Remembering Miranda Neville

PJ here. The first time I met Miranda Neville she was a newly published author and I had yet to read her book. I was captivated by her friendly smile, her quick wit, her crisp British accent, and her whip-smart intelligence. I vowed to read Never Resist Temptation at my first opportunity. It didn't take long for me to be captivated by her writing and I eagerly anticipated each of her subsequent releases. Over the years, I've had the pleasure of getting to know Miranda better through romance conferences, social media, and her visits here at The Romance Dish. She was a shining light to all who knew her, a good friend with a wonderful sense of humor who could rock a fascinator like nobody else. She was also one of the most talented historical romance writers out there, in my opinion. Her final book, Secrets of a Soprano was one of my favorites from last year and one of my favorites of all her books. I mourn the fact that it is the last book she will gift to her readers but rejoice in the fact that she was able to publish this wonderful story - the self-proclaimed book of her heart. It's still hard to believe she's gone, taken from us much too soon. I mourn her passing but rejoice in the fact that her words will live on through her stories. 

Following are Janga's remembrances of Miranda:

I always think of Miranda Neville as sophisticated, not with the harsh, artificial brilliance that is unfortunately a common connotation of the word but rather in the larger sense of subtle, discriminating, cultured versed in the complexities of a subject. Her books impress me with those qualities too. She wrote intelligent romances, but they never lacked heart as well.

I began reading Miranda’s books with her debut, Never Resist

Temptation (2009). It begins fairly conventionally, but then the author gives things a twist. The reader is soon deep in a plot that involves cross-dressing (Jacobin runs away and becomes Jacob Léon, a French pastry chef at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton) and murder (Candover is poisoned by food served at one of the Prince Regent’s dinner, and Jacob is in danger not only of having her identity exposed but of being arrested). The novel was well-crafted with a fresh touch. I liked what I read and was interested in seeing more from this new author.

More turned out to be The Wild Marquis (2010), the first of Neville’s Burgundy Club series about an exclusive clique of young aristocrats who are rare-book collectors. She hooked me with that description, and I bought the book, liked it, and looked forward to the next in the series.

The Dangerous Viscount (2010) remains one of my top three Miranda Neville books. I knew going in that it was a male-makeover tale, a trope I’ve loved since I first read Georgette Heyer’s Powder and Patch and fell under the spell of Philip Jettan. I fell hard for Sebastian. I rank him with Jack Langdon in Loretta Chase’s Devil’s Delilah as favorite bookish hero. I feared Diana was going to be a shallow character, but she soon redeemed herself, showing that she had courage, a sense of humor, and an admirable streak of pragmatism. And I adored her family, the Montroses. The Dangerous Viscount put Miranda Neville on my auto-buy list before I knew the best was yet to come.

The Amorous Education of Celia Seton (2011) is my #1 Neville

book, and it is one of my all-time top 100 romances. Celia has the kind of strength in which I can believe. She refuses to be daunted by all that life throws at her. A lesser person would be paralyzed by self-pity, but Celia soldiers on through dismissal, kidnapping, hunger, and heartbreak. Tarquin is just as dimensional. He is a dandy, an aloof soul, and a wit who is carelessly cruel, but there are reasons for the image he presents to his world. I fell in love with him when he looked at Celia, found her “neither plain nor pretty,” doubted that he could ever have fallen in love with her at first sight, but acknowledges that he could have fallen in love with her after knowing her long enough to appreciate her courage, her quick wit, and her humor. That sounds to me like a promising foundation for a lifetime together. A Publishers Weekly reviewer described this one as a “mix of hilarity, mystery, and passion.” I agree, and I found the mix most palatable.

Confessions from an Arranged Marriage (2012) completes the Burgundy Club series, and I confess I had some reservations about this one. Because Minerva Montrose’s intelligence, humor, youthful confidence, and undisguised ambition to be a political hostess made her a particularly appealing secondary character in The Dangerous Viscount and The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton, the last person I expected to see her paired with was the insufferably superior Marquis of Blakeney. The opinion Sebastian Iverley (The Dangerous Viscount) expressed of Blake, his cousin and enemy, was one that seemed accurate to me: “He was an arrogant ass at the age of ten, with very little reason I may say, and he never got any better. He’s an idiot without a worthwhile thought in his head.”

But as Minerva’s perception of her husband changes, so does the reader’s. First, she begins to value what he does well. Minerva’s deepening respect for the man Blake is empowers him to become more, and he is able when she needs him most to be commanding and powerful, to be every inch the duke with generations of dukes behind him. Perhaps the greatest evidence of the changes in Blake is his acceptance of what he is and what he is not, a self-acceptance tempered by his regret that he cannot be the man Minerva wants. And Minerva’s response to his self-acceptance is a lovely reminder that these two have grown into two people who like and respect one another as well as healthily lusting after one another.

