
Aughor Mageela Troche
Please help me welcome Regency author Mageela Troche. Mageela is here to promote her debut novel, The Marriage Alliance. To celebrate, she’ll be giving a copy of the book to one lucky commenter. All you have to do is say you want the book. I’ll post the winner on Sunday News.
Ella: Mageela, welcome. I’m so glad you could visit.
Mageela: Thanks for having me.
Ella: Oh, fun. I majored in International Relations as well and Stephanie Laurens!!
Mageela: I’ve been writing since I first learned my alphabet however when I went to college, Syracuse University (Go ‘Cuse!) I majored in International Relations thinking I needed a career once I graduated. That changed and a friend gave me Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens and my passion for writing returned.
Ella: What drew you to historicals?
Mageela: I love history. The research is so fun, discovering lives forgotten.
Ella: Tell us how long you’ve been writing and what it was like to receive the “call.”
Mageela: The “Call” came last year, my local RWA chapter, RWA/NYC, held their annual Golden Apple Awards and the Publisher of the Year was Secret Craving Publishing. The publisher held a contest to publish one book. I placed second but they still wanted my book. It’s the headiest feeling in the word and the validation and sweetness of accomplishing a goal—it’s dizzying in the best way and your whole world changes and becomes brighter.
Ella: Is this book part of a series?
Mageela: I’m writing two more novels with characters meet in The Marriage Alliance and a novella.
Ella: I love related books, as I know many of my readers do. Congratulations on your release!!

The Marriage Alliance
Blurb:
Her hand in marriage could secure peace.
Lady Ailsa Cameron has slept through a few masses. She isn’t the most patient of souls. However, the gentle lass never did anything wicked enough for her father, Laird Cameron to demand she wed Black Duncan, the Laird of Clan MacLean.
The leader of the Spartans of the North, Duncan MacLean inspires many gruesome tales in the majestic highlands and beyond. Duncan accepts Laird Cameron’s offer of his daughter’s hand in marriage to war against their shared enemy, Clan MacKinnon. Wed to the ravishing woman, he aches to possess her even as he vows never to lower his defenses, again.
Can past enemies become lovers?
As love blooms between them, a betrayal incites a war, endangering his clan, and jeopardizing Ailsa and Duncan’s lives and their chance to love ever after.
Excerpt:
Scottish Highlands, 1256
Surely, Ailsa Cameron never managed anything in her score of a lifetime so wicked to deserve this cruel punishment. She never took the life of another. Admittedly, she dozed through a few masses in her lifetime. Others were guilty of such sin and never punished so harshly. Maybe, it was the many times she took the Lord’s name in vain. That vile curse hadn’t passed her lips for some time, not since her last penance forbade her from speaking for a sennight. Although Ailsa remained silent until the noon meal, her guilt lingered. That did not warrant her wedding the dreaded Duncan MacLean.
Nay, she journeyed along this stone-littered tract to the MacLean fortress because of men and one in particular, her father—Laird Cameron. His fierce desire to merge with the Spartans of the North appointed Ailsa the maiden sacrifice to appease the ferocious dragon. Who was the dragon—her father or her husband-to-be?
Either way, Saint Peter would throw open the pearly gates for her since Ailsa behaved as the dutiful daughter, pledging the rest of her days to Laird MacLean.
Not that she had many days to live.
MacLeans would rather kill a Cameron than share the air…of course after they cut out her tongue.
Especially since bloodthirsty MacLeans enjoyed a savory meal of human flesh.
Would her tongue be roasted before consumed or eaten raw?
No doubt raw.
That meal probably accounted for the clan’s immense proportions. Few men towered over highland men yet most highlanders struggled to stand shoulder to shoulder with MacLean men. Muscular forms of others appeared scrawny beside the mighty MacLeans. And the women were no smaller, just about the height of an average highlander, convenient since both sexes lugged around basketfuls of enemies’ fingers. Ailsa strained to reach her brother’s wide shoulders. She’ll never fit in.
She wanted to escape to the mountains rising in the distance behind her. If she veered her mare around, she could gallop away to her freedom in the harsh environment, where she could starve to death or, if luck were on her side, be eaten by wild animals.
Maybe, it wasn’t too late to be a bride of Christ. She could live in a convent and not starve or have her flesh ripped apart by the sharp fangs of wolves. Then again, the nunnery might not be the best place. Even though Ailsa perfected the serene visage her talents rest elsewhere. Besides, she had slumbered through a quite a few more masses than she admitted. Another sin she added to her mental count. Taking the veil would be a disaster for her and the nuns.
So, Ailsa rode onward, up the cresting hill. The impressive fortified castle soared on the rocky outcrop overlooking the sea loch at the path’s end. A towering curtain wall hugged the craggy contours as the loch’s water lapped gently against the rocks. Harsh highland elements weathered the structure’s limestone to a mixture of grays, browns and whites cloaking the structure with the dismal aura Ailsa believed her life would become once behind its walls.
Even her gentle mare, dismayed by the sight ahead, stumbled on a stone strewn on the trail meandering to the gatehouse and her doom.
Buy Links:
Secret Cravings Store ~ Amazon ~ BN ~ All Romance E-books
Bio:
An Air Force brat, Mageela Troche landed in New York City and wanted to leave the same day she arrived. Yet, with her stubbornness, she learned to like the place and the libraries were the main reason. Once she learned to read and write, she decided to be an author and an actress. Once in college, she changed her life plan in the pursuit of money. After all, college loans must be repaid.
With life’s twists and turns, she returned to writing and focused on the romance genre. She joined RWA (Romance Writers of America) in 2004 and soon discovered RWA-NYC. At her first meeting, Keynotes Editor volunteered her to write an article and she knew she found her group. She placed second in Best Love Scene contest and in 2012, RWA-NYC annual award ceremony, the Publisher of the Year, Secret Cravings Publisher, held a contest. First place winner would have their novel published.
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