Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
As you might have noticed, I have become a bit smitten with Mills & Boon Historicals lately – in fact, my first introduction to to the infamous line of Romance novels was through my readings of The Captain’s Disgraced Lady wherein I found myself quite keenly thrilled for the chance to finally read my first Mills & Boon Historical Rom! I’m quite familiar with Harlequin as both of these publishers (as they are one of the same) are equally well-known irregardless of which side of the ‘Pond’ you live on – what caught my eye this particular year are the story-lines and the writers who are writing them.
I am thankful I started hosting with Rachel in order to bring spotlights about these stories but also, having the chance to read a few of them as well. For this particular tour, I had the pleasure of crafting together a topic I felt would inspire my regular readers & blog tour visitors alike to feel better acquainted with Ms Temple and the series she has started to create wherein this novel is the second entry! As you know, I recently have floundered a bit with my Harlequin & Mills and Boon stories – in relation to ‘order of sequence’ for the series themselves – despite that small hurdle, what will be a happy affair is chasing down copies of the stories! As I learnt via Mills & Boon DM on Twitter – the stories themselves are only offered for a limited print run before they are ‘retired’; ergo, it shall be a treasure map of joy once I sort out where they all went in used book channels!
This particular series is a bit of a step outside my usual wanderings – as sometimes I like to do that – pick something rather random which has elements of what is familiar to me and read about a character who may or may not be considered a charming gentleman but perhaps he has a few coveted secrets of his own he’s trying to hide? In other words, I am not generally the girl who regularly seeks out the ‘bad boys’ of Romance – yet every so often, I find myself attracted to a story like this one which has ‘something’ inside it which intrigues me. I think it’s healthy to read in and out of our comfort zones – seeking stories we might overlook otherwise & taking the risk to see if something new might warrant a refreshingly new interest into the writers we might not have known otherwise.
Similar of course, to the theory of thought behind Ms Temple’s response – of how even she, as a writer likes taking her characters outside their own elements of comfort – seeing how they will react & if they will take a leap of faith to find where they will fall afterwards. After all, life without a bit of risk is a bit too boring and I, for one, agree with Ms Temple – spicing up our lives a bit by daring to read or experience something which intrigues us is what gives us a hearty jolt of joy.
I personally love the depth and breadth of these characters she’s created – I can tell I shall be wholly engaged with their journey and most likely, on pins to see how it concludes! What do you say dear hearts!? Do you like to push the envelope a bit on your readerly endeavours? Seeking stories you might have overlooked if only to see if you can find a writer who writes not only with conviction but gives such a firm rounding of scope for their characters your thankful you took the risk to wander outside your normal literary realms of interest?!
I look forward to seeing your comments & thoughts on behalf of this novel or any of the lovely Mills & Boon stories you’ve found to your likely. I look forward to seeing what you’ll be sharing – and may you leave some notes for Ms Temple, too! She left behind a wicked brilliant introduction to this novel! Til next time – enjoy a hearty cuppa of your favourite brew & may your reading adventures fill you with blissitudes!
Lord Ravenscar's Inconvenient Betrothal
by Lara Temple
“Women either ran from Lord Ravenscar or ran to him.”
A Wild Lords and Innocent Ladies story
Alan Rothwell, Marquess of Ravenscar, is furious when unconventional heiress Lily Wallace refuses him purchase of her property. He can’t even win her over with his infamous charm. But when fever seizes him and they’re trapped together, horrified, Alan realizes Lily’s attentions will compromise them both! His solution: take Lily as his betrothed before desire consumes them completely…
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780263932737
on 1st March, 2018
Published By: Mills & Boon (@MillsandBoon)
an imprint of HarperCollins UK + Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
Wild Lords & Innocent Ladies Series:
Lord Hunter’s Cinderella Heiress | Synopsis
Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal
Formats Available: Mills & Boon Historical paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #HistFict + #HistRom or #MillsAndBoon #Historical
Topic I selected to ask the Author:
“I personally love the lead-in to the plot behind “Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal” because there is a measure of realism in how it builds round the ‘unexpected jolt of being placed together’ which leads into a romance no one was expecting to happen. What inspired you most by telling the story in this manner and by taking both your lead characters off-guard in such a dramatic way?”
That’s an excellent observation, Jorie, because I love putting my heroes and heroines in unexpected and unsettling settings (though I try to make them reasonably realistic). I think we are most revealed when we aren’t prepared, when the usual defenses we have constructed haven’t yet come into play.
