Catch Me a Cowboy (41 page)

HOW TO RAVISH A RAKE stars shy wallflower Amy Hardwick and charming rake William Darcett, better known as “the Devil.” I thought it would be great fun to feature two characters who seem so wrong for one another on the surface but who would find love and happiness, despite their differences.

Miss Amy Hardwick is a shy belle who made her first appearance in my debut historical romance,
How to Marry a Duke
. When I first envisioned Amy, I realized that she was representative of so many young women who struggle to overcome low self-esteem. Amy doesn’t fit the ideal image of the English rose in Regency Society, and, as a result, she’s often overlooked by others. But as I thought back to my days in high school and college, I remembered how much it helped to have girlfriends who liked and supported you, even though you didn’t have the flawless skin and perfect bodies airbrushed on the covers of teen magazines. That recollection convinced me that having friends would help Amy to grow into the woman I knew she was destined to become.

Now, during her sixth and quite possibly last London Season, Amy is determined to shed her wallflower image forever. A newfound interest in fashion leads Amy to
draw designs for unique gowns that make her the fashion darling of the
ton
. All of her dreams seem to be coming true, but there’s one man who could deter her from the road to transformation: Mr. William “the Devil” Darcett.

Ah, Will…
sigh
. I confess I had a penchant for charming bad boys when I was in high school and college. There’s a certain mystique about them. And I’m certain that the first historical romance I ever read featured a charming bad boy. They really are my favorite type of heroes. So naturally, I decided to create the worst bad boy in the
ton
and throw him in sweet Amy’s path.

William Darcett is a younger son with a passion for traveling. He’s not one to put down roots—just the occupation for a bona fide rake. But Will’s latest plans for another journey to the Continent go awry when he discovers his meddling family wants to curb his traveling days. Will refuses to let his family interfere with his carousing and rambling, but a chance encounter with Amy in a wine cellar leads the wallflower and the rake into more trouble than they’re prepared to handle.

This very unlikely pair comes to realize that laughter, family, and honesty are the most important ingredients for everlasting love. I hope you will enjoy the adventures of Amy and Will on their journey to discover that even the unlikeliest of couples can fall madly, deeply in love.

My heartfelt thanks to all the readers who wrote to let me know they couldn’t wait to read HOW TO RAVISH A RAKE. I hope you will enjoy the fun and games that finally lead to Happily Ever After for Amy and Will.

Cheers!

What happens when a freedom-loving Scotsman who’s spent much of his life on the open sea meets an enticing heiress determined to make her home with a husband who will stay put and run her Highland estates? And what happens when something that they have just witnessed endangers the plans of a ruthless and powerful man who is fiercely determined to keep the details of that event secret?

HIGHLAND LOVER, the third title in my Scottish Knights trilogy, stars the fiercely independent Sir Jacob “Jake” Maxwell, who was a nine-year-old boy in
King of Storms
, the last of a six-book series beginning with
Highland Princess
. Lifting a fictional child from a series I wrote years ago to be a hero in a current trilogy is new for me.

However, the three heroes of Scottish Knights are friends who met as teenage students under Bishop Traill of St. Andrews and later accepted his invitation to join a brotherhood of highly skilled knights that he (fictionally) formed to help him protect the Scottish Crown. I realized straightaway that the grown-up Jake would be the right age in 1403 and would easily fit my requirements, for several reasons:

First, Jake has met the ruthless Duke of Albany, who was a villainous presence in Scotland for thirty-one years (in all) and is now second in line for the throne. Determined to become King of Scots, Albany habitually eliminates anyone who gets in his way. Second, Albany owes his life to Jake, a relationship that provides interesting twists
in any tale. Third, Jake is captain of the
Sea Wolf
, a ship he owns because of Albany; and the initiating event in HIGHLAND LOVER takes place at sea. So Jake seemed to be a perfect choice. The cheeky youngster in
King of Storms
had stirred (and still stirs) letters from readers suggesting that an adult Jake Maxwell would make a great hero. Doubtless that also had something to do with it.

Jake’s heroine in HIGHLAND LOVER is Lady Alyson MacGillivray of Perth, a beautiful cousin of Sir Ivor “Hawk” Mackintosh of
Highland Hero
. Alyson is blessed (or cursed) with a bevy of clinging relatives and the gift of Second Sight. The latter “gift” has caused as many problems for her as have her intrusive kinsmen.

Alyson also has another problem—a husband of just a few months whom she has scarcely seen and who so far seems more interested in his noble patron’s affairs than in Alyson’s Highland estates or Alyson herself. But Alyson is trapped in this wee wrinkle, is she not? It is, after all, 1403.

In any event, Jake sets out on a mission for the Bishop of St. Andrews, encounters a storm, and ends up plucking Alyson and an unknown lad from a ship sinking off the English coast two hundred miles from her home in Perth. The ship also happened to be carrying the young heir to Scotland’s throne and Alyson’s husband, who may or may not now be captive in England.

So, the fun begins. I hope you enjoy HIGHLAND LOVER.

Meantime,
Suas Alba!

I’ve been a storyteller all of my life. When I was a kid, my dad and I used to sit in the mall or a restaurant and make up stories about the people walking by or sitting around us. So it really wasn’t much of a leap to find myself a novelist. But what was interesting to me was that no matter what kind of story I was telling, the characters all seemed to know each other.

Sometimes people from other novels were simply mentioned in another of my books in passing. Sometimes they actually had cameo appearances. And several times now, a character I had created to be a secondary figure in one story has demanded his or her own book. Such was the case with Harrison Blake of DEADLY DANCE. Harrison first showed up in my Last Chance series, working as that team’s computer forensic expert. It even turned out he’d also worked for
Midnight Rain
’s John Brighton at his Phoenix organization, even though the company was created at the end of the book and never actually appeared on paper.

Interestingly enough, Harrison, although never a hero, has received more mail than any of my other characters. And almost all of those letters are from readers asking when he’s going to have his day. So when A-Tac found itself in need of a technical guru, it was a no-brainer for me to bring Harrison into the fold. As he became an integral part of the team, I knew the time had come for him to have his own book.

And of course, as his story developed, he needed help from his old friends. So enter Madison Roarke and Tracy Braxton. Madison was the heroine of the first Last Chance book,
Endgame.
And like Harrison, Tracy had been placed in the role of supporting character, as a world-class forensic pathologist.

What can I say? It’s a small world, and they all know and help each other. And finally, we add to the mix our heroine, Hannah Marshall. Hannah has been at the heart of all the A-Tac books. A long-time team member, she’s always there with the answers when needed. And like Harrison, she made it more than clear to me that she deserved her own story. With her quirky way of expressing herself (eyeglasses and streaked hair) and her well-developed intellect, Hannah seemed perfect for Harrison. The two of them just didn’t know it yet.

So I threw them together, and, as they say, the plot thickened, and DEADLY DANCE was born.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading Harrison and Hannah’s story as much as I did writing it.

For insight into both Harrison and Hannah, here are some songs I listened to while writing DEADLY DANCE:

Riverside,
by Agnes Obel

Set Fire to the Rain,
by Adele

Everlong,
by Foo Fighters

And as always, check out
www.deedavis.com
for more inside info about my writing and my books.

Happy Reading!