Today's Special - - Nancy Northcott Guest Post & Giveaway

Did you know that Romance Dish Reviewer Nancy is also a published author? Her books range from historical fantasy to contemporary paranormal to romantic spy adventures and even space opera. There's a bit of something for everyone! Today, Nancy joins us to talk about the appeal of tortured heroes and share what's going on with some of her own. Welcome, Nancy! 

The Appeal of the Tortured Hero

by Nancy Northcott

 

Thanks for having me today, PJ! 

I have a special fondness for stories of tortured heroes. Watching love bring them into the light is one of my favorite romance journeys. We all admire someone who pushes through to do the right thing, even when it’s difficult. Even when—maybe especially when—it’s painful. Or comes at a high personal price. 

Such characters appear in all genres, but they have special appeal in romance. We expect our heroes to do what’s right, but we love them more when it’s difficult for them. Romances with tortured heroes often involve renunciation, the hero giving up the heroine in the (mistaken) belief she’ll be better off without him. The heroine, of course, refuses to accept this. Sometimes she wins the hero back, and sometimes an external force, a friend, an event, or even a surfacing, long-forgotten memory spurs him to reconsider. To understand where he’s coming from and why he’s wrong. 

Reaching the point where he realizes that he not only deserves love but can be a positive factor in someone else’s life, completes the hero’s story arc. There are heroines who walk away for similar reasons, but such sacrifices are more commonly made by heroes. 

Romance is the genre of healing and emotional redemption, after all. It thus offers wide latitude to a heroine trying to soothe a tortured soul with love. 

Sherrilynn Kenyon’s Acheron is probably the ultimate tortured hero. Through centuries of abuse, he has internalized a terrible self-image. His human death unleashed destruction. He now resolves to be alone, protecting mankind and supporting all the other Dark-Hunters. Until one woman insisted on seeing him a different way. 

Pamela Clare’s Zach McBride (Breaking Point) suffers from survivor guilt that keeps him from building a personal life for himself. Despite his feelings for reporter Natalie Benoit, he walks away from her. Until he can’t, because she has become a target. Protecting her forces him to face his feelings and move beyond his guilt and fear. 

Nalini Singh has written a number of tortured heroes in her Psy/Changeling series. One of my favorites is Kaleb Krychek (Heart of Obsidian), a cardinal telepath who sees himself as a monster. He finds and rescues the only friend from his childhood. She doesn’t see him as a monster, and she also bears scars. The rescue is their chance to save each other. 

As a writer, I gravitate toward friends-to-lovers or second-chance-at-love stories, sometimes a hybrid of the two. But I sometimes write a tortured hero. Richard Mainwaring, Lord Hawkstowe, of The Herald of Day is tormented by his family curse and what it means for any children he might have. Lifting the curse seems impossible, so he resolves to have no children, to stop the curse from dooming another generation. Until a tavern maid who nurtures hope crosses his path. 

I also have a tortured hero in my Light Mage Wars paranormal romances, which I’m re-releasing this year. The ones that were traditionally published have new covers, and the entire series has new branding. I’m very excited about it. I love all the heroes (and all the heroines), but I nurture a special fondness for the the guilt-ridden hero of the second book, Renegade Mage. 

Six years ago, grief and anger over betrayal led Griffin Dare to make a fateful mistake. He was the mages’ top cop, and four of his deputies died that day. Other deputies and friends have died since, and he believes that’s his fault. Now he has the top slot of the mages’ Most Wanted Fugitives list. He expects to die an outlaw, but he’ll be satisfied if he can expose the traitor in the mages’ ranks along the way. Even though he and his friends secretly fight the deadly ghouls, the battle isn’t for him. It’s to protect mages and humans. No one, he vows, will ever risk their lives for his sake again. 

When his path crosses Valeria Banning’s, she has some insights that surprise him. They’re drawn to each other, but can Griff overcome his guilt and pain to seize this chance at love? 

The other two books currently out don’t have tortured heroes, but I’ll mention them here because they’re all recent re-releases, and while I enjoy tortured heroes, I also enjoy those with a little less angst. 

