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Must Reads: Novels featuring Dukes

True story: I was at a massive book signing and a reader asked the author next to me, "Do you have any books with duke's in 'em?" The author replied that mine had a double duke (A Groom Of One's Own!) and the reader promptly acquired a copy.There's just something about dukes, isn't there?

Thus, I am posting mt top three favorite romance novels featuring dukes! You can even win all three! How? My pal Caroline Linden and I are hosting a contest this month. Just drop by her website to share how you would cast any character in The Tattooed Duke to be eligible for a chance to win the three exquisite novels below (PS:one of them is signed!).

The Duke Is Mine by Eloisa James. Typically, I make a fuss about the husband arriving home in time for dinner but one night he arrived home to a cold kitchen and me on the couch with this delightful Eloisa James novel. It is also our habit that he stays up reading whilst I fall asleep with the light on. But this was one of those books where I Could Not Sleep until I had finished it. I am madly in love with EJ novels, especially because of her hilariously witty writing. This heroine was just a naughty delight, too. The duke is a damn fine duke!

 

What I Did For a Duke by Julie Anne Long. This novel was so beautifully written. The duke is bent on revenge and as such plans to seduce the heroine who just suffered a wretched heartache…and who isn't the slightest bit interested in being seduced by the duke.  It's just magical watching them both fall in love to their surprise. I actually reread this one, I loved it so much!

 

 

 

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. This is one of the very first romance novels I ever read. From the moment I read this, I was hooked on The Bridgerton's, dukes and romance!

 

 

 

 

 

How Romance Novels Empower Women

Today I'm blogging about romance novels and feminism over at my mom's blog, Maria's Farm Country Kitchen. But here's something to get you started…

While as a society we wonder how to motivate girls to reach higher and achieve more—especially during women's history month—we also deride a popular and empowering form of literature regularly read by 40 million Americans. Romance novels, often dismissed as antifeminist, were actually once seen as so empowering that theirs was considered a revolutionary power deserving of vigorous government response.

 Many laugh at these "trashy" books without knowing why. The answer is surprising…Read the rest.

Behind the scenes: The Tattooed Duke

While I don't base characters on people I know, each book of mine includes many of my own personal stories and experiences. Here's a few  author secrets from The Tattooed Duke. No spoilers here, though you will certainly get a taste of the book! (Hint: it tastes like coconut, rum, sunset and a warm ocean breeze. Wait, that sounds like sunscreen! I digress…). Behold, a behind-the-scenes peek:

The duke's preferred location for brooding is the roof (as one does). This was inspired by the view of London from my apartment (Oh, I'm sorry, my flat) when I stayed there for a summer. I took some pictures at sunset. Or maybe it's sunrise? Either way it's beautiful and was a major inspiration.

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I wrote a chunk of the book on a pina colada fueled writing retreat in Barbados with my pal Denise. Barbados being a stand in for Tahiti because the flights were shorter and cheaper. Here's a picture of me working there (Apparently, I was already celebrating TTD with a glass of Prosecco). My favorite place to work is from a shaded terrace over looking a beach. In a really hot place. Preferably with room service.

Wycliff and Eliza spend a few scenes in the conservatory, planting and transplanting and…other stuff I learned how to do this  from my pal April Johnson, landscape and greenhouse visionary, in the organic greenhouse (left) at the Rodale Institute. It should be noted she also has lots of tattoos. In fact, I set a lot of scenes in conservatories—I really like the warmth and smell of plants and soil. However, I imagined the Duke might have a greenhouse more like the one at Kew Gardens (right).

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In addition to Tahiti, I also sent Wycliff to Africa because I had just traveled there and fell in love with it. I could absolutely imagine a hero trekking through hippo and crocodile infested waters as I did…in this tin can of a boat (#whatIdidforlove) or roaming across the land, encountering beautiful scenes like this one–we were on foot when we saw these elephants!

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For more, check out my Tattooed Duke themed board on pinterest!

Available now: The Tattooed Duke!

At last! The wait is over! The Tattooed Duke has arrived!

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Breaking news, scandal fans! You thought you knew the dangerous Duke of Wycliff, London's globe-trotting adventure addict. Here's what you don't know: he's penniless. Sebastian Digby's dukely lifestyle is over forever unless he finds a rich bride. But thanks to The London Weekly, everyone knows better than to tangle with this lothario. Besides (as one writer can testify), it seems that Sebastian has been unable to keep his hands of his own lowly housemaid…

And that's a problem. A big one. Because that housemaid just happens to be me. Eliza Fielding. The same undercover Writing Girl who's been exposing the Duke's most intimate secrets to the world. And now I've gone and complicated everything by falling love with him. Passion and deception have never been so delicious, but now the truth could destroy everything. This is more than a conflict of interest. It's a seduction where love itself hangs in the balance.

