Rock Stars--the ultimate heart-breakers!

Close up of The Rock Star Next Door, Lex and Jessie make out on the Beach

Valentine's Day is just around the corner for this blog hop and we're gearing up to see what exactly is a heart-breaker. We love those sexy men, but what about those times in the story when they aren't perfect. Because come on, we know they aren't perfect. 

What makes those men heart-breakers? 

Almost 300 bloggers have giveaways and posts about those men we love! 

But that's not all....

We have THREE grand prizes:

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

Win this Awesome Swag Pack!

Leave a comment here to be entered to win the grand prize, the swag pack and also the prize for this blog: A $20 iTunes Gift Card and a print or e-book copy of The Rock Star Next Door! Be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you if you are the winner! 

 We've all done it, had that super sexy fantasy about a particular Rock Star falling in love with us. Or maybe, just maybe . . . we were groupies in a past life (ahem, I'll never tell) and got to go backstage and meet Mr. Sexy-hot-dangerous as hell.  

Let's not fool ourselves. A rock star is sort of like a demi-god. We all wish that his affections could be captured forever by just one woman, and that one woman--in our fantasies--is ourselves. But the reality is that Rock Stars, because they are so in demand and so damned Sexy-Dangerous, by definition, are not the kind of hero to sweep us off our feet and carry us away to paradise. That's the reality, but hey, we can dream, can't we? 

In my contemporary romance, The Rock Star Next Door, I created a hero who has a reputation as a heart-breaker and yet, he's become fixated and obsessed with the girl next door. Lex is every woman's fantasy, hot-sexy-dangerous, with a reputation that worries the heroine, Jessie. Worse for it, Lex is convinced that he and Jessie were lovers in a past life and their souls are destined for a reunion in this one. 

Jessie has her own secrets. Given Lex's reputation as a heart-breaker, she's not ready to trust him or his motives for announcing to the media that she's the girl he's going to marry--without even asking her first. He drops a bomb, a big one, causing a media sensation. Is it just a publicity stunt, a joke or is he serious about marrying her? 

So, who is your dirty little fantasy rock star hottie?  And if he came to your door, insisting you were his soul mate, a lover from a past life that tragedy stole you from him, would you marry the dude? Would you marry him in a heartbeat, as he insists, or would you be backing away with warning bells and the word 'stalker' ringing in your ears. 

Me, I'd fall for Jon Bon Jovi. And if he lived next door to a single me and insisted we were soul mates, hey, I might allow him to woo me a little while I consider my options . . . 

Here are a few other contenders for my secret heart-breaker heart-throb: Do you recognize anyone?   BTW . . . take a moment to enjoy this lovely manly scenery.

      (Elevator music plays as we all stop and admire the hotties below) 

 

        

       

 

 Okay, wipe the drool off your chin and fess up. 
Who is your hot fantasy celebrity hero? Be honest, its' only us girls here, after all. We all have had that dream, that idol, that teen age crush . . . who was yours? Would you toss caution to the wind if you were single and all grown up and he came a wooing little ol' you? 

Leave a comment here with your email address and be entered to win the grand prize for the Heart-Breakers Blog Hop or the 2nd and 3rd prizes.   

And that's not all, if you 'fess up and tell who your hot celeb romance hero is (it doesn't have to be a rock star . . . it can be a movie star or a hot country star who makes your heart soar), you'll be entered to win a print copy or e-book copy (winner's choice) of The Rock Star Next Door By Lily Silver along with a $20 iTunes gift card so you can add some hard rockin' music to your iPod or some romance books to your iPad!

Be sure and visit the other bloggers to continue the hop and enter to win more prizes!  

Main page for the Heartbreaker Blog Hop 

 

Contrived Love? Can You Be Tricked into Falling in Love?

Image credit: natis76 / 123RF Stock Photo

Love is a feeling, an emotion. Emotions can be tricky things. They can rise up unexpectedly, a rush of anger, a flash of fear, or a burgeoning feeling of excitement.  And just as quickly those feelings can disappear, become only a distant memory. What about love? Can it be planned, contrived, manipulated?
Can you make someone fall in love with someone else?

Suppose you had two friends who absolutely hated each other. Every time you got together socially and they were in the room, they just couldn't stop trading insults to the point where they ruin the party for everyone. Well, dear reader, maybe you should go all Shakespeare on their trim backsides, and suggest a little more affection between them.

I love Shakespeare's plays. I find his contrived scenes vastly entertaining and also very complex. The story of Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado about nothing is no exception. These two people cannot stand each other. Beatrice sees Ben as a real pain in the ass, and as for our man Benedick, well he thinks she's quite the sour harpy.