“I’m not going to lead the party and I’ll never be a member of the government, let alone Prime Minister. I wish I could be the man you want, Minnie, but I don’t have it in me.”

“You are the man I want. You don’t have to be anyone different.”

Sigh! I’m a believer. Happily ever after all the way. And an author who can effect such a transition in a reader is worth a price beyond rubies.

The Wild Quartet followed the Burgundy Club. The Importance of Being Wicked (2012) was the first novel, although a novella The Secret Seduction of a Lady (2012)—a terrific reunion tale--introduced the series and Caroline Townsend, the heroine of this first novel. I’m a big fan of the stuffy hero paired with a heroine who shakes his world. Both these characters have a sense of humor too, another reason I love them and this bit of dialogue:

“I don't like to be particular,” Thomas went on, “but that really should be the Duke of Stuffy, you know. Or, if you insist on ceremony, His Stuffiness.”

Her smile stretched into a delighted grin. “No formality between friends, surely. I shall simply call you Stuffy.”

The Ruin of a Rogue (2013) was next, and it delivers all the title promises. Some roguish heroes are little more than wild oats-sowing boys who must grow up in order to become heroes, but Marcus Lithgow is the real thing. Although the reader learns early on that he is capable of courage and kindness and even of experiencing a stab of guilt for his choices, Marcus acts in his own interests whether that violates moral codes or not. When luck turns against him, he feels no remorse in targeting the heiress Anne Brotherton, confident that he will either force her guardian to approve their marriage or secure a sizeable payoff from said guardian to disappear from her life. When Anne chooses to walk into Marcus’s lair, he thinks “The pigeon would be plucked, the shrew would be tamed.” But Marcus fails to understand that his own taming is in process. Later, when he warns Anne, “I’m a rogue and I’ll take advantage of anything that might give me entrée to those who can be of use to me,” the reader knows that the very act of revelation signals that the ruin of the rogue is almost complete. When Marcus is confronted with a moral crisis, he finds that he can “no longer be happy as a scoundrel.” For Anne’s sake and for his own, he rejects the expedient choice to do the right thing for the right reason, the very definition of an honorable man. The rogue has been ruined, and the hero is headed for an HEA with the woman who helped to ruin the man he had been.

Lady Windermere’s Lover (2014) is another great title, but I just could not like the Earl of Windermere despite his eventual redemption. I did like the heroine and I was so intrigued by Julian, Duke of Denford, that I thought he stole the book. He is the hero of the final book in the series, The Duke of Dark Desires (2014), another five-star read for me. Denford and his heroine,

Jeanne de Falleron, aka Jane Gray, meet when she joins his household as governess to the duke’s charges. In Jane and Julian, Neville has created two of her most complex, vital characters. He was only twenty when he allowed ambition to overrule his instincts and unwittingly played a role in the deaths of the Falleron family. Hedonism allows him to bury his guilt over that piece of his history. He finds sensual pleasure in his liaisons with many women, but his deep feelings are reserved for the art he buys and sells. The survivor’s guilt that haunts Jane is layered. Not only is she the only one to have escaped death but she did so by clinging to the identity of Jane Gray assigned to her by her father, thus denying her family. At fifteen, she chose to become the mistress of a French soldier rather than have him reveal her identity and send her to her death. Later she finds a measure of peace and pleasure as the mistress of a politician. Recognizing the pragmatism of her choices, she still views herself as a whore. Once they meet, Jane and Julian, who have controlled their feelings when they could control nothing else, begin to lose some of that control.

Sometimes the hero and heroine in romance novels are so consumed by lust that they seem to become totally physical beings. I often wonder how they will spend their time together when they are not lust-slaking. Miranda Neville avoids this trap. The heat between Jane and Julian is strong and blessedly mutual. But these are two people who genuinely like one another and enjoy one another’s company. Their pleasure in one another is not only physical. At one point, Jane’s “heart fluttered wildly at [Julian’s] nearness and her mind blossomed at the pleasure of his conversation.” (Those words struck me as a most accurate description of time with a beloved.)

Between 2013 and 2015, Miranda wrote five novellas: “P. S. I Love You” in At the Duke’s Wedding and “The Best Laid Planner,” her only contemporary, in At the Billionaire’s Wedding, both anthologies with Katharine Ashe, Caroline Linden, and Maya Rodale; and “Licensed to Wed” in Christmas in the Duke’s Arms, “Duchess of Scandal” in Dancing in the Duke’s Arms, and “The Rake Who Loved Christmas” in Christmas on Duke Street, all three with Grace Burrowes Shana Galen, and Carolyn Jewel. Each one is special, but “The Rake Who Loved Christmas” is my favorite. It is as sweet as it is sexy, and is has a powerful poignancy. It also has a bit of a Heyeresque feel, which seems appropriate given Miranda’s admiration for the author who introduced her to romance.

