Background
Charlotte Betts was born in the United Kingdom.
2011
Charlotte Betts and Carole Mathews at the Festival of Romance Awards and Ball.
2011
Charlotte Betts with the New Writer's award.
(Susannah Leyton has grown up behind the counter of her fa...)
Susannah Leyton has grown up behind the counter of her father's apothecary shop in bustling Fleet Street. A skilled student - the resinous scents of lavender, rosemary, licorice and turpentine run in her blood - her father has granted her the freedom to pursue her considerable talents. But Susannah is dealt a shocking blow when her widowed father marries again, and her new step-mother seems determined to remove her from the apothecary shop for good.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apothecarys-Daughter-Charlotte-Betts-ebook/dp/B00550NYIA/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047415&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
2011
(Beth Ambrose has led a sheltered life within Merryfields,...)
Beth Ambrose has led a sheltered life within Merryfields, her family home on the outskirts of London; a place where her parents provide a sanctuary for melancholic souls. A passionate and gifted artist, Beth shares a close bond with Johannes the painter, who nurtures her talents and takes her on as his apprentice. But as political tensions begin to rise in the capital, Noah Leyton arrives at her family home in the middle of the night with a proposition that turns Beth's world upside down. And when Merryfields becomes refuge to a mysterious new guest, whose connections provide an opportunity for Beth to fulfill her artistic ambitions, she soon realises that it comes at a price...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Painters-Apprentice-Charlotte-Betts-ebook/dp/B007TNY5UW/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047548&s=digital-text&sr=1-3
2012
(Newly married to a wealthy spice merchant, Kate Finche be...)
Newly married to a wealthy spice merchant, Kate Finche believes all her dreams of happy family life are just around the corner until the Great Fire rages through London. She watches in horror as their livelihood goes up in flames, filling the air with the heady scents of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. As the city is devastated, Kate's husband Robert is forced to seek employment to ensure their survival, but when he is found drowned, Kate refuses to believe that he has taken his own life. Widowed and penniless, she seeks refuge in The House of Perfume, the home of blind perfumer Gabriel Harte, who awakens Kate's senses to a whole new world. But as she flees from this forbidden love, her husband's murderer comes looking for her...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spice-Merchants-Wife-Charlotte-Betts-ebook/dp/B00ABLJ6FI/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047548&s=digital-text&sr=1-5
2013
(When her apothecary husband sickens with the plague and t...)
When her apothecary husband sickens with the plague and the Great Fire sweeps through London, the beautiful, and now twice-widowed Arabella is left homeless and destitute. Determined to secure a better future for herself and her five children, she must find a new husband. When she meets the dull, but wealthy, Mr. Goddard, Arabella dares to believe that her worries are over, until her charismatic and charming childhood sweetheart, Charlie, walks back into her life...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Milliners-Daughter-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B00DI7HP0K/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047548&s=digital-text&sr=1-17
2013
(As a teacher at her parents' Academy for Young Ladies in ...)
As a teacher at her parents' Academy for Young Ladies in the heart of London, Madeleine Moreau has lived her life sheltered from the outside world. But on the night of a dazzling Masquerade, tragedy strikes and she is left alone in the world. Desperate to find the family she never knew, Madeleine impulsively travels to France in search of them. But with the war around the corner, and fearing for Madeleine's safety, the enigmatic Comte Etienne d'Aubery offers her protection at his home, Chateau Mirabelle. Chateau Mirabelle enchants Madeleine with its startling beauty, but it is a place of dark and haunting secrets. As the Revolution gathers momentum and the passions of the populace are enflamed, Madeleine must take control of her own destiny and unravel events of the past in order to secure a chance of future happiness. Praise for Charlotte Betts 'Betts' description is second to none... you inhale all the sights, sounds and smells of the setting and engage with every one of the characters.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chateau-Lake-Charlotte-Betts-ebook/dp/B00LTUC9ZE/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047548&s=digital-text&sr=1-4
2014
(December 1815: the Stanhope sisters are eagerly preparing...)
