Kindle Daily Post

3 Benefits of Dating Your Enemy

Guest post by Tilly Bagshawe.

In my novel, Do Not Disturb, hotel heiress Honor Palmer finds herself powerfully attracted to her business rival and all round arch-nemesis, the dashing and ambitious Lucas Ruiz. When I was asked to think of the benefits of dating your enemy, initially I could only think of three letters: S-E-X.  Sex, surely, is rarely hotter, or more passionate and intense, that when there is a love/hate element involved.

When I worked in the city (London’s Wall Street) in a very competitive, male, testosterone-driven environment, workplace feuds were common. When they occurred between the sexes, they frequently involved a hefty dose of flirtation. Affairs--sparked by competition and fueled by the huge amounts of money and power at stake for the winner--were rife. So was the burn out rate, both professionally and romantically. It was an exciting place to work, but it could also be utterly exhausting. I loved it, and met my husband there, a relationship that began as outright war (seventeen years and four children later, I think we can safely say I won); but just thinking about that period now, the “sexual napalm” years, to quote John Mayer, makes me want to lie down and take a long nap.

It is often said that men and women can’t truly be friends. But I wonder if they can ever truly be enemies either. Attraction, frustration and suppressed lust have their role to play in male/female enmity and rivalry, just as they do in love. So what are the benefits of dating your enemy? 

1) Incredible sex. 

2) Give it a decade or so and they might just become your best friend.

3) The realization that you probably weren’t really enemies in the first place. You were lovers, stuck on the wrong side of the mirror.

Guest Blogger: Author Ella Grace on Time-Travel Romances

Guest blogger Ella Grace is a romance writer and author of Midnight Secrets.

Time travel has always intrigued me. Not only the science of it, but the very idea that something so extraordinary could exist or be possible. Imagine the ability to go back in time and prevent a horrendous event from happening. Or going forward in time to see what the future holds. Or how about just being able to go back to high school and change a couple of decisions you made? I could go for that in a heartbeat!

When writing this blog post about a favorite time travel romance, Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning immediately came to mind. A novel that involves Knights Templar, Robert the Bruce, Scottish warriors, murder, mystery and a steamy, passionate romance that spanned hundreds of years. How could you go wrong?

Grace St. John and Niall of Scotland fell in love 675 years apart. After suffering the excruciating agony of witnessing the murder of her husband and brother, Grace is on the run not only from the evil man who shot her family and wants to kill her too, but also from law enforcement who believes she committed the murders. She changes from a naïve, albeit brilliant, archaeologist into a strong, street-smart woman determined to avenge her family’s death. The only thing keeping her sane is her research of Black Niall, a Scottish warrior who lived hundreds of years ago. Something in the papers she’s studying could well provide the reason behind her family’s murders. 

In the midst of her research, she begins dreaming about Niall. She hears his voice even when she’s not asleep. She can feel his kisses, caresses. She finds herself falling in love with a man who’s been dead for centuries.

Against his wishes, Niall was chosen to be guardian of an immense treasure—one that holds a power that could change or destroy the world. Having lost all of his friends in battles and wars, he’s a bitter man, yet he takes his responsibilities with utmost seriousness. He knows his duties and while he may resent his role in life, he will not shirk his responsibilities. Niall begins to feel as though he’s being watched and then he hears Grace’s voice. His dreams become heated and intense. He doesn’t know who this woman is or why she’s haunting him but he becomes obsessed with her, as much as Grace becomes obsessed with Niall.

Traveling hundreds of years back in time, Grace finally meets Niall. And though they deny it, both know they’re already in love. A connection that stretched hundreds of centuries and thousands of miles cannot be denied.

Though published in 1997, the story stands the test of time. Son of the Morning is a truly wonderful book filled with appealing characters, an intriguing, original plot, and a steamy, sensual romance with a happy ending. That’s enough to make any romance reader close the book with a happy sigh.

Ella Grace is the author of a new steamy southern suspense, Midnight Secrets. Learn more about Ella Grace by visiting her author page.

Guest Blogger: Author C.E. Murphy on Time Travel Romances

Guest blogger C.E. Murphy is a fantasy and romance writer and author of The Walker Papers series.

The clash of eras, the risk of loss not just across a lifetime but across eons, the fantastic element of possibility beyond the real: they're the things that draw me to stories, romances and love written literally across the ages.

