by Mary Jo
Holiday anthologies are fun to read and fun to write, so I was happy to sign on to this project with two other Kensington authors, both bestsellers and friends of many years, Madeline Hunter and Sabrina Jeffries.
Seduction on a Snowy Night received a starred review from Library Journal, and is listed as one of BookPage's top Christmas romance reads. Publishers Weekly said, "Christmas touches appear throughout, and the passion is hot enough to melt a snow bank. This fanciful Regency anthology will keep readers warm all winter."
Though the three of us all write mostly in the Regency period, we're very different writers, and I had fun reading through the draft book several weeks ago and enjoying how very different we all are when it comes to stories of romance, Christmas, and abduction! Read on to learn more:
Madeline Hunter, A Christmas Abduction
Tell us a bit about your story:
MH: Caroline Dunham abducts notorious rake Baron Thornhill with the goal of forcing him to marry her sister, who has named him as the father of her unborn child. On the isolated horse farm that Caroline struggles to manage, they are thrown into close proximity while they await her sister's arrival for Christmas. Adam does not remember this sister, but he is very drawn to Caroline, and Caroline is not immune to his charm. By the time Christmas arrives, the emotional tangle has become impossible.
Q: Are there any special elements of your story that you'd like to tell us about?
MH: Adam is a bad boy, and I always enjoy writing their stories. In this one, he unexpectedly finds a purpose in what has been until now the life of a wastrel and rake.
Q: Are any of the characters related to other stories you've written?
MH: No, I wasn't smart enough to connect the novella to a series of books, lol. This is a stand alone novella, although there is another love story running in the background of the main one
Q: Can you give us a small excerpt?
“I want you to know that Mr. and Mrs. Smith are not in any way involved in your being here,” Caroline said while she shrugged off her cape onto one of the red chairs. “They work here, and will help see to your comfort, but they are not part of it.”
“That is good to know, but of little use to them. When my cousin starts looking for necks to stretch, he won’t care about nuances.”
Mrs. Smith blanched. She grabbed the cape and hurried out.
“That was unnecessary,” Caroline said.
“She should know the truth. She is here. I am here. I am a prisoner. She is helping imprison me. That is all that will matter.”
She untied her bonnet and cast it aside. Fires burned in her dark eyes. “You can frighten her as best you can and she will not be disloyal. She and her husband have been here for years, and are as good-- Are you even listening to me?”
“Of course.” Hardly. With that bonnet gone and the fire blazing, he could see her distinctly. His initial perceptions of dark eyes and hair and white skin, of a handsome face that would be more notable as she aged, held. Only now those eyes were ablaze with annoyance and her head balanced just so on exact posture and her presence warmed him as much as the flames in the fireplace at his back.
“Then hear me when I say do not try that again. If you do, you will not eat well here.”
“Surely you are not threatening me with bread and water?”
“It won’t kill you. In fact, it might do you some good to lose a few pounds.”
“Excuse me?”
“I am not saying you are fat, only that you have thickened a bit, as men do when they leave youth behind and start softening in their middle years.”
“Excuse me?” Thickened? Middle years? Softening? He was barely twenty-seven and at most weighed five pounds more than when in university.
“Have I insulted you? Oh, dear. I do apologize.” She did not sound the least sorry. “Now you must come with me so I can show you your chamber.”
Sabrina Jeffries, A Perfect Match
Q: Tell us a bit about your story:
SJ: The hero is Colonel Lord Heywood Wolfe. He inherited a small estate from his mother’s side of the family, but has no money to do anything with it. So he needs to marry an heiress, and when he returns to England to visit his family, he has the perfect woman in mind: his fellow soldier’s sister, the heiress Kitty, whose letters have kept him vastly entertained. What he doesn’t know is that her cousin Cassandra really wrote the letters. Cass pretends not to be an heiress to weed out the fortune-hunters. But when the latest fortune-hunter after Kitty’s hand is overheard by Heywood plotting to kidnap her, he decides to whisk both women away to his family’s mansion to protect them. Christmas shenanigans ensue and eventually Heywood ends up with the perfect woman for him.
Q: Are there any special elements of your story that you'd like to tell us about?
SJ: The story is a nod to Cyrano de Bergerac, for one thing. It also introduces the villain for my next book, The Bachelor. Since the family has lived in Prussia until recently, I was able to use a Christmas tree in the story and do some fun things with gilded gingerbread, which I’d never heard of until I started doing research for this story.
Q: Are any of the characters related to other stories you've written>
SJ: Yes, this is part of my Duke Dynasty series about a blended family: a thrice-widowed mother with children by three different dukes. The eldest is the only son of one duke, the fraternal twins (a nod to my twin niece and nephew) are the son and daughter of another, and the two youngest brothers were born to the third, who didn’t expect ever to become duke. Heywood is the younger brother of those two. Some of the other members of the family make brief appearances in this book.
