We’d like to thank Nicola Cornick for a terrific day during her Duck Chat here at the Pond!

Using that handy-dandy random number generator, our winner of a set of Nicola’s Brides trilogy is –

MarthaE (15)

Congrats, Martha!

Please send your snail mail address to lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll notify Nicola for you!

Welcome back to Duck Chat!You’re in for a treat today – Nicola Cornick is with us!

Nicola has a terrific backlist of books, but it’s her latest Brides of Fortune trilogy that has her excited nowadays, and she’d like to tell you about them, along with having some fun with all of you. The trilogy actually starts with a prequel, The Secrets of a Courtesan, which is in ebook only from eHarlequin. Then The Confessions of a Duchess, The Scandals of an Innocent, and finally The Undoing of a Lady round out the series. Nicola tells us all about them today.

Nicola started her writing career in 1998 when she was first published by Mills & Boon.  She’ has a passion for history, studied Medieval history, and her dissertation was on heroes, which she knows a little bit about! She is married, lives in the countryside of Oxfordshire, England with her husband and their many pets. Geneology is a favorite pasttime, and she works for the National Trust for the famed Ashdown House, which has been the inspiration for a couple of her books.

So if you love to read Regency romance, you need to talk to Nicola today. Be sure to leave that meaningful comment because she’s giving away one complete set of her Brides of Fortune trilogy. Now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: Nicola, let’s talk about your latest releases, your Brides of Fortune trilogy. Tell us first about the series as a whole, where the idea for it came from, did it evolve as you envisioned when you first started writing, and anything else you’d like to tell us about it.

NICOLA CORNICK: Even though I write historical fiction, I get a lot of my ideas from contemporary newspapers and magazines. A couple of years ago I read about a village in England where someone had bought the title of Lord of the Manor and then discovered that he could impose lots of ancient taxes on the villagers. He started to charge them for walking their dogs on the village green and for parking their cars when they went shopping. Naturally there was uproar with the villagers rebelling. I thought this would be great idea to explore in a Regency series and so the Brides of Fortune trilogy was born! Sir Montague Fortune imposes an ancient tax on the villagers that means that every lady has to marry or lose half of her dowry. Penniless gentlemen come flocking to the village and so Fortune’s Folly becomes the marriage mart of England!

The series didn’t really evolve as I had planned it because my books never do. Although I had ideas about the underlying murder mystery I had no notion who the murderer was going to be or how that sub-plot would develop. And although I had a rough outline for each story, they all surprised me with the way that they grew and changed in the writing.

DC: The first book in the trilogy is The Confessions of a Duchess and it’s about Laura, the Duchess of Cole, and Dexter Anstruther, both of whom we met in Unmasked. Please tell our readers about them and their story.

NC: After Unmasked came out I had so many emails from readers asking for Laura’s story that I couldn’t resist. Confessions of a Duchess is set four years after Unmasked and Laura has retired to live quietly in the country with her young daughter Hattie. Then her former lover, Dexter Anstruther, comes back into Laura’s life and turns everything upside down. Dexter and Laura parted on bad terms and now he has to marry a rich heiress to save his family but despite knowing that he has to marry for duty, Dexter finds it hard to resist his attraction to Laura. There are so many secrets keeping them apart and so many reasons why they cannot be together, not least that Laura is eight years Dexter’s senior and she thinks that to have a toy boy lover is totally scandalous!

Excerpt from Confessions of a Duchess:

He heard a knock and a step in the doorway and turned to find Laura there, her arms full of clothes. She was staring at his naked torso and a deep pink colour stained her cheeks. There was confusion and shock in her eyes. The clothes slipped from her hands and she made a grab for

them even whilst her gaze was still riveted on him.

“I’ve brought… Um… Did you…”

Dexter was surprised that she was acting like a startled virgin when she was an experienced woman, a widow with a child. Surely there was no need for any pretence between them after all that had happened? And surely she did not possess an ounce of modesty? In bed with him four years previously she had been open and generous, warm and wanton. Her sweet, seductive shamelessness had been one of the reasons that he had fallen so disastrously in love with her. It had seemed so honest and unguarded at the time.

But she had put him right quickly enough on that score. She had no use for him and his devotion, so she had said. And when she had had him in her bed once it seemed that she had no further use for him in that respect either.

“It would be best for you to leave now,” she had said in the morning, with a cool, aristocratic disdain that had made him feel utterly insignificant. “I would not wish the servants to find you here…”

Yet now it seemed that she had forgotten her indifference to him, since she was staring like a woman who had never seen a half-naked man before and looking flustered and more than a little intrigued. Her glance stirred something sensual in Dexter, reviving the fire he had only just managed to damp down.

Somewhere at the back of his mind a voice was cautioning him that to take this any further would be dangerous and irresponsible. He ignored it. He wanted to know if what he had experienced before with Laura had been no more than vivid imagining. He needed to know. Once he had exorcised the power she had over him, once he had proved that there was nothing special about Laura at all, he would be free of the past and this curious hold she seemed to have over him. And this time he could control his feelings. This was not like the time four years before when he had been an inexperienced youth. He was at no risk of falling in love with Laura Cole all over again.

Very deliberately he bent down and eased off his boots. When he straightened up Laura was still staring. With calculated intent he started to unfasten his trousers.

“Did you want me to take these off as well?” His voice had a rough edge to it.

Laura’s eyes met his and there was a confused and heated expression in them that made the lust slam through him, tightening its grip on him even as he cautioned himself not to lose control.

“Stop! No!” Laura seemed to wake from a trance. She thrust the pile of clothes down on the table and glared at him. “What are you doing?”

“I am removing my wet clothes,” Dexter said. He allowed his gaze to drift over her appraisingly. “You should do the same, your grace. You look,” his voice dropped, “most dishevelled.”

He saw Laura swallow hard. Her hazel eyes darkened further and the unconscious desire in them sent another jolt of lust through him. The warmth of the room, the intimacy of the small space, the heady scent of lavender and his semi-nakedness were a powerful blend. Dexter took a step towards her.

He had not intended this when first they had met. He had certainly not meant to provoke Laura or tease her or make love to her. Such a course of action was completely irrational. But she was standing there with her hair tumbled about her shoulders and the damned gown still clinging to every curve and he wanted her. He wanted her with all the raw longing he had known four years before. And he wanted to prove that he could master that longing and take one kiss and that it would mean absolutely nothing.

He took another step towards Laura. She took a step back so that she was trapped between his body and the warming room door. She was clutching the pile of garments to her breast now like armour.

“Mr Anstruther,” Laura’s voice was a thread of sound, “this is most improper.”

“You were swift enough to help me out of my clothes the last time we met,” Dexter said, “and you know that your concessions to propriety are only for outward show.”

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

NC: “When are you going to write a proper book?”
I prefer writing the improper ones.

DC: The Scandals of an Innocent is the next book where we meet Alice and Miles. Can you give us a look inside their book?

NC: Alice is a former housemaid who inherited her late employer’s money so she is struggling with the snobbish attitudes of some members of society towards her – they look down on her socially, even though they’d quite like to have her fortune! One of Fortune Folly’s penniless adventurers, Miles Vickery, decides to blackmail Alice into marriage and sets out to seduce her. Miles is an out and out rake, a real scoundrel, but Alice is determined to reform him so it is a battle of hearts. I have to confess that Miles is probably my favorite of the trilogy heroes! Although I love heroes who have integrity and a strong code of honor, I am a total sucker for rake heroes and Miles is a very, very bad boy indeed. He totally does not want to reform and fights really hard against it but Alice is no pampered society miss, she’s got a tough background, and she’s not going to just let Miles walk in and take what he wants.

Excerpt from The Scandals of an Innocent:

The Village of Fortune’s Folly Yorkshire, February 1810

Alice Lister was not cut out for a life of crime.

She had not even committed the robbery yet and already her palms were damp with anxiety and her heart was beating light and fast.

This, Alice thought, as she tried to calm her breath, is a very big mistake.

There was no going back. That was the coward’s way. Bravely she raised her lantern to illuminate the interior of the darkened gown shop. She had broken into the workroom at the back of the premises. There was a long table with piles of fabric heaped up on one end. A half-finished gown was draped across a stool, the pale silk glimmering in the light. Paper patterns rustled and fluttered in the draft from the open window. Ribbons uncurled on the floor. Sprays of artificial flowers wilted in a corner. Lace trimmings wafted their ghostly fingers against Alice’s cheek, making her jump. The whole place with its unnatural silence and its darkness made her think of a sinister fairy story in which the gowns would come to life and dance in front of her—and she would run screaming from the shop straight into the arms of the night watch. Yes indeed, burgling Madame Claudine’s gown shop was not for the fainthearted.

Not that this was theft, precisely. Alice reminded herself that the wedding gown she was hunting had been bought and paid for. It would have been delivered in the normal manner had Madame Claudine not gone out of business so abruptly and shut up her shop in the face of all inquiries from her anxious clientele. The modiste had disappeared one night, leaving nothing but a pile of debts and bitter words for those of her aristocratic customers who lived on credit. The contents of Madame Claudine’s gown shop had been declared the property of the moneylenders, and all the stock impounded. This was particularly unfair to Alice’s friend Mary Wheeler, for Mary’s father had paid the bill already with the same promptness he had paid a gentleman to marry Mary. Sir James Wheeler had been one of many to take advantage of the Dames’ Tax, the wholly outrageous edict leveled the previous year by the squire of Fortune’s Folly, Sir Montague Fortune. Sir Monty had discovered an ancient tax that had entitled him to half the dowry of every unmarried woman who lived in the village of Fortune’s Folly— unless they wed within a twelvemonth. Sir James Wheeler had been only one of many fathers who had seen this as an opportunity to get his daughter off the shelf and off his hands, parceled away to the first fortune hunter who asked.

Mary Wheeler had been distraught to hear of the gown shop’s closure. In the months of her betrothal she had managed to persuade herself that hers was a love match despite the fact that her ghastly fiancé, Lord Armitage, had returned to London and was carousing in much the same way as he had before their betrothal. With the wedding date only a matter of weeks away, Mary had taken the whole thing as a bad omen. And to be fair, Alice thought, marrying Lord Armitage was a poor enough proposition without getting off on the wrong foot….

