Author Interview: Rose Gordon

Hi Readers, I am excited to have Rose Gordon on the blog today. I have read many of her historical romances, and they are some of my favorites.

RRG: What made you decide to write historical romance?
RG: You know the old saying, “Write what you know”? This is what I knew. It was what I’d read the most of and I have an unhealthy obsession with history. I think it’d be wonderful to live back then and wear those fancy dresses and have someone else do all the housework. However, I’d certainly miss modern plumbing…

RRG: Is there a genre you’d like to try but haven’t yet?
RG: No. When I take it in my mind to write a story in a different genre, I usually do it because even if the genre doesn’t appeal to anyone else, I’ll never be able to say I tried and failed if I don’t try in the first place.

RRG: What does your family think of your writing?
RG: They love it! I must confess that in the past I had a history of starting things and not seeing them through. So when I started writing a book, everyone, and I do mean everyone, was skeptical but when I actually finished the first book, then the second and third, faith built. Now that I’m 15 books in and showing no signs of stopping, I think they all love it. But not as much as me.

RRG: Who is your favorite duo you’ve written?
RG: AAAAAhhhhh, such a hard question. Honestly, I don’t have any favorites. Books and the  characters within them are like my children. I cannot pick a favorite. Usually, though, I always think and say my favorite is the couple that I’m currently working on. Sorry, that’s not very helpful, but that’s the truth. It’s hard to pick a favorite.

RRG: What do you like to read?
RG: Just about any type of romance except one genre that I fear I cannot name without making your entire readership groan in one accord. When not reading fiction, I LOVE to read research books. I swear that for every novel I own, I have two (or three) reference books. Sometimes I’ll just sit down and read an entire trivia book cover to cover. Yeah, I’m a nerd like that.

RRG: Who are some of your favorite heroes and heroines in romance novels?
RG: I don’t think I can fairly answer this. Last year, I only read about 15 novels, most of which were a few years old so I don’t think I can give an answer that is even relevant. But, I can tell you what personalities I like. I love beta (and gamma) heroes. I want a guy who is nice and caring and genuinely loves the heroine. I want that to show. I don’t like guys who brood or are mean to the heroine. Nor do I care for the guys in historicals who have mistresses. For my heroines, they need to be sassy and have a backbone. Ladies who abandon their morals and good sense as soon as the hero saunters into the room drive me nuts.

RRG: Can you tell us about your new series? (I just finished Secrets of a Viscount and I enjoyed it. I really connected with Giles. I am really looking forward to his book.)
RG: The series name on this one is Gentlemen of Honor, and the heroes, I believe, are just that: gentlemen of honor. Some have a past, some have issues and some just don’t have a clue; but they’re all honorable and want to do the right thing, even if they aren’t always sure what the right thing is.

As an aside, two of these books will include heroines we’ve met very briefly in my earlier books. Lucy Whitaker, the heroine in Desires of a Baron, is from Liberty from Paul as the woman Paul once proposed to but she declined in favor of his brother. Henrietta Hughes, the heroine in Passions of a Gentleman, is the sister of Juliet, the heroine from Her Secondhand Groom.

 

Favorites!
Quote: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you’ll land among the stars” –Les Brown
Season: Spring, before the weather gets unbearable.
Candy: York Peppermint Patties
Disney Movie: Beauty and the Beast
Pair of Shoes: My running shoes–not that I wear them for that, because I don’t. Well, not unless something is chasing me, but otherwise I wear them all the time for just about every occasion except going to church.

Thanks so much for having me on today! I had a wonderful time with your interview.

Thanks Rose for taking the time do the interview. Readers, you can purchase Ms. Gordon’s book on Amazon and B&N.

Reach out to Rose Gordon via her website, Facebook and Twitter.

-Romance Reader Girl

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Review: Breakaway by Catherine Gayle

Offical Blurb: She’s reaching for a breakaway pass.

