We have two unclaimed prizes up for second-chance grabs! The new winners are:
JEANNE M.
Congrats! You've won an e-copy of Beverley Kendall's novella, ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND SEDUCTION. Please send an email to theromancedish (AT)gmail (DOT) com to claim your prize.
and
LALIBRARYBUG
Congratulations! You've won a copy of Christina Brooke's AN HEIRESS IN LOVE. To claim your prize, please send your full name and mailing address to us at theromancedish (AT) gmail (DOT) com.
Congratulations to our three winners from Beverley Kendall's guest blog! The following people have won a digital copy of Bev's novella, ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND SEDUCTION:
BARBARA E
MARIA
MARYBELLE
Also, Barbara E wins an entry into Bev's grand prize drawing for an iPad2! Visit Bev's website for more info on the iPad2 contest.
Winners, please send your email address to us at theromancedish (AT) gmail (DOT) com with "Bev Kendall Winner" in the subject line and please tell us us if you want your novella in mobi (Kindle) or ePub format.
It's our pleasure today to welcome Beverley Kendall back to The Romance Dish! We first met Bev as the creative force behind the successful website, The Season and then as a talented author of historical romance. Bev is with us today to talk about historical heroes and about her new e-novella, ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND SEDUCTION. Welcome back, Bev!
With her seduction she hopes to gain his affections
Viscount Derek Creswell believes Elizabeth set out to trap him into marriage. After all, her sister attempted the very same thing with his brother six years before. Now the delectable Miss Smith expects a betrothal and a ring, while Derek finds her ruination infinitely more appealing...
But as Derek sets out to seduce only her body, Elizabeth is intent on claiming his jaded heart.
The Ten Ways Historical Heroes Most Differ from Contemporary Heroes
I love a great hero. I like a hero with a bit of an edge. Even better if he’s ostensibly cold because then you know the heroine is going to thaw him well and good.
Although I started my romance reading life devouring contemporaries, historical romance heroes have a special appeal. Perhaps it’s because they do not have to be politically correct. Or perhaps it’s because despite their gender and societal advantage, they all manage to treat the heroines as their equal.
Who can resist a man born in a time when women and children are considered property but who treats the like the treasures that they are? A man who isn’t expected to abide by such terms as fidelity, but gladly does for the woman he loves?
I can’t. And that’s why I write about them.
But here are five ways historical heroes differ from their contemporary counterparts:
1. The London Season made wife hunting like shooting fish in a barrel.
2. They have titles.
3. Having another man dress them is considered normal.
4. They still manage to be uber-masculine while not holding down a job or having a notable career.
5. They can manage ‘tight’ breeches with aplomb.
So what is it about a historical hero that appeals to you? Comment and enter to win a digital copy of my new novella, ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE & SEDUCTION—I’m giving away 3 copies. You can choose from mobi (Kindle) or ePub format.
Also, one winner will receive an entry for my grand prize drawing to win an iPad 2.
I’d like to thank the fabulous ladies on The Romance Dish for having me on their blog. PJ it was great seeing you in NYC. Looking forward to seeing you all in GA in October.
Thanks for being our guest today, Bev! Find out more about Beverley and her books at her website, on Facebook and Twitter. You can also check out The Season Blog here and follow them on Twitter.
ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND SEDUCTION can be purchased at The Season for $0.99 or for $1.49 at Barnes and Noble here and at Amazon here .
Thanks to everyone who stopped by to visit with Beverley. Random.org has selected our two winners and they are:
Barbara E
and
SiNn
Congratulations, ladies! Barbara, you've won a copy of Bev's new book, A Taste of Desire and SiNn, you've won a copy of Bev's debut book, Sinful Surrender. Please send your full name and mailing address to us at theromancedishATgmailDOTcom. Don't forget to put "Kendall Winner" in the subject line. Thanks!
We are delighted to welcome one of our favorite people, Beverley Kendall back to The Romance Dish! In addition to being an author of historical romance, Beverley is also a busy mom, holds a "techy-type" (as she puts it) job and is the driving force behind The Season, a wonderful website that spotlights historical, contemporary and paranormal romance. Bev's newest book, A TASTE OF DESIRE, the second in her The Elusive Lords series, will be released January 4th.
Is A TASTE OF DESIRE really for you? by Beverley Kendall
I’m going to be totally honest with you today, I write not only because the compulsion is so strong as to be overwhelming, but also because I would one day like to make a comfortable living doing so. I think it’s fair to say that’s every published and aspiring authors wish.
The kind of stories that I write will play a major part in how I’m received, by you, the romance reading public. If you decided to pick up either of my books, SINFUL SURRENDER and A TASTE OF DESIRE, to read the back cover blurb and were then intrigued enough to purchase, I certainly wouldn’t want reading either or both to be a dismal or disappointing experience. I'd actually rather you didn’t buy the book at all.
That’s why I decided to write this cautionary post to readers who may be—dare I hope—contemplating buying my upcoming release, A TASTE OF DESIRE.
A TASTE OF DESIRE may not be for you if:
• You don’t like lots of sexual tension. I think I can safely say the sexual tension between Amelia and Thomas could be cut with a knife. But when you have jealousy on one side and pride on the other side, you know they’ll both be fighting it all the way.
• You don’t like ‘steamy’ love scenes. I’ll be honest here, this is a hot read. Since I’m a huge Lisa Kleypas fan, I tend to write to her heat level.
