I’m so happy to welcome Eileen Dreyer back to the blog!! She has very graciously agreed to giveaway one copy of her latest release, Once a Rake, and will answer your questions.
First this stunning cover.
Now the blurb.
All he wants is her help . . .
Colonel Ian Ferguson may
be a rake, but he’s no traitor. Accused of trying to kill the Duke of
Wellington, the disgraced Scotsman is now a fugitive-from the law, the army, and
the cunning assassin who hunts him. Wounded and miles from his allies, Ian finds
himself at the mercy of an impoverished country wife. The spirited woman is
achingly beautiful . . . and hiding some dangerous secrets of her
own.
All she needs is his heart . . .
She was a child
nobody wanted. Now for Lady Sarah Clarke, holding on to her vanished husband’s
crumbling estate is her final chance to earn respectability. She knows that
hiding the devastatingly handsome Ferguson will jeopardize her home. Common
sense demands that she turn him in. But a single, delirious kiss shatters her
resolve . . . and awakens a passion that neither of them can escape.
And an excerpt.
She was still standing fifty feet from the cliff working up the nerve to get close enough for a look down, when she caught the sound of a plaintive squeal. Whipping around, she gaped. She couldn’t believe it. There, tucked into the spinney not ten feet away, stood Willoughby, securely tied to a tree. He didn’t look happy, but Willoughby never looked pleased when his plans were thwarted.
Sarah looked around, expecting to see the Squire’s boys, or Tom Scar, who did odd jobs in the neighborhood and could always be seen walking this way at end of day.
But there was no one there. Just the grass and bracken and never-ending wind, that tugged impatiently at her skirts and tossed her hair back in her eyes.
Could it be her mysterious benefactor again? For the last few days she had suspected that she had a guest on the estate. She had been missing eggs and once found evidence of a rabbit dinner. Probably a soldier, discharged after ten bloody years of war and left with no job or home. He wasn’t the first. He certainly wouldn’t be the last.
At least he had attempted to repay the estate’s meager bounty. Sarah had come out each morning to find some small task done for her. The breach in a dry stone wall mended. Chicken feed spread, old tack repaired, a lost scythe not only found but sharpened. And now, Willoughby.
Another aggrieved snort recalled her attention. Willoughby was looking at her with mournful eyes. Well, Sarah thought he was. It was difficult to see past those ears. She walked over to let him loose and was butted for her troubles.
Whoever had tied him had known what they were about. It took ten minutes of being goosed by an anxious pig to get the knot loose. Wrapping the rope around one fist, Sarah reached into her apron pocket for the piece of coarse blanket she had plucked from the barn. Fluttering it in front of the pig’s nose, she tugged at the rope. Willoughby gave a happy little squeal and nudged her so hard she almost toppled over. She chuckled. It never failed. She pulled him into motion, and he followed, docile as a pet pug.
Buy links:
Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble
It’s Better with Bullets
I know. Not the title you expect on a blog about a historical romance. But you see, I came to historical romance in kind of a roundabout way. Heck, I didn’t even read Georgette Heyer until I’d been writing romance for about ten years. The truth of the matter is that my reading tastes began with bullets. Well, mysteries, anyway. Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden. I loved girl detectives: smart, cute, classy. Popular. I wanted to be one, with a great red roadster with a running board.
And then I discovered Mary Stewart, and I knew that my detectives could have boyfriends. Love lives. Exotic homes. They even spoke French. I was hooked. Those were the books I wanted to read and write. Danger. Adventure. Romance. Travel. Especially travel. After all, I was a Midwestern kid whose wanderings only took her as far as…well, the Midwest. New York seemed exotic to me. Imagine how strange and wonderful Corfu sounded, and Provence, Paris, The Isle of Skye. In the books I read I could live anywhere. Meet anyone. Love anyone. And always, there was the element of danger. The spice of the unknown. The bond that grows between two people facing a threat.
It was inevitable, then, that when I decided to write, all those elements would be included. Besides. I’ll tell you a secret. Every time I try to write a straight romance, I fear my audience will grow bored. After all, the characters are doing nothing but talking…well, not nothing. But, you know. But if you put a bullet through the window, you can keep everybody busy for at least three chapters.
So here I am. I’ve meandered through contemporary romance(with suspense) and medical-forensic suspense(without much romance) and paranormal romance, and I’ve finally arrived at the Regency period of history, where I have managed to find…suspense. Whether I wanted to or not, suddenly I have a nine book series starring a group of gentleman spies who are tracking another group of nefarious(I love that word) traitors bent on taking over the throne. My Drake’s Rakes are classic Regency rakes, and rakish spies who meet the kind of strong heroines who can stand up to them.