Backward, out of order, chaotic, desperate, hopeful, full of tears and laughter--isn't that what love feels like anyway? The Time Traveller's Wife only highlights the emotions we experience in our day life, and heightens them by deliberately throwing them against a canvas of mixed-up aging and erratic encounters. The idea that love can draw people together across time itself: that's irresistible. That's enormous. And that's what I often want from a story: something larger than life!

Or, for the science fiction television fans among us, there's even Doctor Who, living a life of spoiler warnings and half-hinted futures upon meeting with one of his own paramours. Time travel tantalizes in a way straight-forward storytelling perhaps can't: it gives us glimpses at what might be, and whisks them away through circumstances much larger than any ordinary experience.

There's Connie Willis offering heartbreak and entangled timelines of The Doomsday Book, where a graduate student's research trip to plague-ridden Europe of 1348. Inoculated against the disease, our modern heroine finds devastating love during one of the worst eras of European history.

You just can't quite get that from a straight romance, can you? Not just losing the love of your life to mistakes or foolish arguments, but to time itself, to the centuries turning beyond control? That's something remarkable. I think throwing our loves and hopes and fears against a canvas that vast helps to put them in perspective every bit as much as it enables us to revel in the enormity that is love and romance.

That's certainly part of what draws me to writing time travel. I began my Walker Papers series knowing time travel would be part of it, though I had no idea how much it would resonate in the later books. Especially--especially!--since I imagined it would be an aspect of the story that affected only my heroine, Joanne Walker, whose shamanic gifts include an ability to slip through time. But to my astonishment, not only did those time travel story aspects culminate in two of the latest books in the series (Raven Calls and Mountain Echoes), they also gave a tremendous depth of history to Joanne's beloved sidekick, 74-year-old Gary Muldoon, in his own book, No Dominion.

Time travel: even when the writer knows it's coming, it carries its own surprises and revelations. That's as amazing a gift, in its way, as the stories from others that I get to read and watch. All of the hidden promises, unexpected hints, and astonishing reveals of time travel stories are just what I want out of my reading: a chance to draw back the curtain and catch a glance at what might have been...and what may yet be!

C.E. Murphy is the author of more than twenty books-along with a number of novellas and comics (graphic novels to some). Born in Alaska, currently living in Ireland, she does miss central heating, insulation and sometimes snow but through the wonders of the internet, her imagination and her close knit family, she’s never bored or lonely. Visit the C.E. Murphy author page.

Romantic Times Award Winning Books

Award season is here! Romantic Times announced the Reviewers' Choice award winners honoring the best books of 2012. The RT staff of more than 50 reviewers select the nominees and the winners. Below is a list of winners we'd like to give a shout out to. For the full list of awards and winners visit the RT Award Winners and Nominees page.

RT Book of the Year: Riveted by Meljean Brook
A century after a devastating volcanic eruption forced Iceland's inhabitants to abandon its shores, the island has become enshrouded in legend. But the truth behind the legends is mechanical, not magical--and the mystery of the island a matter of life and death for a community of women who once spilled noble blood to secure their freedom... Read more

Contemporary Romance: When Snow Falls by Brenda Novak
After growing up in cheap motels, moving from town to town with her sister and mother, Cheyenne Christensen is grateful to be on her own. She's grateful, too, for the friends she found once her family settled in California. But she's troubled by the mystery of her earliest memories, most of which feature a smiling blonde woman. A woman who isn't her mother... Read more

Erotica: The Siren by Tiffany Reisz
Notorious Nora Sutherlin is famous for her delicious works of erotica, each one more popular with readers than the last. But her latest manuscript is different—more serious, more personal—and she's sure it'll be her breakout book, if it ever sees the light of day. Zachary Easton holds Nora's fate in his well-manicured hands... Read more

Historical Romance: Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt
A masked man, a dangerous woman, and a passion neither could deny. During the day Isabel and Winter engage in a battle of wills. At night their passions are revealed . . . But when little girls start disappearing from St. Giles, Winter must avenge them. For that he might have to sacrifice everything-the Home, Isabel . . . and his life. Read more

Inspirational Romance: The Shadow of the Quilt by Stephanie Grace Whitson
Juliana Sutton’s life looks perfect—from the outside. Until her husband’s untimely death reveals a devastating truth... Cass Gregory is carrying his own dark secrets and feels unworthy to offer comfort to a woman of Juliana’s standing. When circumstances force them together, both Juliana and Cass are wounded and afraid to trust. Read more