In 2016, Miranda self-published Secrets of a Soprano, which she called “the book of my heart.”  It was on my top-ten list last year, and it is the third book in my top trio of Miranda Neville books. This reunion story of a celebrated soprano and the man who captured her heart and broke it puts a new spin on the celebrity romance. Neville gives her readers not only an emotionally rich romance but also a look at the world of opera at a time when the public’s fascination with the stars of opera paralleled contemporary obsession with rock stars and top box-office draws. Neville honors the unwritten contract with her readers and gives Tessa and Max their HEA, but their journey to a blissful reunion is a fraught one—and Tessa’s celebrity is a realistic complication and a reminder that ours is not the first age to create and destroy idols. A reunion romance with a diva heroine (in the original sense “distinguished female singer”) plus a delightfully unexpected secondary romance and cameo appearances by Jacobin and Anthony, the Earl and Countess of Storrington from Neville’s debut novel, Never Resist Temptation, make this book a winner in every sense. Secrets of a Soprano was Miranda’s final novel.

How to Find a Duke in Ten Days and At the Christmas Wedding are both on my Kindle, but I haven’t been able to read either of them. I see the three authors listed on the cover, and I think of the one who is missing. Lady Scandal, planned as the first of the Ladies in Disgrace series and scheduled for a May 29, 2018 release, is still on my Goodreads want-to-read list. I’m sad that I’ll never read that book or the other Ladies in Disgrace novels. But I am grateful for all the wonderful stories Miranda left us. Each time I reread one—and I will reread them all—I will remember Miranda and be glad that for a space, she graced this romance community we all share with her warmth, intelligence, and humor. She is missed.

PJ, again. Thank you, Janga for that beautifully written tribute to Miranda and her books. 

For a look back at some of Miranda's visits to The Romance Dish over the years, click on the following links:

Q&A: May 3, 2016
Q&A: June 27, 2014
Guest Post: June 17, 2013

Readers, have you read any of Miranda Neville's books? Do you have a favorite?

Two randomly chosen people who leave a comment before 11:00 PM (Eastern), December 31st will receive a Kindle copy of Secrets of a Soprano. 

Miranda Neville Winners

The randomly chosen winners of a digital copy of

Secrets of a Soprano by Miranda Neville are:

Catherine White

and

LSUReader

Congratulations!

Please send your email address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Today's Special - - Miranda Neville

Photo by Thomas Ames, Jr. 

I'm delighted to welcome Miranda Neville back to The Romance Dish today. Miranda grew up in England where she developed a fondness for the books of Georgette Heyer, Jean Plaidy, and other historical authors. She studied history at the University of Oxford and spent years writing catalogs for Sotheby's in London and New York. Her debut book, Never Resist Temptation was published in 2009. Several more historical romances have been published since then, many of which sit on the keeper shelf in my library. She now lives in rural Vermont where she enjoys cooking, gardening, and cross-country skiing. 

PJ: Welcome, Miranda! Congratulations on the release of your newest historical romance, Secrets of a Soprano.  What can readers expect from this story?

Hi Pj and Janga. Thanks for inviting me to the Dish and asking such juicy questions. The heroine and hero of Secrets of a Soprano are Europe’s greatest opera singer and the owner of Regency London's newest opera house. In addition to their clash of interests, Tessa Foscari and Max, Lord Allerton, share a past, a teenage romance that fell apart due to the manipulations of their relatives. Each blames the other for a broken heart. Readers can expect a second chance at love romance set in the highly dramatic setting of the London theater, at a time when opera singers were celebrities who fascinated the public.

PJ:  I was fascinated too, Miranda. I loved the "behind the curtain" look at opera in the Regency era. In most historical romances, opera singers are portrayed as slightly unsavory, secondary characters. What inspired you to create a story with an opera singer as your heroine?

I like to write stories about people who do things. Especially for the heroines of

historicals, there’s a limited choice of occupations beyond governess and companion. The great singers were actually the world’s most successful women for a century or so, achieving fame and riches on a par with modern day singers and movie stars. (An aside: a couple of days ago I read an article about women’s portraits on currency and learned that no fewer than five opera singers appear on their countries’ paper money, making it one of the top occupations.) I enjoy workplace settings, which add depth of background as well as being a splendid source of romantic conflict.

