Welcome to my stop on Entangled’s Historical Romance Blog Tour for November 2017.
Please leave a comment or question for the authors to let them know you
stopped by.
Lady Evelyn’s Highland Protector by Tara Kingston
About
the Book:
A Highlander’s vow...Scottish spy Gerard
MacMasters never expected to be playing bodyguard in his mission to catch a
killer. Stunning English beauty, Lady Evelyn Hunt, has witnessed a merciless
assassin’s escape—now, she’s in danger, and it’s up to him to keep her alive.
Yet, he is drawn to the tempting woman. Passion flares, but he knows better
than to fall for her. He’s already lost one woman he loved—never again will he
put his heart on the line.
She shields her heart...After a crushing
betrayal at the altar, Lady Evelyn wants nothing to do with love. Kissing a
gorgeous rogue is one thing, but surrendering her heart is another matter. When
she stumbles upon a mysterious crime, nothing prepares her for the dashing Scot
who charges into her life. The hot-blooded Highlander may be her hero—or her
undoing.
Purchase Link:
EXCERPT
Inverness,
Scotland
June, 1891
Truth be told,
Lady Evelyn Hunt rather enjoyed being a fallen woman. While others might well
wring their hands over such a dizzying tumble from grace, she’d discovered an
unexpected benefit of scandal—the invisible scarlet letter she wore was the key
to her independence. After all, with no good name to protect, she had nothing
to lose.
As her traveling
companions gushed over the wares in a milliner’s cramped and cluttered shop,
she debated whether to put that freedom to good use and make her escape. She’d
endured the noisy, pungent train ride from London to the Highlands with nary a
whisper of complaint. After all, it wasn’t every day one embarks on a journey
to stand as a bridesmaid while her dearest friend weds a dashing Scotsman. She
would not have missed Sally’s wedding, not for all the quiet chambers in the
world. But now, as the walls closed in and her friends’ voices blurred, she
eyed the door with a keen longing.
Fanning herself
with one hand, she pulled in a gulp of air, deep as her corset allowed. Drat,
she should’ve loosened the stays. A fashionable silhouette was desirable, but
then again, so was the ability to inhale.
Her pulse
hammered a defiant beat against her eardrums. What harm would there be in
leaving this little shop, if only for a few minutes? It wasn’t as if she
required a chaperone. With her reputation damaged well beyond repair, she was
free to explore the city without benefit of an escort. On the other hand, her
dignity would suffer a devastating blow if she collapsed in an incoherent heap
on the milliner’s floor.
Edging past the
hatmaker’s dour-faced assistant, Evelyn slipped out the door. Relief rushed in.
Fresh calm filled her. Free of the crush and the relentless chatter, she could
once again focus her thoughts. She could breathe.
A shadow fell
over her.
Strong, warm
hands settled over her shoulders.
She gasped.
A stranger
towered over her. A handsome man, dark-haired and broad-shouldered.
“Unhand me, sir.”
His hands fell
away. A hint of a smile danced on his full mouth. “Is the devil nippin’ at yer
heels, lass?”
Good heavens. In
her rush to take her leave of the shop, she’d nearly collided with the fellow,
hadn’t she? So much for avoiding damage to her dignity.
She was tall, too
long-limbed to fit the feminine ideal, but she had to cock her chin to meet his
intent golden-brown eyes. “My apologies.”
“’Tis no harm done.”
A lock of dark hair dipped over his forehead, and he shoved it away. “Do take
care. The next man ye run into might take advantage of the opportunity to find
a lovely lass in his arms.”
The man certainly
had cheek, didn’t he? A reply sprang to her lips, hovering there unspoken as
his hint of a smile gave way to a ridiculously appealing grin.
