Never Entice an Earl
Page 31
I hope you enjoy INN AT LAST CHANCE. It’s a contemporary, gothic-inspired tale involving a brooding hero, a plucky heroine, a haunted house, and a secret that’s been kept for years.
From the desk of Molly Cannon
Dear Reader,
Weddings! I love them. The ceremony, the traditions, the romance, the flowers, the music, and of course the food. Face it. I embrace anything when cake is involved. When I got married many moons ago, there was a short ceremony and then cake and punch were served in the next room. That was it. Simple and easy and really lovely. But possibilities for weddings have expanded since then.
In FLIRTING WITH FOREVER, Irene Cornwell decides to become a wedding planner, and she has to meet the challenge of giving brides what they want within their budget. And it can be a challenge! I have planned a couple of weddings, and it was a lot of work, but it was also a whole lot of fun. Finding the venue, booking the caterer, deciding on the decorating theme. It is so satisfying to watch a million details come together to launch the happy couple into their new life together.
In one wedding I planned we opted for using mismatched dishes found at thrift stores on the buffet table. We found a bride selling tablecloths from her wedding and used different swaths of cloth as overlays. We made a canopy for the dance floor using pickle buckets and PFC pipe covered in vines and flowers, and then strung it with lights. We spray-painted cheap glass vases and filled them with flowers to match the color palette. And then, as Irene discovered, the hardest part is cleaning up after the celebration is over. But I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
Another important theme in FLIRTING WITH FOREVER is second-chance love. My heart gets all aflutter when I think about true love emerging victorious after years of separation, heartbreak, and misunderstanding. Irene and Theo fell in love as teenagers, but it didn’t last. Now older and wiser they reunite and fall in love all over again. Sigh.
I hope you’ll join Irene and Theo on their journey. I promise it’s even better the second time around.
Happy Reading!
Mollycannon.com
Twitter @CannonMolly
Facebook.com
From the desk of Laura London
Dear Reader,
The spark to write THE WINDFLOWER came when Sharon read a three-hundred-year-old list of pirates who were executed by hanging. The majority of the pirates were teens, some as young as fourteen. Sharon felt so sad about these young lives cut short that it made her want to write a book to give the young pirates a happier ending.
For my part, I had much enjoyed the tales of Robert Lewis Stevenson as a boy. I had spent many happy hours playing the pirate with my cousins using wooden swords, cardboard hats, and rubber band guns.
Sharon and I threw ourselves into writing THE WINDFLOWER with the full force of our creative absorption. We were young and in love, and existed in our imaginations on a pirate ship. We are proud that we created a novel that is in print on its thirty-year anniversary and has been printed in multiple languages around the world.
Fondly yours,
Writing as Laura London
From the desk of Sue-Ellen Welfonder
Dear Reader,
At a recent gathering, someone asked about my upcoming releases. I revealed that I’d just launched a new Scottish medieval series, Scandalous Scots, with an e-novella, Once Upon a Highland Christmas, and that TO LOVE A HIGHLANDER would soon follow.
As happens so often, this person asked why I set my books in Scotland. My first reaction to this question is always to come back with, “Where else?” To me, there is nowhere else.
Sorley, the hero of TO LOVE A HIGHLANDER, would agree. Where better to celebrate romance than a land famed for men as fierce and wild as the soaring, mist-drenched hills that bred them? A place where the women are prized for their strength and beauty, the fiery passion known to heat a man’s blood on cold, dark nights when chill winds raced through the glens? No land is more awe-inspiring, no people more proud. Scots have a powerful bond with their land. Haven’t they fought for it for centuries? Kept their heathery hills always in their hearts, yearning for home when exiled, the distance of oceans and time unable to quench the pull to return?
That’s a perfect blend for romance.
Sorley has such a bond with his homeland. Since he was a lad, he’s been drawn to the Highlands. Longing for wild places of rugged, wind-blown heights and high moors where the heather rolls on forever, so glorious it hurt the eyes to behold such grandeur. But Sorley’s attachment to the Highlands also annoys him and poses one of his greatest problems. He suspects his father might have also been a Highlander—a ruthless, cold-hearted chieftain, to be exact. He doesn’t know for sure because he’s a bastard, raised at Stirling’s glittering royal court.
In TO LOVE A HIGHLANDER, Sorley discovers the truth of his birth. Making Sorley unaware of his birthright as a Highlander was a twist I’ve always wanted to explore. I’m fascinated by how many people love Scotland and burn to go there, many drawn back because their ancestors were Scottish. I love that centuries and even thousands of miles can’t touch the powerful pull Scotland exerts on its own.
Sorley’s heritage explains a lot, for he’s also a notorious rogue, a master of seduction. His prowess in bed is legend and he ignites passion in all the women he meets. Only one has ever shunned him. She’s Mirabelle MacLaren and when she returns to his life, appearing in his bed-chamber with an outrageous request, he’s torn.
Mirabelle wants him to scandalize her reputation.
He’d love to oblige, especially as doing so will destroy his enemy.
But touching Mirabelle will rip open scars best left alone. Unfortunately, Sorley can’t resist Mirabelle. Together, they learn that when the heart warms, all things are possible. Yet there’s always a price. Theirs will be surrendering everything they’ve ever believed in and accepting that true love does indeed heal all wounds.
I hope you enjoy reading TO LOVE A HIGHLANDER! I know I loved unraveling Sorley and Mirabelle’s story.
Highland Blessings!
www.welfonder.com
Also by Lily Dalton
Never Desire a Duke
ACCLAIM FOR
NEVER DESIRE A DUKE
“Dalton’s Regency debut resonates with genuine feeling…Unlike some one-note tortured heroes, Vane is sincere and appealing. Sophia’s pain is very real, and every interaction is fraught with honest emotion. As they struggle to recapture their romance, readers will feel deep sympathy with both characters and hope for them to find happiness.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“4½ stars! The first in Dalton’s One Scandalous Season series grabs the reader’s emotions in an intensely passionate love story, filled with misunderstandings, past indiscretions, trust, and forgiveness. But, for all the intensity, this gifted storyteller also deftly lightens the mood in a very well-written and satisfying read by adding a few zany characters bent on mischief and mayhem.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Never Desire a Duke is a terrific debut novel—it reminded me of Lisa Kleypas’ most memorable novels with a to-die-for hero and a lovely but heartbroken heroine. It’s an intensely beautiful, moving story (but it does have its funny moments) and you won’t be able to help yourself—you’ll be rooting for them to get back together.”
—EverAfter.com.au
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Cha
pter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
A Preview of Never Surrender to a Scoundrel
A Preview of Never Desire a Duke
The Dish
Also by Lily Dalton
Acclaim for Never Desire a Duke
Newsletters
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Kim Ungar
Excerpt from Never Surrender to a Scoundrel © 2014 by Kim Ungar
Excerpt from Never Desire a Duke © 2013 by Kim Ungar
Cover design by Diane Luger
Cover art by Aleta Rafton
Handlettering by Ron Zinn
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: April 2014
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ISBN 978-1-4555-2397-9
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