Sandy M’s review of A Duke to Die For (Rogues’ Dynasty, Book 1) by Amelia Grey
Historical Romance published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 7 Apr 09

This is my first Amelia Grey, and for the most part I enjoyed it. There are a couple of little things that didn’t quite work for me, but they also didn’t take away too much from the enjoyment of the story. Overall, it’s a good start to a fun series.

Henrietta has come to Lucien Blakewell because he’s the last name on her list of guardians she’s to have until her 21st birthday. All others before him have perished in one way or another and Henrietta is convinced she’s cursed. So her goal is talk to Lucien into signing over her rights to Henrietta herself so another guardian doesn’t die because of her.

Having to take over the guardianship of a child that had been meant for his father is not something Lucien needs or wants in his life, but it’s duty, so he’ll deal with it. He finds he’ll have to deal with the situation in a slightly different manner than he originally planned when the child he expects is actually 19-year-old Henrietta. Unprepared for a woman in his home, he has instantaneous feelings for her that he knows are not appropriate when it comes to his ward. The way to take care of that is to marry her off as quickly as possible.

Of course, Henrietta is also attracted to Lucien, though she really wants to leave just so she doesn’t put him in danger. While this all worked fairly well, it’s the curse part that didn’t quite fit for me. Granted, when Henrietta was young, she had been told she was cursed in bizarre circumstances, so I can see why she would believe that. But it just didn’t fit with her overall character, who is otherwise a pretty savvy gal for her age and her time.

Also, I felt that Lucien wavered too much between wanting Henrietta out of his home to wanting her there to keep for himself. He backslid, so to speak, just too many times in seducing her and then deciding again she’s better off with someone else. That being said, the sexual tension between them is very well done, as well as the final coming together being full of sensuousness and love.

There are some terrific scenes throughout the book. The one that comes quickly to mind to more than any other is the hot air balloon ride Lucien and Henrietta take. The secondary characters are a varied bunch and also very enjoyable.

In the end, it all worked well enough to give me a nice, solid historical read. I am looking forward to the next two books in the series.

Grade: B

Summary:

After receiving the news that he is now the guardian of Miss Henrietta Tweed, Lucien Trent Blakewell realizes he has two options: take control of her affairs himself or agree to sign over control of Henrietta’s fortune to the lady herself. Lucien refuses to believe Henrietta’s wild claims that she carries a curse that delivered an untimely death to her five previous guardians, but taking on the duties of guardianship would definitely put a dent in Lucien’s busy social calendar. Since Lucien does believe that no woman can manage her own financial affairs, giving Henrietta control of her own money is also out of the question. Which leaves Lucien with only one other solution: find his charge a suitable husband.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

A heartfelt thanks to Amelia Grey for spending the day with us for her Duck Chat. Fun was had all around!

And now the winners of Amelia’s A Duke to Die For! Drumroll, please!

**Quilt Lady (3)

** Maureen (9)

Congratulations, ladies! Please send your snail mail addresses to lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com so we can get your books on their way to you!

Welcome to Duck Chat at the Pond!

Today we have a special treat for you. Amelia Grey is writing again and she’s here with us!

Amelia has been writing historical romance since 1991 under different pseudonyms, which she will talk to us about today, but most readers know her by Amelia Grey, a name under which she’s won numerous awards for her writing.  She has a new trilogy, two books already on the shelves, and each one sounds wonderful. Amelia has been married to her high school sweetheart for more than twenty-five years and they currently live in Florida.

Two lucky commenters will win a copy of A Duke to Die For, the first book in Amelia’s trilogy.  (Sorry, U.S. and Canada only, please.) So be sure to leave a meaningful comment or question for her. Now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: Amelia, you have a brand new trilogy that’s being published this year and next! Congratulations! These are the first books you’ve had out in about five years or so. What prompted your downtime in writing? And then what was is that prompted the new series?

AMELIA GREY: Hello and thank you for having me at The Good, the Bad and the Unread. I’m happy to be here with you today. And, yes, it was three years and eight months between my last book for Berkley and A Duke to Die For which came out April of this year. I was busy during all that time. I took a year and a half off to help my son, who was thirty at the time, run for our state legislature. I’m sorry to say he lost, but happy it was by less than 2,000 votes. I loved the experience and told him that whenever he is ready, I’ll be the first one to step up and help him again. After that I had an idea for a nonfiction book so I worked on that, but all the while I knew I wanted to get back to Regency historicals, so I plotted The Rogues’ Dynasty Series which I sold to Sourcebooks in February 2008. It takes time to bring a new author into the system and get them on a schedule. I’m happy to say the second book of the trilogy, A Marquis to Marry, is now the shelves.

