Welcome, friend! Yesterday, I shared about the delightful new regency mystery novel, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord by Celeste Connally. I am very excited to bring you this interview with the author.
Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord, a dazzling first entry in a terrific new Regency-era mystery series with a feminist spin.
When Lady Petra Forsyth’s fiancé and soulmate dies just weeks ahead of their wedding, she makes the shocking proclamation—in front of London’s loosest lips—that she will never remarry. A woman of independent means, Petra sees no reason to cede her wealth and freedom to any man now that the love of her life has passed, nor does she intend to become confined to her country home. Instead, she uses her title to gain access to elite spaces and enjoy the best of society without expectations.
But when ballroom gossip suggests that a longtime friend has died of “melancholia” while in the care of a questionable physician, Petra vows to use her status to dig deeper—uncovering a private asylum where men pay to have their wives and daughters locked away, or worse. Just as Lady Petra has reason to believe her friend is not dead, but a prisoner, her own headstrong actions and thirst for independence are used to put her own freedom in jeopardy.
Content notes include confinement, mental illness, misogyny, torture.
Get to know the author: Celeste Connally
Hi Celeste! Welcome to Armed with A Book. Please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.
Hi, Kriti! I’m so happy to be here with you on Armed with a Book! I’m a former freelance writer and editor – mostly in educational and scientific works – and a lifelong Anglophile who just happens to be from Texas. Thanks to being immersed in historical fiction, period dramas, and classic movies from my earliest days (shout out to my mom for this!), I’ve always had a love for a historical setting. And thanks to Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew, and Encyclopedia Brown, amongst others, I’ve had a love of mysteries for almost as long. Add in my (not-so) slight obsession with rom-coms—books and movies—and writing historical mysteries with some romance in them was simply a no-brainer.
How did the idea for Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord come to you?
It was during the pandemic, and I was keeping my mind occupied with rewatching all my favorite period dramas, plus some new ones like Bridgerton. Though I’d seen it all before, somehow the spinster characters and how women in general during the Regency and Victorian eras were treated hit me differently.
The spinsters were always cast as fairly sad and downtrodden, and yet I saw how strong they had to be underneath. I saw how they had to persevere through exceptionally difficult circumstances, especially in how they were perceived by society, and I thought to myself that I wanted to write a main character who embodied all those strengths that you had to look past the word “spinster” to see. One that does whatever little things she could to show the strength of women, married or not. And from that came Lady Petra Forsyth.
And when I began my research, I came across an article about how easily women could be relegated to an asylum for the insane, and with little or no chance of ever returning home. The idea of having my strong-minded, unmarried character use her strengths and position to help a friend, and possibly others, from that terrible position was too appealing to pass up.
However, being my romantic self, I had to add in some romance. The idea of a virtuous unmarried woman in Regency times (and before and since) is as equally a myth as it is the truth. I decided Petra sided firmly with those women from history who did not subscribe to being entirely virtuous, even as much as she does prefer to act like a lady on the whole. The men – lords and otherwise – didn’t, so why should she, right?
Petra is a fierce and loyal friend. What makes her this way? I am curious about her childhood and the proclamation that led to her vow to never remarry.
I’m glad you see her as fierce and loyal, because that’s how I saw her from the first as well. In my mind’s eye, Petra had an idyllic childhood full of happiness and the delights of the countryside, but she suffered early in the loss of her mother. I think the loss of the most important female figure in her life made her appreciate her friendships more. She also grew up mostly around men and horses, which gave her a certain extra toughness that young ladies in the early 19th century often didn’t have.
And then, much later, she lost her fiancé, just weeks before she was to be married. I felt that her mourning period—along with the more or less arranged marriage of her best friend, Lady Caroline, and how Caroline’s life had never truly been her own, despite her self-confidence—gave Petra a chance to step back and look at her life from what we now would call a feminist angle. I felt it became more important to her to live her own life on her own terms, even if it meant being called a spinster and having her choices questioned at every turn.
What made you choose the regency era as the setting for your novel?