Here is a little glance into their shared dislike:

Beatrice, aka Bea

Beatrice: I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.

Benedick: What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
Beatrice: Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence.
Benedick: Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none.
Beatrice: A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.
Benedick: God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face.
Beatrice: Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were.
Benedick: Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.
Beatrice: A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.
Benedick: I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God's name; I have done.

Benedick, aka Ben

And so they go on, continually. 

Well, during a week long wedding party, the household decided to play a little trick on these very publicly avowed enemies.  

The male members of the party decide on a little diversion during the week long house party for their own amusement. They come up with a plan to try to convince the warring pair that the other one is love with him/her. It is a subtle suggestion, carefully laid, with a wager among the men that by the end of the week, the heretofore contrary pair will be deeply and madly in love with each other. 

It seems as if it will be destined to failure.  

But alas, the power of suggestion is strong, Isn't that why we succumb to commercials convincing us we REALLY need this product we wouldn't otherwise buy?  Happens all the time. So what if, by design, your friends decided they were sick of your bickering with Ben, and played a trick on you both, suppose they start suggesting that Ben is really secretly in love with you, and he hides it beneath his pretense of sharp barbs?  Would it work?  

The men of the party elicit the women's aid; the women work on Beatrice, while the men work on convincing Ben of this contrived affection. 

Suddenly, both Beatrice and Benedick start to question their own perceptions. "Ah ha, did I sense some double meaning int that put down so coldly delivered . . .?"   

Not really . . . they meant every nasty word! But it works!  By the end of the play, both Bea and Ben are seeing the other in a new light, seeing the good in the other and feeling really, really flattered and a little giddy with excitement to find out that they are secretly adored! 

And suddenly they are in love. Manipulated into the fickle emotion, but there you have it, deeply in love. Ben is so enthralled with Bea that he's ready to challenge a man to a duel to prove his love for her!  At the beginning of the story he despised her, called her a bitter old maid, a nag and so many other things that weren't complimentary in the least. By the end of the story, he's ready to kill for her, because he loves her and can't stand to see her weeping over her cousin's ill use. 

And they say Shakespeare is boring. Hmmm . . .  I guess he is if you don't like drama, love, poetry, or sarcastic wit . . .there's always Beavis and Butthead! 

                                                                **************

Beatrice and Benedick of Much Ado About Nothing are timeless lovers. They remind us that yes, love is possible, even contrived, manipulated love!  

There is a great movie version of this story, Much Ado About Nothing, 1993, staring Kenneth Brannagh as Benedick and Emma Thompson as Beatrice. It is a very engaging, witty, fun adaption that is sure to please any true Shakespeare fan, as the dialogue is not tampered with--it's Shakespeare at its best.  

 Click here to view Video Trailer


Go ahead, fall in love..... or plot and scheme to make your sister fall in love, consider it a great social experiment. What should we call it? Going along with the Big Bang Theory's odd little tag lines, suppose we call it   The Shakespeare Manipulation.  

Lovers Ink: The Bard's Thoughts on Love

 

 Shakespeare, for me--Rocks. 

He's given us some of the the most memorable lovers in history: Romeo & Juliet, Beatrice & Benedict (Much Ado About Nothing), Titania and Bottom (Midsummer Night's Dream) , Othello & Desdemona,  Rosalind and Orlando (Ask You Like It), to name a few.

And talk about tragic lovers, well, Romeo and Juliet are the essence of desperate, wild, irrational and eternal love---dying just to be together.

Since it's a cold dreary winter month, and Valentine's Day is looming on the horizon, with hearts everywhere in candy form, card form or just bright red colored heart lights, I thought it nice to see what the famous bard, Will Shakespeare himself, had to say about Love. After all, this blog is about Romancing History, and who better to make hearts swoon with his writing and prose than Will himself? 

Here are a few special tidbits of wisdom from our stalwart Poet of old:  

Is Love a tender Thing? It is too rough, 

    Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like a thorn. 

                                                    Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.

         

                Love is merely a madness. 

                                       Rosalind in  As You Like It

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

     Admit impediments:  Love is not 

  Love

     That alters where it alteration finds, 

Or bends with the remover to remove. 

      O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken.   

                                     Sonnet 116

                 

                            Love is blind. 

                                       Speed, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, 

Beatrice:  But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me? 

      Benedick:  Suffer Love!  A good epithet. I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against my will. 

                                                             Much Ado About Nothing 

                                   

The course of True Love never did run smooth.  

                      Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream

                   

  Things base and vile, holding no quantity, 

                              Love can transpose to form and dignity. 