Q: Can you give us a short excerpt?
SJ: I can! Here you go:
The stranger’s gaze skimmed Cass’s form with decided interest. “Since we’re already acquainted by virtue of sharing this stretch of terrace, I was hoping we could dispense with formalities.”
The droll remark made her smile in spite of herself. “You’re very cavalier about introductions, sir.”
His eyes gleamed at her. “So are you. If you’ll recall, you spoke to me first.”
He was flirting with her, of all things. In her role of poor relation, she rarely found herself the object of interest from such a good-looking fellow. “And I begin to think that was a mistake.” She cast a critical glance over his attire. “You are obviously not dressed for the occasion.”
“Something I’m already regretting.” His rumbling voice sent a jolt to her senses, which was utterly unwise.
“Were you even invited to the ball?” she pressed him.
He crossed his impressive arms over his equally impressive chest. “That’s a rude question. Were you?”
She laughed outright. “I don’t generally push my way into social affairs.”
“Why not? You fit in beautifully. Much better than I.”
“We’ve already established that,” she said dryly. “Although it hasn’t stopped you from lurking about out here like a thief.”
He drew himself up with mock pride. “I’ll have you know, madam, that I’m only a thief where lovely ladies are concerned.” He leaned just close enough to give her a whiff of his bay rum scent. “I do steal the occasional kiss.”
Mary Jo Putney, One Wicked Winter Night
Q: Tell us a bit about your story.
MJP: Lady Diana Lawrence has been traveling to exotic places for years, and has finally decide to leave her home in India and return to friends and family in England. She is staying with her favorite niece, Lady Aurora Lawrence, when Rory decides to give a pre-Christmas masquerade ball. Swathed in veils, the two Lawrence ladies perform an exotic Hindu dance together.
A dashing masked corsair sweeps Diana into a waltz--and before the dance is over, she discovers that her corsair is the man she loved and left years ago. Her reasons were good, but Anthony Raines, now the Duke of Castleton, has never understood why, and he's determined to find out, no matter what it takes!
Q: Are there any special elements of your story that you'd like to tell us about?
MJP: Yes, here's the YouTube video I found for inspiration of the exotic dance Diana and Rory performed. (Shiva Shambho: Most Watched Bharatanatyam Dance | Best of Indian Classical Dance) I loved watching this, and it fit with the characters.story.
Also, the story has cats, in particular the Patriarch of my Pack, Panda the Magnificent. He plays a key role, but there are a couple of other of my cats as well. Because cats are fun. <G>
Q: Are any of the characters related to other stories you've written?
MJP: Yes, this is one of the advantages of doing a novella; it's a chance to find happy endings for secondary characters from earlier books. The hero of my story, Anthony Raines, is the younger brother of two of my heroines: Lady Julia in Never Less Than a Lady and Athena Markham in Once a Soldier. They had a horrible father and the two daughters bolted early. As the heir to the dukedom, Anthony had to endure his father to protect his people, and it made him wise and compassionate.
Though she isn't seen, Lady Diana is mentioned in my book Once a Scoundrel. The heroine of that story, Lady Aurora, had been visiting her aunt in India before that book begins. I knew that Diana was a very young aunt, so what to do with her? The result is "One Wicked Winter Night."
Q: Here's an excerpt taken from when Diana and Anthony waltz at the masquerade :
She realized that sensual awareness was moving into intense attraction and the feelings were mutual. And wasn’t that an outrageous thought? He was a stranger and his easy confidence suggested that he was a married man. Even if he wasn’t, she was not about to give up her independent life, and she was not a woman to take casual lovers.
Though there was nothing casual about how she felt tonight. As they waltzed, their bodies drew closer than was respectable. He was all male heat and strength, a wordless invitation to sin.
She felt reckless and a little wild, and she made no protest when he swept them into one of the ballroom’s shadowed alcoves. “You are enchanting, my exotic lady,” he breathed. “Will you join me for the supper dance?”
He wanted more than that, and so did she. “Perhaps I will. But first . . .” She tugged her veil from her lower face in a not very subtle invitation for a kiss.
An invitation he accepted. Their lips met in a warm, sweet thank-you for the pleasure of their dancing. Then his arms closed around her, and lightness dissolved into a desire that scorched her to her marrow. She leaned into him, their bodies molding together as the kiss deepened. He kissed like a god, she thought hazily. She’d never before experienced such a fierce response--
No, she had felt this scorching sensuality before! She jerked away until her back was pressed against the wall. “Anthony?” she gasped as she reached up to yank off his mask, revealing the face and deep blue eyes that were burned on her heart by the flames of first love.
We're giving away three copies of Seduction on a Snowy Night to people who leave comments on this blog between now and midnight Thursday. Sorry, US only.
Happy reading, and ho, ho, ho!
Mary Jo
Sabrina
Madeline