This book event is through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.
A Poetic Pox book tour includes an author interview and a giveaway Rafflecopter at the end. Be sure to get your entries in and finish the month strong for the Sarandipity’s contest. Each interaction equals one point. How many points do you have? Earn by sharing on social, subscribing and shopping Sarandipity’s (including the freebies vault with new goodies), and leaving a comment on this post and any other one you read! Show our author friends some love.
Book Details
A Poetic Pox: A Lady Librarian Mystery
Historical Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – 1786, England
Publisher: Dreamscape First
Audible.com Release Date: July 22, 2025
Listening Length: 8 hours and 18 minutes
Author: Samantha Larsen
Narrator: Marni Penning
ASIN: B0FBBG4GZC
1786, England
It is the twelve days of Christmas, and Mrs. Tiffany Lathrop is happily juggling her duties as a
new mother and a librarian to Catharine, the Duchess of Beaufort. Her employer receives a
mysterious letter from an old paramour, the Marquess of Harwood, who is the biological father
of Catharine’s son. He promises to leave his estate and fortune to Beau if he can see the boy
before he dies.
Her elder son, Thomas Montague, has a terrible cold, so Catharine asks Tiffany to accompany
her and Beau. When they arrive at the dilapidated abbey, they discover a dead body—only it isn’t
the marquess, but his valet! Lord Harwood is alive, but unconscious with suspicious-looking pox
marks on his hands. Tiffany wonders if the marquess is really dying, or if it is all poetic revenge?
Especially when she discovers the secrets that haunt Rosedean Abbey.
Between breastfeeding and dirty diapers, Tiffany must discover who killed the valet and
attempted to murder the marquess before anyone else dies.
©2025 Samantha Larsen (P)2025 Dreamscape First
About Samantha Larsen
Samantha Hastings met her husband in a turkey sandwich line. They live in Salt Lake City,
Utah, where she spends most of her time reading, having tea parties, and chauffeuring her four
kids. She teaches World Literature at Brigham Young University. Her young adult fiction books
are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections and her historical romances are published
around the world. She also writes murder mysteries under Samantha Larsen that Publisher’s
Weekly called “wildly enjoyable.”
Author Links
Website www.SamanthaHastings.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/samanthahastingsauthor/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaHastingsAuthor
X https://x.com/HastingSamantha
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/samantha-hastings
Interview questions:
What is your favorite part of this book and why?
I have always loved stories set in haunted houses and so my favorite part
of this Tiffany mystery is the setting. It’s during the darkest days of the year,
between Christmas and Twelfth Night (January 5 th ). It’s in a mansion that is
decaying before your eyes.
A POETIC POX is Charles Dickens’ GREAT EXPECTATIONS meets
Agatha Christie. Aren’t all books better with a ghost?
If you could spend time with a character from your book whom would it
be? And what would you do during that day?
I would love to spend the day with the lady librarian herself, Mrs. Tiffany
Lathrop. We are the same age and have many similar interests. With her, I
would love to visit the British Library (I have a library card) and look at rare
books.
What books/authors have most inspired you?
I have always loved reading and poetry. It was really fun to add some
eighteenth century poems to this story. I adore William Blake, particularly
his poems: “Jerusalem”, “The Tyger”, and “The Poison Tree” which is the
epigraph at the very beginning of my book. I am also incredibly inspired by
Phyllis Wheatley who was an enslaved African American that wrote
beautiful poetry. For more recommendations of eighteenth century poets,
check the bibliography at the end of A POETIC POX.
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely
from your imagination?
Much of this story was inspired by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-
1762). She was an English aristocrat, poet, writer, and smallpox inoculation
pioneer. Lady Mary was a beautiful young woman and a favorite of both
King George II and Prince George, when she was struck down with
congruent smallpox in 1715, which left her face heavily scarred. In 1717, her husband became the English ambassador to Turkey. While she lived in Constantinople, she learned about their inoculating methods for smallpox.
Lady Mary returned to England in 1721 and had her daughter inoculated in
front of the royal physicians. It was the first inoculation performed in
England. Afterwards, Lady Mary became a vocal advocate of inoculations.
To read more of her incredible story, I highly recommend Jennifer Lee
Carrell’s The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox
(New York: Plume, 2003).
What made you want to become a writer?
Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be an author like Jo March from LITTLE
WOMEN. A few years later fell in love with the Anne Shirley series and
then Jane Austen’s novels. I’ve always written stories exploring those time
periods and women’s unique place in them.
Purchase Links –
Giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveawayTOUR PARTICIPANTS
July 21 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
July 21 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
July 22 – Salty Inspirations – CHARACTER GUEST POST
July 23 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
July 24 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
July 25 – Sarandipity’s – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
July 26 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
July 26 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
July 27 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
July 28 – Review Thick And Thin – REVIEW
July 29 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR GUEST POST
July 30 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT
July 31 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
July 31 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST
August 1 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
Thank you so much for the thoughtful interview!