Multicultural Romance: Red Hot by Niobia Bryant
Is a real man too hot for a pampered diva to handle?... For Kaitlyn Strong, life has been a fun-filled free ride, all expenses paid by her wealthy father. As for relationships, why would Kaitlyn want to give up the fabulous single life? But after she goes on her most outrageous spending bender yet, she's informed it's time to make her own way. For a shocked Kaitlyn, that means getting a job--and an affordable apartment to go with it. Read more

Romantic Suspense: Sleepwalker by Karen Robards
It’s not that Micayla Lange is afraid of the clinking she hears coming from the first floor of the empty McMansion she’s housesitting for her uncle Nicco. She’s a cop, after all. It’s just that finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her was enough drama for one night. Now she’s alone on New Year’s Eve, wearing flannel pajamas and wielding a Glock 22 as she zeroes in on the unmistakable source of the sound: Uncle Nicco’s private office. Read more

First Series: What Lies Beneath by Andrea Laurence
They say she's Cynthia Dempsey, fiancée of media mogul Will Taylor. But try as she might, she can't recall their high-society life or the man sitting by her hospital bed. Though her body certainly remembers him. Even as she senses the distance between them, the electricity when they touch is undeniable. Read more

Guest Blogger: Author Connie Brockway on Southern Romances

Guest post by New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Connie Brockway. She is an eight time finalist for Romance Writers of America prestigious RITA award and a two-time recipient for My Dearest Enemy and The Bridal Season.

I’m in the mood for something steamy and since up here on the tundra, where we are still entrenched in the never-ending winter, preferably something warm weather-related. But if I can’t have that, I’ll settle for the Deep South and a molasses-smooth drawl, humid nights, hot heroes, and Steel Magnolia heroines.

Here’s my selection of old and new treasures guaranteed to sweep you away somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line:

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Long before True Blood hit the HBO airwaves, Charlaine Harris wrote a more genial (if no less blood thirsty) vampire novel called Dead Until Dark. In it, her naive 25-year-old virgin waitress finds true love and an empty mind (you either already know why this is a plus or you’ll just have to read the book!) with super stud vampire Bill. But the real star of this story in Bon Temp, a sleepy bayou stranded town with a plethora of characters both, alive and dead, supernatural and super-odd that will have you turning pages as fast as you can. Here’s a story that goes down as easy as sweet tea on a hot afternoon!

 

Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath

If you love a tortured hero, you’re going to adore Houston Leigh, ravaged body and soul by injuries suffered in the Civil War. Sent to escort his beloved brother’s mail-order bride across the Texas wilderness, Houston falls for southern bell Amelia Carson. What’s a tortured, honorable, desperate man to do, especially when your brother is not some shiftless ne’er do well but a good, hard-working man deserving of the glorious Amelia? Happily, in Lorraine Heath’s expert hands, the answer isn’t left entirely up to Houston. Amelia has survived her own ordeals and emerged stronger, more competent and ready to love. This is a richly satisfying and emotional read that never takes the easy way out. And that setting? I can almost taste the trail dust.

 

Meant to Be by Terri Osburn

Warning, this book is not available until May 21 but it fit in so well with my theme and was so much fun that I couldn’t resist including it. Sweet, disarming Beth Chandler isn’t exactly a mail-order bride but she is willing to take a terrifying voyage (okay, it’s a short hop across a channel on a ferry, but she’s hydrophobic) to meet her future in-laws on idyllic Anchor Island. During the trip she finds a welcome distraction in rugged fellow passenger Joe Dempsey and his dog, Dozer. The animal magnetism (sorry, it was irresistible) is not only doomed by the fact that she’s already engaged, but then she discovers that —yup… you guessed it— Joe is her intended’s brother. Fun, flirty, with an adorable and genuinely likeable heroine and a great supporting cast, watching these two fight their high-octane attraction is pure delight. Hit that pre-order button!

I could go on for a long time about my favorite southern delights but for those of you who want to really sink your teeth into the more over-the-top on that pile, I suggest digging up some of Kathleen Woodiwiss’s titles such as Ashes in the Wind or the seminal Shanna. They’re as lush and rich as praline sauce on bread pudding. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Guest Blogger: Author Mary Balogh's Favorite Series

Best-selling author Mary Balogh reveals her favorite series in this exclusive blog post. Her new book, A Counterfeit Betrothal/The Notorious Rake, is now available.