DC: If you could retire any question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

AG: I’ve actually had two interviewers, both were on my local television stations early morning shows, different women, years apart, asked me “what do you say to people who ask you why you write trashy romance novels?” Of course I was horrified the first time, but I immediately said, “I don’t think anyone could read one of my books and call them trashy. My books are well-written, as historically accurate as I can make them, and there is nothing trashy about romance.”

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

AG: Oh, absolutely, my characters surprise me often. For instance, in A Marquis to Marry, I had no idea that Race was going to write short informal notes to Susannah. Regency was a time of great formality and she was a dowager duchess, so it was very fresh of him to do such a thing. And, of course, Susannah loved them.

DC: The Rogues’ Dynasty is the name of the new trilogy. Can you tell our readers about the series as a whole, where the idea for it came from, and did it evolve as you originally envisioned it?

AG: My first thought was that I wanted a series of all titled men. That couldn’t happen with brothers so I had to in some way connect three titled men, so this is the premise I started with: Everyone in the ton knew that Lady Elder had tried many times by fair and foul means to force her grandsons to marry. After all, she had been happily married . . . four times. Decades earlier she had successfully married off each of her three daughters to titled gentlemen. And, in turn, each daughter had given her a grandson all in the same year.

The Grandsons turned out to be Rogues of the highest order, notorious for many reasons, including their titles, handsome faces, and rumored debauchery. But nothing made them more popular than the fact that all three still remained bachelors in their thirtieth year. Not even vast fortunes had tempted any of them to propose to any of the young ladies who fancied them.
Their grandmother is now deceased and each grandson deals with the grandmother’s legacy in his own way until a life-altering moment occurs when a very proper young lady arrives very improperly at each grandson’s door.

So I have all three books start with the heroine actually arriving for the first time at the hero’s door. Of course, all the heroines have very different reasons for their arrival. I could not be happier with the way The Rogues’ Dynasty Series turned out. I’m actually thrilled by these books and so excited about how well they are being received by reviewers and readers. Each book stands alone and there are no plotlines carried over to other books. But each book has continuing main and supporting characters.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

AG: You know, I don’t think I ever have argued with a character, but there have been many times that they have taken complete control of the story and take me places I never thought I’d go. And, of course, if we ever argued, I’d always let them win! They are the stars after all!

DC: The first book in the series, A Duke to Die For, has been on the shelves since April. Would you tell us a little bit about it, please?

AG: A Duke to Die For is still available at your favorite local or online bookstore! In A Duke to Die For, the hero’s life is chaotic and undisciplined, so I gave him a young and innocent heroine who was timely and organized to get under his skin and stay there. For fun I had her believe she was cursed, and for intrigue I had him be in danger because of it.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

AG: E-mail is my biggest distraction. I finally turned off the feature that alerted me when a new e-mail came in, but that hasn’t helped! I find myself checking it all during the day rather than just in the mornings, at lunch, and the end of the day which is what a normal person would do, I’m sure.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

AG: Oh, man! This is a hard question. I absolutely adore so many of them. Truly. For the most part I have been blessed with over twenty beautiful covers. And I must say A Marquis to Marry is among the top three. The hero and heroine on the front cover are such good-looking people. In fact, I think the heroine looks like a younger Kate Winslet. And I am such a pink kind of girl. I love that shade of pink on the cover and you guessed it—I love pearls, too!

DC: How about your least favorite cover? Why?

AG: This question is a bit easier. A Dash of Scandal is a brown cover and brown is one of my least favorite colors. The flowers on the cover are dull, dried flowers. I love bright beautiful flowers of every color, shade, and hue, and I was disappointed the flowers looked so artificial.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

AG: I’m certain my writing has changed over the years, so my characters must have changed, too. I don’t write as long as I used to and I now have more dialogue in my stories. I think my heroines are more self-confident now than when I first started writing. My heroes have never changed. I love them all. They are sexy but not snobbish, they are powerful but not brutes, and they are gentle but not weak.

DC: A Marquis to Marry, the second book, was released October 1. This is Lord Raceworth and Susannah’s story. Would you give us some insight into these characters and how their story came about?

AG: My current book is the second in the series. In A Marquis to Marry, the hero is a fun-loving rogue and very happily a bachelor, so I decided to give to give him a beautiful, fascinating woman who had the power, charm, and wit to make him want to settle down to just one lady. For enjoyment and fun, I had him in possession of a priceless necklace of pearls that belonged to her family, and she wants them back. Then for intrigue I had the pearls stolen so they could pool their resources to find the thief.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

AG: Not at this moment. I’m very happy writing Regency historicals.