December 1815: the Stanhope sisters are eagerly preparing for Christmas at Quill Court, decking the halls and chattering excitedly about the festivities. Emily, the eldest Stanhope girl, pines for her dashing but distant fiancé Captain Hugh Seymour, whom she loves desperately but she worries he holds a candle for her flighty best friend Selina. Emily has competed with Selina for a man's affection once before, and her surprise arrival at Quill Court this Christmas has set the Stanhope family on edge. Can Emily overcome her doubts about her impending nuptials, and prevent the captivating Selina from enticing away her beloved Hugh? Whatever the outcome, this will be a Christmas to remember...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Quill-Court-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B015O35ZFM/ref=sr_1_18?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576048658&s=digital-text&sr=1-18
2015
(Venetia Lovell lives by the sea in Kent with her pretty, ...)
Venetia Lovell lives by the sea in Kent with her pretty, frivolous mother and idle younger brother. Venetia's father, Theo, is an interior decorator to the rich and frequently travels away from home, leaving his sensible and artistic daughter to look after the family. Venetia designs paper hangings and she and her father often daydream about having an imaginary shop where they would display the highest quality furniture, fabrics, and art to his clients. When a handsome but antagonistic stranger, Jack Chamberlaine, arrives at Lovell's cottage just before Christmas bringing terrible news, Venetia's world is turned upside-down and the family has no option but to move to London, to the House in Quill Court and begin a new life. Here, Venetia's courage and creativity are tested to breaking point, and she discovers a love far greater than she could have ever imagined...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Quill-Court-Charlotte-Betts-ebook/dp/B010PFFSKQ/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047548&s=digital-text&sr=1-6
2016
(Emilia Barton and her mother Sarah live a nomadic existen...)
Emilia Barton and her mother Sarah live a nomadic existence, traveling from town to town as itinerant dressmakers to escape their past. When they settle in the idyllic coastal town of Pesaro, Emilia desperately hopes that this time, they have found a permanent home. But when Sarah is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant, a deathbed confession turns Emilia's world upside down. Seeking refuge as a dressmaker in the eccentric household of Princess Caroline of Brunswick, Emilia experiences her first taste of love with the charming Alessandro. But her troubling history gnaws away at her. Might she, a humble dressmaker's daughter, have a more aristocratic past than she could have imagined?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dressmakers-Secret-gorgeously-evocative-historical-ebook/dp/B01M6B89AR/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047548&s=digital-text&sr=1-2
2017
(Beatrice Sinclair, a grieving young widow facing financia...)
Beatrice Sinclair, a grieving young widow facing financial destitution, has traveled from Hampshire to Hyderabad to visit her brother, an employee of the British East India Company. There, she is astonished to discover that he has married a beautiful Indian girl and lives with his wife's extended family in a dilapidated palace, the Jahanara Mahal - famed for the theft of a fabled diamond many years ago. As an outsider in an unfamiliar world, Bee faces many challenges - not least of all building a new and meaningful life after the heartbreak she has endured. Meanwhile, the French and British forces become locked in a battle over India's riches, and matters are complicated further by the presence of the dashing Harry Wyndam: a maverick ex-soldier and suspected spy. With rebellion in the air, Bee must decide where her loyalties lie...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palace-Lost-Dreams-Charlotte-Betts-ebook/dp/B077QS1JTB/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047548&s=digital-text&sr=1-7
2018
(Talented painter Edith Fairchild is poised to begin a lif...)
