Sophie Barnes is an author of romance novels that take readers back in time to a place of European royalty and forbidden love. Her novels tell wonderful epics of love while also providing a high quality storyline that will melt your heart. If you love romance or you are fascinated by ball rooms, dance cards, and hoop skirts, you will be addicted to her most popular book series: The Kingsborough Ball series.
Sophie Barnes’ life reads much like a romantic ballad and might be the inspiration her novels. She was born in Denmark and spent her youth travelling from country to country with her parents. She became fluent in several different languages, including Danish, English, French, and Spanish. She studied at Parson’s School of design. She travelled extensively in her adult life as well. While living in Africa, she decided to become a writer. The most romantic part of her life has probably been that she has been married to one guy three different times in three different countries. Her own love story follows her across the world. Her novels trail behind her. Barnes later settled on the East Coast of America to write her novels and become successful.
Barnes’ first publish novel is called How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back. The novel was published on January 31, 2012. The novel tells the story of a young woman who falls in love with a man. The man, instead of loving her back, announces his engagement to her best friend. With the help of her friends, including a dashing early, Miss Rutherford takes her revenge by becoming the most in demand lady during the London Season. During the 1700s to early 1900s, England had a time of the year, called “the season” in which young, unmarried men and women attend a series of balls, parties, and other dances in order to meet each other and find spouses. This season was started off every year in London, when girls who came of age and came from royal families were introduced to the king and queen and were officially allowed to start courting. Barnes’ novel uses this magical time of the year to display her heroine’s courage, beauty, and charm to her readers. Miss Rutherford not only gets revenge on the man who stole her heart, but learns what true love truly means.
After this novel, Barnes started writing three-book series, the first being A Summerby’s Tale. The series tells the stories of three different young women and their toils with love. The first book in the series, Lady Alexandria’s Excellent Adventure draws inspiration from Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors. The novel tells about an adventurous, tom-boy like woman who has no interest in love or marriage, until she meets the Earl of Trenton. Alex takes chances and leads a life of risk. She eventually finds herself on a secret mention with the strong, witty, and charismatic Earl and the two depart on an adventure they had never dreamed of before. The second book in the series, There’s Something about Lady Mary, tells the story of an ordinary, common woman who loved her quiet life and wished for nothing different. Mary woke up one morning, however, discovering she had inherited a title and a large sum of money. She then tries to navigate and assimilate into high society, but her habits and her wits still reflect her common upbringing. She relies on a man, Ryan Summersby, to help her adjust. In the process, the pair from two different worlds find just what they need in each other. The third book in the series, The Secret Life of Lady Lucinda, tells a story of a wonderfully bright woman who does everything she can to trick the man of her dreams, William Summersby, into marrying her. She does all she can to encourage this “marriage of convenience,” but ends up falling in love with the dashing William anyway. Most marriages during this time period were made out of convenience. Marriage was about status and security. Women could not support themselves and needed husbands. Men had to choose a wife wisely. Women often married young even though they barely knew their husbands. Marriages were necessary for survival and were rarely about love.
Perhaps Barnes is most famous for her series The Kingsborough Ball. This series ties together three stories that aren’t in succession, but actually occurring in parallel to each other. The characters in the three novels are friends and acquaintances and the events that occur happen to occur at the same place, The Kingsborough Ball. There is some cross-over between the novels, but not in such a way that the reader becomes bored. This interested story progression was experimental for Barnes and she thought it was well received.
Barnes’ novels are written to the audience of young women looking for a good romance novel to relax in the bath with. The novels also teach great life lessons for women: how to be strong and independent, how to adjust to new situations, how to gain the respect and love of others, and many more. Barnes’ novels excite young readers with touching love stories that seem to take place in a fairy tale land where love was much more complicated, but also much more fun. The women reading these novels probably wish they could sport the latest petticoat fashion and attend the lavish London balls just as the young women in the novels are doing. Barnes allows the imagination of her readers to run wild in the historical tales. Each of the novels also has a happy ending, something every young girl wishes she could achieve.
Sophie Barnes has lived a truly fantastical life. Many of the apartments and places in her novels reflect real places that she has stayed at or seen during her many travels. She incorporates her love of certain foods or flowers into her works and lets her spirit shine through her heroines’ eyes. Barnes brings to life a world of laughter, courtship and love in a truly fantastical and personal ways that will truly touch the hearts of her readers over and over again.
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