the wild and rugged moors. Then in 2018 she fell in love with Scotland and ran away to live on the rugged North West Coast, which is proving even more inspiring!

Author Links:

Website Sarah Mallory     Website Melinda Hammond     Twitter / X     Facebook

Instagram     Bluesky     Amazon Author Page     Goodreads

GUEST POST: HISTORICAL SETTING
Rescued by the Rakish Lord – By Sarah Mallory

I may live in the Highlands of Scotland now but I was born in the West Country and still visit there regularly. It was after a winter visit, when we drove home keeping just ahead of the snowy weather, that I began to dream up my story about a young lady living in a small town on the edge of Exmoor. It would be an adventure romance, with heroes and villains: a spirited heroine and an abduction. The narrow winding lanes beneath high banks would be perfect for getting stuck in the snow!

Exmoor narrow lanes – authors own picture

I love the Regency and Georgian period, and I decided this story should place during the late 18^th century. Men still wore swords at that time and the ladies had their elegant fashions to add vibrant colour to the story. I also think my choice of the Georgian period was influenced by the prevailing fashions – I did not wish my heroine to perish of hypothermia in those thin muslin gowns of the Regency period!

1776 robe a l’anglaise  attrib. Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Think of romance on Exmoor and you might think of Lorna Doone, but that was written a hundred years before my story is set.  By the 1780s roads were improving and mail coaches were faster and more reliable. Travel was easier and ideas from London could reach the more remote areas of England far quicker. Selina, my heroine, lives in a small market town on the southern edge of Exmoor. Society there might not be the most fashionable, but they would be avid consumers of journals and newspapers. They would correspond with family or friends in London and parties of fashionable ladies and gentlemen would arrive and stay at nearby hunting lodges, bringing with them fashionable clothes and ideas that the townsfolk would be quick to note, and some would copy.

Selina is an independent young woman but she has a lady’s education, which could be pretty basic at that time – reading, writing and math plus a little painting and music. And of course, dancing! All young ladies and gentlemen aspiring to make their mark in society learned to dance. Since moving to the Highlands, I have taken up Scottish Country Dancing, which is far more like the country dances of 18^th century England and I have to tell you they can be extremely complicated!  One would have to be very well-practised to hold a conversation while dancing.

Lorna Doone illustration – British Library via wiki commons, no restrictions

However, Selina has learned a great deal from looking after her father’s estates and the home farm, as well as running his household. This has made her far more independent than many single ladies. This is part of her attraction to Deveril, a fashionable London gentleman with a reputation for being a rake. Although he isn’t. Far from it. Lord Deveril Blackbourne may seem like a devil-make-care London beau but he is a kind and honourable man. Having read a great deal about the real-life rakes of the 18^th century, I think most of them were neither honourable or kind. Certainly not the sort to win the heart of a modern-day romance reader.

Deveril, on the other hand, while he is willing to enjoy a mild flirtation, would not willingly break any young lady’s heart, and neither does he like the idea of killing animals for sport.

Writing about the past has its challenges. Morals and mindsets change over time, and it is doubtful if many modern-day readers would really enjoy living in the Georgian world. I use the historical background as a tapestry into which I can weave my characters’ stories.

In the end, you see, I am a story teller, an entertainer, conjuring escapist tales to take us to another world.

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