Dana Campbell has spent the past seven years in self-imposed isolation for a crime she didn’t commit. The danger is well in the past, but her panic attacks make it impossible to have a normal, healthy relationship with a man. Even her counselor has given up on her. She has to find someone she trusts to help her fight through the panic, or her seven-year ordeal will become a lifetime sentence. There’s only one man she feels safe enough to ask.

He got caught with his head down.

As the captain of the NHL’s once elite but now fading Portland Storm, Eric Zellinger knows a thing or two about keeping his focus on the job. Questions are flying about his ability to lead the team back to the playoffs. If they don’t make it, he might be shipped out of town. It’s the worst time possible for his best friend’s kid sister to divide his focus. How can he give her what she needs without jeopardizing both the Storm’s playoff hopes and his future with the team?

It’s her only chance, but it’s his last shot.

My Thoughts: Breakaway hit home with me on so many levels, and it made me appreciate the story all the more. Dana is a young woman that had a bright future in hockey until one terrible night after a game when she was brutally raped by a group of men. She is a former shell of herself for the obvious reasons, but she knows that she needs to overcome her fear of men to live again. After seven years of self-imprisonment she has come up with a plan to begin the healing process. She travels to visit her brothers best friend, Eric to enlist his help. Eric has always loved Dana but knows that nothing could ever come from that love, but when she shows up asking for help he cannot say no. What is supposed to be a courtship of healing becomes a full-out romance that neither Dana or Eric can prevent from happening or the heartbreak that could come from it.

Breakaway is very emotional, and you feel for Dana every step of the way. Your heart breaks for her when she try’s to overcome the things we take for granted; like receiving a touch on the arm. Eric is a wonderful man that wants to do right by the woman he  secretly loves, his best friend (her brother) and the hockey team he is captain of. Not everything always goes right, but he truly fights to make it right at the cost of his happiness sometimes. The cast of characters is great and not only are their some scenes that make you want to cry their are hilarious scenes that leave you smiling. I recommend readers to read this book, it’s uplifting and romantic. I am really looking forward to this series.

Purchase Breakaway on Amazon and B&N.

-Romance Reader Girl

Review: Secrets of a Viscount (Gentlemen of Honor #1) by Rose Gordon

Official Blurb: One summer night, Sebastian Gentry, Lord Belgrave hauled the wrong young lady to Gretna Green. When her identity is exposed, the only obvious solution is to get an annulment. Only, just like his elopement plans, things didn’t go as planned and while she has reason to believe they are no longer married, he knows better. Wanting to make things right for her, he offers to help her find a husband—what neither counts on is it just might be the one she’s still secretly married to.

My Thoughts: Look at the cover-Gorgeous! 🙂  Isabelle (Belle) is a second daughter with no prospects so when her neighbor, Sebastian (Lord Belgrave) sneaks into her room asking is she ready to leave. She doesn’t think twice and sneaks out the window into the night to marry the handsome young man she has always liked. So what if he thinks it’s her older sister, Rachel sneaking off to elope. When Sebastian realizes the woman he married is not Rachel, but her annoying younger sister, Belle, he isn’t exactly happy and begins the process to have the marriage annulled. After a bad accident Bell is left alone with a tarnished reputation. Five years has past, and Sebastian has been abroad and Belle has been a lady’s companion looking for a husband. Oh, yeah, you read the correctly she is looking for a husband because she thinks she is not married. But when Sebastian shows up after five years and offers his help to find her husband she may find that the husband she wants is the one in front of her. Oh, yes, you read that correctly he comes back to find her a husband. I’ve read quite a few books from Ms. Gordan, and one thing I find she excels in is having a great cast of characters in her stories. I always find them as intriguing as the hero and heroine. She does not disappoint. Giles and Simon are wonderful secondary characters and are great scene stealers. I hope they have their own stories. Welcome back to Regency, Ms. Gordon! I look forward to more books in this series.

Purchase Secrets of a Viscount on AMAZON and B&N.

-Romance Reader Girl

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North Texas Romance Writers of America need readers to judge The Carolyn Reader Choice Award, 2104. Click here to learn more and sign up!

-Romance Reader Girl

Why not read this type of romance?

