Today's Special - - Cara Elliott

We are happy to welcome Cara Elliott back to The Romance Dish today to celebrate the release of Passionately Yours, the third book in her The Hellions of High Street series.  I've loved the first two books in this series and can't wait to dive into Caro's story. All three books have been released in digital format with print copies to follow at a later date.  

For more information about Cara and her books, please visit her website.  Readers can also connect with her online at Facebook, Twitter and at the multi-author blog, Word Wenches.  

Welcome back, Cara!

Hi Everyone,

Yes, it’s me again! Last time I stopped by at the Dish (I love dishing here!) I talked about heroines, and how fun it was to create a trio of sisters with a passion for writing. Well, today I’m going to talk about heroes—a subject that is near and dear to all of our hearts.

It’s probably no surprise, but one of the most delightful challenges of the writing process is “fleshing out” the perfect hero for my heroines. While I have some core characteristics that are integral to a worthy man—honor, integrity, humor, a romantic heart—it’s wonderfully intriguing to add all the other little quirks of character that make a hero unique.

In Passionately Yours, the third book in my “Hellions of High Street” trilogy—pssst, which came out yesterday!—I tried something new. Alec McClellan, Caro Sloane’s love interest, is a moody Scottish baron with a sharp tongue and a flinty reserve that she finds hard to crack. Now, I’ve never written a Scottish hero, so it got me to thinking about what’s the archetypal appeal of hunky Highlanders. (Hmmm, that’s a rather nice question to ponder, isn’t it?)

So, here are my thoughts. Scottish heroes are strong, warrior-types. Like the wind-carved granite moors and stormy loch, they are tough, wild, austere, and perhaps a little forbidding. Yet, there’s a softer beauty there—think of how the purple heather looks adds a subtle beauty to the gray granite. You just have to look closely to see it.

Scotsmen also have a poetic soul, though they often take pains to hide it. Robert Burns writes lovely verse, and Sir Walter Scott’s novels are lushly romantic, so trust me, ladies, beneath the gruff growls, a Scottish hero has a tender heart. (Fluttery sigh—isn’t that irresistibly sexy?) It just takes the right heroine who willing to work hard to get him to admit it.  Which is, of course, no easy task.

But if it were easy, it wouldn’t be quite so much fun! I confess, I make Caro Sloane, the heroine of Passionately Yours, have to use a hammer and chisel to break through Alec’s stony façade. But she’s strong enough to persevere—the truth is, she nearly as feisty as he is, so they make a few sparks fly when they clash. Which makes it all the sweeter when the chips fall away revealing two tender hearts aching for true love.

Now, just in case, I haven’t quite convinced you that Scottish heroes are ruggedly handsome and wildly sexy, allow me to state a few names of real life Scots: Gerard Butler. James McAvoy. Ewan McGregor. Sean Connery. I rest my case.

So what about you? Do you find Scottish heroes irresistible? Have you a favorite Highland hunk, either in real life or in romance novels? Do dish! A winner will be chosen at random from among the comments to receive a digital copy of Passionately Yours. 

The youngest of the Hellions of High Street, Caro Sloane has watched her two sisters have exhilarating encounters with dashing heroes, and now she is longing for some excitement of her own. After all, how can she write truly passionate poetry until she has experienced a Grand Adventure? But that seems unlikely to happen as she’ll be spending the next few weeks in the quiet spa town of Bath, where nothing grand or adventurous ever happens . . . until she and her new friend Isobel are nearly abducted while walking on a quiet country road—only to be rescued by Alec McClellan, the moody and mysterious Scottish lord she met at Dunbar Castle.

Alec has come to England to deal with a treacherous betrayal and fears that his half-sister Isobel is in peril from an old enemy. Does he dare share his secrets with Caro? The bold and brave beauty leaves him no choice, and together they are quickly caught up in a swirl of dangerous intrigue . . . where fiery desire between them may ignite into the greatest danger of all.