It is true that among the aristocracy, where most Regency-era romances are set, performers were not entirely respectable—mistress rather than wife material.  Yet some actresses and singers did make good marriages. The trick for the writer is to make the outcome plausible.

PJ: In researching Secrets of a Soprano, what fact about opera in the 1800’s did you discover that most surprised you?

I was fascinated by what I learned about the business of running an opera house or theater. The subscribers—like season ticket holders of today’s sports teams—were vital to the economics of the house. The users of the fancy private boxes provided money up front to fund expenses. However, box holders didn’t have the right to sell their tickets on nights they weren’t using them. They were supposed to tell the theater management if they weren’t using their boxes, then the theater could resell the tickets for extra income. However, box holders weren’t good about letting management know. So theaters employed “messengers” whose job was to find out what the subscribers were doing that night. I imagine them as a team of spies, grilling the servants of Mayfair and discovering all sorts of interesting tidbits about the aristocracy. Great plot fodder for a future book!

PJ: I'd read that book! 

Janga: I’m a reader who loves books rich in context, and one of the things I love most about your novels is that you make your reader aware of the world beyond ballrooms and house parties. Can you tell us anything about the contexts of your next novel?

I guess you can tell I enjoy delving into my settings! My next series, coming in 2017, concerns well-bred young women who lose their reputation and have to make something of their lives. Both the hero and the heroine of the first are writers. The hero is a somewhat Byronic poet, though a much nicer guy—I’m a fan of Byron’s work but not so much his character. However, the book isn’t as much about writing as it is about the literary and publishing world of Regency London. The couple in the second book is involved in science and inventing. As for the third, what can I say? The hero is a duke. People say dukes are overdone but I’m fascinated by the different ways that, historically, dukedoms have wielded power. In Confessions from an Arranged Marriage the hero inherits an immensely important political dukedom to which he is thoroughly unsuited. The Duke of Castleton in The Importance of Being Wicked comes from a family that is all about money, not politics. The Duke of Denford in The Duke of Dark Desires inherits his title unexpectedly and has to figure out what to do with it. My upcoming duke is an older man, in his late thirties, and completely comfortable with his own position and power, so I’ll have to give him some serious problems! That was a question about dukes, right?

PJ: What authors do you enjoy reading when you aren’t busy writing books of your own?

Too many historical romance writers to name so I won’t even make the attempt. I also have a weakness for the old traditional Regencies—shorter reads that have a lot of charm. Lately I’ve been getting into mysteries, which I haven’t read much in years. I recently enjoyed Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, the first of a series set in modern London with a paranormal twist. I have the first of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey books fired up on my reader. I’ve been meaning to read them for ages—better late than never!

Janga:  What unasked question do you wish someone would ask about your book?

What an interesting question! Thinking about it, I’m not sure there is one. Sometimes I read a comment on a character or scene in a review and think “That’s not what I meant!” But once a book is published, it’s in the hands of the reader who has the right to interpret it in any way she wants. I am always delighted to answer queries, but I also let the work stand for itself.

                   

Janga: Is there any chance that you will revisit the Montroses? I love that family!

I am so glad, Janga. I love them too and those four hunky sons are always in the back of my mind. I even have story ideas for the two eldest, Will and Rufus, the botanist and the archeologist. I’d probably have to self-publish their stories because I’ve switched publishers since the Burgundy Club, which introduced the family and the two sisters. Also, no titles! Not sure how four untitled brothers would sell in today’s duke-obsessed market.

PJ: I’m enjoying the bright colors and balmy temperatures of spring. What season is your favorite? What makes it so?

As I write this we have two inches of snow on the ground in Vermont. Brrr. But it’ll all be gone tomorrow, leaves are ready to burst out, and I can’t wait! I love the infinite promise of spring. The only thing it lacks is Christmas.

PJ: Where can readers find you online?

Readers can find out more about me and my books and sign up for my newsletter on my website. Or find me on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you for visiting with us, Miranda. Would you like to ask our readers a question today?

It’s relatively unusual for the heroines of romances to be celebrities, especially in historicals. Can you think of a famous woman, alive or in the past, whose story and character would make a great romantic story? Be brave, be bold! No idea is too far-fetched. I shall be taking notes. 

Two commenters will win digital copies of Secrets of a Soprano.

Great fame brings great heartbreak 

No one knows the perils of celebrity better than Teresa Foscari, Europe’s most famous opera singer. The public knows her as a glamorous and tempestuous diva, mistress to emperors, a reputation created by the newspapers and the ruthless man who exploited her. Now she has come to London to make a fresh start and find her long lost English family. 