“Alice? Have you found it yet?” The urgent whisper brought Alice back to the present and she raised the lantern again, scanning the piles of clothing hopelessly, for there were so many gowns and they were as tumbled as though a wintry gale had blown through the shop.

“Not yet, Lizzie.” Alice tiptoed across to the open window where her coconspirator, Lady Elizabeth Scarlet, was keeping watch in the passage at the side of the shop. This whole venture had been Elizabeth’s idea, of course. It was she who had thought it the most marvelous scheme to go to Madame Claudine’s shop and simply take Mary’s wedding gown. After all, Lizzie had reasoned, the gown belonged to Mary and she had set her heart on wearing it at the wedding, and even if they had to break in to take it, no one would know and right was on their side.

It had been another of Lady Elizabeth’s astound-ingly bad ideas. Alice shook her head to have been so easily led. Naturally, once they had reached the shop it became apparent that Lizzie was too tall to squeeze through the window and it was Alice who was the one who had to break in.

“What is keeping you?” Lizzie sounded decidedly testy, and Alice felt her temper prick in response.

“I’m doing my best,” she whispered crossly. “There is a mountain of gowns in here.”

“You are looking for one in white silk with silver lace and silver ribbons,” Lizzie reminded her. “Surely it cannot be so hard to find? How many gowns are there, anyway?”

“Only about two hundred. This is a gown shop, Lizzie. The clue is in the name….”

Sighing, Alice grabbed the next pile of dresses and hurriedly sorted through them. Silver with pink trimmings. White with green embroidery…golden gauze…that was pretty…white and silver with silver ribbons— Alice snatched up the wedding gown even as Lizzie’s agonized whisper floated up to her.

“Alice! Quick! Someone is coming!”

With a muttered and very unladylike curse, Alice ran for the window, squeezed through the gap at the bottom of the sash and struggled to climb out and down into the street. It was only a drop of about four feet, and she was wearing boy’s britches, borrowed from the wardrobe of her brother, Lowell, which made movement a great deal freer and easier. But as she tried to ease her leg over the sill the britches caught on something and stuck fast.

“Alice!” Lizzie’s hissing held a note of panic now. “Come on! Someone is almost upon us!” She caught Alice’s arms and tugged hard. Alice heard the material of the britches rip. She wriggled free for a few painful inches and then stuck fast again. She was not a slender girl and every one of her curves currently felt as though it was squashed into too small a space. The edge of the windowsill dug painfully into her hip. She dangled there helplessly, one leg out of the window, the other on the sill. She could hear footsteps coming ever closer, their measured tread loud on the cobbles of the road.

“He will see us,” Lizzie groaned.

“He will certainly hear you,” Alice said crossly. Lizzie’s idea of being quiet seemed to equate to behaving like a bull in a china shop. “If you will cease that pulling and pushing and keep still and quiet for a moment, he will pass by the end of the alley. And put the lantern out!” she added fiercely.

It was too late.

She heard the footsteps stop. There was quiet for a moment; quiet in which Alice’s breathing seemed loud in her own ears and the window ledge creaked in protest beneath her weight. She lay still like a hunted animal. Instinct told her that the man, too, was watching and waiting….

“Run, Lizzie!” Alice gasped. “I am right behind you!” She gave her friend a shove that sent Lady Elizabeth stumbling off down the passage even as everything seemed to explode into noise and movement around her. A man came running out of the darkness, and Alice wrenched herself free of the ledge and tumbled headlong on top of him, wrapping them both in the silky, voluminous folds of the wedding gown as they fell to the ground. As an ambush it could scarcely have been more effective had she tried.

Alice scrambled up, lost her footing on the slippery folds of material and fell to her knees. The man was quicker. His arms went about her, scooping her up and then holding her fast against him, so that all her kicking and pummeling was quite in vain. His grip was too tight to break, as taut as steel bands about her waist and back. Her struggles were embarrassingly puny against such quiet, almost casual, strength.

“Hold still, urchin,” he said. His voice was mellow and deep, and he sounded carelessly amused, but there was nothing careless in the way that he held her. Alice could tell she was not going to be able to break his grip. She also sensed by instinct that this was no drunken lord returning home after a night’s entertainment at the Morris Clown Inn. There was something too powerful and purposeful about him—something too dangerous to dismiss easily.

She was in deep trouble.

Fear clawed at her chest as she frantically tried to think of a way to escape him. Her whole body was shaking with fear and panic and a desperate need to flee. She stopped struggling and went limp in his arms in an attempt to trick him into loosening his grip, but he was evidently too old a hand to fall for the ruse, for he simply laughed.

“So docile all of a sudden? Listen, boy—” He stopped.

Held so close to him, Alice could feel the hard muscles of his body tense against her own and she recognized the precise moment that he realized, despite the evidence of her attire, that she was not a boy at all.

“Well, well…” The amusement was still in his voice, but it had a different quality to it now. He shifted, his chest unyielding against the betraying softness of her breasts, his hand moving intimately over the curve of her bottom where the rip in her britches exposed rather more bare skin than she would have wanted. His grip on her slackened, not much, but enough for Alice to wrench herself from his arms and turn to run.

It was the treacherous wedding dress that foiled her again. Wrapping itself about her ankles, it tripped her so that she staggered and almost fell. The man caught her arm in a savage grip, spinning her around so that her back was against the rough brick wall of the alley. Alice gasped as the pain jolted through her, and gasped again as he deliberately brought his body into closer contact with hers, holding her pinned against the wall with his hips, his hands braced on either side of her head. She was trapped, caged. A long shiver went down her spine that was neither fear nor cold.

The man took her chin in his hand and turned her toward the pale light of the lantern. His face was only inches away from hers, the harsh lines and planes shadowed in the darkness. She could feel the beat of his heart against her breast, feel his breath against her skin and the press of his lower body, lean and…

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?

NC: One of the joys of writing is when your story takes off in a direction you haven’t foreseen or dialogue pops into your head and you can’t pin down the source but you like it! My characters constantly surprise me. It’s one of the reasons that I love them. As I get to know them better and they become real to me they start to act very independently.

DC: Lastly is The Undoing of a Lady to complete the series. Lizzie is a bit of an unconventional heroine for her time, but she complements Nat quite nicely. Would you tell us about them?

NC: I love Lizzie because she is truly outrageous and unconventional. In part this springs from the fact that she is unhappy but also because she has the wealth and freedom to behave as she pleases so in that she is spoilt. She has a lot of growing up to do. Lizzie and Nat are childhood friends and she has always taken his presence and support for granted until he tells her he is about to marry. Her possessiveness can’t take it – she’s always seen Nat as her property – and so she kidnaps him on the night before his wedding to prevent him from going through with it.

Superficially Lizzie and Nat don’t seem to be well suited because they are so different but she needs the stability and reliability that he brings to her life. Nat is honorable and steady as a rock and everyone else has always let Lizzie down. Nat is the only one she feels she can trust.

Lizzie and I are very, very different characters but I drew on a lot of personal experience for this book. Like Lizzie I had a very unstable childhood, I was an only child and I “lived in my head” a lot and felt I could only rely on myself. I think all of that went into the book in one way or another.

Excerpt from The Undoing of a Lady:

The Folly, Fortune Hall, Yorkshire—June 1810 A little before midnight

It was a beautiful night for an abduction.

The moon sailed high and bright in a starlit sky. The warm breeze sighed in the treetops, stirring the scents of pine and hot grass. Deep in the heart of the wood an owl called, a long, throaty hoot that hung on the night air.

Lady Elizabeth Scarlet sat by the window, watching for the shadow, waiting to hear the step on the path outside. She knew Nat Waterhouse would come. He always came when she called. He would be annoyed of course—what man would not be irritated to be called away from his carousing on the night before his wedding—but he would still be there. He was so responsible; he would not ignore her cry for help. She knew exactly how he would respond. She knew him so well.

Her fingertips beat an impatient tattoo on the stone window ledge. She checked the watch she had purloined earlier from her brother. It felt as though she had been waiting for hours but she was surprised to see that it was only eight minutes since she had last looked. She felt nervous, which surprised her. She knew Nat would be angry but she was acting for his own good. The wedding had to be stopped. He would thank her for it one day.

From across the fields came the faint chime of the church bell. Midnight. There was the crunch of footsteps on the path. He was precisely on time. Of course he would be.

She sat still as a mouse as he opened the door of the folly. She had left the hallway in darkness but there was a candle burning in the room above. If she had calculated correctly he would go up the spiral stair and into the chamber, giving her time to lock the outer door behind him and hide the key. There was no other way out. Her half brother, Sir Montague Fortune, had had the folly built to the design of a miniature fort with arrow slits and windows too small to allow a man to pass. He had thought it a great joke to build a folly in a village called Fortune’s Folly. That, Lizzie thought, was Monty’s idea of amusement, that and dreaming up new taxes with which to torment the populace.

“Lizzie!”

She jumped. Nat was right outside the door of the guardroom. He sounded impatient. She held her breath.

“Lizzie? Where are you?”

He took the spiral stair two steps at a time and she slid like a wraith out of the tiny guardroom to turn the key in the heavy oaken door. Her fingers were shaking and slipped on the cold iron. She knew what her friend Alice Vickery would say if she were here now:

“Not another of your harebrained schemes, Lizzie! Stop now, before it is too late!”

But it was already too late. She could not allow herself time to think about this or she would lose her nerve. She ran back into the guardroom and stole a hand through one of the arrow slits. There was a nail on the wall outside. The key clinked softly against the stone. There. Nat could not escape until she willed it. She smiled to herself, well pleased. She had known there was no need to involve anyone else in the plan. She could handle an abduction unaided. It was easy.

She went out into the hall. Nat was standing at the top of the stairs, the candle in his hand. The flickering light threw a tall shadow. He looked huge, menacing and angry.

Actually, Lizzie thought, he was huge, menacing and angry, but he would never hurt her. Nat would never, ever hurt her. She knew exactly how he would behave. She knew him like a brother.

“Lizzie? What the hell’s going on?”