About
the Author:
Award-winning author Tara Kingston writes
historical romance laced with intrigue, danger, and adventures of the heart. A
Southern-belle-out-of-water in a quaint Pennsylvania town, she lives her own
happily-ever-after in a cozy Victorian with her real-life hero and a pair of
deceptively innocent-looking kitties. The mother of two sons, Tara’s a former
librarian who first discovered her love of the romance genre when she sneaked
more than a peek at her mother’s old-school romance paperbacks. When she’s not
writing, reading, or burning dinner, Tara enjoys movie nights, traveling,
cycling, hiking, DIY projects, quality time with her family, and cheering on
her favorite football team.
https://tarakingston.com/
Highland Redemption by Lori Ann Bailey
About
the Book:
While spying for Clan Cameron, Brodie Cameron
rescues a lass, only to realize it’s Skye—the woman who’d broken his heart. He
needs to get her to her uncle as quickly as possible to keep her safe, but
every minute he’s distracted from his mission brings the clans that much closer
to war. And having beautiful Skye anywhere near him is dangerous, because the
price on his head is higher than the one on hers.
Upon being rescued from kidnappers, Skye finds herself staring into the eyes of
the man she once loved—Brodie Cameron. She’s grateful to be freed, but has no
idea how she’ll resist the lad who has become a braw man. Especially because
she’s promised to another, in a political marriage forged to strengthen the
Royalist clans against the Covenanters who plot to turn Scotland upside down.
Purchase
Link:
EXCERPT
Skye’s heart had
clenched at the all-too-familiar thick Highland burr of the man who’d jumped
into the back of the wagon.
Nae. It couldn’t
be—it was the terror of being abducted by strangers playing tricks on her.
A broad
shouldered man leaned closer and she let go of the breath she held, because she
didn’t recognize the form. These shoulders were much wider and the girth was
almost twice what she remembered from the man of her youth. Hoping to hide, she
sank back into the depths of the cart, her entire body stiffening and her
heartbeat increasing, pounding in her chest.
But then he
reached for her, and a beam of moonlight hit his face. The intruder gave her
the smile that had once brought her to her knees, the one she had spent her
whole childhood trying to put on his face. Now, the sight only brought her
pain.
She had spent the
last five years of her life trying to forget that smile, trying to shake the
memory of him, trying to become a whole person again. With that one cocksure
smirk, he had just shredded all of her efforts, and damn him, she wanted to
reach out and feel that he was real, that this was not one of those dreams she
would wake from and he’d be gone, leaving her alone yet again.
Many times, he’d
visited her at night in her fantasies, saving her from imaginary foes and then
professing his undying love, promising to never leave her side again. In the
delirious haze of sleep, she always forgave him, but this didn’t feel like a
dream.
I’m an imbecile.
She had to remind
herself she hated this man. He’d promised her the moon, made her dare to
believe they could have the perfect life together. A home, a family, and love.
Then he had taken
it all away. He had carelessly tossed her aside and left her with a gaping
hole, a void that could never be filled. She had given her heart to him, and he
had trampled all over it.
About
the Author:
Winner of the National Readers’ Choice Award
and Holt Medallion for Best First Book and Best Historical, Lori
Ann Bailey writes hunky highland heroes and strong-willed independent
lasses finding their perfect matches in the Highlands of 17th century Scotland.
Writing about the people and places playing in her head helps her live out her
dreams and delve into her love of history and romance. When not writing, Lori
enjoys time with her real life hero and four kids or spending time walking or
drinking wine with her friends.
Visit Lori at www.loriannbailey.com.
Or, follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Lori.Ann.Bailey.author
The Maiden’s Defender by E. Elizabeth Watson
About
the Book:
Training men to be ruthless soldiers is a
skill at which Highlander Teàrlach MacGregor excels. He can kill three men with
nothing but a sword and a couple of daggers. After he rescues a ward of the
king, the beautiful Lady Madeline Crawford, the fierce warrior begins to yearn
for a cottage of his own in the Highlands, with the sweet, delicate Madeline as
the mother of his bairns.
