Cindy Anstey Books In Order

Publication Order of Suitors and Sabotage Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Cindy Anstey is a Canadian author that writes mystery, romance, and young adult novels. She started writing from a very young age and combined with her love for art and an over active imagination, she was a writer and illustrator right from grade school. By the time she was twelve, she had written her first novel “King Nap in the Land of Doze” that made quite the impression on her family. She continued to write classics such as “Jungle Bungle” while she was living in Singapore and Montreal until she moved to Memphis after getting married. Over the years, she gravitated towards adult regency romance, paranormal, young adult, and mystery fiction. When she moved to Belgium with her husband, she suddenly found herself with so much time on her hands that she started to write again. During this time, she discovered train travel wrote six fictional works and toured more than twenty five European cities collecting magnets and photos. When she is not writing she loves playing with acrylics, thread, flowers, and traveling. After spending much of her adult life living in Belgium, Memphis, and Singapore, Cindy is back home in Nova Scotia Canada and lives with her husband and chocolate brown Labrador.

Cindy Anstey has always been interested in the Regency era – a time known for change in economics, politics, architecture , art, elegance, and achievements. Anstey sets her novels in this period of manners and high society, and has her protagonists as women who go against the normal mold of fashion and marriage. Cindy had always loved the traditional Regency romance and found the manners of high society enthralling even as she dug deep into the contradictions between her characters behavior and thoughts. Even as she set the tone and style of her novels in the Regency era, her first novel was inspired by references to secret messages that were passed across the Channel during the Napoleonic Wars. Reading about these secret messages gave her a lot of ideas on just what she could write about it and it was not long before she had drawn a villain alongside an interesting supporting cast. A lot of research goes into her novels to portray the mannerisms, economics and history of the period as accurately as possible. Anstey spent a lot of time researching the cultural and social history of the 19th century and reading the fiction of the time from the likes of Jane Austen.

Anstey’s novels are delightful and adorable stories set in 1800s London. Even as the novels feature some romance, they are also about family relationships and female friendships just like those of her favorite writer Austen. Her heroines are typically selfless, kind, clever, and lovely ladies that always put their families first. Following the conventions of the time they are expected to get married when they come of age. They are sweet characters whose goodness is often taken for granted by the persons they love. However, over the course of the narrative, the heroin will develop to become more vocal on what they want and expect of the people in their lives. The hero is just as important in the story as the heroine as he is typically in a relationship with her. He is a hardworking and intelligent gentleman who is always looking out for his girlfriend, which makes him come out as a sweet, loyal, and protective man. He is an authoritative, commanding, and aggressive alpha male that is often from the upper classes with excellent manners, which makes him one of the most eligible bachelors in town. With the great research that goes into the novels, Anstey writes of the norms, phrases, mode of dress, peerage, and towns to make for a flawless world set in 19th century England.

“Love, Lies and Spies” is the charming debut historical fiction novel by Cindy Anstey. The lead in the novel is Juliana Telford, a woman sent to London as a debutante where she will live with her cousin Carrie and her her aunt and uncle. She only agrees to go to London because she has another agenda – she has been working with her father on some research on a lady beetle and thinks this is the perfect opportunity to get the work published by London publishers. Meanwhile, a spy that goes by the name of Spencer Northam has his eye on the Pyebalds. Spencer is investigating a grand scheme that came to the attention of the War Office, which believes the family had a big role in facilitating the con job. While Spencer is committed to completing his mission regarding the Pyebalds, he cant help offer his help to Miss Telford that is always in trouble. Spencer thinks that he may be getting too attached to Juliana which may put her in danger. It is a novel set in a lush historical setting with the rules, societal judgments, and conversation of the Regency period.

Duels and Deception is a delightful standalone novel by Cindy Anstey that follows the story of Mr. Robert Newton and Miss Lydia Whitfield. Robert has just come to Lydia’s home in Roseberry Hall for an important discussion on legal issues involving Lydia and her uncle. Robert has been working under Mr. Lynch one of the most accomplished solicitors in London. Robert and Lydia talk about mundane things to do with the management of the estate and important things such as what to do about her uncle’s greedy predilections that threaten the long term profitability of the estate. Lastly, they discuss Mydia’s marriage and draw up a contract. While Lydia has never liked Lord Aldershot and he is also not keen on the idea of an arranged marriage, she had always known that her marriage would never be on the basis of love but of interests. The two draw up the contract only for Robert and Lydia to get kidnapped while they are out in town. Luckily, they manage to get away but only to find that a mysterious person is threatening Lydia. Robert is on the brink of ruin and he needs to find just who is threatening his client before he destroys his reputation for good.