Ladies and gentlemen, we are delighted to present to you: the Lady Lavender (draft) cover!
What do you think of the cover? Do let us know your thoughts!
Update: Our Kickstarter link is live!
As promised, here is the backstory for Lady Lavender:
Back in 2015 when we first created Lord Sutton (a plot bunny of Jenny’s genius), we were adamant he was someone the MC could not romance. He was supposed to be someone who is mostly rude to the MC, but then reveals his rudeness is a cover for his feelings – quite a cliché, we know, but delicious nonetheless.
However, as we developed Mr Graham’s story arc and fleshed out Lord Sutton’s character, we started succumbing to his charms. Ever so gradually, he became the rich, artistic, flamboyant, broody, Byronic man we know today. When Samantha wrote his confession scene, she was definitely struggling with breaking poor Sutton’s heart. However, it was the right thing to do, and both Jenny and Melody approved of the scene, which now exists in the game.
Then Mr Graham’s story pack was released, and we received many comments and messages about wanting to end up with Lord Sutton. While we did consider exploring this, we decided to remain with our original intention: to capture those bittersweet feelings of unresolved tension and what could never be. We wanted to keep eliciting those emotions in Regency Love, despite the heartbreak that comes with it – after all, we all know what happens to certain characters in the Dragon Age series, to the Friar’s letter in Romeo and Juliet, to Erik and Charles on a Cuban beach in X-Men: First Class, but we still keep going back to those stories.
Then one day, an idea came to Samantha: Lord Sutton and Ellie would be perfect for each other, and a spin-off novel would allow us to explore a romance with Lord Sutton in a different way. We liked the idea’s potential, and we saw it as an opportunity to break out of our format for a little bit, and to give Samantha a bit more freedom in shaping the narrative – there are so many aspects of Lord Sutton’s character we can explore with a novel that we can’t with in-game dialogue (even with the occasional eavesdropping)!
After five years of writing and re-writing, a few rounds of feedback from Melody, gorgeous artwork from Jenny, and some evenings spent over bubble tea, we have a story about Ellie, Lord Sutton, and their nearest and dearest (teaser: the novel contains a secondary romance).
We hope you will enjoy Lady Lavender, and we look forward to your support on our Kickstarter – the launch day is only three days away (12 Oct)!
P. S. While the events in Regency Love and Lady Lavender are technically canonical, we absolutely endorse and encourage all manners of fanworks! We love that Regency Love has made it to AO3, and you are more than welcome to write your own versions of Lord Sutton’s story!
Gorgeous! I love the movement Ellie’s got. Will keep an eye out for the Kickstarter!
Also, possibility of more Regency Love? Or would you move to more novelizations?
I think the cover is absolutely beautiful! I eagerly look forward to reading the novel and learning more about the lovely world of Darlington and its inhabitants. October 12th can’t come soon enough!
Like all the artwork in the game, this cover is beautiful! I cannot wait to delve back into that world.
The cover is so beautiful and I’m really excited about Lady Lavender! Can’t wait for it, and as someone else said: don’t worry that not everyone is happy with character and story decisions you chose for it. It’s never possible to fit everyone’s head canon (Dragon Age, anyone?). But I’m sure Lady Lavender will make quite a few Regency Love fans very happy (count me in) and attract a bunch of new ones!
Oh, and by the way: Added features like the playlist are sooooo cool, I love the pieces and am looking forward to the story even more!
I’m so excited for this spin off novel! Thank you for continuing to write and develop the beautiful world of regency love! ❤️ Can’t wait to throw my money at this!
I’m freaking out just a little bit… you have no idea how long I’ve waited for this and now my dreams are coming true! I could cry right now, I am so excited!!!! The artwork is beautiful, the plot sounds beautiful, everything sounds beautiful!