Victoria Alexander

All About the Effingtons

August 25, 2011

While there is an Effington family tree on my website, I get a lot of questions about order of the Effington Family & Friends books so hopefully this will help.

There are 11 novels (15 including the Last Man Standing series) and one novella that directly or indirectly involve the Effington family. One book doesn’t always lead to the next. They can be read in any order or they can be read in order of publication or they can be read in smaller groupings.

The Dowager Duchess of Roxborough, matriarch of the Effington family, has four sons:

The youngest, Harry Effington is married to Grace. Their only child Pandora met and married Lord Trent in THE WEDDING BARGAIN (Book 1).

Phillip Effington (the duke in the original generation) is married to Katherine. Their children are Gillian, who met & married Richard Shelton in THE HUSBAND LIST (Book 2), and Thomas Effington who met & married Marianne Shelton in THE MARRIAGE LESSON (Book 3).

Richard’s sister Jocelyn met & married Rand Beaumont, a member of the ruling family of Avalonia, in THE PRINCE’S BRIDE (Book 4), although the missing royal jewels were never found which led directly to Book 5. Rand’s cousin Tatiana got back with her estranged husband, Matthew Weston (who has three brothers with a lot of potential) in HER HIGHNESS, MY WIFE (Book 5) and the missing jewels were recovered. Tatiana’s brother, Crown Prince Alexei, lost Avalonia to Russian occupation right before WHEN WE MEET AGAIN (Book 10) where he is reunited with Pamela Effington, the niece of the current duke. There is still one royal sibling—Nickolai—wandering free.

Thomas Effington’s good friends (who made their first appearance in THE MARRIAGE LESSON) are Lords Pennington (an only child), who met and married Gwendolyn Townsend in LOVE WITH THE PROPER HUSBAND (Book 6), and Lord Berkley (who has one sister) who met & married Cassandra Effington in THE PURSUIT OF MARRIAGE (Book 8).

Both LOVE WITH THE PROPER HUSBAND and THE PURSUIT OF MARRIAGE include The Ladies Society for the Betterment of the Future of Britain, a group of mothers dedicated to seeing their children married.

The novella, THE TROUBLE WITH CHARLOTTE, (THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY anthology) is the story of a lost love of Lord Pennington’s (LOVE WITH THE PROPER HUSBAND).

The third son of the Dowager Duchess is William Effington who is married to Georgina. Their daughter Delia Effington (Cassandra’s twin sister) met and married Anthony St. Stephens an only child and an orphan, in THE LADY IN QUESTION (Book 7).

A VISIT FROM SIR NICHOLAS ( Book 8 ) is the story of Thomas and Marianne’s (from THE MARRIAGE LESSON) daughter, Elizabeth, and Nicholas Collingsworth. LET IT BE LOVE (Book 11) is the story of Thomas and Marianne’s son Jonathon and leads to a series of four books about his friends—the Last Man Standing series.

Like the rest of the Effington books, the Last Man Standing series can be read in any order but would probably be more fun if read in order. They are: A LITTLE BIT WICKED, WHAT A LADY WANTS, SECRETS OF A PROPER LADY and THE SEDUCTION OF A PROPER GENTLEMAN.

By the way, each of the Last Man Standing books contains a continuing story called Ladies for Tea. I suspect Ladies for Tea will pop up again in some form or another one day.

As for the Harringtons…

August 25, 2011

The Lost City series is about the Harrington Family. They are the descendents of the characters in THE PERFECT WIFE. The first is THE VIRGIN’S SECRET about Nathanial Harrington, the youngest of three Harrington brothers. Next is DESIRES OF A PERFECT LADY about the oldest brother Sterling, the Earl of Wyldewood. This series was planned as a trilogy but right now I’m not sure when I will write the book for the last brother.