The first book in the series, Mage Sentinel, is a prequel about Griff’s sister, Caroline Dare, and the man her brother’s secrets bring into her path. Rick Moore is on a quest for justice for his dead father, and exposing the help he believes the Dare family has given Griff is his only hope. Too bad he’s falling in love with Caroline. 

The third of the books currently out, number three in the series, is The Deadly Orb. It’s about wildland firefighters. A current of attraction has long run between helicopter pilot Josh Campbell and firefighter paramedic Edie Lang. But Josh has vowed never to marry a woman in a dangerous job. His mother was killed in the line of duty as a deputy sheriff, and his father disintegrated, leaving young Josh to care for his two sisters. When magic forces him and Edie into proximity, though, he finds that vow hard to sustain. 

So that’s it for me on tortured heroes and new books.  Thanks again for having me today, PJ! I’m giving away winner’s choice of either Mage Sentinel or Renegade Mage to one commenter today. (The Deadly Orb isn’t an option because it contains spoilers for Renegade Mage.) 

For a chance to win, leave a comment telling me who your favorite tortured hero is and why you love his story. Or, if tortured heroes aren’t your thing, tell me who’s your favorite hero and why. Books, TV, and movies all qualify. Giveaway ends at 11:00 PM, March 20.

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

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Book links: 

Mage Sentinel: 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mage-Sentinel-Light-Wars-Novel-ebook/dp/B09PGXSMWX 

Everywhere else: https://books2read.com/u/m2YNzj

  

Renegade Mage: 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09PJRVY97 

Everywhere else: https://books2read.com/u/baDQA8

  

The Deadly Orb 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09TJCLR2H 

Everywhere else: https://books2read.com/u/baDQw8

Touring the 17th Century with Nancy Northcott

When Nancy Northcott is here it's usually to talk about someone else's book in one of her reviews. But today, Nancy joins us to talk about one of her books! She recently visited England and is here today to take us on a visual journey of the places her characters might have visited in the 17th century.  Welcome back, Nancy!

Nancy Northcott’s childhood ambition was to grow up and become Wonder Woman.  Around fourth grade, she realized it was too late to acquire Amazon genes, but she still loved comic books, science fiction, fantasy, history, and romance.

She has written freelance articles and taught at the college level.  Her most popular course was on science fiction, fantasy, and society.   She has also given presentations on the Wars of the Roses and Richard III to university classes studying Shakespeare’s play about that king. Reviewers have described her books as melding fantasy, romance, and suspense. Library Journal gave her debut novel, Renegade, a starred review, calling it “genre fiction at its best.”

In addition to the historical fantasy Boar King’s Honor trilogy, Nancy writes the Light Mage Wars paranormal romances, the Lethal Webs romantic spy adventures, and the Outcast Station science fiction mysteries.

Married since 1987, Nancy and her husband have one son, a bossy dog, and a house full of books.

Nancy’s Social Media links;

www.nancynorthcott.com

Twitter: @NancyNorthcott

Facebook 

Goodreads 

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Touring the 17^th Century

with Nancy Northcott

Some of you may have seen this book before. Falstaff Books reissued it this past month, in Kindle, paperback, and (major thrill!) hardcover editions.

The Boar King’s Honor Trilogy

A wizard’s misplaced trust

A king wrongly blamed for murder

A bloodline cursed until they clear the king’s name

Book 1: The Herald of Day

In 17th-century England, witchcraft is a hanging offense. Tavern maid Miranda Willoughby hides her magical gifts until terrifying visions compel her to seek the aid of a stranger, Richard Mainwaring, to interpret them. A powerful wizard, he sees her summons as a chance for redemption.  He bears a curse because an ancestor unwittingly helped murder the two royal children known as the Princes in the Tower, and her message uses symbols related to those murders.

Miranda’s visions reveal that someone has altered history, spreading famine, plague, and tyranny across the land. The quest to restore the timeline takes her and Richard from the glittering court of Charles II to a shadowy realm between life and death, where they must battle the most powerful wizard in generations with the fate of all England at stake.

  

I like to walk the ground my characters walk. Sometimes that’s not possible. Outcast Station doesn’t exist, and I have yet to explore the hidden depths of the Okefenokee Swamp. Where the place isn’t real or has vanished or just isn’t accessible, of course, there’s always imagination to fill the gaps. But being there is a real treat.

