Thanks so much for agreeing to be with us today, Collette!
I’m tickled to be here! Thanks for having me.
🙂
What 5 things should readers know about you?
I’m grinning!
I have a quirky sense of humor, LOVE dachshunds (I have 5 minis), am a self-confessed Cadbury chocoholic, am pretty much obsessed with anything cobalt or royal blue, and I write Scottish and Regency romances.
LOL! Nice list 🙂
Tell us all about your main characters—who are they? What makes them tick? Most importantly, what one thing would they need to have with them if stranded on a desert isle? 😉
In Heartbreak and Honor, I’ve brought two characters together who are worlds apart.
Rochester Lucan-Ashford, the Duke of Harcourt (known as Lucan to his family and closest friends) is a privileged peer with a rakish sense of humor and completely devoted to his family. He’s easy-going and doesn’t take life seriously.
Tasara Faas, is a Scottish traveller or gypsy, with a mind of her own who is accustomed to hard work and lack. Only she really isn’t a gypsy at all, but a long-lost heiress, Alexandra Atterberry.
Tasara would have her dagger on a desert island, and Lucan would need his coffee. He can’t function without it.
Just like many a modern hero (and heroine!) I’m sure!
Where did the inspiration for this book come from?
Heartbreak and Honor is the third book in my Highland Heather Romancing a Scot Series. The series is actually a spin-off of my Castle Bride series. Lucan was introduced in the first book of that series and has made appearances in each book since.
I knew it was time to write his story but wasn’t sure who his heroine would be until I introduced Tasara in Virtue and Valor, the second book in the series. I knew immediately she was meant for Lucan.
I love the anticipation of waiting for a favorite character to (finally!) get their own story. It’s great when everything comes together like that!
How long have you been writing, and what (or who) inspired you to start?
I sat down to write my first book in February 2011, basically to see if I could write an entire story around a single scene I had pop into my head.
I did and Highlander’s Hope was the result.
Wow, that’s great!
What do you like best about being a writer? What is the most challenging part?
I love immersing myself in the story and creating complex characters. I also enjoy giving readers a chance to temporarily escape whatever stresses or problems they might have going on in their lives for a few peaceful hours.
I’m not keen on editing, and I’m really not fond of promotion.
Both editing and self-promotion are hard. But necessary, unfortunately…
What are you working on right now? What can readers look for from you in the next year?
I’m writing Schemes Gone Amiss, the second book in my Conundrums of the Misses Culpepper series. I really let my humor go in these Regencies!
I also have a boxed set releasing in January and an anthology releasing in February.
Readers can also look for the next two books in the Highland Heather Romancing a Scot Series, the third book in the Conundrums of the Misses Culpeppers, and another Waltz with a Rogue Novella.
Wow, you’re busy! That’s wonderful—good luck!
What authors and/or books have inspired you?
I started reading Barbara Cartland romances when I was thirteen years-old, but the writer who turned me into a life-long historical romance fan was Kathleen Woodiwiss with her book, The Flame and the Flower.
I keep hearing about that one! I’m really going to have to read it…soon.
What are you currently reading? What are your thoughts about it so far?
I’m reading The Rake’s Irish Lady by Barbara Monajem.
It’s an emotionally gripping story about two really strong and independent characters. I’m at a very intense part of the story right now, and it’s driving me nuts to know what happens next.
Well, then we really appreciate you taking time from your reading to visit today! 🙂
If you had to “sell” this book in a single Tweet, what would you say?
As common adversaries conspire to destroy them, a Highland gypsy spurns the duke intent on making her his bride
Perfect! Great job, Collette 🙂
novels. Her motto for life? You can’t have too much chocolate, too many hugs, or too many flowers.
Abducted by a band of renegade Scots, Highland gypsy Tasara Faas doesn’t hesitate to blacken the eye of her rescuer when the charming duke attempts to steal a kiss. Afterward, Tasara learns she’s the long-lost heiress Alexandra Atterberry and is expected to take her place among the elite society she’s always disdained.
Lucan, the Duke of Harcourt, promised his gravely ill mother he’d procure a wife by Christmastide, but intrigued by the feisty lass he saved in Scotland, he finds the haut ton ladies lacking. Spying Alexa at a London ball, he impulsively decides to make the knife-wielding gypsy his bride despite her aversion to him and her determination to return to the Highlands.
The adversary responsible for Alexa’s disappearance as a toddler still covets her fortune and joins forces with Harcourt’s arch nemesis. Amidst a series of suspicious misfortunes, Lucan endeavors to win Alexa’s love and expose the conspirators but only succeeds in reaffirming Alexa’s belief that she is inadequate to become his duchess.
A click announced the lock giving way.
Creaking on unoiled hinges, the door edged open, inch-by-cautious-inch, and as it did, the brutal sounds from below filtered into the chamber. Light from the corridor’s brackets illumined a sinister, black-clad form.
A disheveled man paused at the threshold, his coat unbuttoned and a pistol protruding from his waistband. In one hand, he held a sword at the ready, and in the other, he brandished a dirk. Legs braced, he stood at the entrance like a buccaneer balancing atop a ship’s deck.
A pirate in the Scottish Highlands?
She blinked, slapping aside the ridiculous notion. Lack of food and sleep made her imagination run amuck.
For a tormenting instant, Tasara feared the ethereal body Satan himself, except she doubted the devil possessed pale blond hair and required blades to inflict mortal damage.
Fallen angel seemed more apt for the apparition illumined within the doorway.
She strained to see the man’s face. The dim interior hid his features except for a well-defined profile and a strong jawline. Evil men weren’t supposed to be attractive.
Stance wide, and her hand lifted to bury her knife, she waited for the intruder to move away from the door’s protection.
She must defend the children, no matter the cost.
“Tathara?” Lala’s plaintive cry filled the chamber. “Piuthar, where be ye?”
The man’s head whipped toward the bed.
The bedding rustled, and a tear-logged voice whimpered, “Me be ascared. I hearded screaming.”
Advancing farther into the room, the intruder looked this way and that. Light from the passageway spilled across the threshold but failed to reach the bed or the room’s outer edges.
“A child? Might have told me,” he muttered in a clipped British accent while sheathing his weapons. “No matter, I suppose. A female’s a female.”
My God, what did the debauched knave intend?
The same loathsome things the Scots threatened?
Not as long as Tasara’s heart pumped, he wouldn’t. She shifted, ready to spring. A wee bit farther and she’d have a clear target. He would taste her blade before he laid one finger upon Lala.
The man faced the bed and extended his arms. “Come, sweeting, let’s be about it then. I’m in a bit of a hurry.”
How dare he, the loathsome degenerate? Tasara made an inarticulate noise.
He whirled, his body tense and alert.
“Tathara!” Terror resonated in Lala’s high-pitched cry.
Tasara lunged, swinging the blade in an arc intended for his neck. “Depraved sot.”
Ducking, he leaped away, her dagger slicing air instead of flesh. Half-crouched and keenly alert, he regarded her.
“Ah, the gypsy wench I expected.” Straightening, and apparently unperturbed at practically being skewered, he pointed at her dagger. “I do believe you tried to impale me. Most ungrateful of you, I must say.”
Thanks for helping me celebrate my newest release!