Foscari’s peerless voice thrills all London—except Maximilian Hawthorne, Viscount Allerton, the wealthy patron of opera—and lover of singers. Notorious Teresa Foscari is none other than Tessa, the innocent girl who broke his youthful heart. When his glittering new opera house sits half empty, thanks to the soprano filling the seats of his competitor’s theater, Max vows to stop the woman he unwillingly still desires. 

Amidst backstage intrigue and the sumptuous soirées of fashionable London, the couple’s rivalry explodes in bitter accusations and smashed china. With her reputation in ruins, Tessa must fight for her career —and resist her burning attraction to the man who wishes to destroy her. 

Review - - The Duke of Dark Desires

The Duke of Dark Desires

By Miranda Neville

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: December 30, 2014

Julian Fortescue, a remote twig on the Fortescue family tree, became Duke of Denford because of a series of untimely deaths and a large number of female offspring in his extended family. Jeanne de Falleron, eldest daughter of the Marquis de Falleron, became Jane Gray because her parents and two younger sisters fell victim to the guillotine during the French Revolution, and she, the lone survivor, was left to assume the identity of her former governess. These two have been propelled into lives for which they were unprepared and which they never sought. They are brought together when Jane arrives in London in search of the Fortescue whose betrayal of her family led to their deaths. At about the same time, Julian’s mother, newly married to her third husband after being widowed twice, leaves him in charge of three young half-sisters whom he scarcely knows. Julian is in need of a governess for his charges, and Jane needs to identify and locate the guilty Fortescue whom she plans to kill in an act of vengeance that has become her purpose in life. Thus, Jane Gray joins the household of the Duke of Denford as governess to the duke’s charges.

From the moment they meet, the attraction between Julian and Jane is so powerful as to be almost palpable. He hires her as his sisters’ governess with the belief that she will become his mistress. While he doesn’t fully understand the strength of his desire for her, he has no doubt that it is returned. He determines to wait for her surrender and enjoys flirting with the drably dressed Miss Gray as he waits. Jane is certain that Julian is a skilled lover whose attentions she would enjoy, but she cannot allow herself to be distracted from her goal. As she and Julian engage in a series of moves that Jane likens to a chess match, and with both of them protecting their own secrets, they fall in love. They both also develop an unexpected fondness for Julian’s sisters. Jane decided early on that Julian was too young to have been the man who betrayed her father, but when he brings home the paintings she knows were part of her father’s cherished collection, she must decide what she will do if the man she loves is also the man she has pledged to kill.

In Jane and Julian, Neville has created two complex, vital characters. His mother’s careless maternal affection and the intense dislike that he and his stepfather feel for each other meant that Julian was on his own from an early age. He was only twenty when he allowed ambition to overrule his instincts and unwittingly played a role in the deaths of the Falleron family. Hedonism allows him to bury his guilt over that piece of his history. He finds sensual pleasure in his liaisons with many women, but his deep feelings are reserved for the art he buys and sells. The survivor’s guilt that haunts Jane is layered. Not only is she the only one to have escaped death but she did so by clinging to the identity of Jane Gray assigned to her by her father, thus denying her family. At fifteen, she chose to become the mistress of a French soldier rather than have him reveal her identity and send her to her death. Later she finds a measure of peace and pleasure as the mistress of a politician. Recognizing the pragmatism of her choices, she still views herself as a whore. Once they meet, these two who have controlled their feelings when they could control nothing else begin to lose some of that control.

Despite the darkness in their lives, neither Jane nor Julian is a bitter, brooding figure. They have retained a sense of humor, an awareness of life’s ironies, and a certain unswerving honesty within themselves. Some of my favorite moments were those laced with their humor and wit.

“That’s very good, Your Grace.” Her intriguing slightly foreign accent carried a note of amusement. “Do you find those blue eyes knock the ladies over like kittle pins?”

“Sometimes. You remain distressingly upright.”

The best part of the book, however, was watching these two fall in love. Sometimes the hero and heroine in romance novels are so consumed by lust that they seem to become totally physical beings. I often wonder how they will spend their time together when they are not lust-slaking. Neville avoids this trap. The heat between Jane and Julian is strong and blessedly mutual.

Oh, but she would drown in those magnificent eyes. Before she could talk herself out of it, she seized his head and pulled his mouth down onto her parted lips and knew that she had never been kissed before.

The texture of his lips, his spicy taste spoiled her for any kiss, past or future. It was perfect and mind numbing and body awakening and utterly dangerous. He possessed her and she owned him back in blazing mutual exploration.

But these are two people who genuinely like one another and enjoy one another’s company. Their pleasure in one another is not only physical. At one point, Jane’s “heart fluttered wildly at [Julian’s] nearness and her mind blossomed at the pleasure of his conversation.” (Those words struck me as a most accurate description of time with a beloved.)

