Winners of The Anna Campbell Giveaways!

I'm absolutely delighted to announce the winners of Anna Campbell's latest novella, THREE PROPOSALS AND A SCANDAL!


Drumroll please....

Vanessa and Helen!

If either of you have this fabulous read already tucked into your e-reader, Anna is happy to give you a credit for her next novella! 

Please contact Anna on anna (at) annacampbell (dot) info to collect your prize.

And a big thank you to everyone for joining the fun to share your tales about those occasions when your Best Laid Plans went awry!   

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Anna Campbell talks about Best Laid Plans!

I'm so thrilled to have lovely Anna Campbell to visit to talk about her latest novella!

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley.
 

Robert Burns, To a Mouse

Hiya LoveCats! Lovely to be back here. Thank you. 

Isn’t that a classy way to start a blog? Except I’m not sure if I’m allowed to mention mice here on a love cats blog. It might (mice?) cause trouble. 

Today I’d like to talk about my new Sons of Sin novella, THREE PROPOSALS AND A SCANDAL, and how it wasn’t part of my best-laid plans at all. 

As many of you know, since 2011, I’ve been writing a series based around three men who were friends at Eton and who all suffered in various ways because of the scandals shadowing their births. 

The Sons of Sin series started with a proposal for a stand-alone book, SEVEN NIGHTS IN A ROGUE’S BED, Jonas’s story (2012). 

My editor at Grand Central Forever liked it so much, she wanted more in a similar vein. So my best-laid plan of writing another stand-alone historical romance (until then, I hadn’t attempted a series) became a trilogy. Cue A RAKE’S MIDNIGHT KISS (2013) and WHAT A DUKE DARES (2014). Oh, and a novella called DAYS OF RAKES AND ROSES (2013) which was a prequel. 

You can already see those plans for a trilogy were going a bit wonky. 

They went even wonkier when the trilogy turned into a quartet with the release this year of A SCOUNDREL BY MOONLIGHT, the Marquess of Leath’s story. 

Leath wasn’t part of the original trio of sons of sin, but he was a dynamic character in WHAT A DUKE DARES and was screaming out for his own love story. By this stage, too, I was hooked on going back to see how my characters were managing. So when I had the chance to write another full-length book, I leaped at it like a cane toad after a blowfly.

But still, the series didn’t feel finished to me. In WHAT A DUKE DARES, Cam the hero is courting the perfect wife when he falls madly in love with Penelope Thorne, who is anything BUT the perfect wife. Which means Lady Marianne Seaton, Cam’s first choice, was left to keep a stiff upper lip through all the gossip about the duke jilting her. I felt then that she got the raw end of the prawn – after all, she’d done nothing wrong – and that feeling continued right through writing Scoundrel. So I decided that she needed her own happy ending.

And what do you know? I had a lovely hero just waiting in the wings for her. Odd how the subconscious works. Penelope’s brother Elias was another intriguing character and it turned out he was just right for Marianne. 

So the story for THREE PROPOSALS AND A SCANDAL was born. The original plan of a trilogy had definitely gone a-gley. We’re now up to four full lengthers and two longish novellas. And I’ve got ideas for more stories set in this world that has such a grip on my imagination. 

In 3 Proposals, Marianne faces a choice between three very different suitors – and on paper, Elias Thorne is the least eligible of all of them. Then everybody goes to the country, as happens! Marianne, her autocratic father, her suitors, plus a fair assortment of characters from the earlier SoS books converge on the year’s most glamorous house party. Dramatic events and revelations, not to mention forbidden passion, ensure that everything is sorted out in the wash. 

Actually there is literally a wash – bad weather traps all the players in Jonas and Sidonie’s luxurious country house. In such close quarters, the characters can’t escape the consequences of their actions. 

You could say Marianne’s best-laid plans gang a-gley too. Which is where the fun comes in! 

*          *          *

Anna's got two downloads of THREE PROPOSALS AND A SCANDAL up for grabs today (international)!

Just tell her the last time your best-laid plans went awry – and whether the results were good or bad. 

Good luck!

Blurb:
 
Whose hot kisses will melt the ice princess? All London is agog to know!

As the season reaches its brilliant climax, three very different men pursue beautiful Lady Marianne Seaton. She’s the marriage mart’s greatest prize – even if cruel and unjust gossip paints her as a woman cold and glittering as any diamond.

Lord Desborough is her father’s choice – rich, powerful, safe. Lord Tranter is society’s darling – handsome, dashing, charming.
Then there’s the dangerous, compelling man nobody in their right mind calls eligible. Elias Thorne, son of scandal, reputed deceiver, possessing a rakish fascination no woman can resist. A lady might choose Elias as a lover, but as a husband, he’s too risky a bet. Even if Marianne’s forbidden yearning for him threatens her future and her reputation.