In my newest book, ONCE A RAKE, Ian Ferguson has been accused of treason himself, shot, and finds himself bobbing around in the English Channel. Ian is a braw, bold Scot(and yes, I do manage to get him into a kilt) who is saved by Sarah, Lady Clarke, a woman desperately trying to save her husband’s estate on the South Coast. These two are the last people who should fall in love. And yet, they do, while dodging assassins, spies and yes, bullets.
So, to make things clear, I call my DRAKE’S RAKES series romantic historical adventure. That way, nobody will be surprised when the bullets start flying. Because it really is true. Romance is heightened when there is danger. And bullets do keep you busy. Well, at least until we can get around to the love scenes.
Bio.
Award-winning, best-selling author Eileen Dreyer, known as Kathleen Korbel to her Silhouette readers, has published 22 Silhouette books 8 medico-forensic suspense for Harper and St. Martin’s and 7 short stories.
September sees the release of her eighth medico-forensic thriller SINNERS AND SAINTS, starring forensic nurse Chastity Byrnes. Not only does Dreyer have twenty years experience in the field of medicine, sixteen in trauma nursing, she trained in forensic nursing and death investigation, which makes her particularly qualified to create the character of Chasity.
Born and raised in Brentwood, Missouri and a product of Catholic Schools, she lives in St. Louis County with husband Rick and her two children. She has animals but refuses to subject them to the glare of the limelight.
Dreyer won her first publishing award in 1987, being named the best new Contemporary Romance Author by Romantic Times. Since that time she has also garnered not only five other writing awards from Romantic Times, but five RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America, which secures her only the fourth place in the Romance Writers of America prestigious Hall of Fame. Since extending her reach to suspense, she has also garnered a coveted Anthony Award nomination for her last paperback, Bad Medicine. She has over three million books in print world wide, and has made regular appearances on the Waldenbook and B.Dalton bestsellers list, and now the USA Today list.
A frequent speaker at conferences, she maintains membership in Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and, just in case things go wrong, Emergency Nurses Association and International Association of Forensic Nurses, for which she is the unofficial mascot.
Eileen is an addicted traveler, having sung in some of the best Irish pubs in the world, and admits she sees research as a handy way to salve her insatiable curiosity. She counts film producers, police detectives and Olympic athletes as some of her sources and friends. She’s also trained in forensic nursing and death investigation, although she doesn’t see herself actively working in the field, unless this writing thing doesn’t pan out.
It’s Better with Bullets
I know. Not the title you expect on a blog about a historical romance. But you see, I came to historical romance in kind of a roundabout way. Hec, I didn’t even read Georgette Heyer until I’d been writing romance for about ten years. The truth of the matter is that my reading tastes began with bullets. Well, mysteries, anyway. Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden. I loved girl detectives: smart, cute, classy. Popular. I wanted to be one, with a great red roadster with a running board.
And then I discovered Mary Stewart, and I knew that my detectives could have boyfriends. Love lives. Exotic homes. They even spoke French. I was hooked. Those were the books I wanted to read and write. Danger. Adventure. Romance. Travel. Especially travel. After all, I was a Midwestern kid whose wanderings only took her as far as…well, the midwest. New York seemed exotic to me. Imagine how strange and wonderful Corfu sounded, and Provence, Paris, The Isle of Skye. In the books I read I could live anywhere. Meet anyone. Love anyone. And always, there was the element of danger. The spice of the unknown. The bond that grows between two people facing a threat.
It was inevitable, then, that when I decided to write, all those elements would be included. Besides. I’ll tell you a secret. Every time I try to write a straight romance, I fear my audience will grow bored. After all, the characters are doing nothing but talking…well, not nothing. But, you know. But if you put a bullet through the window, you can keep everybody busy for at least three chapters.
So here I am. I’ve meandered through contemporary romance(with suspense) and medical-forensic suspense(without much romance) and paranormal romance, and I’ve finally arrived at the Regency period of history, where I have managed to find…suspense. Whether I wanted to or not, suddenly I have a nine book series starring a group of gentleman spies who are tracking another group of nefarious(I love that word) traitors bent on taking over the throne. My Drake’s Rakes are classic Regency rakes, and rakish spies who meet the kind of strong heroines who can stand up to them.
In my newest book, ONCE A RAKE, Ian Ferguson has been accused of treason himself, shot, and finds himself bobbing around in the English Channel. Ian is a braw, bold Scot(and yes, I do manage to get him into a kilt) who is saved by Sarah, Lady Clarke, a woman desperately trying to save her husband’s estate on the South Coast. These two are the last people who should fall in love. And yet, they do, while dodging assassins, spies and yes, bullets.
So, to make things clear, I call my DRAKE’S RAKES series romantic historical adventure. That way, nobody will be surprised when the bullets start flying. Because it really is true. Romance is heightened when there is danger. And bullets do keep you busy. Well, at least until we can get around to the love scenes.
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Ella Quinn ~ Author 