Why not? Is the topic for today. Friend/Blogger/Writer, Nancy over at Rakes, Rogues and Romance got me hooked on reading m/m romances. I thought I would never be into that kind of romance book, but then I really started thinking about why I like them and it hit me like a ton of bricks- The male characters are similar to the men in historicals that I read and love. Now hear me out… The men in historicals are more feminine for a lack of a better word than the men of today. They are all about being gallant and romantic (in the books I read). It’s ok to dance, write poetry, dress in bright colors and fight for the women they have affections for. This is the reason why so many of us read historical romance. The men in m/m romances are not that different from the historical men we love to read about. Their love stories are just as romantic and gallant as the historicals and that is why I have fallen in love with reading them.

I have spent the last couple of weeks finding new authors that write m/m romance and with the help of Nancy, I was able to read a few books that just knocked my socks off. These stories are hot erotic romances. I don’t always read the sex scenes but the romance is spectacular. I encourage you to try this type of romance becuase you are missing out on something so amazing.

TRY (Temptation #1) by Ella Frank: I have read Ms. Franks contemporary romances and have reviewed them. I really enjoyed them but holy hotness TRY was one steamy romance. Logan and Tate are spectacular and I was blown away by the romance these two have for one another. Logan has his own demons that plague his relationships but what he finds in Tate is the courage to overcome them. No question about  Logan is all things a rouge and rake could ever be. I loved this book! Purchase TRY on AMAZON and B&N. Connect with Ella Frank via her website, Facebook and Twitter.

Double Full (A Nice Guy Novel #1) by Kindle Alexander: Sometimes years and distance can’t extinguish a love that is so right but fear can stop you from acting on it. Colt and Jace are two young men that found a strong love and connection in college but when a controlling father steps in they are separated for ten years never knowing what could have been. After ten long years of thinking “what if” they get a second chance but it won’t be easy but when love is strong it can withstand anything. I loved this book and author. I am reading her backlist because of how awesome it is. The romance between Colt and Jace is sweet and pure. Their love story made my heart smile. Purchase DOUBLE FULL on AMAZON and B&N. Connect with Kindle Alexander via her website, Facebook and Twitter.

Again, I ask, why not read this type of romance? These books are phenomenal when looking at the characters, plot and romance. I look forward to reading more from these authors and more m/m romances. I want to thank them for opening my mind and heart to a new type of romance that I thought I would not understand but I was happily proved wrong.

A big thank you to Nancy for encouraging me to read something new. 🙂

-Romance Reader Girl

Review: When the Rogue Returns by Sabrina Jeffries

Official Blurb: Victor Cale never imagined that his sweet, shy bride, Isabella, would use her talents for creating exquisite imitation jewels criminally. But there’s no denying that her handiwork was used in the theft of the Dutch royal diamonds– right after Isa disappeared into the night.

Ten years later, Victor is sent to Edinburgh to investigate a wealthy baron’s mysterious bride-to-be… who turns out to be Isa, masquerading as an alluring widow. No longer the meek girl he once knew, Isa boldly asserts that it was Victor who abandoned her, after he helped steal the royal diamonds!

Piecing together the truth of the past reawakens their volatile passions, which burns hotter than ever. But with a decade of secrets between them, Victor and Isa must trust each other to bring the real thieves to justice– without getting burned themselves.

My Thoughts: I am a big Sabrina Jeffries fan. I have read ALL of her books and not only have I read them I have a good dozen or so on audio. I loved the plot of this story. Isabella (Isa) and Victor Cale were a young married couple torn apart by Isa’s greedy sister and brother-in-law. The lies her family tell her about Victor makes her strong to flee to Scotland when she finds out she is pregnant. While Isa is starting a new life in Scotland raising a baby, Victor stays behind and believes his wife used him to help her family steal. Ten years has passed and Victor finds himself in Scotland on behalf of Manton’s Investigations (The Dukes Men). He see’s Isa known to everyone as Mrs. Franke and he wants answers. Isa see’s Victor and she wants her own answers of why he never came for her. The story unfolds there and it is a courtship of reacquainting themselves with one another and realizing that their love is strong and it can only be broken if they doubt it. However, when the long lost relatives reappear things become dicey, especially when Isa and Victor’s daughter, Amelie is involved. Again, I love the plot of this story. There is a lot of action and the supporting cast is wonderful. Mary Grace and Rupert are scene stealers. I do hope to see them in the other books in this series.