The Duke of Dark Desires concludes the Wild Quartet. It has been a strong series, and I gave high marks to the first three books: The Importance of Being Wicked (Caro Townsend and Thomas, Duke of Castleton), The Ruin of a Rogue (Anne Brotherton and Marcus Lithgow), and Lady Windermere’s Lover (Damian and Cynthia Windermere). But I think the best of series ribbon goes to this concluding novel. It has everything that makes a book a keeper—compelling characters, a credible plot with real conflict and no missteps, and wonderful prose. It is an extraordinary book, and I give it my highest recommendation. For those who wondered if Neville could possibly give readers a book in which the Duke of Denford lived up to all his intriguing promise in Lady Windermere’s Lover, I assure you that she succeeded. While I am impatiently waiting to hear what Miranda Neville has for us next, I plan to reread the Wild Quartet.

~Janga

Miranda Neville Winner

The winner of a book from yesterday's Q&A with Miranda Neville is

Mary D.

Congratulations, Mary!  

Please send us your full name and mailing address and let us know if you want a copy of 

The Ruin of a Rogue or Lady Windermere's Lover.  

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Today's Special - - Miranda Neville

PJ here.  I always get excited when one of my auto-buy authors visits TRD, especially when I get the chance to lob questions at her! :)  Our special guest today is historical romance author Miranda Neville whose new book, Lady Windermere's Lover was launched into the world this week.  (If it's not on your summer reading list, it should be!) Miranda grew up in England devouring the books of Georgette Heyer, Jean Plaidy and other historical authors of the day. She studied history at Oxford and worked for several years for Sotheby's auction house in London and New York City. Miranda now lives in rural Vermont where she enjoys cooking, gardening, cross-country skiing and writing the historical romance novels we love to read.  You can find more information about Miranda and her books at her website and connect with her online at Facebook and Twitter.  Please give her a warm Romance Dish welcome!

Welcome, Miranda!  After reading – and loving – The Ruin of a Rogue, I was excited to learn that Lady Windermere’s Lover would be the story of Lady Cynthia Windermere and her absent husband, Damian, Earl of Windermere.  Please tell readers what they can expect from this book.

Hi PJ. Thanks for your kind words about The ROAR. It’s always a pleasure to visit the Dish! Damian is a mystery to the readers of the series and he was to me, too. All I knew of him was that he’d made this terrible mistake on his twenty-first birthday and gambled away his estate. As a result he broke away from his wild friends and became a super respectable diplomat. He married Cynthia to regain his estate and almost immediately left for a year. When he returns he finds things have changed: Cynthia has bloomed into a beauty and she appears to be having an affair with his former best friend, the Duke of Denford.

Cynthia and Damian have more than his protracted absence to overcome if they wish to reach their happy ending.  What was it about these two characters that convinced you they were meant to be together?

I threw a lot of problems at the couple: a lousy honeymoon, Damian behaving like a bit of a prize ass, and a couple of issues that Cynthia isn’t talking about.  They don’t know each other well and what they know isn’t encouraging. When Damian turned respectable following his gambling disaster, he repressed the sensitive, artistic aspects of his personality. In trying to win back Cynthia, a fundamentally decent person, he has to rediscover that side of his character and learns they share they same interests. He is a gentler character than Denford, who would not be at all the right man for her.  She wants to love her husband but she’s no pushover and he has to work hard to win her back.

I loved that Cynthia had found her confidence in his absence and made Damien work his way back into her life. The marriage of convenience is one of my favorite romance tropes.  What is it about this type of story that appeals to you as a writer?  Do you also enjoy a marriage of convenience story as a reader?

Love, love, love the MoC! It’s a trope that never gets old. Tolstoy famously said that happy families are all alike, unhappy ones all unhappy in their own way. I feel the same way about MoC or estranged couples in romance. And in historicals there’s the added tension that they can’t just bail and get a divorce, at least not easily. They may well be miserable forever so the stakes are very high.

Do you have a book planned for Denford?  (I’m not above begging!)

Funny you should ask, but yes! Not only planned but written. The Duke of Dark Desires comes out on New Year’s Eve. I’m not saying much about it yet, but I’ll tell you that the sins of his youth are coming back to bite him in the form of a beautiful and vengeful governess.

Yay!  I do love those bad boys, especially when they finally meet the woman who's going to bring them to their knees.  ;-)

Summer is my favorite season for catching up on my reading.   There are so many delicious places (hammock, lounge chair, pool, beach) to relax with a good book.  What books are on your reading list this summer?

Loretta Chase’s Vixen in Velvet comes out the same day as Lady Windermere’s Lover. I suspect by the time this interview appears I shall have scarfed it up. I’m really looking forward to Katharine Ashe’s I Adored a Lord. And there’s a new Susan Elizabeth Phillips – Heroes Are My Weakness – on August 26, which happens to be my birthday. Happy birthday to me!