He was drunk as well, Lizzie thought. Not drunk enough to be even remotely incapacitated but enough to swear in front of a lady, which was something that Nat would normally never do. But then, if she were marrying Miss Flora Minchin the next morning, she would be swearing, too. And she would have drunk herself into a stupor. Which brought her back to the point. For Nat would not be marrying Miss Minchin. Not in the morning. Not ever. She was here to make sure of it. She was here to save him.

“Good evening, Nat,” Lizzie said brightly, and saw him scowl. “I trust you have had an enjoyable time on your last night of freedom?”

“Cut the pleasantries, Lizzie,” Nat said. “I’m not in the mood.” He held the candle a little higher so that the light fell on her face. His eyes were black, narrowed and hard. “What could possibly be so urgent that you had to talk to me in secret on the night before my wedding?”

Lizzie did not answer immediately. She caught the hem of her gown up in one hand and made her careful way up the stone stair. She felt Nat’s gaze on her face every moment even though she did not look at him. He stood aside to allow her to enter the chamber at the top. It was tiny, furnished only with a table, a chair and a couch. Monty Fortune, having created his miniature fort, had not really known what to do with it.

When she was standing on the rug in the center of the little round turret room Lizzie turned to face Nat. Now that she could see him properly she could see that his black hair was tousled and his elegant clothes looked slightly less than pristine. His jacket hung open and his cravat was undone. Stubble darkened his lean cheek and the hard line of his jaw. There was a smoky air of the alehouse about him. His eyes glittered with impatience and irritation.

“I’m waiting,” he said.

Lizzie spread her hands wide in an innocent gesture. “I asked you here to try to persuade you not to go through with the wedding,” she said. She looked at him in appeal. “You know she will bore you within five minutes, Nat. No,” she corrected herself. “You are already bored with her, aren’t you, and you are not even wed yet. And you don’t give a rush for her, either. You are making a terrible mistake.”

Nat’s mouth set in a thin line. He raked a hand through his hair. “Lizzie, we’ve spoken about this—”

“I know,” Lizzie said. Her heart hammered in her throat. “Which is why I had to do this, Nat. It’s for your own good.”

Fury was fast replacing the irritation in his eyes. “Do what?” he said. Then, as she did not reply: “Do what, Lizzie?”

“I’ve locked you in,” Lizzie said rapidly. “I promise that I will release you tomorrow—when the hour of the wedding is past. I doubt that Flora or her parents will forgive you the slight of standing her up at the altar.”

She had never previously thought the Earl of Wa-terhouse a man who made a display of his emotions. She had always thought he had a good face for games of chance, showing no feeling, giving nothing away. Now, though, it was all too easy to read him. His first reaction was stupefaction. His second was grim certainty. He did not even stop to question the truth of what she had said. If she knew him well, then the reverse was also the case.

“Lizzie,” he said, “you little hellcat.”

He turned and crashed angrily down the spiral stair, taking the candle, leaving her in darkness but for the faint moonlight that slid through the arrow slits in the wall. Lizzie let her breath out in a long, shaky sigh. She had only a moment to compose herself, for once he realized that there really was no escape he would be back. And this time he would be beyond mere fury.

She heard him try the thick oak door—and swear when it would not even give an inch. She saw the candle flame dance across the walls as he checked the guardroom and the passageway for potential exits. The swearing became more colorful as he acknowledged what she already knew—there was no way out. The tiny water closet opened onto the equally miniature moat and was far too small for a six foot man to squeeze through. The room in which she stood had a trapdoor that led up to the pretend battlements but she had locked it earlier and hidden the key in a hollow tree outside. She had wanted to make no mistakes.

He was back and she had been correct—he looked enraged. A muscle pulsed in his lean cheek. Every line of his body was rigid with fury.

When he spoke, however, his voice was deceptively gentle. Lizzie found it more disconcerting than if he had shouted at her.

“Why are you doing this, Lizzie?” he said.

Lizzie wiped the palms of her hands surreptitiously down the side of her gown. She wished she could stop shaking. She knew she was doing the right thing. She simply had not anticipated that it would be quite so frightening.

“I told you,” she said, tilting her chin up defiantly. “I’m saving you from yourself.”

Nat gave a harsh laugh. “No. You are denying me the chance to gain the fifty thousand pounds I so desperately need. You know how important this is to me, Lizzie.”

“It isn’t worth it for a lifetime of boredom.”

“That is my choice.”

“You’ve made the wrong choice. I’m here to save you from it.” Lizzie kept her voice absolutely level despite the pounding of her blood. “You have always cared for me and tried to protect me. Now it is my turn. I’m doing this because you are my friend and I care for you.”

She saw the contemptuous flicker in his eyes that said he did not believe her. Lizzie’s temper smoldered. She had always been hot-blooded, or perhaps just plain belligerent depending upon whose opinion one sought. It seemed damnably unfair of Nat to judge her when she had his best interests at heart. He should be thanking her for saving him from this ghastly match.

Nat put the candle down on the little wooden table beside the door and took a very deliberate step toward her. He was tall—over six-foot—broad and muscular. Lizzie tried not to feel intimidated and failed.

“Give me the key, Lizzie,” he said gently.

“No.” Lizzie swallowed hard. He was very close now, his physical presence powerful, threatening, in direct contradiction to the softness of his tone. But she was not afraid of Nat. In the nine years of their acquaintance he had never given her any reason to fear him.

“Where is it?”

“Hidden somewhere you won’t find it.”

Nat gave an exasperated sigh. He flung out an arm. “This isn’t a game, Lizzie,” he said. She could tell he was trying to suppress his anger, trying to be reasonable. Nat Waterhouse was, above all, a reasonable man, a rational man, and a responsible…

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

NC: Yes, I do. My characters always win because it’s their story. I’m a very instinctive author, a pantser not a planner, and so if my characters go off in a particular direction and it feels right then my instinct is to follow that rather than try to change it. I think this just goes to prove there’s no right or wrong way of writing!

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

NC: My Labrador, Monty, who will bring me toys because he wants to play!

DC: You took a trip to Scotland last year. What was your favorite part of the trip? Favorite part of Scotland that you saw? Will you be writing a book with a Scottish backdrop inspired by your trip?

NC: I’m lucky enough to visit Scotland every year because my husband’s family is Scots and we go to stay with them. We usually have a week in a cottage in the West Highlands and then choose a different place to visit for a second week. Last year we went to Cromarty, which is a wonderful little town on the East Coast. It was definitely my favorite part of the trip. We stayed in an ancient hotel with creaking floors and four-poster beds – it felt like being part of an Agatha Christie mystery! The town of Cromarty itself is fascinating because so many of the Georgian streets and buildings are intact. It was like stepping back in time.

I’ve written one book with a Scottish backdrop – Kidnapped: His Innocent Mistress – and I would definitely like to set more books against that background.

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

NC: I was blown away when I saw the covers for The Brides of Fortune. I love Laura’s gown on the cover of book 1 and the rich green and purple covers of books 2 and 3 are really lush. The cover goddess was definitely smiling on me when HQN went for those!

DC: How about your least favorite? Why?

NC: That’s an easy one! I had the most appalling cover for the UK edition of Lord Greville’s Captive. Even my editor admitted that it looked as though it had been stuck in a cupboard since the 1970s! The hero is carrying the heroine and she is wearing what looks like a see-through nightgown and her legs are in a strange scissor position and his hands appear to be in a very intimate place… It was simply dreadful.

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?

NC: What an interesting question! I haven’t consciously changed my approach because I have always enjoyed writing strong female characters and my readers seem to enjoy them too. I think it’s true to say for both my heroes and heroines that I explore their emotions, motivations and conflicts in greater depth now than when I started writing. My books used to be lighter in tone. Now they are a lot darker and more emotional, though still witty and humorous, I hope.

DC: I’m so curious about the different covers for some of your books between America and the UK. Deceived, Lord of Scandal and Unmasked are great examples you show on your web site. The UK covers depict more of a Regency feel than their American counterparts. I’m assuming that’s because it’s what UK readers like and look for; they sell better for the publisher? Or is it something else?

NC: They are very different, aren’t they? The UK team is using contemporary Georgian paintings for my covers at the moment. Although I think that reader taste in Regency historicals has come closer together in the UK and the US over the past decade, the covers remain very different with more of an emphasis on the Georgette Heyer Regency style in the UK. Apparently market research suggests that this is what appeals to readers here. That said, I LOVE my US covers and I always have done.

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

NC: I’m itching to try historical fiction and also time slip and “gentle” paranormal.

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

NC: Writing wise, I would tell myself to apply myself more. It took me 15 years to get my first book published because I kept stopping and starting, re-writing the beginning and not finishing it, and going off and doing other things for months on end. And I would advise myself to join a writing organization like RWA or RNA for all the marvelous help and support that they can give.

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

NC: Ooh, great question! Tea-addicted UK author with a double life as historian and romance writer struggles to balance pets, family, writing, chocolate éclairs and a passion for history.

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

NC: Wittily historical and wickedly sensual.

DC: You have an upcoming book set in London and the Arctic. How’s that coming along? Can you give us a little sneak peek?

NC: It’s coming on very well, thank you! It doesn’t have a title yet, but I’m just finishing the revisions and the book will be the first in a new series due out next summer. It was fascinating setting a book in the Arctic, but it did require a great deal more research than usual. The hero is an explorer and adventurer and the heroine is the widow of his best friend, a frivolous society butterfly who thinks that all explorers are vain, arrogant and only interested in their own glory.

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

NC: I think I would be pursuing one of my other passions and would work in the heritage industry running a stately home for the National Trust. Or perhaps I would have opened a bookstore.

DC: Who’s your favorite author?

NC: There are lots of authors whose books I love, but Mary Stewart probably tops my list.

DC: What’s on the horizon for Nicola Cornick?

NC: I have a novella a month out for the next few months! In September there is The Elopement, a brand new short story in the anthology Love Me, Loves Me Not, which is being published by MIRA to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Then in October I am thrilled to have a reprint of The Season for Suitors in a book with exciting new HQN author Courtney Milan and the wonderful Mary Balogh. Finally in December there is the first print publication of my e-book The Unmasking of Lady Loveless, which is a very hot, sexy and sweet Regency short story.

