Goodreads asked Michele Paige Holmes:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Michele Paige Holmes I'm not entirely sure where the idea for Saving Grace came from. I first imagined a young woman who wanted to ruin her reputation to save herself and her sister from marriage. It sounded a little preposterous (my favorite kinds of stories to write), but I started to play with it, first writing the scene where Grace is found in Lord Sutherland's bed. I realized I needed a specific time period/set of societal rules for the plot to work right, and the Regency period fit well. However, I was not and am not any sort of expert on this period. My friend, fellow critique group member, and excellent Regency author Sarah M. Eden kindly pointed me in the direction of the best research books, which I promptly ordered and devoured--and then confused repeatedly. So many rules for this genre! I have a great respect for authors who write Regency and do it well. Not considering myself one of them (I like to break too many rules, Grace's relationship with her servants being one example), I set Saving Grace just slightly after the Regency period, but still well within the time society's rules would have been very similar. Over the months I was researching, the rest of the characters kindly made themselves known (I am always so grateful when this happens!) and I realized that this story was about much more than a girl avoiding marriage. It was a story about healing, the different paths we all take to get there, and how love is the key for all of us.

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