Oooh, that's my kind of birthday present!

Damian spent his time in the foreign office traveling to exotic locations.  What’s the most exotic location you’ve visited?  Where would you most like to visit?

I once spent two weeks in the mountains of southern Spain in a town called Ronda, staying in a medieval Moorish palace. The facilities were kind of medieval too! I had a great time researching the backstory of Damian’s visit to Persia, which was just opening up to the West. Right now, I probably wouldn’t put Iran on my list but one day, maybe. I would love to visit India.

Besides books, my other summer love is seasonal food.  Every week I load up on plenty of fresh fruits and veggies at the local Farmer’s Market and enjoy turning them into delicious summer dishes.  If your characters invited you to attend their annual summer picnic, what dish would you bring to share?

Great question! I visit the local farm stand almost daily in the summer. My current favorite food is quinoa (a South American high-protein grain for those who don’t know it). I have a delicious quinoa salad recipe, quite spicy with chipotle peppers, lime juice, and cilantro. Perfect for picnics or potlucks.

Mmmm.  That sounds delicious!  I haven't cooked with quinoa - yet - but I've had dishes made with it and they were very good.  

Will you be attending any conferences or book signings this summer where readers will have the opportunity to meet you?

I shall be at RWA in San Antonio in July.  If you are there, please come and say hello, either at the giant Literacy Book Fair (open to the public) or at the Avon Open House (for conference registrants).

I'll look forward to seeing you in San Antonio!

What’s next from Miranda Neville?

As well as The Duke of Dark Desires, I have a couple of novellas in the works. I’m planning my next historical series and enjoying not being under deadline.

Thanks so much for visiting with us today, Miranda.  Would you like to ask our readers a question?

As I write this, I am looking out of my Vermont window at blue skies, fluffy clouds, and sunshine on the New Hampshire mountains. I love to travel but home is pretty good too! What are you enjoying about your home this summer?

One randomly chosen person who leaves a comment on today's post will receive a copy of The Ruin of a Rogue or Lady Windermere's Lover (winner's choice - open to all countries serviced by bookdepository.com).  

Today's Special -- At the Duke's Wedding

June is considered the month for weddings, so what better way to celebrate that than to have four ladies who write historical romance and are experts at love tell their own wedding stories! Maya Rodale penned the popular Writing Girl Series and makes her home in New York City. Miranda Neville is in the midst of a new series, the Wild Quartet, and lives in beautiful rural Vermont. Caroline Linden's upcoming book, Love and Other Scandals (August), is already garnering rave reviews! Caroline lives with her family near Boston. Katharine Ashe starts a new series in September with the upcoming, I Married the Duke. Katharine resides in the wonderfully warm Southeast. Please welcome Maya, Miranda, Caroline, and Katharine!

Last year the four of us wrote short stories for a free promotion piece (Once Upon a Ballroom) and had a wonderful time. So wonderful that we had to do it again, this time on a larger scale. Brainstorming for a June release, naturally we thought of weddings. One wedding, at an English ducal estate 1813. But with four different heroes and heroines meeting, quarreling and reaching Happy Ever After during a two-week-long house party, ending up with four weddings, none of them expected. 

Each of us plotted her own novella, but we came up with a number of common threads and characters that appear in all our stories, notably the White Muslin Crew of Regency girls running wild, the wisecracking Lady Sophronia, and Hippolyta, the world’s greatest high perch phaeton. 

And then there was the timeline. Emails flew through cyberspace: “Can we have a cricket match on Day 7?” “Is it OK if your guy and mine meet in the stables on the morning of Day 10?” And gales of virtual laughter as we wrote little scenes for each other’s characters. We hope AT THE DUKE’S WEDDING will bring readers as much pleasure. Descriptions of the four novellas may be found at http://www.atthedukeswedding.com. 

We’d like to share some of our own wedding stories and pictures.

 

 

 

 

Maya: The bride and groom wore cowboy boots--even though he's a Brit! My sister the bridesmaid, who may or may not be taller than me, was forced to wear flats. But hey, it was my day! My perfect, lovely, totally romantic day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miranda: I was married in June in the English countryside but not at a ducal mansion. The reception was in the garden of my parents’ house. I wish I could tell you about the food and decorations but the details vanished into a blissful haze. I was attended by my five-year-old niece. As you can see by the “before and after” picture, her toilette deteriorated in the course of the day. The yellow satin sash was one I’d worn as a flower girl at the same age (my mother never threw anything away) and the elderly male cat was named Cleopatra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caroline: Here's a candid photo of me, getting photobombed by an irate junior usher! He was about 6 and wildly annoyed by all the photos being taken, when we could have been doing something much more important like getting to the food. My favorite comment on the ceremony was from my younger sister, who was a flower girl: "It was like going to church, but short and not boring."