As much as I loved the plot I did not feel the emotion in this story like I thought I would. I was expecting some heartrending scenes and I didn’t get them. I feel there could have been a bit more romance and emotion and it wasn’t there. It fell a bit flat for me. Since, I don’t want to give away too much I am going stop there.

I do recommend this book it was still a good read and I did enjoy the plot and characters.

Purchase this book and other books by Sabrina Jeffires on AMAZON and B&N.

-Romance Reader Girl

Author Interview: Catherine Gayle

Readers, Please welcome the wonderful Catherine Gayle, on the blog today.

RRG: What made you decide to sit down and start writing?
CG: I took a creative writing course in my return to college several years ago. At the time, I thought I was a poet. My professor very kindly described my style as “maximalist” and nudged me toward writing long fiction. I’ve had stories running through my head since I was very young—when I’d lay in bed at night, unable to get to sleep, I’d run through my stories like movies. LOL. Anyway, after I finished my creative writing course, I decided to try my hand at writing one of those stories and seeing where it would take me. It turned into a career.

RRG: You’ve started writing contemporary romance, what made you switch from historical romance? Will you continue to write historical romance?
CG: It wasn’t a conscious decision on my part, so much. I’ve tried writing in other genres in the past and failed spectacularly, so it wasn’t really something I was interested in doing. But one day I was working (struggling might be more apt) on one of my historical novels, and I was insanely frustrated with it, and the opening scene to my novel BREAKAWAY popped into my head. It was fully formed—not just a tiny little moment. I decided to give myself an hour to write it down, and then I would send it off to some friends who write contemporary romance and see what they thought. I was sure they would tell me it was awful, that I had no business writing contemporary and should get back to work on my historical and never think about writing anything like that again. Instead, the opposite happened. Even if it hadn’t, I have a feeling I would have kept going with BREAKAWAY. It was a story that consumed me and took over my life for a while. Anyway, I am definitely going to continue with the contemporary romances, but I’m not giving up on my historical romances, either. I’m just going to have to make the time to write both.

RRG: If you gave one of your characters an opportunity to speak for themselves, what would they say?
CG: Exactly what they say in my books? Write my book faster? I don’t know. LOL.

RRG: What do you like to read?
CG: I read a lot of things. Of course, I read romance novels. I do read more historical romance than any of the other subgenres, but lately I’ve been picking up a few more contemporaries and new adult romances, and I like to sometimes read erotic romance. I’m a sucker for the Harry Potter books and the Percy Jackson books, and YA dystopian novels are always finding their way onto my Kindle, like The Hunger Games and the Divergent trilogy. Lord of the Rings is one of my all-time favorite books, I’m currently reading George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, and I have an awful lot of the classics on my bookshelves.

RRG: Who are some of your favorite heroes and heroines?
CG: Hmmm… my favorite hero would probably have to be Lord Dain from Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. Many years later, he is still incredibly vivid in my mind. For heroines, I think I’ll go with Freyja Bedwyn from Mary Balogh’s Slightly series. She is so fiery, and yet so good-hearted, that she nearly ran away with the entire series and several other connected books, as well.

RRG: What song can you not get out of your head?
CG: There are a lot of them, and they vary. LOL. At the moment, the one that seems to be stuck in my head is Royals by Lorde.

RRG: Can you tell us about your new contemporary series?
CG: I’d love to! BREAKAWAY is the first book in the Portland Storm series. The Portland Storm is an NHL hockey team based in Portland, Oregon, and each book in the series will be a romance in which one of the various players or someone else involved with the team is the hero. Why hockey? Because I’m an addict. I’ve been a hockey fan since I was a kid growing up in Texas—back before Texas had an NHL team of their own. The series is set in the current day, and they’re all going to be written in dual first person points of view like is popular in the new adult field right now. I’m currently writing the second book in the series, ON THE FLY, which will release in late February or early March. Then I’ll be heading back into Regency England for my historical fans.