                      Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, 

                              And therefore is winged Cupid painted Blind. 

                                     Helena in  A Midsummer Night's Dream

Doubt thou the stars are fire, 
        Doubt that the sun doth move, 
Doubt truth to be a liar, 
       But never doubt I love, 
              Polonius in Hamlet

 

Stay warm this month, let the fires of love & romance heat up your winter. 

Romance novels bring a little zest and spice to those cold winter nights. 

Lily Silver, Romance Author

Warm up Your Winter with Free reads

Welcome to The Warm Winter Reads Blog Hop, Day Two!

Today, to give readers a little extra insulation against the winter blahs, I'm giving away a free e-book to everyone who visits. See the post below for details, but first let's review the big prizes being offered:

Grand Prize for the Warm Winter Reads Beach Book Blast event is a $50 Best Buy Gift card and $25 e-book card of winner's choice (Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes!)  Sign up on the main Beach Book Blast site using the rafflecopter tabs!  http://beachbookblast.blogspot.com/

Prize for One Lucky Romancing History reader here is a $10 iTunes gift card and digital e-book of Bright Scoundrel, Book Two of Reluctant Heroes Series. 

 (Leave a comment for me below to enter to win this prize! ) 

Winter can be long, especially where I live, in northeastern Wisconsin.  I live close to Green Bay, as in about half a mile. Green Bay, when frozen, is like a giant icebox. So, even in April and May the cool air of the melting Bay waters keep it pretty cool here.

So what do I do to cope, why, I like to escape into a good book.   And having an e-reader is a plus to me as I get to download so many wonderful reads from my favorite Indie Authors.

This weekend, 17 of us have joined together to create a great Blog Hop and giveaway. Many of us are offering free or greatly reduced reads to give readers a sample of our work.

Get it Free!

Today, as part of the second half of our hop, I'm offering a free copy of Dark Hero, the First Book in my Reluctant Heroes Series. I'm celebrating the release of the second book in the series, Bright Scoundrel, this month, so the first one is free to the readers of this blog. (To read about this new release and the unique hero, read the previous post.)  It's a little bonus prize for stopping in on Sunday to give me a peek.  Pick up a free copy of Dark Hero at Smashwords.com

 I also have excerpts posted of both books, the first chapter on the pages tab at the top of this page, if you'd like a sneak peak.


And be sure to visit the other blogs listed below, as many of these great authors are also giving away free e-books as part of the hop. 

Thanks for joining us on this cold winter day. Don't forget to leave a comment here to be entered to win a $10 iTunes card and free digital copy of Bright Scoundrel! Please remember to leave an email address so I can contact you if you are the winner!  Happy Hopping!

 

Warm Up Your Winter with Reluctant Heroes who become Romance Heroes

 

Grand Prize for the Warm Winter Reads Beach Book Blast event is a $50 Best Buy Gift card and $25 e-book card of winner's choice (Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes!)  Sign up on the main Beach Book Blast site using the rafflecopter tabs!  http://beachbookblast.blogspot.com/

Prize for One Lucky Romancing History reader here is a $10 iTunes gift card and digital e-book of Bright Scoundrel, Book Two of Reluctant Heroes Series. 

 (Leave a comment for me below to enter to win this prize! ) 

An author friend of mine once said that Romance Readers are Emotion Junkies. 

I agree with him, wholeheartedly. Now, before you take him to task because he's a man, realize that he actually writes Romance, and has done so for twenty years. He's done it quite well, as he has 25 books published, most of them by Harlequin. 

I'm an avid Romance Reader. Why? Because, as my author friend pointed out, I like the emotional pull of the story. I love falling in love with the hero, rooting for the hero and heroine to be together. I like worrying over them and wondering if they will ever overcome the obstacles and be together. I want them to have their happily ever after.  

As a Romance author, I've had a very hard task to complete; giving the reader a satisfying emotional read.  I want the reader to be entertained. I want the hero to sweep the reader off her feet along with the heroine. That's a tough task, a very difficult one as we don't all fall for the same types of heroes. 

I'm all for the alpha male. Make mine alpha, please! Donovan Beaumont in Dark Hero is my ultimate alpha hero. He's my dream, my fantasy.  But not everyone will like him. Some readers might be put off by him. And as a writer, I realize not every hero I create can be like Donovan, because Donovan is often arrogant, controlling, deceptive and downright overbearing. 

So, how do I follow a Strong Alpha Male lead from my first book in the series, Reluctant Heroes with a second, equally compelling hero?  What kind of hero can follow Donovan's very strong personality and still hold his own as a romance hero?

Published January 1, 2013

Well, the answer is simple.  This next Reluctant Hero is a Beta Male.  