Lucky for me, bits of 17^th-century England, the setting for The Herald of Day, remain. I set out to find as many as I could, and I had more luck than I expected.

The book opens in Dover. The hero and heroine, Richard and Miranda, have an important conversation on the headland of Dover Castle, near the an ancient church and the shell of the Roman lighthouse. The church, St. Mary in Castro, was built in the 11^th century AD and is thought to have replaced an even older church. Of course, it has undergone substantial restoration through the centuries.

When Richard and Miranda stood on the headland, however, the buildings would have been much as they are now.

There are indications of a Bronze Age hillfort around the area where the church and the lighthouse stand. Saxon churches often supplanted places of pagan worship, so it wasn’t a stretch to say the headland had been a sacred spot in King Arthur’s Day.

From Dover, Richard and Miranda travel to London.  In 1674, when the book is set, the only bridge across the Thames was London Bridge, which was narrow, crowded, and lined with houses. Fires often broke out on the bridge. So did quarrels among those traversing it. The southern end was adorned by the severed heads of those executed for treason. It was a far cry from London Bridge today.

When Miranda and Richard reach the bridge, soldiers are limiting the number of people who can go through at any time because of a recent fire. The traffic backs up into Borough High Street and the yard of St. Savior’s Church, which is Southwark Cathedral today.

Although it doesn’t show here, the road now is far above the churchyard. That’s because old London Bridge was level with the original roadway and the churchyard.  When the bridge was replaced, it was built higher and with bigger arches underneath so ships could sail past it.

Not far from London Bridge stands the George Inn, the last of the galleried coaching inns that once lined Borough High Street. There has been an inn on this site since the 15^th century. The current building dates to the late 17^th century. Charles Dickens was a frequent visitor. A couple of friends and I had lunch there and enjoyed gawking at our surroundings while we ate.

Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims set off from another such inn nearby, the Tabard. A window in Southwark Cathedral commemorates the story.

The house where Miranda and Richard live, at #36 Bishopsgate, is entirely imaginary. It sits on the site of Crosby Place, medieval home of a wealthy London merchant. When Richard III was Duke of Gloucester, he rented Crosby Place as his London base. Putting Richard Mainwaring, the hero, there, was a nod to King Richard. The Herald of Day is the first book in a trilogy, The Boar King’s Honor, about his reputation.

The only surviving part of Crosby Place is the great hall, with its glorious hammerbeam roof. It was moved to Chelsea in 1910 and is now in private hands, alas.

In the 17^th century, Westminster was the seat of government, but the City of London was, as it is now, the seat of business and finance. In The Herald of Day, Richard and his friend Jeremy ride from Lambeth Palace, in Westminster, into the City of London on an urgent errand. Lambeth Palace, of course, is still there and still the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, as it was then.

There was a gate into the City of London at the junction of Fleet Street and the Strand as early as 1293. By the time of The Herald of Day, the gateway was a magnificent structure designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Statues of James I, Anne of Denmark, Charles I, and Charles II adorn it. Richard and Jeremy ride through this gateway.

In the 19^th century, the street needed widening.  The gateway was preserved and eventually was re-erected in Paternoster Square, near St. Paul’s Cathedral. The photos above were taken there. A gryphon statue in the street median replaced it at its old site (note HM Queen Victoria in the base).

Miranda and Richard attend a ball at Whitehall Palace, where they have an unpleasant confrontation. All that remains of the palace now, at least as far as public accessibility goes, is the Banqueting House. Here are a view of it from the rear, one of the interior, and one of the beautiful ceiling.

Toward the end of the book, there’s a running battle from the Palace of Whitehall, which burned in the late 1600s, down to Westminster Abbey.

  

The characters race full tilt past St. Margaret’s Church (just visible at the left edge of the photo) and into the west door of the Abbey, shown here.

  

I’ll never be able to walk the streets of 17^th-century London, but the sites I visited gave me a taste of that city. I had a blast visiting them. I hope you enjoy the photos.

What place in what era would you visit if you could? Would you want to live there or only visit?