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?    – Dark
- smooth or chunky peanut butter?     – Chunky
- heels or flats?    – Heels
- coffee or tea?    – Always tea
- summer or winter?    – Winter, but only just!
- mountains or beach?    – Both!
- mustard or mayonnaise?   – Mayonnaise
- flowers or candy?   – Flowers
- pockets or purse?    – Purse
- Pepsi or Coke?    – Neither
- ebook or print?     – Print. I love holding a book in my hand.

And because we never seem to get tired of them:

1. What is your favorite word?    – So difficult to choose… Malfeasance
2. What is your least favorite word?    – Death
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – Music and nature
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – Bad news
5. What sound or noise do you love?    – My dog snoring and the wind and rain outside when I’m tucked up in bed.
6. What sound or noise do you hate?    – Fingernails on a blackboard
7. What is your favorite curse word?    – Can I really say this? Fuck.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?   – Air traffic controller
9. What profession would you not like to do?    – North Sea Fisherman
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?     – “You did your best. Well done.”

DC: Nicola, we’re so glad you spent the day with us. Thank you!

Sandy M’s review of The Brides of Fortune Trilogy by Nicola Cornick
Historical Romances released by HQN Jun – Aug 2009

I jumped at the chance to read this trilogy because I’d just read and reviewed my first Nicola Cornick book, Unmasked, a few months ago, and I so enjoyed her writing. Her characters, while fun and full of life, always have secrets and issues to overcome just like the rest of us. Her setting in these books is just as quirky as some of those characters, but you still get that English feel that readers of historical romances want. This is a very satisfying trilogy and I highly recommend it, whether you’ve read Ms. Cornick before or you’re just now discovering her as I have.

The Confessions of a Duchess (Book 1)
Released 1 Jun 09

We first met the hero and heroine of this book in Unmasked, where they shared a wonderful night of lovemaking, after which Laura, the Duchess of Cole, cold-heartedly told Dexter Anstruther they could never be together, he was only one of many to grace her bed. Dexter returned to London, continued to do his job and look after his family the best he could. Laura later became the Dowager Duchess and moved with her daughter to Fortune’s Folly to enjoy her independence after enduring a horrible husband and marriage.

It’s four later years when Dexter is sent to Fortune’s Folly to investigate the murder of a local man and he meets up with Laura once again. In that interim, he’d become something of a rake after Laura’s rejection, but since his father’s death, he’s now reined himself in and become a conservative and very in-control man and the head of the family. The excesses his parents took part in over the years have served as an expensive lesson for Dexter, he is now penniless and must marry for money to take care of his mother and siblings.

Since the Duke passed away, Laura has lived in Fortune’s Folly with her daughter, the child Laura never thought she’d have. Dexter’s presence is upsetting for Laura on several levels, one of which would alter her life and that of her daughter drastically. She tries to stay as far away from him as possible, but they seem to cross paths in the most unexpected places and ways.

When the local squire assesses the ancient Dames’ Tax on the women of the Folly, Laura is back in rare form with her friends, instituting old laws of their own in retaliation. Things end up going a little too far, a murder is discovered, secrets are revealed, forgiveness is withheld, and Laura can only hope and pray their decisions made in time of personal turmoil will not be the biggest mistake of their lives.

Grade: B+

Summary:
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Laura, Dowager Duchess of Cole, has sworn never to marry again. But the arrival of Dexter Anstruther, the man with whom she once shared one forbidden night of passion, throws her plans and her heart into turmoil. Laura knows that the secret she is keeping from Dexter would destroy any chance of a future together. But can she keep her secrets and keep Dexter at arm’s length when he is so determined to rekindle their passion?
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Read an excerpt here.

The Scandals of an Innocent (Book 2)
Released 1 Jul 09

Alice is a former maidservant who has inherited a fortune from her now-deceased employer. She’s been refusing suitors left and right because they want her only for her money due to the Dame’s Tax the local squire has placed on all unmarried females. The one man who she might have said yes to, if he hadn’t left her high and dry while he chased another heiress for her fortune, is back in Fortune’s Folly, blackmailing Alice into accepting his proposal.

Having been foisted aside for an man of higher rank, Miles finds himself back in Fortune’s Folly looking again for the right woman to take to wife and take care of his incredible debt, which he now has more of after inheriting the Marquisate of Drum, a crumbling, low-earning estate. Alice Lister is the perfect candidate when he catches her red-handed breaking the law. He’s a cynical philanderer, so why not add blackmailer to his list of attractions.

Miles is in for a bit of a surprise, however, when he finds that Alice’s fortune comes with conditions of a prospective groom. Forced into behaving as a gentleman should for the next three months, both he and Alice begin to learn more about each other as well as themselves and their attraction once again grows, much to Alice’s dismay. Try as she might, she can’t keep her heart from wanting Miles after his despicable treatment of her before. And Miles is stunned when his heart begins to feel things that it hasn’t known for years.

Grade: A

Summary:
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Miss Alice Lister is the most scandalous heiress in Fortune’s Folly. A housemaid who inherited her late employer’s money, Alice is courted by every penniless adventurer in town. When Miles, Lord Vickery, seeks to blackmail her into marriage, Alice can only hope that the conditions attached to her inheritance will foil him – for how can such an insufferably attractive but deceitful rake be completely honest with her for three whole months?
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Read an excerpt here.

The Undoing of a Lady (Book 3)
Released 1 Aug 09

When we meet up with Lady Elizabeth in her book, she’s getting ready to commit a very serious crime. But it’s in the name of love and friendship, so she doesn’t hesitate. Her friend Nat Waterhouse is making a mistake marrying one of the local heiresses and Lizzie is not about to stand by and do nothing about it. The only thing to do is kidnap the man, hold him hostage until the time of the wedding has come and gone, and then let him go. Nice and simple. Problem solved. Or so she thought.

Nat, of course, is none too happy once she pulls off her caper, and when she refuses to release him, it’s his cajoling about her impulsiveness and wont for trouble that eventually causes trouble for them both. He pushes her a little too far and Lizzie steps up to the plate to prove to Nat how far she will go to follow through when it comes to her schemes. This time it’s Nat who loses control when passion ignites between them and Lizzie is ruined when they make love.

Calling off his wedding is Nat’s only choice so he can marry Lizzie. It’s actually the best plan, she gets the protection of his name and he gets her dowry that will help keep his secrets where they belong. But Lizzie knows Nat doesn’t love her and she refuses to live a lifetime without love. She holds out as long as she can, but Nat wears her down and they eventually marry. And that’s when the formerly high-spirited, do-anything miss becomes the outrageous, broken-hearted Mrs. Waterhouse who pulls stunts the like of which the folks of Fortune’s Folly have never seen.

Danger and mystery are also afoot throughout this book, and, as usual, Ms. Cornick gives us the slip and throws a culprit at us that we never expected. I do have to say that Lizzie is my favorite character of the series. Though her stunts are a little much for her times, you feel the hurt and desperateness that cause her to forge head without thought. And kudos to Nat for hanging in there with her, just like a husband should.

Grade: A-

Summary:
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When her childhood friend Nathaniel, the Earl of Waterhouse, betroths himself to a pea-brained heiress, Lady Elizabeth Scarlet decides to save him from making a big mistake by kidnapping him on the night before his wedding. But when unexpected passion flares between herself and Nat, Lizzie is seduced and ruined. With Nat insisting on marriage to save her reputation, can the fiery beauty win her husband’s love – after their marriage?
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Read an excerpt here.

Overall Grade: A-

This is a fun and engaging trilogy, three very different stories involving friends and acquaintances of a small country village. Ms. Cornick pulls you into each book with those characters and you feel as though you’re right there with them in Fortune’s Folly.

My favorite of the three is The Scandals of an Innocent. It takes a slight lead over The Undoing of a Lady. As much as I really like Lizzie in all three books because of her outrageous and fun behavior, I felt more for Miles and his predicament, his past, and how love creeps up on him before he knows it.

At first I was thinking I was a little disappointed in The Confessions of a Duchess because Laura was such a dichotomy in Unmasked, but she still retains some of her spirit in this book. Her focus, however, has shifted because of her circumstances in life and, therefore, this book wasn’t quite what I expected at first. It does hold its own, though, due to those circumstances and ended up being a very good read.

I really enjoyed how each of the characters had fairly good roles in each succeeding book of the series. They’re friends and they’re involved in each other’s lives and Ms. Cornick makes sure to give that to the reader, therefore giving the stories more depth.

Be sure to read my interview with Nicola this week here at the Pond.

Liviania’s review of The Confessions of a Duchess (Brides of Fortune, Book 1) by Nicola Cornick
Historical romance released by HQN 1 Jun 09

I not only write reviews for TGTBTU, I also read them.  Nicola Cornick earned praise from both Sandy and Wendy TSL.  (I think it was this review that really made me want to read one of hers.)  Thus, I began The Confessions of a Duchess with high expectations.  Unfortunately, it did not live up to them, though I may try the other novels in the miniseries.

Sir Montague is the squire of Fortune’s Folly.  Because he’s rather odious, former housemaid/current heiress Alice Lister rejected his proposal.  Thus he reinstates the Dame’s Tax: if a woman doesn’t marry, half of her fortune is his.  Among the fortune hunters that pour into the town is Derek Ansthruther, who needs a rich wife in order to provide for his siblings and make his boss happy.  He also has a mystery to investigate.  (So little attention is paid to the mystery I’ve already forgotten the details of the whodunit.)

Laura Cole, the eponymous duchess, is dismayed because she bore Derek’s child after a one-night stand.  She’s terrified he might reveal that Hattie is a bastard, despite the fact he has firsthand experience of the ridicule that natural children encounter.  I think this might have been my first “secret baby” book and I already know why people make fun of them.  As Laura falls deeper in love her reason for pushing Derek away just sounds stupider and even more flimsy.

I was more interested in the secondary romance, that of Miss Alice Lister who sets the whole thing off and the rake Miles Vickery.  If I didn’t like them, I wouldn’t be interested in picking up the next Brides of Fortune Novel, The Scandals of an Innocent.  Laura and Derek were keeping themselves apart, which got old fast.  (And then they give away twenty-thousand pounds that they could really use.  Yeah, the people giving the money were odious, but I didn’t see it as smart or heroic.)