I love reading book series, whatever the genre. There is a familiarity about the fictional world they set up, and there are common characters whom the reader can get to know in greater depth than is possible in a single book. Whenever I discover a new series, I hope to enjoy the first book well enough that I will want to continue with the others, especially if some or all of them are already published. There are, of course, two types of series: those, mainly in the romance genre, in which there is a binding idea while each book has different protagonists; and those in which the same protagonist(s) stars in each book. I have many favorites of each type. These are five of them, in no particular order of preference:

1. Debbie Macomber's Blossom Street series. These books are set at and about a knitting shop on Blossom Street and concern the lives and loves and trials and triumphs of the owner, a cancer survivor, and a group of other ladies who shop at the store or join various knitting classes there. I love the setting as I am a knitter myself. I love too the interactions among the women, many of whom appear in more than one book, the very real life situations they face, and the way they support one another through the bonds of female friendship. They are gentle, feel-good books without being fluff.

2. Grace Burrowes's Windham series. These are standalone romances, the Regency-era love stories of eight siblings, three brothers and five sisters. I enjoy them even as individual books. But what I find special about them as a series is the complexity of character, which has time and scope to develop in the course of eight books. I am intrigued too by the fact that two of the siblings are the illegitimate offspring of the father, the Duke of Moreland, though they have been brought up with the legitimate sons and daughters. And there are two novellas for the duke and duchess, one their own love story, the other the story of how the illegitimate son and daughter (of different mothers) were taken as children into the larger family.

3.  Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series. These are twenty-four books about the exploits of Richard Sharpe during the Napoleonic Wars, starting when he was an infantry private in the British armies in India and ending when he was a lieutenant-colonel and aide to the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, though actually the last book takes place several years later than that. The books are graphic and brutal and brilliant and impossible to put down, and Sharpe is the sort of super-hero who can get himself out of impossible trouble and perform exploits of incredible heroism several times in each book. What makes the series particularly appealing to me is that they cover the same time period that I use in my own Regency-era love stories. A number of my heroes have fought in the wars.

4.  Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter, who is quite inept at her job and yet always somehow gets her man. The secondary characters, including two hunky men who both figure as her love interest, her wacky co-workers, and her irrepressible grandmother, appear in every book and are priceless creations. The main appeal of the series for me is its non-stop action and constant, laugh-aloud humor. And I particularly like the fact that Stephanie and the other characters never age. We always find them the same as ever from one book to the next.

5.  M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series. Hamish Macbeth is a policeman without any ambition of rising in the ranks. He likes his little village in the Scottish Highlands, where he knows everyone and everyone knows him. Although other people constantly make the mistake of thinking him lazy and even none too intelligent, he has a knack for solving murder mysteries that have baffled all the experts, and the experts are never too happy with him as a result! I love this kindly, likable, laid-back character and his fellow-villagers. There is gentle humor in the books as well as genuine mystery and suspense, and the Highlands setting is almost a character in its own right.

Guest Blogger: Author Candace Camp on Scandal in Regency Romances

Candace Camp is a "New York Times" best-selling romance writer. Her new book, The Marrying Season, is now available.

Let’s face it.  We all love a good scandal, don’t we? Whether it’s the latest politician’s misstep or a celebrity’s arrest for DUI or the woman down the street who seems to have an excessive number of gentlemen callers, we find ourselves reading that story or clicking to see the disheveled booking photo or telling our spouses about the bit of gossip we heard from our neighbor.

And it’s not just real scandal that draws us; it’s popular in fiction, as well—and especially in the period I write in, the Regency. You have only to glance through Amazon to find Regency romances with scandal featured in the title—Amanda Quick’s Scandal or Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas or That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran, to name only a few. My own Legend of St. Dwynwen series begins with A Winter Scandal, in which Thea discovers a baby abandoned in the manger scene of a church and assumes that it must be the love child of Lord Morecombe, the favorite topic of local gossip.  

The Marrying Season, just released, wraps up the St. Dwynwen trilogy with the love story of Genevieve Stafford, who has always been the very picture of propriety until she is caught in a compromising position and must marry Sir Myles to save herself from scandal. The charming and easy-going Myles is the last man Genevieve would have thought of marrying, but as he helps her track down the malicious person bent on bringing Genevieve to social ruin—and introduces her to the pleasures of marriage—she finds that the man she has always dismissed is precisely the man she wants. 