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

AG: Oh, I love this question. I’ve never been asked this, and I’ve had to think on it. I think it would be that I should have enjoyed being published more that I did when I was younger. By that I mean, when I was first published I worried way too much about getting the next contract so I could continue to publish books. I didn’t do enough enjoying and celebrating each book as it came out. Now I’m not as–frantic to get the next book finished or the next contract signed. I’m enjoying each book that comes out more and worrying less about future books.

DC: April 2010 is when we’ll see An Earl to Enchant, third in the series, in bookstores. Can you give us a tiny sneak peek at what to expect in this book?

AG: An Earl to Enchant is the third book of the series and will be published in April 2010. In An Earl To Enchant, the hero is a planner and doesn’t like anyone upsetting what he’s planned. He is a man who plays by the rules and has no idea what to do with an enchanting heroine who ignores convention and steals his heart with her impulsive ways. For merriment, I have the heroine pursuing the hero, and for intrigue I have a killer pursuing her.

And I’m happy to say that I have just contracted with Sourcebooks to write three more books in The Rogues’ Dynasty. I can’t tell you where the new rogues are coming from because it would spoil one of the plots in An Earl to Enchant. But I’m now very happy to be busy on the fourth book of the series.

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

AG: You know, I’m not certain so don’t quote me on this, but I think it was Marilyn Monroe who said, “I don’t mind living in a man’s world as long as I can be a woman in it.” So I’ll take that as my blurb.

DC: What would be your “voice’s” tagline?

AG: With my soft Southern drawl how could it be anything other than, “she whispered.”

DC: You have a nice backlist of historicals. For a reader who has yet to experience one of your books, which one would you suggest they try for the first time?

AG: As with most writers who’ve written a few books, it’s difficult to find the backlist except in used bookstores. So, I’d like to tell them to wait until Fall of 2010 when Sourecbooks is re-releasing Never A Bride. And then, I think they will release two a year until all my Amelia Grey books have been re-published.

DC; If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

AG: Reading! I was a stay-at-home mom when my children were smaller and I always looked forward to getting the kids off to school, the housework finished so I could have time to read. And that hasn’t changed as I’ve matured. I can’t imagine not having a book to curl up with.

DC: You also write as Gloria Dale Skinner and Charla Cameron. Is there a specific reason you use three pseudonyms? Do you still write under these two names at all?

AG: I was under contract to one publishing house as Gloria Dale Skinner and sold to another publisher, so I had to take another name which was Charla Cameron. My last eight books have been under Amelia Grey and I have no plans as this time to write as any other person. Sourcebooks is happily keeping Amelia Grey too busy to write for anyone else.

DC: What’s on the horizon for Amelia Gray?

AG: As I mentioned in an earlier question, I have just contracted with Sourcebooks to write three more books in the Rogues’ Dynasty Series. I had a small germ of an idea as how to add three more rogues that would work in with the plot for An Earl to Enchant the third book of the series. I talked it over with my editor, and she was immediately hooked on the idea. I will be able to talk more about it when An Earl to Enchant comes out because the setup for the new rogues is in that book. I don’t want to give away too much right now.

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?    – creamy milk
- smooth or chunky peanut butter?    – smooth as silk
- heels or flats?    – high heels
- coffee or tea?    – Starbucks coffee
- summer or winter?     – summer all the way
- mountains or beach?     – white, sandy beaches
- mustard or mayonnaise?     – both—on both pieces of bread
- flowers or candy?     – both—candy with nuts and flowers with bright colors!
- pockets or purse?     – Never without one of my cute little purses
- Pepsi or Coke?    – Coke is the real thing
- ebook or print?    – Print, print, print!

And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word?    – Well…
2. What is your least favorite word?   – No.
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – Being happy.
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?   – Anyone with a sour attitude
5. What sound or noise do you love?    – The pop of a champagne cork
6. What sound or noise do you hate?   – A baby’s cry of pain
7. What is your favorite curse word?   – Must be damnation because I seem to write it a lot.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?    – If I could sing I’d like to be a rock star
9. What profession would you not like to do?     -  Janitorial
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?    – Oh, I believe it does, and I want to hear “Welcome home, thou good and faithful servant.”

Thank you for having me here today at The Good, the Bad and the Unread! You asked great questions. I hope you’ll have me back next April when An Earl to Enchant is published, and I promise to tell you more about the new rogues.

DC: Thank you, Amelia, for being with us today!