Yes, that was a surprise, even to me as I usually write strong alphas.  

Kieran O'Flaherty does not march into the fray sword in hand. He uses his wits and his magical abilities to conquer a problem. He's a druid priest, a powerful sorcerer from a long line of druids. And he's also a bad boy when it comes to the ladies. Our hero this time around is not pirate or a warrior, he's a rake. Not that he pursues women like a dog; no--it's rather the opposite; The women come to him. He's gained a reputation in London as a scoundrel but the truth is, the women seek him out because of his charm and his magical allure. And the best part of it is, they don't leave unsatisfied. Nope, Kieran O'Flaherty knows that pleasing the woman only enhances his own sexual pleasure. 

So, if you are looking for something different to read this winter, a different kind of love story imbued with magic and suspense, give Bright Scoundrel a taste. Kieran is not your typical hero. He's a rich playboy: sort of a cross between Mark Sloan, the man whore on Grey's Anatomy and Baltazar Blake, the Sorcerer in the Disney Movie The Sorcerer's Apprentice. 

Mix 1 part man-whore

With Two parts Sorcerer!

Equals Bright Scoundrel Kieran O'Flaherty

Kieran might not be a straight up alpha but he does have strong alpha tendencies. He's confident in his manhood and doesn't need to bellow, stomp or kick ass to prove himself. He rises to the challenge to save his lady love when she's threatened, but he uses magic to come to her aid and vanquish the bad guy, and that's pretty darn cool.  

The story takes place in Ireland of 1802, in an ancient castle. Kieran returns to the land of his birth and encounters magical beings from ghosts, dark spirits and elementals, a banshee, and a hidden Fey among his servants. He leaves London to embrace a simpler life in the bucolic Irish countryside, but his retreat is anything but tranquil. When he arrives, he finds the steward of his estate is a woman--an avowed spinster, a feminist who is all prickles and spines and a seems to be the only woman immune to his charms.

Kieran O'Flaherty was a support character in the first book of the Reluctant Heroes series. He's the heroine's older brother. If you would like to try the first book, Dark Hero is currently free on Smashwords.com  (This 400 page historical romance is usually $3.99).

And if you would like a chance to win a $10 iTunes Gift Card and a free digital copy of Bright Scoundrel please leave a comment here about your favorite romance hero of all time. I'm always looking for a good romance to read, so share your desert island keeper with me. (Please be sure to leave an email address!) And don't forget to check out the other fabulous Warm Winter Reads Authors Blogs for more prizes, great reads and winter fun. 

Use the link below to return to 

Beach Book Blast Warm Winter Reads Event Blog 

A Different Definition of New Year's Day!

It's another year over! Can you believe it? And to celebrate the New Year with bang, we're going crazy and sending out so many prizes, fun parties, experiences, and other goodies, that it's a bit scary. Each author has a favorite New Year memory, book, idea, or way to party and we're going to show you! Can't wait to see you January 1st - 6th!

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.
But that's not all....

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $300 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

Note: All prizes except swag pack are international. Swag pack is U.S. mailing only. 

New Years Day!  It represents a fresh start, right?

My first child, my lovely daughter Rebecca, was born on New Year's Day. So, every year, New Years has a different significance in our household. It's not about starting a new diet or making goals for the next year. When Becca was little, I used to tease her by saying the the whole country was celebrating her birthday, (because it was a holiday). As she grew old enough to have birthday parties with friends, it became really hard to plan her birthday, as it was a holiday and many of her friends were out of town on the holiday.

Rebecca at Two years, with Garfield

As the years go by, one thing is a constant. Since Becca's birth, I no longer think of New Years as a holiday, I think of it as my dear daughter's birthday. It's about presents for her, and cake, and surprises. We have a tradition, we go out for a big breakfast, usually to IHOP, as it's one of the few places open on the holiday. And for Becca, being born on a holiday isn't all that. She'd rather have her big day be on a regular day, as it makes planning a party or even going out to dinner very complicated. We always give her the choice of where to go, but then we have to call to find out if they are even open on New Year's Day, and many, many times they aren't so we have to find a second choice.

For me, New Year's Day will always be a special time of new beginnings, but a different kind, as it was the day I became a parent for the first time. That might not sound romantic, but in reality it is. I have a beautiful daughter who represents the ultimate expression of love between my husband and I. And, this lovely little girl looks like her handsome Daddy! She's a special gift from my beloved that will always be with me and remind me of how wonderful it is to have new beginnings and to celebrate special days, even if they don't coincide with a national holiday.

