The hero is my version of Mr. Darcy, Captain von Trapp, and any other hero who thinks he knows exactly what he wants until he meets the heroine.

Marcus is very much as I picture a duke: very proud, haughty, aloof from all but his nearest family, and very controlling.

I love setting up couples who push each other’s buttons, so the heroine, Hannah, is almost his exact opposite on the surface: down to earth, warm and open, with simple frugal tastes.

But underneath, they are really very much alike.

The fun part, in writing this book, was stripping away what the characters thought about themselves and each other until they realized that last point.

I was nervous about the hero, Marcus. An editor who rejected my first book indicated that I should make that hero– a fortune hunter– more ‘heroic’ by having him motivated by the thought of saving some starving tenant farmers (as opposed to a simple desire not to be poor any more), and apart from being a duke, Marcus really doesn’t come across as stereotypically ‘heroic’ for quite a while—he’s quite unlikable for some time, actually, and the heroine is the number one person who hates him.

I like stories where two unlikely people are thrown together and forced to get along, and expect that it will take them a while to fall for each other, but for some people the payoff comes too late. So far, though, the readers who’ve emailed me have liked Marcus (huge sigh of relief here).

Marcus Reese, Duke of Essex, has spent most of his life pulling his twin brother out of trouble. An occasional thank you would suffice; instead, his resentful sibling forges his name to a marriage license and presents him with an unwanted wife. She’s a vicar’s widow with a mind of her own who may be the first person in Marcus’s well-ordered life to make him feel… completely out of control.

Hannah can’t help but curse her own idiocy. Dire straits have led her to the altar with a gentleman she hardly knows. Played for a fool, she’s embarrassed, furious, and worse, married to an equally outraged stranger-an exasperating man who unleashes all manner of emotions in Hannah, not to mention unwanted desire. Reluctantly, she agrees to play the wife until he can sort out the mess. But the nearness of the undeniably attractive Duke and the passion in his black eyes unsettles her well-guarded heart-making her want to do so much more than “act” the role of blissful bride…

There is an excerpt here and this is out NOW!