Favorites!
Quote: Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest—from Shakespeare’s King Lear. Wise words. J
Sport/Team: Hockey, Detroit Red Wings
Shoes: These days, Orthaheel brand shoes, since I’ve got plantar fasciitis.
Animal: Cats!
Disney Movie: Sleeping Beauty

Thank you Catherine for being on the blog today. Readers, you can connect with Ms. Gayle via her website, Facebook and Twitter. You can purchase her books on AMAZON and B&N.

-Romance Reader Girl

What??!!!! For Reals?? It’s my Blogiverary??!!

Celebrate Ki’s Blog Anniversary! See what you can win!

 

What??!!!! For Reals?? It’s my Blogiverary??!!.

C is for Childbirth

C is for Childbirth.

Review: Forever Betrothed, Never the Bride by Christi Caldwell

Official Blurb: Hopeless romantic, Lady Emmaline Fitzhugh, is tired of sitting with the wallflowers, waiting for her betrothed to come to his senses and marry her. When Emmaline reads one too many reports of his scandalous liaisons in the gossip rags, she takes matters into her own hands.

War-torn veteran, Lord Drake devotes himself to forgetting his days on the Peninsula through an endless round of meaningless associations. He no longer wants to feel anything, but Lady Emmaline is making it hard to maintain a state of numbness. With her zest for life, she awakens his passion and desire for love.

The one woman Drake has spent the better part of his life avoiding is now the only woman he needs, but he is no longer a man worthy of his Emmaline. It is up to her to show him the healing power of love.

My Thoughts: My first initial thoughts after I finished were; Enthralled, Entranced, Completely Overwhelmed (happily). I loved this story. I read it within 24 hours of starting. I devoured this book like a little kid eating Halloween candy after trick or treating.

This book is about a young woman who has been betrothed to her guy for 15 years and she takes step to bring him up to scratch. From the first page you are brought into Emmaline’s world and she is no meek and mild miss. This young lady is a force of nature and when she wants something she makes a plan and goes for it. I would say she has gumption! Emmaline is the daughter of a duke, now sister to a duke and engaged to marquess who will one day be a duke. You can see the theme here, she is surrounded by dukes. However, she does not let her ducal life get in the way of what she wants. She comes up with a plan of her own to snatch her prince charming, Lord Drake. What she doesn’t know is how the road to snatching him will change her life.

Lord Drake is a hero, well, everyone in England sees him as one but he cannot even make it through a 24 hour period without the scary memories of war. He is everything a dark man harboring painful secrets would be. Of course, to the outside world he is mysterious rogue that no one can tame but not a solider emotionally wounded from the scenes of the battlefield. Talk about breaking your heart! When Emmaline starts to put herself in the same place’s as Drake he will learn that maybe this fierce, intelligent, kind-hearted woman will be his salvation but will his realization be too late? I’m just sayin’ maybe he should have put a ring on it. <—- You know you all were thinking it too! 🙂

Ms. Caldwell writes beautifully and has a flow for description like a master poet. “Kensington Garden never ceased to stun her with its vital beauty. With the pale pink of the spotted orchid, the effervescent hue of the violet bluebells interspersed with the lilac-white of the cuckoo-flower; it was like its own kaleidoscope of nature’s beauty.”  It was a fun emotional love story that has you giggling in one chapter and your heart weeping in the next. Watch out for Emmaline’s bff Sophie, as she is a scene stealer (I read she is getting her own book!!). There are many wonderful things happening in this book that will keep you hooked. I loved every bit of it. This was simply a great read and I would recommend it for anyone that enjoys a romance with laughter and heartbreaking moments and a happy ending.

Purchase Forever Betrothed, Never the Bride on Amazon and B&N.

Connect with Christi Caldwell via her website, Facebook and Twitter.

-Romance Reader Girl