Madeline begins to see a side of Teàrlach that
nobody else has witnessed. The strong silent Highlander takes her to her first
fair, teaches her to read, and bestows upon her a passionate kiss—her very
first. But Madeline is informed that she is betrothed to another with the
blessing of the king, making her and Teàrlach’s love forbidden.
Teàrlach, the famed fighter, vows to make
Madeline his even if that means bringing down her corrupt warden, and Madeline
knows that she must defy the king if she hopes to claim her Highlander.
Purchase
Link:
Excerpt
Anno Domini 1192.
April
The spring
insects buzzed peaceably, and the evening sun promised a glowing sunset.
Madeline Crawford had watched many sunsets, hoping that the warm rays would
heal her broken heart. Aye, her heart was finally healing, because in this
moment, she could breathe in and out and appreciate the beauty without the
sadness that had plagued her for so long, threatening to kill her simple joy.
In this moment, she felt content. The first time she had felt so in many
months. She looked down, smiled, and adjusted a blanket, then picked up her
book of Aesop’s Fables again and continued reading.
“And so, the wise
astrologer walked, gazing upward at the heavens”—how she also enjoyed looking
at the night sky and contemplating the patterns of stars—“only to then fall
into a well. The townsfolk gathered around him, hearing his calls of distress,
only then to scold him. ‘Wise astrologer,’ they said. ‘Whilst you were staring
upward at the sky, trying to divinate the meaning of the stars, you failed to
see the very things here on earth that surround you…’”
The very earth
beneath her began to rumble as she finished the sentence.
Madeline paused.
The guardsmen on the wall were clattering down the walk, their arms clanking
and chain mail jingling. She looked out through the open gates, down the
meandering path that led along the valley between the hills.
The beating of
horse hooves was growing stronger, as if the army of England were descending
upon her simple stone tower to raze her home. She saw two horsemen barreling
down the road toward her, both dark haired. The one in the back, as wild as the
Highlands from which he had come, wore his MacGregor great kilt proudly. The
horseman in front wore a dirty Irish leine, the white of it having seen
brighter days, with boots lacing up his legs. His hair was shaggy, longer, his
beard unmanaged. Over his shoulder was a haphazardly pleated plaid, the same
color as the other man’s tartan.
Madeline snatched
up her bundle of blankets, allowing the book to tumble from her hands and splay
open in the dirt. Two of her servants, Fingal and the young lass Joselyn, raced
for the door of the tower to hustle Madeline within.
Yet a wary
tingling was coursing through her blood. She knew the man propelling toward her
gate. It didn’t seem real, didn’t seem possible. It couldn’t be him. After all
this time. After so many months, after she had finally resigned herself to
accept Rabbie MacGregor’s marriage offer. After she had given up hope that this
man would ever return. It had to be a marauder, intent on rape and pillage.
It couldn’t be him.
“Madeline!” the
man called in a voice with a rich timbre, galloping through the wooden gates
and pulling back on the reins of his mount. “Madeline, stop!”
She whirled
around in the doorway and finally saw him as he threw himself from the saddle.
The sight was a shock. She froze. It was him. It was Teàrlach MacGregor, in the
flesh, in an Irish leine and boots, as if he were the fabled Fionn incarnated.
His hair had always been shaggy, but he could tie it back now, if he wanted.
She remembered so vividly the feel of his curls as her fingers laced through
them, combing them in gentle pets as he lay upon her breast by the nighttime
campfire surrounded by insect cadences and silence. Her heart ached anew.
About
the Author:
I write medieval Scottish and English romance.
I'm excited to announce my first two books with Entangled Publishing will be
published in July and November, 2017, entitled An Earl for the Archeress, and
Maiden's Defender. In 2016, my book, Prince of Lions, was a top 100 download on
Amazon in the categories of Scottish and Medieval historical romance. In 2014,
my unpublished manuscript entitled Two Brides for Ewan de Buchan received a
Second Prize as a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest,
and currently the book is being pushed towards publication.