As far as Regency romances go, The Confessions of a Duchess is serviceable.  But the genre is rife with serviceable novels, and I expected more of Nicola Cornick.  Perhaps next time.

Grade: C

Summary
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Laura, Dowager Duchess of Cole, has sworn never to marry again. But the arrival of Dexter Anstruther, the man with whom she once shared one forbidden night of passion, throws her plans and her heart into turmoil. Laura knows that the secret she is keeping from Dexter would destroy any chance of a future together. But can she keep her secrets and keep Dexter at arm’s length when he is so determined to rekindle their passion?
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Read an excerpt here.

Sandy M’s review of Unmasked by Nicola Cornick
Historical Romance released by HQN Books 1 Jul 08

Nicola Cornick is another new author for me. And after this book, I’m going to definitely be reading more of her books. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Loved the characters, the story, the emotion, everything about it.

Nick Falconer is sent by his superiors to put a stop to the Glory Girls, a gang of highwaywomen, a la Robin Hood, near North Yorkshire, not only because the women are robbing members of the nobility, but it also seems they have a connection to the recent murder of the Earl of Rashleigh, who just happens to be Nick’s cousin and a man whose death no one is crying over. So, really, his assignment is two-fold. While unmasking the Glory Girls, he’s to also solve his own kinsman’s murder. He’s quite gung-ho in his duty, he’s one who believes in upholding the law no matter what, and begins his investigation immediately upon arrival in the country.

What he finds is a very demure Mari Osborne, whom he suspects of being involved with the gang and to whom he is quite attracted. The more he investigates her, the more he finds her story about herself to be false. She is not truly a widow of a former military man; she didn’t even exist more than five years ago. Mari knows the game she’s played these past five years may be up, the more she gets to know Major Falconer. He is a man who will stop at nothing to get at the truth. Her truth is something she’s hidden for so long, now she’s unsure whether to keep running or finally just tell all, especially because she is just as attracted to Nick as he is to her.

But Mari hails from Russia where she was a serf and eventually sold to the former Earl of Rashleigh who educated her, tried to make an English lady out of her. Her life turns tragic, however, when Robert, the earl’s son, inherits upon his father’s death. Robert treats the new English lady as the slave she is, abuses her trust and her body until she escapes him and starts fresh where no one knows her. She’s made friends in North Yorkshire and she’s the brains behind the Glory Girls, making sure the citizens in their part of the English countryside are given their due when treated poorly by the nobility. Wanting to lighten her load and confess all to Nick would be simple if he weren’t the earl’s heir. He now technically owns her as surely as Robert did.

So much happens in this book, the action never stops. The characters are charismatic and complex, as is the plot and mystery throughout the book.  The writing is just wonderful, rich and lush, placing you right in the thick of things in the middle of England. The emotion when Mari finally tells her story is deep and heart-felt. And the romance between Nick and Mari is the kind you wish you could get in every romance novel you read.

If you love reading historicals, I highly recommend this book to you.

Grade: A

Summary:
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Over the wild hills and valleys of North Yorkshire the notorious gang of highwaywomen the Glory Girls ride, to right the injustices of society. When Major Nick Falconer is sent to unmask Glory he finds instead the very proper widow Marina Osborne.
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Nick never expected that Mari would be so intoxicatingly beautiful or so disturbingly luscious. Determined to have her—body, soul and secrets—at any cost, Nick sets out to seduce her with a passion that inflames them both.
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But Mari holds much deeper, darker truths than Nick could ever imagine. Despite her fierce resistance, she can’t stop her body from yearning for his touch. Can she hide her sinister past from him much longer? Or will trusting the one man she so desperately wants lead her straight to the hangman’s noose?
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Read an excerpt.

Other related books:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Kidnapped: His Innocent Mistress by Nicola Cornick
Historical romance released by Harlequin Historical 1 Mar 09

When I was a wee little Super Librarian, I spent many Saturday afternoons browsing the shelves of my hometown public library. It was there that I discovered the gothic novels of Victoria Holt and Barbara Michaels, which I devoured. One reason I think these books worked so well for me was because, coming from a mystery reading background, I adore first person narration, and so many of those books were narrated in first person by the intrepid heroines. It was these books, and my growing sense of nostalgia, that had me falling hard and fast for Nicola Cornick’s latest. It probably won’t work for every reader, but damn if it didn’t work for me.

We meet Catriona Balfour on a dreary day in 1802 Scotland as she’s burying her beloved father. He was a respected teacher and scholar, which means young Catriona now has a whole lot of nothing. Currently staying with her godfather, the local minister, Catriona is more than slightly shocked when handsome Naval officer, and the heir of the Earl of Strathconan , Neil Sinclair, shows up at her godfather’s door to spirit her to her family’s estate. Catriona had no clue that her father had a brother, but he apparently does and the man has agreed to take her in. Neil, a charmer and rake of the first order, is there to escort her. Not seeing much of an option (other than marrying one of the local boys, which she doesn’t want to do), Catriona agrees to travel to Glen Clair and meet the long lost family she didn’t know existed. Naturally, adventure ensues.

Nicola Cornick fashioned this story after one of her favorite books, Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, and certainly there are similarities (including the name of Balfour!), but she makes it her own by adding a compelling romantic storyline. Neil is the stuff of romantic dreams. Charming, rakish, and not above making outrageous propositions to our heroine, who flatly turns him down. Our girl Catriona is made of sterner stuff than that, and what I so enjoyed about her was that she has believable gumption and backbone. She’ll stand up for herself, and say one or more cutting remarks, but it’s not like she’s running around in trousers and getting into random sword-fights with thugs. She behaves like a young lady would in 1802, although those of higher station and rank find her totally unacceptable. The girl has nerve, and darn if I didn’t fall madly in love with her.

Cornick crams a lot into this story without making it feel stuffed or frantic. The romance does take a back seat for a good portion of the novel, which the author uses to lay the groundwork on the flirtation between Neil and Catriona, and also to introduce her long-lost relatives. The plot is a bit soap-opera-like, which worked extremely well for me, and only kicked up my nostalgia another notch. It’s the second half where the real adventures begins, with Neil and Catriona having to spend a lot of time, in close quarters, together. Here is where the romance blossoms, and the novel concludes with them dealing with the societal demands of Neil’s station, and finally admitting their true feelings for each other.

I just adored this story from start to finish, and I want everyone else to read it and adore it as well. Certainly first person narration is a hard sell for many romance readers, but for those of us who cut our teeth on those fabulous first-person books of yesteryear, this is really a must read. I couldn’t get enough of it, and darn if I don’t want to drop everything and reread it right this minute. Brava!

Grade: A-

Summary:
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If I accept his offer to be his mistress, I could have the finest silks, the best carriage and be transformed from ugly duckling to a pampered, pretty swan! And although I would feel a virtuous pride in turning down the wicked rake, I also have an unmaidenly interest in exactly what the role would entail….
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Catriona is doing her best to resist the skillful seduction of the scandalous heir to the Earl of Strathconan. But kidnapped and shipwrecked with only this rake as company, her adventure has just begun….
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Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of The Unmasking Of Lady Loveless by Nicola Cornick
Historical romance ebook released by Harlequin Historical Undone 1 Nov 08

It’s official, I have not been reading enough Nicola Cornick. After reading and enjoying her Edwardian Harlequin Historical earlier this summer, I was anxious to read her launch title in the new “short” eBook-only Harlequin Historical Undone line. While it features some plot devices I normally don’t care for, I was really impressed with how much story the author gives readers in such a brief format.

Lord Alexander Beaumont is stunned to hear the latest gossip making the rounds at Whites. It seems that scandalous erotic writer, Lady Loveless, is none other than his estranged wife Melicent! Being forced to marry her thanks to his odious father, their marriage was so rocky that when her hypochondriac mother took ill, Melicent took off to Yorkshire to take care of her. After hearing the gossip, Alex decides it’s time for a visit.

Melicent, expecting the doctor at her door, is floored to discover Alex standing there. Damn it all, he’s even more handsome since the last time she saw the man, but she’s determined to guard her heart. She knows he doesn’t love her, and even though her mother is a shrew and her brother is a womanizing gambler, it’s better to be in Yorkshire with them than to continually have her heart trampled on. That is until Alex decides to right the wrongs of their past and go about getting to know his wife in a proper manner.

This is a quick, fun and sexy story that Cornick must have thrown herself into. There’s a little bit of everything going on, without making the story feel crowded or overstuffed. There are moments that read like a witty comedy of manners, and other moments where the chemistry between Melicent and Alex could burn down the house! There’s a Big Misunderstanding central to the conflict, but given the quick pace, and short word count, it works very well in this story. Melicent has moments where she’s a bit too uptight for my tastes, but her scenes with Alex show a woman more than willing to let her hair down. The sex scenes, a bit hotter in temperature than normally found in the traditional Harlequin Historical line, added some spice and sizzle to the proceedings.

I found this to be a very enjoyable read. A definite must for Cornick fans, or for those readers eager to try this author at a reasonable price.

Grade: B

Summary:

All of London is buzzing about The Adventures of a Woman of Pleasure by Lady Loveless, a book of barely disguised accounts of the ton’s sexual escapades. Reputations have been ruined and society is scandalized, but no one is more shocked than Lord Alexander Beaumont when he learns that the mysterious Lady Loveless is none other than his estranged wife! He remembers Melicent as a shy, innocent young woman and is determined to find out where she’s been getting her information…and who has turned his inexperienced bride into a brazen author of erotic literature. There’s only one solution: Alex will seduce his errant wife and learn all her wanton secrets…

Nicola Cornick is quickly becoming one of my favorite “new-to-me-where-the-heck-have-I-been” authors.  To celebrate the launch of the Harlequin Historical Undone line, she’s stopped by the pond to tell us all a little bit about her Undone title, The Unmasking Of Lady Loveless.

The Unmasking of Lady Loveless is set in the same fictional Yorkshire village, Peacock Oak, that I used for the background for my July HQN release Unmasked and also features some of the same characters. I wanted to write a Christmas story and the idea of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside under the snow seemed the perfect setting!