 

 

 

Katharine: Right before we all went off to the church, my parents' house was full of crazily busy people: me and my sisters dressing, the stylist coiffing, the photographer grabbing us all for pictures, caterers running between the kitchen and the tent out back where the reception was to be held, and little nieces and nephews scampering through it all. And it was pouring rain: lovely, wet, steamy June in Pennsylvania.  

That's when our French baker called. In a torrent of irate Gallic syllables he lambasted the florist. She had apparently informed him that she would decorate the cake with fresh flowers (as planned) at our house rather than at the bakery where he could supervise. The florist (a truly amazing artist) thought he was a pipsqueak. Fifteen minutes before the ceremony, the baker refused to deliver the cake.  

Then someone summoned my husband. Fluent not only in the French language but also in the character of certain Frenchmen, he grasped the phone with confidence.  

First he told the baker that his cake was sans doute the most important part of the entire wedding. Then he agreed that the florist's demand was thoroughly outrageous. Finally he promised the baker that should anything happen to the cake other than the greatest artistry, he would hold himself personally accountable and write a condemnation of the florist and a formal apology to the baker. 

By the time my husband hung up, he and the baker were best friends. My hero. 

The cake was delicious–and beautiful, as you can see in the picture.

I used the baker as the model for the French baker in my novella HOW TO MARRY A HIGHLANDER (coming July 30). 

 

 

Please share your favorite wedding story, from your own or any other wedding. We have prizes for three commenters: a complete set of Caroline Linden’s Bow Street Agent trilogy (A View to A Kiss, For Your Arms Only, and You Only Love Twice); Miranda Neville’s The Importance of Being Wicked, plus the prequel novella The Second Seduction of a Lady; a digital download of Maya Rodales’s Seducing Mr. Knightly. (We forgot to ask Katharine about a prize before she left on vacation WITH NO INTERNET.) Sorry, US addresses only.

At The Duke's Wedding

            (A Regency Romance Anthology)            

As society gathers at Kingstag Castle for the wedding of the year, matrimony is in the air. But who will be the bride? With swoonworthy lords, witty ladies, eccentric relatives, a gaggle of free-spirited girls, not to mention the world’s best high perch phaeton, it’s a recipe for mayhem — and romance. Award winning, best-selling authors Katharine Ashe, Caroline Linden, Miranda Neville and Maya Rodale serve up delectable Regency fun and a sexy contemporary twist in this anthology of original novellas.

Four authors, four couples, four deliciously romantic surprises. When it comes to love, anything can happen…

That Rogue Jack  by Maya Rodale

Jack, Lord Willoughby is charming, handsome, and utterly irresponsible. In other words, he’s the worst person to entrust with the ducal wedding ring. Miss Henrietta Black is prim, proper and the ideal person to help find the priceless family heirloom that’s gone missing… as long as she isn’t distracted by Jack’s gorgeous smile and tantalizing attempts at seduction. They MUST find the ring before the wedding… if they aren’t too busy falling in love.  

PS. I Love You  by Miranda Neville

Handsome, inarticulate Frank Newnham asks his cousin Christian's help when he woos Rosanne Lacy by letter. Rosanne falls for Frank's delicious prose, but when they meet in person at the duke's wedding party, Rosanne can't understand why Frank seems so ... dull. And why is she drawn to the dark brooding Earl of Bruton, with his scarred face and air of melancholy?  

When I Met My Duchess  by Caroline Linden

Gareth Cavendish, Duke of Wessex, believes he’s chosen the perfect bride… until he meets her sister and lightning strikes—literally! Now he’s the only member of society dreading the wedding of the season. Or is he? Cleo Barrows can’t fathom why her knees weaken every time the handsome duke approaches, or why her sister isn’t in the clouds at the prospect of marrying him. But the more often wedding plans throw Cleo and Gareth intimately together, the faster time is running out to turn the celebration of the summer into the scandal of the year.

How Angela Got Her Rogue Back  by Katharine Ashe

When gorgeous Lord Trenton Ascot beckons to history grad student Angela Cowdrey from the pages of a comic book, she thinks she’s going crazy. When Trent rescues her from a lake and she claims she’s from the future, he knows he is. But a blackmailer is threatening Trent’s family and Angela is determined to help. While unraveling the mystery of her time-travel trip to the duke’s wedding, this modern girl and Regency lord just might discover a passion that defies centuries.

Total anthology length: 129,000 words/516 pages