Have you seen the rave reviews?

Have you read the first chapter?

Have you ordered your copy?

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Watch this blog for the behind the scenes scoop on The Tattooed Duke!

Romance Authors On The Road

Caroline Linden, Katharine Ashe and moi-self comprise the Historically Hip Author Tour. It's true: The Houston Chronicle says so.

[image error]Our first stop: afternoon tea with the marvelous Fresh Fiction and  Dallas Fort Worth Tea Readers. We meet the loveliest group of readers at the charming restaurant Chocolate Angel. I signed my very first copies of The Tattooed Duke with–what else–a pink sparkly pen from my sis! If you're ever able to attend one of these events, I highly recommend it!

[image error]On the road: We set off for Houston in our little red rental car and for miles were entranced by billboards for Fried Pies…and yet we were chattering so much we missed the exit! Fortunately, there was a second chance for us..especially since I had run out of my favorite organic travel snacks.  Here's a photo the fried pies (It's a "before" pic, there was nothing "after").

 

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Tonight! This historically hip trio is hitting up Katy Budget Books from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. We'll be chatting, possibly reading and definitely signing books!  I've heard rumors that romance authors Shana Galen and Vicky Dreiling will join in the fun too. You won't want to miss this!

Tomorrow! The Tattooed Duke is coming to a bookshelf near you!

Serious & Important Question: Have you ever or would you ever try a fried pie? 

Real life heroine: George Sand

The movie Albert Nobbs which features Glenn Close portraying a woman who lives as a man in 19th century Dublin got me thinking about my favorite real life woman who disguised herself as a man. George Sand, born Aurora Dupin in Paris 1804, was famous and infamous, loathed and loved, notorious and yet now almost forgotten. She was a really great writer–and one of the inspirations behind my Writing Girls.

Aurora enjoyed a "boys education" (as most scandalous women in history did) and she started dressing as a man in order to ride astride. She soon found she enjoyed the freedom and ability to experiment that it provided her. Unlike Albert Nobbs, who kept her sex a secret, Aurora

At 18 she married, and it turned out to be a disaster. Both she and her husband were having affairs. Like many women, she  turned her passion for writing into a potential means of financial independence, since her husband was squandering their resources (This is, alas, a common theme in literature). At twenty-six she left her husband to be with her younger lover, Jules Sandeau. She became the only woman working on the staff of Figaro, got her own flat, and hosted salons with guests like Honore de Balzac.

In 1831 Aurora published her first novel, Indiana, under the pseudonym George Sand. Because it was scandalous for a woman to make a living as a writer in those days, none of her relatives wanted their name associated with her writing. Critics hated the novel, but it was a commercial success and launched her prolific writing career.

In 1836 she met Frederic Chopin and they embarked on a long love affair, for which she is better known today. She had other lovers, wrote twenty-four plays and a thousand page autobiography, The Story Of My Life. In the end Ivan Turgeneve, the Russian writer, described her best: "What a brave man she was, and what a good woman."

PS: This essay is excerpted from the book I wrote with my mom, It's My Pleasure. 

Saturday Sneak Peek!

Straight from the pages of The Tattooed Duke : Three gentlemen discuss the issue of the day–Wycliff's black reputation–and just what to do about it.

"Everyone already knows about your tattoos. They know you've gone native. But if you really wish to change public perception of you, The Weekly is the way to go," Burke said frankly.

"Am I to take out an advertisement? Write an article defending myself?" Wycliff asked sarcastically. He preferred to ignore all the rubbish newsrags, particularly The London Weekly. 

"You could do. Or you could discover who authors The Tattooed Duke column and give him something to write about, other than all shocking, intimate details of your life. That's what I would do," Burke said confidently.

"Or her," Harlan remarked.

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The Tattooed Duke is coming to a bookshelf near you on Tuesday, February 28th! 

Check out the coming soon page for order links and other details about the book!

Required Reading for feminists: romance novels!

You can imagine how thrilled I was when a Google alert arrived, notifying me that Bitch Magazine referenced my romance novel, A Groom Of One's Own in an article entitled Required Reading: A    _____  Of One's Own. I'd argue that romance novels are feminist texts and I'm just waiting for the rest of the world to realize it. I thought this was the moment.

And then I read the article, which is a snarky essay about people's incorrect and improper referencing of Virginia Woolf's feminist classic, A Room Of One's Own. About how they make "nonsensical allusions" to it. And how it's so important girls read it–read anything–these days.