I have four sons. Yes. Four. We have a sweet yellow lab, a bobtail cat, a
parakeet, and two Californian rabbits, and my family and I enjoy traveling
whenever the opportunity and resources allow it. Though explorers at heart, we
live on a wooded mountainside in West Virginia and hike whenever possible. We
have moved about the United States and even the United Kingdom, where my love
of historical romance was born. How could it not?
The Lady and Mr. Jones by Alyssa Alexander
About
the Book:
Born in the rookeries, the hard life is
something Jones is all too familiar with. Saved as a young boy, he was trained
to be a spy, one of the best--elite, in fact. He now spends his days serving
His Majesty in espionage, hunting rogue spies. His latest assignment, though,
has him tracking a fellow spy…
Cat Ashdown is a baroness. Nothing is more important than protecting five
hundred years of heritage. She knows every detail of every estate that commands
the largest income in Britain— yet her father placed her inheritance in trust
to her uncle who is forcing her to marry a man she has no desire for. The
baroness’s battle against law and convention leads her to Jones and results
that are surprising … and possibly unwanted.
Purchase
Link:
Excerpt
Spring 1819
Jones rubbed a
thumb along the faint line running the length of the pistol’s barrel. He
couldn’t remember now the origin of the scratch, but he had never been able to
polish it out to his satisfaction.
Nevertheless, he
tried. A man took care of his weapons.
There was very
little light in the hidden nook of his commander’s office. Curtains blocked the
candlelight from the main room, so it fell just shy of the flintlock pistol.
But Jones needed no light for this work, as he knew the feel and shape of the
weapon, every ridge in the wood, every curve of the iron. Still, bringing out
the small, soft linen square he kept in his pocket, he began the meticulous
process of rubbing the iron and wood.
And he listened
to the conversation occurring beyond the secret alcove he had been assigned to.
“The Flower is no
longer yours to command, Lord Wycomb. Nor has she been this last half year.”
Sir Charles Flint spoke carefully to the man standing on the other side of his
desk. The light was bright near the two of them, from the fire and the windows
and the candles. It shone on the broad, barrel chest of Sir Charles and the
lean, elegantly clothed agent challenging him. “The Flower is now under my
direct command.”
Ah. They were
discussing Vivienne La Fleur, the opera dancer who had captivated London
between visits to France and breaking into the homes of the ton at Wycomb’s
direction. She excelled at thievery, with her quick fingers and elegant grace.
She was also damned good at lock-picking, as her new husband, Maximilian
Westwood, had become aware.
But Henry Taylor,
Lord Wycomb—the bastard—had mistreated her and lost Sir Charles’s good will.
And Jones’s
respect.
“I trained her.”
Lord Wycomb’s voice was as cool and careful as the spymaster’s behind the desk.
“I found her in the rookeries as a child, trained her for espionage, and
commanded her assignments for a decade. She is my agent.”
From his hiding
place, Jones glanced at Wycomb’s back, at the set of his shoulders and angle of
his head. Jones couldn’t see his face from this vantage point, but there did
not seem to be any sign of untoward anger.
Jones refolded
the linen square and began to polish his pistol anew, focusing on that single
scratch he could not smooth out.
“The Flower was your
agent. I have reassigned her. Again, I now control her missions,” Sir Charles
answered. There was no hint of his anger at Wycomb’s treatment of the
Flower—but Jones knew, if Wycomb did not. Jones had seen Sir Charles months ago
in this very office, had witnessed the mingled fury and pity. “Why is it that
you require her expertise?”
“An assignment
that is not under your command, Sir Charles.”
Haughtiness.
Presumption. Precedence. All echoed in the room. From his hiding
place, Jones narrowed his eyes. A man didn’t disrespect his superior officer,
regardless of social titles. Tempted to stand and reveal his presence, Jones
flattened his hand over the pistol to steady himself. He had his own
assignment, and allowing his irritation free rein was not it.
