Valerie Bowman

Valerie Bowman creates lively historical romance shaped by courtship, social rules, and comic intrigue. Her Playful Brides series follows interconnected couples in Regency England and includes full-length novels as well as shorter companion works. Mr. Hunt, I Presume is numbered 10.5 in that sequence and revisits Collin Hunt and Erienne Stone after an earlier separation. Their meeting is encouraged by Lucy, Duchess of Claringdon, whose matchmaking creates a bridge to the wider cast. The novella uses the second-chance structure to explore how changed circumstances can unsettle assumptions formed years before. Bowman studied English literature at Smith College and began publishing her historical fiction in 2012. Across the Playful Brides books, she frequently adapts the pace and social manoeuvring of classic stage comedy to Regency settings. Mr. Hunt, I Presume offers a compact example of that approach, keeping the emotional history of one pair connected to friendships and interventions established elsewhere in the series.