Today's Special - - Sarah MacLean

My special guest today is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling historical romance author Sarah MacLean.  Sarah's newest book, One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, the second book in her Rules of Scoundrels series, is one of the best books I've read in quite some time and features one of my all-time favorite romance couples.  If you haven't read any of Sarah's books yet, I strongly recommend you begin with this one.  It's brilliant!

Sarah was kind enough to take time from her busy schedule to answer a few questions for me recently.  

Welcome, Sarah!  Congratulations on the release of your newest book!  Please tell our readers about the Rules of Scoundrels series and what they can expect from One Good Earl Deserves a Lover. (fabulous title!)

The Rules of Scoundrels series is centered on a pre-Victorian casino, The Fallen Angel. The Angel is widely believed to be the most scandalous, most exclusive club in London. It’s filled with excess and sin, and a member of the club can get anything he likes there. The four owners of the casino are Bourne, Cross, Temple & Chase—four fallen aristocrats, each exiled from society either by chance or by choice, and now royalty in the London underworld—where scoundrels rule.

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover is the second in the series and tells the story of Cross, the clever, controlled financier of the Angel, who has a carefully crafted reputation for wickedness that makes him the obvious mark for Lady Philippa Marbury, who is about to be married, and on a hunt for answers to questions no lady should ever be asking. When Pippa arrives in his rooms, Cross has to use all of his power to keep her at a distance, for fear of ruining them both.  

I adore Pippa and Cross!  They have become one of my all-time favorite romance couples. What one thing do you want readers to understand about these two?
 

I’m so happy you liked them, PJ! They’re incredibly special to me. I think the thing that struck me to be the most interesting about this book and this couple is this: In all my other books, I could imagine that in a different world . . . at a different time . . . the heroes and heroines might have been able to find happiness with someone else. In this book, however, Cross and Pippa are the only ones who are right for each other. They wouldn’t be able to find love if not now. Here. That was a powerful realization for me as I was writing the book.

It's a feeling that comes through in their story, Sarah.  I cannot imagine either of them with anyone else.  They are simply destined to be together.  

I’m fascinated with these heroes who live in the dark corners of London.  What is it about them that inspired you to tell their stories?

We all love a bad boy. I know I’ve loved my fair share of them! And we’ve all made the mistake of thinking that we can save a bad boy. (Not me, of course.) When I conceived of the Rules of Scoundrels series, I knew I wanted to write about bad boys, and I wanted to explore two things about this fantasy that we all love so much – first, how they become bad boys, and second, what it really would take for a woman to save them. Love couldn’t be the only answer. If I was going to really make the heroes of these books bad, and put them in dark corners with even darker characters, then I had to make their heroines strong. And that’s when the series really started to take shape.

Your heroines are among my favorites and Pippa is at the head of the line.  If you could step into the life of any romance heroine, who would you choose and why? 

See, this is a trick question . . . because the natural response would be to think of the hero I want to end up with and back myself into the heroine I’d like to trade places with. But invariably, that’s a bit of a problem . . . for example, I would sell my living soul for a lifetime with Hardy Cates from Lisa Kleypas’s Blue Eyed Devil, but I don’t really want to be Haven – I mean, that girl has some demons.

So I’m going to go with Jessica from Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. She’s clever and strong-willed and won’t take any of Dain’s early self-loathing. And she isn’t afraid to shoot a man for what she wants. Oh, and she ends up with Dain, who is, quite possibly, the most loving, doting husband and father ever. A qualifier: There is a time-traveling doctor in this story to take care of flus and, oh, I don’t know, scurvey and what not. Or no deal.

Jessica has been getting a lot of love around here this week!

We all have our favorite comfort reads.  What book (or author) do you turn to when you feel the need for some fictional comfort?

Judith McNaught’s Almost Heaven, Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Nobody’s Baby But Mine and Eloisa James’s Pleasure for Pleasure.

Great choices!  These three all have places on my keeper shelves.  

We readers enjoy learning more about the authors who create our favorite stories.  What one thing would we be surprised to learn about you?

As I am obsessed with Twitter & Facebook, it feels like there isn’t much that readers would be surprised to know! That said, I think it would be surprising for readers to know that I always give my heroines some physical or character trait that I have in real life. Pippa, for example, has crooked fingertips. So do I. It’s true. Ask me to show you!

That's fascinating!  Now I'm going to be re-reading all of your books to see if I can find the traits.  ::grin:: 

Will you be attending any conferences this year where readers will have the opportunity to meet you?

As always, I’ll be at RWA (in Atlanta) and RT (in Kansas City), and this year I’ll also be at the Public Library Association conference in Indianapolis. This spring, I’ll be at events in LA, Las Vegas & New York, too – you can always check up on me on the tour page of my website.

What’s next?

Temple’s book! No Good Duke Goes Unpunished is the third book in the Rules of Scoundrels series. Temple, who is the opposite of quiet, perfect, cerebral Cross. Temple is all physical–a broken-nosed, bare-knuckle boxer who, aside from being massive, brutally intense and wickedly sexual, is widely believed to be a killer.

I can't wait to discover what you have in store for him!  

Thank you for answering all of my questions, Sarah.  It's always a pleasure to visit with you.  

You can find more information about Sarah and her books at her website (and enter her awesome release week giveaway).  You can also connect with Sarah at Twitter and Facebook.  

Readers, tell me:  If you could step into the life of any romance heroine, who would you choose and why?  

I'm giving away a copy of One Good Earl Deserves a Lover to a randomly selected person who leaves a comment on today's blog.  (open internationally to any country on bookdepository.com's mailing list)