About
the Author:
Alyssa Alexander is an
award-winning author who survives the cold Michigan winters by penning romance
novels that always include a bit of adventure. Her debut release received 4.5
Stars & Top Pick by Romantic Times, was nominated for the RT 2014 Best
First Historical and the 2015 Best First Book RITA. She’s been called a
“talented newcomer” and “a rising star you won’t want to miss.” Alyssa lives
with her own set of heroes, aka an ever-patient husband and a small boy who
wears a knight in a shining armor costume for such tasks as scrubbing potatoes.
http://www.alyssa-alexander.com/
Tying the Scot by Jennifer Trethewey
About
the book:
At age eleven, Alex Sinclair pledges an oath
to the Duke of Chatham promising to serve and protect his illegitimate
daughter, Lucy FitzHarris. Nine years later, the duke unexpectedly takes Alex
up on his vow, offering the future Laird of Balforss his daughter’s hand in
marriage.
Now a man, hotheaded Alex has difficulty convincing Lucy—who would rather
starve to death than marry a vulgar Scot—to go through with the arranged
marriage. Once Lucy arrives in Scotland, she cannot resist the magic of
Balforss or the allure of her handsome Highland warrior. But when Alex
seemingly betrays Lucy right before their wedding, she is tricked into running
away. Alex must rein in his temper to rescue his lady from unforeseen danger
and Lucy must swallow her pride if she hopes to wed the Highlander she has come
to love.
Purchase
Link:
Excerpt
Without warning,
Hercules hopped onto the cook’s lap, causing her to let out a whoop. He tickled
her chin with dog kisses. Alex had never heard Mrs. Swenson giggle before.
“Do you want
someone to feed you, my wee mannie?” she said, talking to him like he was a
baby. She picked up the bowl and hand-fed the bits of meat to Hercules. He
chewed and swallowed, all the while gazing adoringly at the cook.
“Looks like you
have a new friend,” Alex said.
Mrs. Swenson
feigned irritation with him. “Och, take a cake and be gone with you.”
He plucked a
small raisin cake from a mound of baked goods, kissed her again, and crammed
the entire thing into his mouth. On the way back to the house, he encountered
Lucy. She had removed her bonnet and jacket as well as the lacy piece of
clothing that covered her shoulders and chest. Some of her curly black locks of
hair had come unpinned and bounced around on the swells of her breasts, leaving
him spellbound.
“Where's
Hercules?” she asked, as though accusing him of losing her dog. “I have been
looking all over for him.”
Mouth still
filled with cake, he struggled to swallow, but only succeeded in choking.
Pointing at the kitchen door, Alex watched Lucy march off in a huff. At last,
he swallowed a mass of cake the size of a crabapple, and wiped his mouth. He
remained in the middle of the yard, waiting, half expecting to hear Mrs.
Swenson and Lucy break into an argument over the dog. To his relief, Lucy
exited the kitchen with Hercules and the cook, both women laughing. Mrs.
Swenson pointed to the sky and Lucy nodded.
Warning Lucy
about the hawk?
She crossed the
yard, smiling. The smile disappeared, however, when she met his eyes. She swept
past him without a word, nose in the air. Some inexplicable force compelled him
to follow her.
About
the Author:
Jennifer Trethewey is an
actor-turned-writer who has moved her performances from the stage to the page.
In 2013 she traveled to Scotland for the first time, where she instantly fell
for the language, humor, intense sense of pride, and breathtaking landscape.
Her love for Scotland was translated into her first series of historical
romance novels, the Highlanders of Balforss. The sexy, adventurous first book
of the series, TYING THE SCOT, is set to be released in November 2017.
Trethewey’s primary experience in bringing the imaginary to life was working
for one of the oldest women’s theaters in the nation, where she was the
co-founder and co-artistic director. Today she continues to act, but writes
contemporary and historical fiction full-time. Her other loves include dogs,
movies, music and good wine. She lives in Milwaukee with her husband.
