Thanks to everyone who stopped by to visit with Maggie Robinson during her recent blog visit on April 5th. The winner of Maggie's giveaway, a signed copy of MASTER OF SIN, is
SHEILA
Congratulations, Sheila! Please send your full name and address (with Maggie Robinson Winner in the subject line) to theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com to claim your book.
It makes my heart happy to see good things happen to good people and Maggie Robinson is one of the best. This lovely lady - and hardworking writer - deserves all the success she's now enjoying as a published author. Maggie returns to The Romance Dish today to talk about a topic that's always intrigued me: islands! Maggie's no stranger to islands herself and has created a fictional one that figures prominently in Master of Sin, her new book from Kensington Brava that was released March 27th. Take it away Maggie! ~PJ
Island
Girl
I’m
so happy to be back at the Romance Dish to talk about my latest book from
Kensington Brava, Master of Sin. It’s the final book in the Courtesan Court series, featuring
tortured bad boy Andrew Rossiter and Gemma Peartree, the unlikely governess who
heals his soul on an isolated island in the Western Isles.
Islands fascinate me. I’ve lived on four of
them in my life, and each one has left an indelible impression. I love islands
so much I made one up for MOS: Batter Island. It’s my mental combination of
deserted St. Kilda, which is the furthest from the coast of Scotland, and Barra
Head, now
uninhabited except for “air so thickly crowded with birds as to produce the
appearance of a heavy snowstorm.”(~H.J. Elwes, 1868) Isn’t that a gorgeous
image?
I’ve
been to Scotland several times, but never to any of the islands. But no
problem—YouTube has a zillion gorgeous videos, most with haunting Celtic music.
Here’s a clip of the St. Kilda heritage site for the “virtual tourist”:
Batter
Island is almost as much a character as the hero and the heroine are. Its
remoteness, its rugged weather, the fact that all the inhabitants speak Gaelic
and Andrew and Gemma don’t all make the couple turn to each other. I’ve set
them apart both geographically and culturally, and sparks inevitably fly
to keep them warm during a wicked Scottish winter.
Here’s
a snippet, after Andrew has caught a glimpse of Gemma too tempting to ignore:
A blast of wind nearly knocked him over.
He’d come to the point overlooking where the Sea of the Hebrides met the
Atlantic. Waves slapped together, sending spray high into the sky. A collision
of forces too elemental to ignore. If he were at all fanciful, it resembled
what would happen if he and the diminutive yet delectable Miss Peartree ever
united in his bed.
It would never happen.
It should never happen. He’d given
all that up to raise his son. No more dallying, no more sneaking around, no more sin. He’d done his share for
twenty-five years, both involuntary and voluntary. He was two-and-thirty now,
the age when many men finally settled down and became leg-shackled. But
marriage was forever beyond his touch. No woman could possibly ignore what he
had been, what he had done.
This
isn’t the usual Regency. RT Book Reviews says: “Robinson crafts an intelligent,
powerful, emotional, highly sensual love story with a damaged hero and an
exceptional heroine, moving the story beyond the typical and into the
unconventional. Readers will become so invested in the characters that the fast
pace and heated sexual tension only add to the delight. Fine storytelling.”
Are
you an “island girl?” What’s your favorite unusual romance setting? I’ve got a
signed copy of Master of Sin for one commenter!