When Marianne’s suitors pursue her to the year’s most glamorous house party, there will be proposals and passion, rivals and revelations, secrets and scandals.

Let battle commence – but will the best man win?

You can read an excerpt from THREE PROPOSALS AND A SCANDAL:  here
 

You can get your very own copy on:
Amazon
Smashwords 

And you can find Anna:
on Facebook
on Twitter - @AnnaCampbellOz
and on her website!

Winner of Anna Campbell Giveaway!

 
Huge thank you to everyone who popped in to read and comment on Anna Campbell's post about the creation of the  gorgeous cover for her Christmas novella, Her Christmas Earl!  She has a giveaway of a download of the novella and it's my great pleasure to announce that the winner is...  


Bronwyn Houldsworth!!



Congratulations, Bronwyn!  You can contact Anna Campbell on anna (at) annacampbell (dot) info to collect your prize!

Biography of a Cover

with Anna Campbell

Hiya Love Cats!

And a specially big hello to Sharon Archer who invited me to be your guest today to talk about my latest release, the novella HER CHRISTMAS EARL, which is currently available as an ebook for the princely sum of 99 cents! 

Picture 1

 



This is my third Christmas novella (following THE WINTER WIFE in 2012 and “His Christmas Cinderella” in the free anthology A GROSVENOR SQUARE CHRISTMAS in 2013). I love having something out to fit the season – makes me feel like the Regency Romance Santa Claus. 

Picture 2

I’m particularly proud of the cover for HER CHRISTMAS EARL because for the first time, it’s an image based on a photograph I took. So I thought I might give Love Cats and visitors a whole new love story – Anna Campbell and her new cover, a happy ending for all! 

 

Picture 3

On 30th August, I attended the annual Picnic at Pemberley at the Abbey Museum at Caboolture north of Brisbane. One of my friends Michelle Skidmore was dressed in a gorgeous red Regency ballgown that would have made Mr. Darcy drool. As I was snapping some pics of Michelle, the other friend I was with, Lisa Barry, said, “Wow, that would make a wonderful romance novel cover.” I don’t know if the Abbey has bells but one started to ring in my mind. I asked Michelle if she’d mind a new career as a cover model and she was most excited to set up as Fabio’s rival. 



Of all the shots I took, there were three I particularly liked (the first three pictures in the blog). I emailed Kim Killion, the designer I’d chosen, and asked her if any would be suitable. To my delight, she picked number three, the one of Michelle standing in the doorway to the church at the Abbey. The others were apparently a little bit dark. 



So then I waited in suspense to see what she came up with - and the answer was the lovely cover with my image of Michelle superimposed against that pretty arch so that it looked like my heroine Philippa was standing on a Regency garden terrace. I love all the red – it looks like Christmas to me. I wasn’t however so crazy on the white writing which appeared a little bland to my eyes. 


 

However, I’d been caught before with choosing covers that look great on my desktop computer and then fade to nothing in a thumbnail (the world of apps is completely unknown to me, but I’ve been told that’s the case with earlier indie books of mine). I asked Kim to change the writing to gold which had a more festive look. But checking with my more tech-savvy friends confirmed that the gold was very insipid in the smaller image. 






A plea to Kim to come up with something that popped in a thumbnail resulted in the final version of the cover, this very pretty red one with the filigree decoration around the title. And I have to say I love it! It’s romantic and Christmassy – and Michelle really does look fabulous in her red dress! 

 
So that’s the biography of the cover of HER CHRISTMAS EARL: A REGENCY NOVELLA. 


Here’s the blurb for the story inside the covers:
 
No good deed goes unpunished…

To save her hen-witted sister from scandal, Philippa Sanders ventures into a rake’s bedroom – and into his power. Now her reputation hangs by a thread and only a hurried marriage can rescue her. Is the Earl of Erskine the heartless libertine the world believes? Or will Philippa discover unexpected honor in a man notorious for his wild ways?

Blair Hume, the dissolute Earl of Erskine, has had his eye on the intriguing Miss Sanders since he arrived at this deadly dull house party. Now a reckless act delivers this beguiling woman into his hands as a delightful Christmas gift. Is fate offering him a fleeting Yuletide diversion? Or will this Christmas Eve encounter spark a passion that lasts a lifetime?