Which makes it all the more hilarious when my book, A Groom Of One's Own is described as an "equestrian-themed, bodice-ripping novel" because clearly the author of the blog did not so much as read the back of the book. Yes, there are horses in the novel–as transportation in 1820′s London. But it's really about a rule-breaking, successful female writer in 1820′s London. One of my inspirations in creating my Writing Girls series of strong, independent, heroines was Virginia Woolf's book. A Groom Of One's Own is a love story, but it's also a story of a woman triumphing against all odds and discovering her own strengths and talents in a world that didn't expect much from women. Frankly, I think it's pretty pro-feminist. At the very least, I'm sure Virginia isn't rolling in her grave.

The blogger has a great line later in the essay–"Girls need to be worrying more about their own genius." To that I say, YES. But girls often have to stop being their own worst enemy by collectively championing our genius instead of diminishing it. And that's what really irks me about snarky attitudes toward romance novels–when it comes from other women who are trying to achieve the same goal, which is positive and empowering depictions of women.

Do you think romance novels qualify as feminist? 

 

Heroine Questionnaire: Katharine Ashe

If you haven't read Katharine's delicious and novels featuring rogue lords, a hint of the exotic, and high seas, you must!  Her next book, When A Scot Loves A Lady,  matches a scandal-plagued lady with a roguish scottish lord. Sigh! Her bio is really funny–especially the bit about writing romance novels in a very unlikely place. In anticipation of our upcoming tour dates together (check those out here) I thought I'd invite her to the blog for the Heroine Questionnaire.

What's an essential quality in a heroine? 

Compassion streaked through with daring. I admire a heroine who truly cares about other people — both her loved ones and strangers, and especially her hero. And I adore a heroine who isn't afraid seek what she wants and grab onto it with both hands (no matter how it spoils her gloves!). Together these qualities make my ideal heroine.

 

What's an important life lesson you've learned from romance novels? 

To never give up, no matter what the obstacles and challenges, until you find your Happily Ever After. Romance novel heroines don't give up. They fight the worst sorts of villains — nay-sayers, gossip, social ostracism, poverty, broken hearts, self-doubt — yet they refuse to concede defeat. It's definitely a plus that succeeding for them means lifelong happiness with a handsome lord, or reformed pirate, or cowboy, or Navy Seal, or… well, you get the idea. But it's a great lesson, no matter what a woman's HEA is!

Tell us about the heroine of your new book!

For years Lady Kitty Savege thought she wanted revenge – sweet, satisfying revenge on the man that stole her virtue and broke her young heart. Now finally Kitty is fed up with lurking in the shadows and waiting to strike. More than anything, she's weary of loneliness. She longs for love. But she's so used to playing the part of the cool, disinterested spinster in society, she doesn't know how to change! When a snowstorm traps her in a country inn with a roguish Scottish lord, Kitty discovers that the passion inside her merely needs a bit o' delectably scandalous encouragement to break free.

Kitty made her first appearance in my novel Captured by a Rogue Lord, in which she was the hero's sister. Her youthful indiscretion led her brother into his life of piracy against wealthy noblemen, first and foremost her ruiner. Naturally her brother had his happy ending in that book, but I wanted Kitty to find true love too. So vibrant and loving yet hiding behind an impervious façade, she deserved happiness. And that's where Lord Leam Blackwood comes in…

PS: Katharine and I have teamed up for a Facebook contest! This week, we're giving out daily prizes, grand prizes and the Super Fantastic Grand Prize of a Kindle Fire! Don't you just want to read all of her books (and more) on a Kindle Fire? Of course! You can enter the contest here. 

Question: If you were trapped by a snow storm  in a country inn who would your ideal companion be? 

Reviews: The Tattooed Duke

Oooh, the reviews are starting to come in for The Tattooed Duke! Here's a selection:

• Packed with engaging, complex characters, humor, blackmail, secrets, deceit, clever banter, true love and a city on tenterhooks awaiting Eliza's next article, this story is a keeper as one you will want to read more than once. I highly recommend The Tattooed Duke.

–Romance Junkies Reviews

• Rodale continues her Writing Girl series, demonstrating that strong women can always find a way to make a difference and have it all. This charming and fun story will delight readers.

–RT Book Reviews

• The latest Writing Girls late Regency romance is a charming tale starring two fascinating protagonists. The storyline is fast-paced from the moment Eliza joins Sebastian's household and never slows down until the explosive finish.

–Genre Go Round reviews

• Rodale continues the intricate stories and involving narrative that are the bedrock of this fascinating series. Fans of historical romance will fall in love with our intrepid heroine and our ornately decorated hero.

–Library Journal