• Did you find mention of some of my “old” characters? You can find, in the columns of Lady Whistledown: Ned Blydon, Viscount Burwick (a secondary character in my first three novels and the hero of an upcoming novella); his sister Belle (heroine of Dancing at Midnight, now Lady Blackwood); Lord and Lady Riverdale (hero and heroine of How to Marry a Marquis), Lucas and Jane Hotchkiss (also from How to Marry a Marquis). Not to mention Robert from Everything and the Moon who hosts the Macclesfield ball—a very pivotal scene. And who could forget Lady Danbury, who made her debut in How to Marry a Marquis and has since appeared in all of the Bridgerton books. She’s so much fun that I decided to give her a big supporting role this time around.

• Also in Lady W’s columns: Michael Anstruther-Wetherby, brother of Honoria, the heroine of Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens!

• In the first chapter, Penelope is reading a book called Mathilda by S.R. Fielding. This is from Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas, one of my all-time favorite romance novels! The heroine is a novelist, and Mathilda was a huge bestseller.

• The working title for this book was Mr. Bridgerton, I Presume.

• One of my summer jobs in college was working as a travel writer for Let’s Go: Greece & Turkey. I spent seven weeks on Crete, Cyprus, and a couple of islands in the Dodecanese. I drew upon my memories of Cyprus for Colin’s writings. His descriptions of Scotland are mine as well, drawn from my visit in spring of 2001.

• Romancing Mr. Bridgerton is fourth in the Bridgerton series. #1 is The Duke and I #2 is The Viscount Who Loved Me, #3 is An Offer from a Gentleman, and #5 is To Sir Phillip, With Love.

• Lady Whistledown, the gossip columnist featured in, An Offer from a Gentleman “narrates” her own anthology in The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown. This book is not, however, a part of the Bridgerton series.