You can read an excerpt on my website: Click here

HER CHRISTMAS EARL is available at the bargain price of 99 cents from:

Amazon:
 
Smashwords:
 
So what do you like to see on a cover? Clinches? Girls in pretty dresses? Something symbolic like a locket or a shoe? A bare-chested hunk? Do covers influence your book purchases? 

I’ve got a download of HER CHRISTMAS EARL: A REGENCY NOVELLA for someone who comments today (international). Good luck!

Sunday Smooch: Emily May's BEAUTY AND THE SCARRED HERO

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a Regency smooch from BEAUTY AND THE SCARRED HERO by Emily May, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is -- Kate Kylie!


Congratulations, Kate! Can you please contact Lynne Marshall at

Lynne (at) lynnemarshall (dot) com

and she'll send you a signed copy of The Christmas Baby Bump in a Medical Romance Duo.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from BEAUTY AND THE SCARRED HERO by Emily May...

Major Nicholas Reynolds returns from the Battle of Waterloo a hero. Once, his rakish good-looks ensured he had his pick of beauties, but now his battle-scarred face exiles him from high society.

Lady Isabella Knox is horrified by the cruel gossip surrounding Nicholas, but intrigued by the man whose steely glance makes her blush on the outside...and burn deep on the inside.

A few stolen kisses later this beauty knows she's lost her head--and her heart--to the most notorious gentleman of the Ton...

[Major Reynolds and Lady Isabella are guests at the Worthington's masquerade ball. After a fireworks display at midnight, they linger on the moonlit terrace when the other guests return indoors to dance. They've both had a little too much punch, and when the Nicholas discovers that Lady Isabella has resolved to remain a spinster, he challenges that decision...]


Nicholas took hold of her fingers. ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’

She laughed. ‘I assure you that I do!’

‘No,’ he said. ‘You don’t.’

It was music swirling from the ballroom that made him tighten his clasp on her hand, that made him pull her closer. Faerie music, wild and reckless.

Lady Isabella became very still. ‘Major.’ There was a note of warning in her voice.

‘Don’t dismiss something as worthless until you have tried it.’

‘Major Reynolds—’

‘You have set your heart against marriage, without knowing anything of the pleasures that may attend it.If you were to make a love match, you would find that the ... er ... physical side of marriage can be extremely enjoyable.’

Lady Isabella pulled her hand free. She folded her arms across her chest, defensive. ‘Roland did kiss me once; I didn’t like it.’

‘He didn’t do it right, then.’

Her frown vanished. She laughed. ‘And pray, how do you know? You weren’t there!’

‘How do you know if you’ve only tried it once?’ He looked at her, gilded in music and moonlight. Desire clenched in his belly. Dear God, he wanted to kiss her. The music was no help, whispering in his ear, urging, enticing. ‘I think you should try it again.’

‘Just what is it you’re proposing, major?’

He shrugged and tried to keep his tone careless. ‘A kiss.’

There was no revulsion in her voice, merely shock: ‘You know I dare not!’

He glanced over his shoulder, at the shadowy gardens. ‘We wouldn’t be the only ones.’

Her brow creased. ‘Why, major?’

Because I want to taste your mouth. ‘So that your decision may be more informed.’ He leaned against the balustrade. ‘It’s a very important decision, after all.’

Her lips twisted, as if she tried to hide a smile. ‘For my own good?’

‘Yes,’ he said, striving for a note of piety. ‘I feel it is my duty.’ 

She laughed aloud at this and uncrossed her arms. ‘You have a glib tongue, major. Is this how you won your battles? By sweet-talking your enemies?’

You are not my enemy. Nor was she the woman he wanted to marry. But right now, while the mad, Bacchanalian music swirled around him and the night air was cool on his face, he had a burning need to kiss her.

Nicholas stepped away from the balustrade and reached for her hand. ‘I dare you,’ he whispered in her ear.

‘My reputation—’

‘Will still be intact. I give you my word of honour.’

Lady Isabella made no demur as he led her down the steps into the garden, as they followed a barely-seen path into the shadows, as he pulled her into the darkness of a gazebo. ‘I have drunk too much punch!’ she said.

‘I know I have.’ He pulled her close to him, cupping her face in his hands. ‘I shouldn't dare to do this otherwise!’

‘Am I so terrifying?’ she asked, a tart note in her voice.

Not terrifying; untouchable. He was suddenly, painfully, aware of his ruined cheek. Beauty and the Beast. And yet I am touching her.

Nicholas angled his head and touched his lips to hers. Slowly, he told himself, closing his eyes, inhaling the scent of her skin. Slowly.

He started gently, laying soft kisses on her mouth until he felt her relax, then he tasted her lips lightly with his tongue. She tasted of the punch, of strawberries and oranges, sweet and tart, delicious. Heat built in his body. When her lips parted to his tongue he almost groaned. Slowly, damn it. Slowly.