Research Tidbit:

Being a Yorkshire girl by birth I feel very happy when I write books that are set in that county. It’s like going home! One Christmas tradition I particularly liked when I researched the story was the idea of the Standing Pie. This was a huge pie filled with turkey or game, which had a separate pastry crust that stood up on its own! Apparently the pies were huge and one made for the Lord Chancellor in 1832 was so big that it collapsed under its own weight! When I read about this I remembered that my grandmother used to make pies and cook the pastry crust separately. She must have been following this very ancient tradition.

Summary

Erotic author Lady Loveless is scandalising the Ton with her shocking tales that are based on the real life high jinks of society. Engagements are being broken, inheritances lost as a result of her wicked pen and the gentlemen decide that enough is enough – she may spin the most naughtily seductive tales, but Lady Loveless must be stopped!

Lord Alexander Beaumont is convinced that the outrageous Lady Loveless is none other than his estranged wife Melicent, for the manuscripts are coming from the Yorkshire village where Melicent took refuge after the end of their brief, bitter marriage. Alex travels to Yorkshire determined to unmask his errant wife and put a stop to her wicked ways. But when he reaches the beautiful village of Peacock Oak, Alex finds that Melicent – and Lady Loveless – are not what they seem. Will Christmas in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside reunite Alex and the bride he lost years before?

by Michelle Styles
The end of September and beginning of October has been taken up with doing workshops for the National Year of Reading, writing and helping my eldest navigate the shoals of applying to universities. Why oh why was it so much easier when I was a student? And why did I think going on holiday at this time of year was a good one — Sorrento, Italy in case anyone is interested.

The BIG news is that November sees that launch of Harlequin Historical Undone. This is a short ebook line and is HH’s most sensual series yet. I was able to catch up with the four launch authors and find out more. Libertine Lord, Pickpocket Miss author Bronwyn Scott said:

The Undone e-book series is a great opportunity to take Harlequin Historical into the electronic age and reach a new population of reader. It’s also a great chance to show readers how much historical romance has changed over the past two decades.

Nicola Cornick added:

I’m very excited about the whole concept of the Harlequin Historical Undone e-books because I love reading and writing hot historical short stories! My launch title, The Unmasking of Lady Loveless, is a humorous and very sexy Regency tale and I’m really looking forward to reading the other launch stories too–they sound fabulous!

Michelle Willingham (whose entry, The Viking’s Forbidden Love-Slave, is connected to her full length novel Her Warrior Slave) explained:

I am absolutely thrilled to be a part of the Harlequin Historical Undone launch. The new line is meant to be short, very sexy historical stories that sweep you away, and when I wrote my story, I intended it to be pure fantasy. I have three children, all under the age of seven, and there are times in my life, when I desperately need an escape!

And finally, Amanda McCabe said:

I’m so excited to be part of the launch of the Undone line of ebooks for Harlequin! There are always stories I have a hard time letting go of when I reach “The End,” and my full length Harlequin Historical January 09 book High Seas Stowaway was one. I loved the setting (the Caribbean in the 1530s) and the characters–and I wondered what Carlos de Alameda’s story was. He seemed so mysterious and dangerous! In my Undone Shipwrecked and Seduced, I got to find out what that story was, and revisit Santo Domingo with the heroine Maria (a maidservant masquerading as a contessa). It was great fun to create a fantasy for her–and myself. I hope to get to do more of these stories in the future, and that readers enjoy them, too!

Across the pond, Mills & Boon is now releasing all of its front list as ebooks. You may purchase them through the Mills & Boon website.

Entering Harlequin Presents Instant Seduction writing contest proved a winner for Lynn Raye Harris. After being awarded an editor for a year, working hard on revisions, she received the Call in October. Her book, Spanish Magnate, Red Hot Revenge, will be released in North America next summer.

The winner of the Feel the Heat competition was Lucy Roberts and she will now work with an editor. Fingers crossed that she is able to emulate Lynn.

November also sees the re-release of Ida Cook’s (aka Mary Burchill) autobiography Safe Passages (previously published as We Followed Our Stars). For those who are not familiar with her life story. Ida Cook and her sister used the proceeds from Ida’s romance writing to help rescue Jewish people from Nazi Germany. There is a new foreword as well as some previously unpublished photographs. Besides writing well beloved romances for Mills and Boon, Ida Cook was a true heroine in her own right.

The Christmas season at Harlequin/Silhouette always starts in October/November. I love Christmas themed books. Harlequin Historical has two anthologies out this season: The Magic of Christmas by Carolyn Davidson, Victoria Bylin and Cheryl St John and One Candlelit Christmas with stories by Julia Justiss, Annie Burrows and Terri Brisbin.

Until next month, when hopefully there will be news about Harlequin’s upcoming 60^th anniversary celebration as well as more on the holiday season, Happy Reading!

This just in…

E-Harlequin’s E-book Store is offering an Enriched Ebook through Adobe Digital Editions during July. Find out about this cool new program…

When you purchase a copy of Nicola Cornick’s Unmasked Enriched Edition Ebook and read it with Adobe Digital Editions, you will see hyperlinks throughout the book to websites that provide additional information about the story details in order to enhance your reading experience.

As an example, if a reader has always wondered what is involved with dancing the Cotillion, they can simply click the hyperlink and a window will pop up to provide them with information and an image.

“The blue buttons along the side were designed to be unobtrusive, providing readers with the option to choose how interactive they want their experience to be,” eHarlequin told us.

How cool is that! Head over to e-Harlequin and check it out!

Consider yourself flashed.

by Nicola Cornick

It’s a huge pleasure to be here today as part of the spotlight on Harlequin Historicals! And now I have a question for you… Why aren’t there more Edwardian-set historical romances?

I asked a friend this question the other day and she looked at me for a moment and then said: “I think it’s because we know what happens next.”

She wasn’t talking about the HEA ending, of course. She was talking about the First World War, which swept away the structure of Edwardian society and with it a generation of young men, the “lost generation”. Can this really be the reason why so few authors set books in this period?

Historical hindsight can be a wonderful thing but sometimes, as in this case, it may be a problem as well. But I don’t think it has to be. One of my favourite historical heroines is Anne Boleyn. I’m fascinated by her life and will read any number of books about her even though I know her story doesn’t exactly have a happy ending. Marrying King Henry VIII was a risky business but it makes for a great piece of storytelling. And then there’s King Richard III, another of my dream dinner party guests but not exactly a man looking forward to a long and happy life. Strangely the fact that I know what happened to these people in the end doesn’t spoil my enjoyment of their story. Far from it.

My book The Last Rake in London is set in 1908 against the background of Edwardian high society. It’s a fabulous era in which to set a historical romance. The upper classes were extravagantly rich and conspicuous in their consumption but their entire way of life could only be sustained through employing an army of servants. The servant class were the ones who worked their fingers to the bone to keep life ticking over on the huge country house estates. Some women were actively campaigning for the right to vote. Others opposed it.

Developments in science and technology were breathtaking. This gave me the opportunity to make my hero, Jack Kestrel, not only the last of an aristocratic line but also a self-made man with interests in the aviation business. In some ways I was tempting fate here. Jack, being the kind of man he is would be bound to be at the forefront of developments in flying when the First World War begins. Actually I see him as one of the founder members of the Royal Air Force, a flying ace, a total hero. But that’s another story…

So let’s hear it for Edwardian-set romances. As with other historical romance we can let our imagination go wild. We might know what happens next in history but within that we can imagine a story for the characters that is all their own.

Contest Alert! Join in on the discussion for a chance to win a signed copy of The Last Rake In London!

It should just be said… expect sybil to be late… really late on Saturdays. Hey it is 9am somewhere *g*

Today’s guest is Nicola Cornick, who has a couple of books coming out in the US this year as well as a few more in the UK.

The Last Rake in London has been reviewed by the ever fab Wendy. Do check it out! And then read on for the summary, excerpt and a touch on what to look for in July.

Sally Bowes is a scandalous figure in Edwardian London. The owner of the outrageously fashionable night club, The Blue Parrot, Sally guards her business and her heart well. But when she meets Jack Kestrel, both come under threat…

Jack Kestrel is known as the last rake in London. Descended from the ancestral line of the devastatingly attractive Dukes of Kestrel, Jack is dangerous and dissolute and irresistible. When Jack and Sally start a passionate affair, neither of them think that the last rake in London might finally lose his heart.

You can find another nifty excerpt at her site here don’t miss it…

E-X-C-E-R-P-T

The Last Rake in London by Nicola Cornick

‘Miss Bowes?’

The voice was low, mellow and familiar. It spoke in Sally’s ear and she came awake abruptly. For a moment she could not remember where she was. Her neck ached slightly and her cheek was pressed against something cold.

Paper.

She had fallen asleep in her office again. Her head was resting on the piles of invoices and orders that were on the desk. She half-opened her eyes. It was almost dark. The lamp glowed softly and from beyond the door drifted the faint sound of music, the babble of voices and the scent of cigar smoke and wine. That meant it must be late; the evening’s entertainments at the Blue Parrot Club had already begun.

‘Miss Bowes?’

This time the voice sounded considerably less agreeable and more than a little impatient. Sally sat up, wincing as her stiff muscles protested, and rubbed her eyes. She blinked them open, stopped, stared, then rubbed them again to ensure that she was not dreaming.

She was not. He was still there.

Jack Kestrel was leaning forward, both hands on the top of her desk, which brought his dark eyes level with hers and put him approximately six inches away from her. From such an intimate distance Sally could not focus on all his features at once, but she remembered them clearly enough from the previous night. He was not a man one would forget in a hurry, for his appearance was very striking. He had dark brown hair, very silky looking and a little ruffled from the summer breeze, a nose that was straight and verging on the aquiline and a sinfully sensuous mouth. Sally was not generally impressed by good looks alone. She was no foolish débutante to lose her head over a handsome man. But Jack Kestrel had had charm to burn and she had enjoyed talking to him the previous night. She had enjoyed his company too much, in fact. Spending time with him had been dangerously seductive. It would have been all too easy to accept his escort, and then, perhaps, to accept an invitation to dinner…

Sally had not been so tempted in a very long time and had known she could not afford to get to know Jack Kestrel any better. As soon as he had told her his name she had been wary, for all of Edwardian society knew who he was. The ancestral line of the Dukes of Kestrel had bred rakes and rogues aplenty in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and there were those who said that this man was the last Kestrel rake, cut from the same cloth as his ancestors. Cousin to the present Duke, eventual heir to the dukedom, he had been banished abroad in his youth as a result of an outrageous scandal involving a married woman and had returned ten years later having made an independent fortune.