The people of the Regency period were just as intrigued by scandal as we are. The ton lived on gossip, and the rich and titled, the celebrities of the day, provided plenty of it. In the late 1700s, leading up to the Regency period, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire raised plenty of eyebrows by not only engaging in numerous affairs (and having various children from them), but actually living in a ménage a trois with Lady Elizabeth Foster, the best friend of Georgiana, the Duchess. Georgiana’s niece, Lady Caroline Lamb, also set tongues wagging with her tumultuous affair with Lord Byron. Another aristocrat given to poetry, Percy Bysshe Shelley, shocked society by leaving his wife and running off to Europe with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the teenage daughter of the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. 

With no Internet or reality TV, how did everyone keep up with all the gossip? Through scandal sheets. Newspapers like The Tatler and The Spectator sprang up in the 1700s to present not only news and political commentary, but also plenty of gossip. In The Marrying Season, much of the scandal about Genevieve is fueled by a newspaper featuring a column by Lady Looksby. Using an arch tone that gave the impression of coming from an insider, this forerunner of a modern blog provided all the latest gossip in coy snippets like, “What lady was seen leaving the Somerset gala with a certain Lord D____?” In much the same style, The Tatler’s bylines purported to come from clubs like White’s or popular coffeehouses such as The Grecian, giving the impression that they’d received the information straight from someone “in the know.”

What makes us indulge in this guilty pleasure? Maybe it’s getting a vicarious thrill. Or perhaps it’s some sort of inner satisfaction at seeing some high-flying person brought down. It could just be that it makes for an exciting tale and we all like a good story. The reasons would, I’m sure, take up a whole new blog. But I haven’t the time for it right now, I’m afraid. I have to go check out the latest from Perez Hilton.

Historical Romance Book Club for Men - Book Trailer

Historical romance has finally found its audience in this must-see book trailer, for Forever a Lord by Delilah Marvelle.

 

Melinda Leigh on Romance, Snacks, and Men

Guest post by Melinda Leigh, author of She Can Run, Midnight Sacrifice and other romantic suspense novels.

What snacks do you eat while you write? 

I normally eat (mostly) healthy food, but as a deadline approaches, move over apples. Coffee, ice cream, and peanut butter cups get me through those long hours.

What do you find sexy in a leading man? 

A man with a great sense of humor will get my attention every time.  I’m also a sucker for a guy who’s great with kids and animals.

You teach women's self-defense, what's the best defensive move one of your characters has ever made? 

In Midnight Sacrifice, Mandy is the best marksman in town. Jayne from Midnight Exposure isn’t into guns. She uses a leg sweep to bring her captor down onto the ground with her. Then she drops a heel into his groin.

If you were not writing romantic suspense, what would you be doing?

I have no idea. Other than writing, I love martial arts and animals. I would NOT go back into banking. <shudder>.

Midnight Sacrifice is the second in your Midnight series.  How do you choose which characters you will revisit in subsequent titles?  Do you know yet who you plan to focus on in your next book in the series? 

As I write a book, I keep possible stories for secondary characters in mind. The next book in the Midnight series will be about Conor Sullivan and the museum curator he meets in Midnight Sacrifice. Their conflict is already delicious, and I haven’t even started to plot out their novel.

Is that cat hair on your coat?

It’s probably dog hair, cat hair, and as I visited a ranch for rescue horses last week, a few horse hairs as well. We have a collie that sheds enough fur weekly to make a small animal. Add a spaniel and two cats to the mix and there isn’t a fur free article of clothing in our house.

You, Joe Hill and Stephen King have all found frightening inspiration in Maine.  What is it about that place?

It’s desolate, wild, and scary, the perfect background for suspense.

Fan-Favorite Wedding Proposals

We asked Amazon Books Facebook fans to name their favorite wedding proposal scene from a book. The resounding #1 answer was Mr. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Top five fan-favorite proposals include:

1. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Edward and Bella in Eclipse (The Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
3. Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
4. Edward and Elinor in Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
5. Todd and Christy in The College Years Trilogy by Robin Jones Gunn

Acclaim also went to this scene in The Princess Bride: “If your love for me were a grain of sand, my love for you would be a universe of beaches.” -- Wesley to Buttercup

See more featured romance books with wedding themes.