Talented painter Edith Fairchild is poised to begin a life of newlywed bliss and artistic creation in the inspiring setting of Spindrift House, freshly inherited by her charming husband, Benedict, and overlooking the stunning harbor of Port Isaac. But when her honeymoon turns sour, her dreams are all but dashed and after a moment of madness and desire, she finds herself pregnant with another man's child. Edith swears never to tell her secret and devotes herself to her art. Joined at Spindrift House by her friends - Clarissa, Dora and the secret father of her child, Pascal - together they turn the house into a budding artists' community. But despite their dreams of an idyllic way of life creating beauty by the sea, it becomes clear that all is not perfect within their tight-knit community, and that the weight of their secrets could threaten to tear apart their paradise forever.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Within-Us-Charlotte-Betts-ebook/dp/B07VPSX7HT/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=Charlotte+Betts&qid=1576047548&s=digital-text&sr=1-12
2020
Charlotte Betts was born in the United Kingdom.
Charlotte Betts began her working life as a fashion designer in London. A career followed in interior design, property management, and lettings. The Chateau on the Lake was published in 2014 and The House in Quill Court in 2016. The Dressmaker’s Secret followed in May 2017. The Palace of Lost Dreams was shortlisted for the RoNA’s in 2019.
Vivaldi and Violets was published in the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Fiftieth Anniversary Anthology, Loves Me, Loves Me Not in 2009.
She is currently working on the Spindrift Trilogy, set in a Cornish artists’ community at the turn of the nineteenth century. The Light Within Us will be published in March 2020.
(Talented painter Edith Fairchild is poised to begin a lif...)
2020(Beatrice Sinclair, a grieving young widow facing financia...)
2018(When her apothecary husband sickens with the plague and t...)
2013(Beth Ambrose has led a sheltered life within Merryfields,...)
2012(Newly married to a wealthy spice merchant, Kate Finche be...)
2013(December 1815: the Stanhope sisters are eagerly preparing...)
2015(As a teacher at her parents' Academy for Young Ladies in ...)
2014(Emilia Barton and her mother Sarah live a nomadic existen...)
2017(Susannah Leyton has grown up behind the counter of her fa...)
2011(Venetia Lovell lives by the sea in Kent with her pretty, ...)
2016Charlotte Betts writes novels set in Restoration England and she wrote a collection of romantic short stories as well. She shares a love of the seventeenth century, and aims to capture the vibrant, uncertain excitement of those heady times. She describes her writing process in a following way: "Daydreaming is a vital part of the writing process for me. I need to see the story happening as if it’s a film before I can write it. I usually go to sleep thinking about what I’ve written and imagining what might happen next. In the morning I’m ready to continue the story."
Quotations:
"The seventeenth century is easier because it was a generally more literate society and so more was written down. Moreover, the authors weren’t all clerics, as they would have been in medieval times. Lots of people had much to say about, for example, men like the Earl of Clarendon, Sir Joseph Williamson (who ran the country’s intelligence network) and Sir George Downing (ambassador to the Dutch, whose name is commemorated in Downing Street in London). Downing, in particular, was disliked by his contemporaries as being sly, self-serving and ruthless, and these are great qualities for a villain in a novel."
"As an author of historical novels, it’s an exciting journey discovering new facts. Researching a novel is a self-guided education and it’s thrilling to have the freedom to choose areas of research that fascinate. For me, history lessons at school were like eating bowls of gruel every day, whilst now I pick all my favorite centers out of a box of Belgian chocolates."
"Research is an on-going process, as I said, and I’m always reading books on both periods – and re-reading them, as details I learned ten years ago haven’t necessarily stuck! New sources crop up all the time, and the internet can be helpful."
"A lot of the information on the web isn’t peer-reviewed, and so needs to be treated with extreme caution. I’ve found quite a number of mistakes, which have been perpetuated as one site copies from another – so you get 20 sites, all telling you the wrong thing. Therefore, I try only to use primary sources from the web. The rest comes from good old-fashioned books."
Charlotte Betts is a member of WordWatchers and the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Charlotte describes herself as a daydreamer and a bookworm.
Charlotte lives on the Hampshire/Berkshire borders in a C17th cottage in the woods with her husband and Hattie, a border collie.