• You want your hero and heroine to ‘get along’ relatively well throughout the book. Amelia and Thomas are definitely not that kind of heroine and hero. Amelia, right or wrong, resents Thomas because of the close relationship he has with her father—one she wishes she had. Thomas dislikes Amelia, mostly because she doesn’t like him and has insulted him on more than one occasion—one a rather public set down.
• You don’t like series. A TASTE OF DESIRE is the second book in The Elusive Lords series and in this book you will reunite with many of the characters from SINFUL SURRENDER and spend some time with the hero and heroine, Missy and James and their growing brood. I personally enjoyed writing about the hero of the final book in the series, Alex Cartwright.
• You love intrigue and lots of suspense in your romance novels. I don’t have a spy and there are no murder plots or kidnappings in this novel. This is strictly a romance novel with lots of heat, angst and conflict.
• You love heroes or/and heroines who are physically and/or emotionally crippled because of a tragic past. My hero and heroine have not been physically or emotionally abused.
• You don’t like an alpha hero. My hero, Thomas, is definitely alpha, which to me means he’s confident, and yes can be a bit cocky when properly provoked. He’s witty in that dry British way but don’t you dare try to come between him and the woman he loves or else there will be hell to pay.
• You don’t like a heroine with a sharp edge. Initially, Amelia isn’t the warmest of females. But it's how she copes from years of pain and hurt. This isn’t the Taming of the Shrew but rather the Thawing of Amelia.
• And finally, if you don’t like Happily Ever Afters, I fear that reading this book may cause irrevocable damage to your heart.
If I didn’t lose you after reading my list, comment and you’ll be entered to win A TASTE OF DESIRE and my debut, SINFUL SURRENDER.
I want to thank the ladies of The Romance Dish for having me back this year! As always, I had a grand time visiting with you.
The winners of a signed copy of Sinful Surrender are:
Virginia C
and
Jessica!
Congrats Virginia and Jessica! Please send your full name and address to beverleyATbeverleykendallDOTcom with "The Romance Dish winner" in the subject line and Bev will get your book in the mail. Thanks!
Debut historical author Beverley Kendall is one busy lady. Not only is she celebrating and promoting her debut historical romance with Kensington, Sinful Surrender, she also runs the wildly popular webite The Season! Please help us welcome her to The Romance Dish as she talks about her exciting debut!
Writing the book I wanted to write
When I started writing SINFUL SURRENDER I never thought to myself, ‘will this plot sell?’. The plot for SINFUL SURRENDER is a fairly tried and true one that I absolutely adore. I will always give a ‘in love with my brother’s best friend’ story a second, third, and fourth look. The blurb has to be absolutely horrific, or a trusted friend must tell me the book was just awful for me NOT to pick it up.
So I charged ahead with that very premise when I started writing back in November 2006. I, of course, was going to make it different, put my own unique spin on things. Yep, I sure was. LOL. Little did I know that the very nature of this ‘tried and true’ plot was going to be a hard sell.
The rejections came for about a year, saying much the same thing, ‘This isn’t different’. They were looking for something more. I’m not sure how much more, but more. Now most of these rejections came from either the query or the partial. SINFUL SURRENDER apparently wasn’t different enough to stand out in the historical romance market, which at that time was said not to have a pulse.
After a year of rejections, I had long moved onto the second book. My new plot wasn’t as tried and true as SINFUL SURRENDER and I thought it had a flawed but endearing heroine and a fantastic hero. I prayed this one would sell. Then I sold SINFUL SURRENDER and that just about knocked my feet from right out under me. It sold. Picked from a slush pile, it actually sold.
Now it’s two years later, my book is actually on book store shelves, and readers are actually buying it! My mind spins. Some readers are actually telling me they really like it. And it is only then when I sit back and think of the misgivings I started after hearing for a year, it was too much of the same thing, that I actually felt really good that this was the story that I chose to write. That I’m really happy I followed my heart and wrote the kind of story that draws me in as a reader. I will read the books that are ‘trendsetters’ or so different they make everyone sit up and take notice, but to me, there is nothing like a plot that has always held a magical appeal to me. I guess that’s the reason they’ve been termed ‘tried and true’. :)
So what’s ‘tried and true’ for you? Leave a comment and TWO lucky people will each win a copy of Sinful Surrender!
Lord James Rutherford fights the inexorable demise of his bachelorhood with every sane bone in his body. But the single-minded pursuit of the delectable Missy Armstrong entering her fourth London Season proves his undoing. Just as he’s decided to risk the wrath of her brother—his friend—and right the wrong of their indiscretion, James discovers the consequences of a forgotten night of drunken passion has left yet another lady of ton compromised. For Millicent ‘Missy’ Armstrong, being ruined by the man of her dreams is nothing to wring her hands and bury her face in her hands about. But when an offer of marriage isn’t immediately forthcoming, and whispers of James’s betrothal to another—and pending fatherhood—reaches her ears, there isn’t an acre of land on the Continent far enough on which to escape. Then, in an abrupt reversal, James is back on her doorstep with the offer she’d yearned to receive…two weeks and one woman too late.
In the face of her unwavering refusal, James launches a war to win back her passion, her trust, and her love. A war as ruthless as it is seductive. With the wounds of her heartbreak still fresh and raw, can he convince her that far from the second choice, she has always been the only choice for him?