Jane Austen and her novels and the adaptations surrounding it, bar none. Especially the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice, and both the 2009 Emma miniseries as well as the 1996 film. In fact, Emma Woodbridge herself was an inspiration for the way Lady Petra first came to revise her views on marriage.
Also, horses were a mainstay of life for everyone during that time—and as I am certifiably horse-crazy and used to ride and show hunters, I could write a character who’s as horse-obsessed as I am and have it be completely natural!
Are there any perspectives or beliefs have you challenged with Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord?
To those readers who are less familiar with the Regency era, I would like to think I’ve helped them to see a bit more about what it took to be a woman during that time. Also, while I made my heroine a smidge bolder than what you might see in a Jane Austen adaptation, there were many real women in the early nineteenth century who were just as willing to flout the rules as my Petra. The more you dig into history, the more of them you find, and I love that fact.
Do you have a favourite quote or scene in the book that you find yourself going back to?
Without giving away any spoilers, I loved writing any scene with Petra and her street-urchin friend named Teddy, who has charm in spades and all but wrote himself. I also love any banter with Petra and Duncan Shawcross, her childhood friend turned frenemy turned…no spoilers! And lastly, due to my aforementioned love of horses, I really loved writing the climactic scene – and that’s all I will divulge about that.
For someone who loved your book, what’s one book they should pick up next?
Any of the books in Evie Dunmore’s League of Extraordinary Women series. The first being Bringing Down the Duke. They’re set in Victorian times and are romances rather than mysteries, but all have strong female leads and female friendships that make for spectacular reads.
by Evie Dunmore, Goodreads
Of all the characters in this book, if you had to pick another one to star as your next protagonist, whose life would you like to explore more?
I would love to write either a romance, or a romance-heavy mystery featuring the character of Lottie, Petra’s new friend who trains dogs. She bloomed on the page from the moment I first wrote her name, and she’s such a sunny, confident personality. I would adore writing it, and I think it would make for a delightful book.
You are a former freelance writer and editor. What kind of learnings from these roles did you bring to your debut novel?
First, I’m a very good deadline writer! The closer I get to my deadline, the better my writing mind clips along. Also, I’m a pretty diligent fact-checker. While there will obviously be times where I stretched the truth to fit my plot – and maybe a place or two where I possibly got it wrong despite all my best efforts – my background means that the Regency-specific points will be fact-checked to the utmost of my ability.
If Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord were made into a movie, which actors would play your characters?
Oooh, I always love dream casting novels, and I certainly know who I’d pick. That being said, not to be coy, but I don’t want to impose my vision onto the reader, at least not of any actor who is currently the right age to play my 24-year-old main character. I want a reader to see whatever actors they please.
However, when I write, I always see actors in the roles of my characters, or at least their visages from one of their roles. And, lots of times, the image in my mind is from a role that isn’t recent, sometimes happening several years to decades earlier.
So, I will offer this: My mental vision of Lady Petra is inspired by the character of Lady Rose from Downton Abbey. Specifically when we first saw Rose at the end of season three, when the character was young, effervescent, and thoroughly headstrong (and sported blond curls). Sure, Lady Rose is from 1921, not 1815 like Lady Petra, but that doesn’t matter when it comes to inspiration.
As for who I see when I write the character of Duncan Shawcross, just google the words “Lost Boys 1987 Michael Emerson.” Trust me on this – and you’re welcome – but ignore any pics with vampire fangs.
Who are some of your favroite authors whose stories you love going back to? What draws you back?
In no particular order, I’d say Natalie Jenner, Elle Cosimano, Jesse Q. Sutanto, Susan Elia MacNeal, Evie Dunmore, Elizabeth Everett, Kate Quinn, and Deanna Raybourn, just to name a few. And what always brings me back is their great characters, fantastic dialogue and banter, and stories that transport me, make me think, or make me laugh, or all of the above.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Just that this was so much fun and I really enjoyed being here! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and sharing with my readers. 🙂
Thank you so much for joining us for the interview! Connect with Celeste on Goodreads, her website, Add her book to your Goodreads and read my review here.
Also big thanks to the wonderful folks at St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord and to interview Celeste.
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