Author Celeste Bradley

I am so thrilled to announce my latest release, A Courtesan’s Guide to Getting Your Man, which I co-wrote with my dear friend and partner-in-crime, Susan Donovan.

ONE WOMAN’S INTIMATE SECRETS

Regency London’s most celebrated, the Blackbird, was a woman before her time—uninhibited, financially independent, and free to live by her own rules. Schooled in the sensual arts by the one man she loved the most, she recorded every wicked detail in her diaries…

ANOTHER WOMAN’S AWAKENING

When Boston museum curator Piper Chase-Pierpont unearths the Blackbird’s steamy memoirs, she’s aroused and challenged by what she finds. Could the courtesan’s diaries be used as a modern girl’s guide to finding love and empowerment?

One curious curator—one very lucky man—are about to find out…

A LITTLE BACK STORY TO A COURTESAN'S GUIDE TO GETTING YOUR MAN.....

In January of 2010, Susan suggested that she and I try something new, something that we have never heard of any authors trying before—a story told from two times, by two authors. In modern day, a young nerdy museum curator finds the secret diaries of stately historical figure, diaries that reveal an entirely different side to the woman. What should she do with this evidence of a wild past of rebellion and unashamed sexuality? Before she makes them public, she applies the lessons to her own repressed life.

Susan wrote the contemporary character, Piper, while I wrote the historical character, Ophelia. The story follows Piper’s journey, then Ophelia’s, back and forth as their adventures parallel each other.

It seemed simple enough. We would each write half a book. Yet as the characters came alive for us and the story enveloped us, the experience became much more profound. A Courtesan’s Guide to Getting Your Man is more than just a sexy adventure. It is the story of two women searching for self-expression and empowerment in a world that doesn’t approve of good girls gone “bad.”

Both women gave themselves permission to open the floodgates of their sexuality and allow themselves to ride that tide wherever it took them, and that gave us the courage to let our story take us where it wanted to go.

How often does an author’s creation actually inspire her to change her own life? For me, Ophelia taught me to stop waiting for permission to live large. For Susan, Piper helped her forgive herself for past mistakes. Working with Susan taught me to bend the historical genre boundaries. Susan says, “Writing with Celeste added a richness to my writing that I hadn’t had before.”

As an author, I have never had so much fun. As a person, well, honestly, I’ve never had so much fun! This experience was a lesson in bending boundaries and taking big bites. We hope that every woman who comes across this book will be encouraged to read outside her comfort zone, write outside it or live outside it, because she is capable of more than she knows.