Lisabet Sarai is here to tell us about The Ruination of Ramona Stone, a Victorian lesbian romance. LGBTQ, Sapphic, historical erotic romance, arranged marriage.
Read on for details...
_____________________
The Ruination of Ramona Stone
By Lisabet Sarai
Victorian Lesbian Romance (Three flames)
Blurb:
Should anyone discover their secret passion, they would both be ruined.
To Victorian London, they were childhood friends reunited by tragedy. Behind closed doors, they were each other’s undoing.
Ramona Stone survived the bleak years at boarding school because of bright-eyed Juliet—her childhood anchor and her dearest confidante. While Juliet marries for love, Ramona accepts the husband her father has arranged, an ambitious barrister twice her age.
When an accident leaves Juliet a penniless widow, Ramona persuades her husband to grant her friend shelter. Proximity kindles unexpected passion; sympathy turns to illicit desire. What begins as solace quickly transforms into a force that neither woman can resist or deny.
Trapped with a domineering husband, living in a society eager for scandal, Ramona understands that every touch is a gamble and every glance a betrayal. If their secret comes to light, she won't just lose her place in society—she will lose the only love that she’s ever known.
Born Again Victorian
Sometimes I think I lived a past life in the Victorian age. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been drawn to architecture and costumes from the period. My siblings used to tease me about how much I liked “gingerbread” houses. In my high school yearbook picture, I’m wearing a high-necked, 1880’s style blouse with an antique cameo brooch at my throat. I’ve been a huge fan of Gilbert and Sullivan – the consummate chroniclers of Victorian culture - since I was introduced to their operettas at age five. I had devoured the complete Sherlock Holmes before I turned fifteen, not to mention other classics from the era by Wilkie Collins, H. Rider Haggard and of course Charles Dickens.
Possibly due to all the nineteenth century fiction I’ve consumed, I find it surprisingly easy to write dialogue and description that can pass as Victorian. I certainly can’t produce the same level of authenticity for any other historical era.
Over my two and a half decade career, I’ve written a number of tales that take place during Queen Victoria’s reign. My erotic romance Miranda’s Masks features a parallel plot that unfolds in late-nineteenth-century Boston. I’ve also penned a number of steam punk books, all set in an alternative Victorian world with more advanced technology than actually existed (although in fact the latter half of the eighteen hundreds was a hotbed of invention and entrepreneurship). If you like the steampunk genre, check out my Toymakers Guild series or my alt-Victorian novel set in British India, Rajasthani Moon.
The Ruination of Ramona Stone is my first attempt at a realistic novel set in the period. My two heroines fall desperately in love, violating every rule of Victorian society. They understand the price they will pay, should anyone discover their secret passion, but they risk everything to stay together.
It might seem strange that I’m so attracted to things Victorian. Given my interest in sexuality (both literary and personal), I probably would have had difficulty adapting to the prudish societal norms of the time. Of course, perennially popular Victorian erotica like The Pearl and My Secret Life suggest that there was a quite a gap between what people professed in public and what they did in private (or in the company of like-minded libertines).
That’s my theory, anyway: that the Victorians were a far lustier group than they pretended. That’s certainly true of the characters in my Victorian-themed stories.
“Bloody hell,” she muttered. “This is impossible.”
“Never mind, Juliet.” I half-pulled her back onto the seat. “We will be back home before long.”
“With all the servants, plus your son. Not to mention your husband.” She turned to face me, her eyes gleaming in the light from the side lamps. “I need you, Ro. I need to touch you, to taste you. If I cannot make love to you again, I swear I shall go mad.”
Love? Was that what this was? Last night I’d thought it sheer depravity. Now I began to wonder whether the force drawing us together might be more than mere animal lust. Juliet sounded as though she was on the verge of tears.
“Hush, my dear,” I murmured, drawing her into my arms. “Don’t worry. We’ll find a way to be together.”
I pressed my lips to her cool forehead, then tilted her chin up. Our eyes met, and then our mouths. Her lips were hot despite the damp and the chill weather. They moulded to mine as though we were fused. We drank deep of each other’s essence, sampling the flavours, savouring the textures. Juliet poured her desire into that kiss. I drank in every ounce, filling my body and spirit.
Kissing was all we could manage, but for the moment, kissing was enough. It went on and on, as the carriage made its way through the London streets. We simply could not let each other go. We would take brief pauses for breath, then dive back into the ecstatic mouth-to-mouth connection. In the shadowed privacy of the coach, we lost ourselves in a glorious fantasy of togetherness and freedom, forgetting that what we desired was forbidden.
We broke apart like sleepers roused from a dream when the brougham halted at my townhouse. Gas lights shone in through the window glass to illumine Juliet’s exquisite countenance. I realised that her cheeks were wet with tears.
With my thumb, I wiped them away. “Don’t cry, my darling,” I whispered. “I’ll come to you, to your room. Tonight, when everyone is asleep. Tonight we can be together.”
I wanted so much to heal her sorrow, I completely forgot my own shame.
About Lisabet:
Lisabet Sarai writes in many genres, but F/F fiction is one of her favorites. In addition to her single-author lesbian romance and erotica titles, her Sapphic credits include contributions to Lambda Award winner Where the Girls Are, Ippie-winning Carnal Machines, Best Lesbian Romance 2012, Best Lesbian Erotica 2015, Forbidden Fruit: Stories of Unwise Lesbian Desire, and Lammy-nominated Coming Together: Girl on Girl.
Lisabet holds more degrees than anyone would ever need, from prestigious educational institutions who would no doubt be deeply embarrassed by her explicit literary endeavors. She has traveled widely and currently lives in Southeast Asia, where she pursues an alternative career that is completely unrelated to her writing.
Connect with Lisabet!
Lisabet’s Fantasy Factory (website): http://www.lisabetsarai.com
Beyond Romance (blog): http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lisabet-Sarai/e/B001K8PADS
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LSarai
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/83387.Lisabet_Sarai
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lisabet-sarai
Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/lisabetsarai
Bluesky: https://https//bsky.app/profile/lisabetsarai.bsky.social
Medium: https://medium.com/@lisabet_63394
Mailing list signup: https://lisabetsarai.eo.page/kqyq4
Thanks so much for reading today's post. Hope you enjoyed it!
Follow me on Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tina-donahue
Please feel free to share the post via FB,
Bluesky, Linked In, and more...share buttons at the bottom of this post :)