Sally could see why he had gained the reputation he had. There was certainly something powerfully virile about him. Women were supposed to swoon at his feet and she had no intention of joining their ranks and littering his path.

She realised that she was still staring at him. Suddenly hot, she dragged her gaze away from Jack’s mouth and met his eyes. His expression was distinctly unfriendly. She drew back immediately, instinctively, and saw his gaze narrow at her reaction. He straightened up and moved away from the desk.

He was not in evening dress tonight and Sally thought that looking as he did, he could not be mistaken for a member of the Blue Parrot’s usual clientele. The club catered for the filthy rich members of King Edward’s circle who were mainly fat, pampered and accustomed to soft living, and to the sophisticated American visitors whose money and influence increasingly held sway in London. Occasionally the club also hosted the soldier sons of the old aristocracy, roistering it up on leave. Jack Kestrel looked as though he might have been a soldier once—he had a long scar down one lean cheek—and he certainly looked as though he would be more at home on the North-west Frontier or in southern Africa than in a club off the Strand. He was very tall, broad and sunburnt and Sally guessed he was about thirty. Instead of evening dress he wore a long driving coat in dark brown leather over a suit that was as carelessly casual as only Savile Row could make, and he carried his height with a lounging grace that was compulsive to watch. He turned back towards her and Sally felt her breathing constrict. She could not deny that Jack Kestrel had a dangerously masculine appearance. His features were hard and uncompromising.

‘I apologise for waking you,’ he drawled. ‘I suppose that in your profession you must snatch your sleep where you can.’

Sally was not quite sure what to make of that. Although she enjoyed accounting, she did not normally find it so riveting that it kept her from her bed. She was tired that evening only because she had been out late at the Wallace Collection the night before and then up early supervising the final redecorations of the Crimson Salon, which was to open to the public in two weeks’ time. The renovations had taken six months and the new developments were going to be the talk of London.

Even the King himself had promised to attend the unveiling.

‘You are Miss Bowes?’ Jack added, for a third time, when Sally still did not speak. Now he sounded downright impatient.

‘I…Yes, I am. I told you that last night.’Sally cleared her throat. She realised that she did not sound very sure. She certainly did not sound like the authoritative owner of the most successful and avant-garde club in London. Once, long ago, in the genteel drawing rooms of Oxford, she had indeed been Miss Bowes, the eldest daughter, sister to Miss Petronella and Miss Constance. But a great deal had happened since then.

Under Jack Kestrel’s pitiless dark gaze she felt younger than her twenty-seven years, young and strangely vulnerable. She straightened in her chair, brushed the tangled hair out of her eyes and hoped desperately that the ink-stains she could see on her fingers did not also adorn her face. It was infuriating that she had been caught like this. Normally she would change into an evening gown before the club opened, but because she had fallen asleep she had not had time, and no one had come to wake her.

‘What can I do for you, Mr Kestrel?’ She assumed her most businesslike voice. She had already realised that this could not be a social call to follow up their meeting the previous night. No matter how brief and sweet their encounter had seemed at the time, something fundamental had changed. Now he was angry. ‘I think you must know perfectly well why I am here, Miss Bowes.’ Jack’s tone was clipped. ‘Had I known who you were last night, I would have broached the matter then. As it was, I realised your identity too late. But you must surely have known I would seek you out.’

Sally got to her feet. It made her feel stronger and more capable. ‘I am sorry,’ she said politely, ‘but I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr Kestrel, nor why you are here, unless it is to enjoy the famous hospitality of the Blue Parrot.’

She had heard that Jack Kestrel had once spent a thousand pounds on champagne alone in one sitting at the gambling tables in Monte Carlo. Sally wished that he would do the same at the Blue Parrot. But it seemed unlikely, given the hostile expression on his face.

Jack’s mouth twisted with sarcastic appreciation at her words. ‘Legendary as I understand the Blue Parrot’s hospitality to be, Miss Bowes,’ he drawled, ‘that is not what I came for.’

Sally shrugged. ‘Then if you could perhaps enlighten me?’ She gestured to the papers on the desk. ‘Stimulating as your company is, Mr Kestrel, I do not have the time to play guessing games with you. As I mentioned last night, my work is my passion and I am keen to return to it.’

Some emotion flared behind his eyes, vivid as lightning. Sally could feel the anger and antagonism in him even more powerfully now, held under tight control, but almost tangible. She wished the lamps were turned up. In the semi-darkness she felt at a strong disadvantage.

‘I can quite believe that you have a passion for what you do, Miss Bowes,’ Jack said, through his teeth. ‘You must possess a great deal of nerve to pretend that you are unaware of my business with you.’

Sally did not reply immediately. She moved out from behind the shelter of the desk, turned up one of the gas lamps, struck a match and lit the second and the third. She was pleased to see that her hands were quite steady, betraying none of the nervousness she was feeling inside. She could feel Jack Kestrel watching her, his dark eyes fixed on her face. She wished the room were a little bigger. His physical presence felt almost overwhelming.

She turned to find that he was standing directly behind her. There was something close to a smile lurking in his eyes, but it was not a reassuring smile. Now that she was standing she found that her head reached only to his shoulder, and she was a tall woman. It was unusual for her to have to look up in order to look a man in the eyes.

‘Well?’he said softly. ‘Have you changed your mind about this unconvincing little game of pretence that we are indulging in?’ His appraising dark gaze travelled over her. ‘I must confess that you are not quite as I imagined,’he added slowly. He raised a hand and turned her face to the light. ‘When we met last night I thought your looks unusual, but when I found out who you were I was surprised. I was expecting someone a great deal more conventionally pretty. After all, they call you the Beautiful Miss Bowes, do they not—’

Sally slapped his hand away. Despite her anger, his touch had made her skin prickle. His gaze made her acutely aware of her body beneath the plain brown shirt and skirt she was wearing. She felt very strange… She paused to think about the hot, melting feeling within her. She felt as though she was bursting out of her corset and coming unlaced. Not a single one of the gentlemen who frequented the Blue Parrot had ever made her feel that way, although plenty had tried.

‘Mr Kestrel…’ she kept her voice steady ‘…you speak in riddles. Worse, you are boring me. My good looks, or lack of them, are something about which I alone need be concerned. As for the rest, unless you explain yourself I shall have to call my staff to remove you.’

He laughed and his hand fell to his side. ‘I’d like to see them try. But I will explain myself with pleasure, Miss Bowes.’He spoke with deceptive gentleness. ‘I am here to take back the letters that my foolish cousin Bertie Basset wrote to you. The ones you are threatening to publish unless his dying father pays you off.’

His words made no sense to Sally. She knew Bertie Basset, of course. He was a young sprig of the nobility, charming but not over-endowed with brains, who came to the Blue Parrot to play high and drink with the girls. When last she had seen him, her sister Connie had been sitting on his knee as he played poker in the Green Room.

Connie… Of course…

Sally rubbed her brow. Jack had called her the Beautiful Miss Bowes, but it was Connie, her youngest sister, who was known by that title. If she had not been so distracted by Jack Kestrel’s touch, she would have realised sooner that he must have confused her with Connie. Miss Constance Bowes was indeed so beautiful that the gentlemen wrote sonnets to her eyebrows and made extravagant promises that she was quick to capitalise upon. But Sally had never envied her sister’s looks, not when she had the brains of the family.

Jack Kestrel was watching the expressions that chased across her face.

‘So,’he said thoughtfully, ‘when I first mentioned the matter you had no idea what I was talking about, did you, Miss Bowes? And then, suddenly, you realised.’

‘How on earth do you know?’ Sally snapped. She was annoyed with herself for having given so much away.

‘You have a very expressive face.’Jack sat down on the edge of her desk and swung his foot idly. ‘So you are not Bertie’s mistress. I might have guessed. He would be too young and unsubtle to be a match for you, Miss Bowes.’

‘Whereas you, Mr Kestrel,’Sally said, very drily, ‘no doubt claim, quite truthfully, to be far more experienced.’

Jack shot her a sinfully wicked grin. For a second it reminded her forcibly of their meeting the previous night. Sally’s knees weakened and her toes curled within her sensible shoes. ‘Naturally,’ he said. ‘And please call me Jack. I doubt that this place operates on formality.’

It did not, of course, but Sally was not going to let Jack Kestrel tell her what to do in her own club.

‘Mr Kestrel,’ she said, ‘we digress. As you so perceptively pointed out, I am not your cousin’s mistress. I know nothing of this matter. I believe there must have been a misunderstanding.’

Jack sighed. His expression hardened again. ‘There usually is in cases like this, Miss Bowes. The misunderstanding is that my uncle is going to part with a large sum of money.’

This time the angry colour stung Sally’s face. ‘I am not attempting to blackmail anyone!’

‘Perhaps not.’ Jack came to his feet in a fluid movement. ‘But I also believe that you know who is.’

Sally stared at him, her mind working feverishly. If her guess was correct, then her sister Connie, the toast of London, had done a monumentally foolish thing and was trying to blackmail a peer of the realm. Unfortunately it was all too easy to believe because, though Connie might be incredibly pretty, she was not over-endowed with intelligence. And she was spoilt. If she did not get what she wanted, she would stamp her foot.

Harlequin Historical is a registered trademark of Harlequin Enterprises Limited. As such all excerpts are copyrighted © and all rights are reserved.

And here is a something you should check out. It isn’t a Harlequin Historical but will publish under the HQN line 1 July 2008 (don’t ask me what that means I am guessing it stands for “Harlequin”). The line does both historicals and contemps. This is historical.. YAY!
Unmasked by Nicola Cornick

Over the wild hills and valleys of North Yorkshire the notorious gang of highwaywomen the Glory Girls ride, to right the injustices of society. When Major Nick Falconer is sent to unmask Glory he finds instead the very proper widow Marina Osborne.