But it was impossible when she was kissing him back. Arousal jolted through him when her tongue shyly touched his. Nicholas abandoned his caution. He kissed her more deeply. His awareness of their surroundings, the gazebo and the shadowy garden, faded. Her mouth was more bewitching than the Faerie music, more intoxicating than the punch. His world narrowed to her lips, to her body pressed against his, to the taste and scent of her. This was indulgence, this was bliss, this was—

Madness.



BEAUTY AND THE SCARRED HERO is on the shelves this month in the UK. To be in the draw to win a signed copy tell us whether you've ever stolen an illicit kiss at a party. A school prom, perhaps, or a raucous New Year's Eve bash, or an office party...or perhaps even a masquerade ball!



Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from MELT by Natalie Anderson will be posted!

Sunday Smooch with Susan Gee Heino

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from Temptress in Training by Susan Gee Heino, but first ...

the winners of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway are --
Sonali and Kaelee!

Congratulations, ladies! Can you please contact Christina Hollis at christinahollis (at) hotmail (dot) co.uk , and she'll send you each a copy of Weight of the Crown.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Temptress in Training by Susan Gee Heino ...


A handsome earl and a beautiful seamstress are looking for answers. Both are willing to do what it takes to get them--even if it requires a little seduction.

Whether mending a ripped corset or constructing velvet pantalets, Sophie Darshaw is skilled with a sewing needle and in high demand at Madame Eudora's brothel. But dreams of a better life lead Sophie away from the brothel, and into the arms of a dangerous man...

After the Earl of Lindley's search for the double agent who killed his family keeps leading him to Miss Darshaw, he begins to suspect she's somehow connected to the plot. Bedding her seems like the best way to get some answers. But Sophie learned a few things from the girls at Madame Eudora's, and she's ready to put them to use...




She must have recognized the icy reality of revenge on his face. She took a step backward, away from him. The glow from the lamp hanging near the doorway spilled out into the yard where they stood. The warm light played against the heavy shadows, making her eyes seem endlessly deep and her skin endlessly tempting. Emotion only allowed her to draw short, halting breaths. Her worn gown pulled against those unignorable curves. Damn it, why couldn’t he forget just for these moments how beautiful the girl was?

“Maybe you can’t feel compassion, but surely you can feel something,” she said, swallowed, and gave the tiniest hint of a smile. “You are, after all, a man.”

Oh, he felt something, indeed. He just did not wish to discuss it at present. “My feelings are hardly your concern, Miss Darshaw. Go back to your father and say farewell.”

Now she regained that hesitant step she’d taken away. “Please, I’ll do anything.”

She let that phrase hang in the air. He knew exactly what it meant. Holy hell, could he actually be tempted?

“Anything, my lord,” she repeated with another halting step closer.

By God, he had to admit anything sounded remarkably enticing. She was barely a hand’s span away. Every soft curve of her body and every slight tremor in her lip lured him. She offered herself for the sake of her treacherous father and Lindley wished to heaven he had the resolve to refuse.

He did not. Reacting before his better judgment could intervene, he pulled her into his arms. She was either eagerly willing or too shocked to protest; he really did not care one way or the other. All that mattered was that her face tipped up toward his and he was finally able to capture those tremulous lips with his own. She was as soft and delectable as he’d often imagined.

He pressed her for response and was pleased to find one. Her fingers dug into his coat, clinging to him as if she were as desperate for his touch as she was to rescue her father. He explored her mouth with his own, willing her to forget everything but this moment. Damn, but it would have been easy enough for him to put all his many worries aside and simply enjoy the feel of her, the taste of her.

Of course he could not afford it, though. There must be purpose to this madness. He might allow her to crumble into mindless desire, but he would have to remain in control. He must use her for his objective and never forget what that was.

God, he wished he could forget, though. Holding Sophie, hearing her muffled moan and feeling the heat that flowed between them, Lindley would have given nearly everything to believe this was real. Yet of course he’d already given everything and he knew for a fact Miss Darshaw was not what she seemed.




This is the third in a series, so as a prize to one lucky winner, Susan is offering signed copies of ALL THREE books, MISTRESS BY MISTAKE, DAMSEL IN DISGUISE, and TEMPTRESS IN TRAINING.
To be in the draw, let Susan know what temptations you just can't seem to avoid. Chocolate? Shoes? Daring young men in cravats!?
You can learn more about Susan and her books at http://www.susangh.com/


Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from The Secretary's Secret by Michelle Douglas will be posted!