There is a reason we use the world ‘falling’ in ‘falling in love’. We know there’s a strong element of losing control there, something that pulls the solid base out from under us, and it’s both exhilarating and threatening, like a bungee jump when you aren’t certain the cord will hold (having tried bungee jumping twice, I can safely say those were some of the most terrifying experiences in my life). We can either cling to the cliff face or let go and surrender to that natural and unnatural force.
My heroes and heroines tend to have spent a lifetime building their defenses in response to life’s challenges and disappointments, so what I love doing in my novels is shove them off cliffs – force them into situations where they are shaken out of their comfort zones and watch them at first resist, then realize the pleasure in letting go, then resist again, and finally take an active part in dismantling their defenses. When they finally lower their respective drawbridges to welcome each other in to their safe zones, my mission is accomplished.
Lord Ravenscar and Lily from Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal are a case in point.
The people Ravenscar trusts and cares for can be counted on one hand and they have proven themselves trustworthy over a lifetime. Everyone and everything else is outside those boundaries. He has no wish to live through a replay of the horrible losses he experienced as a child – he is a rake but a responsible one when it comes to his areas of interest (his soldiers, now veterans, and the cloth mills he won gambling but which have become an important source of pride). The one thing he will not contemplate in his life is having children.
Lily is an heiress from Jamaica who spent years as the adulated hostess for her wealthy but philandering father. His death overturns her world (just as her mother’s death had done so years earlier, uprooting her from her quiet life on a tiny island). Now she finds herself financially limited and forced to wed or remain dependent on distant relatives. Unlike Ravenscar, her losses drive her to want one thing – children and a family. She is willing to contemplate marriage with Ravenscar’s wealthy business partner to achieve this end but unfortunately every encounter between her and Ravenscar is a revelation of who she really is. Ravenscar might tease, taunt, and test her but he sees her for who she is, for better and for worse, and there is freedom in that.
So by throwing them into an unexpected situation I can set in motion a whole series of discoveries – together and apart. But even if the initial set-up is unexpected, what happens next is dictated by their (strong) characters – their curiosity, their stubbornness, and their unspoken need to share. Any novel is a dance, I just like to set the stage and then I sit back and watch my hero and heroine dance and I write as fast as I possibly can so I don’t miss a thing.
About Lara Temple
Lara Temple writes strong, sexy regency romances about complex individuals who give no quarter but do so with plenty of passion. Her fifth book with Harlequin Mills & Boon, 'Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal,' will be published in March 2018, and is the second in her Wild Lords series. Her four previous books are: Lord Hunter's Cinderella Heiress, The Duke’s Unexpected Bride, The Reluctant Viscount, and Lord Crayle’s Secret World.
When she was fifteen Lara found a very grubby copy of Georgette Heyer’s Faro’s Daughter in an equally grubby book store. Several blissful hours later she emerged, blinking, into the light of day completely in love with Regency Romance but it took three decades of various fascinating but completely unrelated careers in finance and high tech before she returned to her first love.
Lara lives with her husband and two children who are very good about her taking over the kitchen table for her writing (so she can look out over the garden and dream). She loves to travel (especially to places steeped in history) and read as many books as possible. She recently went looking for that crowded little bookstore but couldn’t quite remember around what corner it was…hopefully it is still there and another girl is in the corner by the window, reading and dreaming…
This guest post feature is courtesy of: Rachel’s Random Resources
Rachel & I first crossed paths whilst celebrating our mutual love of ChocLitUK novels – this blog tour marks the first I’ve been able to host for her after discovering recently she has a blog touring company! You’ve might have seen her badge in my sidebar!? I am looking forward to bringing Guest Author Features, Book Spotlights w/ Notes & Reviews to Jorie Loves A Story hosted by Rachel! It’s quite lovely when someone you know in the twitterverse has started their own company & has followed their passion for helping others. I look forward to working with Rachel more often starting in 2018!
You will next see me hosting her blog tours on the following dates:
- the 16th of March, 2018 : Interview with the writer of The Best Boomerville Hotel
- the 22nd of March, 2018 : Author Guest Post & Review of The Invisible Hand (a re-telling of Shakespeare)
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Cover art of “Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of Lara Temple and the tour badge were all provided by Rachel Random Resources and used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Writerly Topics and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2018.
Comments via Twitter:
.@MillsandBoon #GuestPost by @laratemple1
Jorie asks about #amwriting #LordRavenscar: What inspired you most by telling the story in this manner and by taking both your lead characters off-guard in such a dramatic way?✍️
Visit #JLASblog | #HistRom #blogtour via @rararesources
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter ??? (@joriestory) February 27, 2018
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