Nick never expected that Mari would be so intoxicatingly beautiful or so disturbingly luscious. Determined to have her—body, soul and secrets—at any cost, Nick sets out to seduce her with a passion that inflames them both.

But Mari holds much deeper, darker truths than Nick could ever imagine. Despite her fierce resistance, she can’t stop her body from yearning for his touch. Can she hide her sinister past from him much longer? Or will trusting the one man she so desperately wants lead her straight to the hangman’s noose?

You can find an excerpt here.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of The Last Rake In London by Nicola Cornick
Historical romance released by Harlequin Historical 1 Jun 08

If one were to only study British history by way of romance novels it would be easy to deduce that all history of the island started in 1811 and ended in 1820. As someone who genuinely loves historical romance, I find this particularly frustrating, because vibrant time periods can be found throughout history – not in just during a period that lasted less than a decade. Thank goodness for Harlequin Historicals and their willingness to publish books outside of Regency England. Reading Nicola Cornick’s latest was not only an excellent way to cleanse my reading pallet, but it was a lovely surprise as well.

What we have here ladies and gentlemen is an honest-to-goodness Edwardian set novel. A time often viewed as the birth of the modern age. Cars were the latest craze, although they frightened the horses, militant suffragists were protesting, and communication picked up a faster pace thanks to telephones. It was also a time when women were enjoying more freedom. Such is the case with our heroine, the refreshingly forthright Miss Sally Bowes.

Sally runs an incredibly fashionable night club in London called the Blue Parrot. She falls asleep at her desk, looking over invoices, when in storms Jack Kestrel, heir to a Dukedom and highly annoyed. He suspects that Sally is blackmailing his frail, elderly uncle and Jack has come to put a stop to it. Of course, it doesn’t take long for him to realize that the beautiful, enchanting Sally isn’t the blackmailer – although she knows very well who is. However by then it’s too late for Jack. It’s lust at first sight.

Sally is a business woman, smart and capable, and not about to have her head turned by a handsome face. One disastrous marriage was enough for her thank you! But even she cannot deny the incredible chemistry that her and Jack seem to share. It’s all very complicated though. What with his scandalous, rakish past, her near-divorce and the fact that she owns a club, not to mention that blackmailing scheme. For while Sally had no part in it, she’s determined to protect the guilty party.

What works so well in this story are the refreshing setting and delightful repartee between Sally and Jack – especially in the early chapters. The chemistry sizzles between them, and leaps off the page. They do fall in bed together rather quickly, but one can hardly blame them! It’s amazing they keep their clothes on as long as they do.

That being said, this story isn’t entirely perfect. Trust isn’t easy to come by for either of these characters, and for a good chunk of the story they share an adversarial relationship. Jack especially is determined to believe the worst about Sally, fearing that he’s managed to be duped by a pretty face and tantalizing figure. In turn, Sally is determined to protect her livelihood, the club, which Jack threatens her with on more than one occasion.

This story moves rather quickly, with the whole thing taking place in one weeks’ time. That might strain the credulity for some readers, especially given the aforementioned trust issues, but it worked better for me in this story than in most because of the palpable chemistry simmering between Sally and Jack.

Cornick fans will no doubt take delight in knowing that the author has tied this book to her earlier Regency-set, Blue Stocking Brides series, but newcomers should have no fear. While past characters are mentioned briefly, this story stands on its own. There aren’t nearly enough historical romances written in the Edwardian period, and lucky for readers that Cornick has written an especially fine one. Snap it up.

Grade: B

Summary: Under a blaze of chandeliers, in London’s most fashionable club, Jack Kestrel is waiting. He hasn’t come to enjoy the rich at play, he’s there to uphold his family name. But first he has to get past the ice-cool owner: the beautiful Sally Bowes. And Jack wants her to warm his bed-at any price!

Edwardian society flocks to Sally’s club, but dangerous Jack Kestrel is the most sinfully sensual rogue she’s ever met. Inexperienced with men, the wicked glint in Jack’s eyes promises he’ll take care of satisfying her every need….

Read an excerpt.

Other Books In Series:

by Michelle Styles

Lots of things always seem to be happening in June. I was a June bride 20 years ago, and this is why I never forget that the anniversary of Waterloo is 18 June. Lots of jokes about meeting Waterloos and it being a close run thing punctuated the speeches. And my advice to any June bride is not to lock your knees as fainting just after you say ‘I do’ – tends to get remembered.

June also marks the 10^th anniversary of Nicola Cornick becoming a Harlequin Historical author, as well as the release of her 25^th book: The Last Rake in London. It features Jack Kestrel, whose ancestors were in the Regency Bluestocking Brides trilogy. Nicola says:

“It was a huge thrill and an honour for me to be asked by Mills & Boon to write a book set in 1908 as part of the centenary celebrations. That book, The Last Rake in London, is also my 25th for Mills & Boon, so it is even more of a celebration for me! I had never written an Edwardian era book before and found the research challenging but was soon swept up in the fascinating history of the period. It had a very personal resonance for me because my beloved grandmother, to whom the book is dedicated, was born in 1908 and died this year, a month short of her 100th birthday. She was a true Edwardian lady and a great inspiration to me.”

It was out last month in the UK, and is a great read. It is tremendously exciting to see what she has done with the Edwardian era. Also her next HQN book Unmasked is out in July.

Seduction Summer begins for Silhouette Romantic Suspense, starting with Nina Bruhns’ Killer Temptation in June. Other titles are: Killer Passion by Sheri Whitefeather (July) and Killer Affair by Cindy Dees (August). Nina explained why she is so excited about the launch.

If you’re looking for pure page-turning sizzle for those lazy days reading on the beach, this series is for you! For Killer Temptation, I loved working with the Fiji setting…spent hours on the Internet just drooling over the gorgeous scenery. And I so fell in love with these characters, Zoe and Breeze. This book was so much fun, it practically wrote itself. One of my personal faves! And working with Sheri and Cindy on the series was a blast. Such talented writers and great ladies.

Jill Sorenson makes her debut with Romantic Suspense this month. Jill said,

Dangerous to Touch is special to me for many reasons. It’s my debut and I couldn’t be more excited about seeing my first book in print. I absolutely love the cover. But most of all, the book is important to me because I thought it might be my last. I wrote it during my second pregnancy and was afraid that with two little ones underfoot, I’d never find the time to write again. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to complete another manuscript. That book, Dark Canyon, and my single-title debut, Crash Into Me, will be released by Bantam Dell in 2009.

Julie Miller’s first book in her latest miniseries for Intrigue, The Precinct: Brotherhood of the Badge, is Protective Instincts and features Sawyer Kincaid and Melissa Teague from Up Against the Wall.

The details of the Desire pitch contest are now up on the eharlequin.com site. It is a wonderful opportunity for anyone interested in writing for the series. Certainly, the editors are keen to find a new author before the RWA National. Deadlines for entires is 30 June.

Kate Walker’s latest, Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife, will be available as a free download with DailyLit starting on 1 June. The offer continues until 31 August. The book will be sent in short email/rss segments.

“We have had a wonderful response from Harlequin fans using DailyLit to receive these novels, and we wanted to give them something back in return,” said Susan Danziger, President and Publisher of DailyLit. “We thought what better way than to offer them a brand new title by one of their most popular authors.”

Over 200 Harlequin titles are currently available for purchase from DailyLit.com.

The long awaited exhibition to celebrate Mills & Boon’s centenary opens this month in Manchester. Nicola Cornick is giving a workshop on “Regency Pleasures and Pastimes” 14 June at the Manchester Library in connection with the exhibition. Mills & Boon editors have been busy visiting literary festivals. To see the full list of where they will be, plus see some great early covers, visit the M & B Facebook fansite.

On the website, Mills & Boon has a signup for those of you interested in getting M & B ebooks. I am not sure when this is starting, but it is a great development. You can sign up to get more news about the launch date.

One of my favourite things about June is that it marks the start of summer holiday reading, and a chance to indulge. Happy reading, and I will be back with more news in July.

2008 is the National Year of Reading in the UK.

It is about celebrating reading in all its forms and highlighting the importance of libraries. It is about encouraging parents to read to their children, and people in general just to read.

It is about challenging employers to turn their old smoking rooms into quiet reading rooms, and encouraging workers to read. Natasha Oakley whose Wanted: White Wedding is out this month explained further ‘Setting aside the fact I earn my living writing books,as a mum of five this is something I really want to be involved in. The hope is that the campaign will reach people who don’t consider themselves ‘readers’. The slogan is ‘Reading – Anytime, Anything, Anywhere’. I’m all for taking the snobbishness out of books. It should be fun!’

Authors from literary authors to series romance authors are involved in a wide number of events. As part of the NYR nine Mills & Boon authors have been asked to be ‘Writers in Residence’ in nine of England’s library authorities. The timing and the match could not be more perfect, as Mills & Boon celebrates its 100^th birthday, there is no one who knows a good book like a Mills & Boon author – or reader! It’s a fantastic accolade and tribute to the importance of Mills & Boon to libraries and all the hard work done by so many of our authors in them.

The Mills & Boon ‘Writers in Residence‘ for the NYR are

Louise Allen – Peterborough

Susan Stephens – Kirklees

Kate Hardy – Norfolk

Nicola Cornick – Wiltshire

Sharon Kendrick – Hampshire

Caroline Anderson – Suffolk

Michelle Styles – Northumberland

India Grey – Cheshire

Natasha Oakley – Bedfordshire

A spokesperson for Mills & Boon said : ‘Mills & Boon is extremely proud to support the National Year of Reading, a government-backed initiative which aims to get more readers reading more! It will be supported by a TV advertising campaign featuring Geri Halliwell, Lenny Henry, Bill Bailey, Jon Culshaw and Jo Brand amongst others. The NYR will see a nationwide campaign reminding reluctant readers, hesitant readers and even prolific readers of the joy of reading. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Mills & Boon to be part of this fantastic year celebrating reading!’

You can see the launch video