Today, I'm going to celebrate the New Year with a big hug for my daughter, a big gift for her, and with thankfulness that she's in my life.
 

How do you celebrate the holiday?  I'm giving away a $15 Starbucks gift card to one lucky blog visitor, and a free e-book copy of my new release Bright Scoundrel. I'm also giving away two copies of Bright Scoundrel as a second place prize to two lucky readers.  

Bright Scoundrel is my new release (1/2/13). Amazon Link it is the sequel to Dark Hero and is a historical romance that takes place in Ireland of 1802. Dark Hero, the first book of the Reluctant Heroes Series, is .99 Cents this week on Amazon and on B&N Pubit for Nook. (That's a 400 page novel, so it's a great deal) Pick up a copy if you need to catch up on the series. To enter the contest for the gift card and free book please leave a comment below, sharing something you do that's not the typical way to celebrate the New Year. Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner. If you leave a comment here, you are also automatically entered in the grand prize for the New Years Hop!   Keep hopping, there are plenty of other Blogs with prizes to win. With over 200 bloggers joining this huge event, you could win more than once.

Here's the link to the main site so you can continue hopping: 
New Year's Blog Hop

A Wallflower Christmas

Yes, its that wonderful time of year when everything is set in place to fall in love. Family gatherings with new people to meet, check. Fancy clothes and parties, check,  exasperating relatives who let you know you've never quite lived up to their expectations, check.

Oh, and don't forget the mistletoe!  That's the magical little plant that inspires romance simply by being hung in the doorway.

My favorite Christmas story of a historical flavor is, if you haven't guessed by the title of the post: A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas.

The prologue of the story reads like the opening of Charlie's Angels:
"Once, there were four young ladies who sat at the side of every ball, soiree, and party during the London season. Waiting night after night in a row of chairs, the wallflowers eventually struck up a conversation. They realized that although they were in competition for the same group of gentlemen, there was more to be gained from being friends rather than adversaries. And even more than that, they liked each other. They decided to ban together to find husbands . . . "
           Excerpt from A Wallflowers Christmas by Lisa Kleypas

Okay, so if you aren't intrigued by the intro, and the subsequent list of the four friends and their attempts to find husbands together, then you don't love witty and engaging historical romance.  Not much.

This lovely gem is the fifth and crowning jewel in The Wallflowers series by Lisa Kleypas. Each of the four young women mentioned in the prologue has found a husband through the help of her new friends, and now the four of them are trying to help another wallflower emerge from the shadows at Christmastime to find her true love.

The four women are all fabulous in their own right, and each one is featured in her own book.

There is Annabelle, a poor but beautiful woman who is being forced to marry someone against her will to save her family. Her story is told in the first book of the series: Secrets of a Summer Night. She meets Simon in the book, a very witty and handsome fellow who is more than happy to help her out of her dilemma. I laughed so much when reading this, as Simon's witty quips are half the fun.

And then we have Lillian, the tall, outrageous and outspoken American from New York, who was brought to England to find a husband by her wealthy parents because she is so well . . . outspoken and wild, that no one in polite society in NYC will have her. Lillian is my favorite wallflower. She's full of pluck and sass, just the delightful creature to challenge the stiff as starches Lord Westcliffe. Their love story is in It Happened One Autumn. This book kept me entertained as Lillian's off the wall antics and her continual miss step's in proper English society get her in trouble again and again. In this one, we have four women out in a ball field, in their knickers, playing knickball with the stable hands. Prim and proper Lord Westcliffe happens upon them and flummoxes Lillian, adding to the fun.

Next in the lineup is the beautiful redhead who is shy and stutters, Evie. She has a speech impediment, mostly due to shyness and a little social anxiety disorder, and even though she's wealthy, her father's money came from owning a very scandalous gambling club. Enter the notorious rake, Sebastian, and you have a recipe for love and seduction, and not necessarily in that order. Sebastian is the man you wish you knew, a sort of Mark Sloan (for Grey's Anatomy Fans) of the 19th century, a man whore. Their story is told in The Devil in Winter. Sebastian is so bad that its said that just being alone with him in the same room would ruin a girl's reputation. Ah, but he's so charming. . . . you honestly can't resist falling in love with him.

 Last of the for wallflowers is Daisy Bowman. She's Lillian's younger sister. Daisy is the opposite of the bold outspoken Lillian. Daisy is quiet, bookish, prone to fantasy and daydreaming, sort of ethereal. Her match is Matthew Swift, an American man who works for her father. Matthew is not the knight in shining armor she dreams about, but he's in love with her. Their tale is told Secrets of a Summer Night. This story, as in It Happened One Autumn and A WallFlowers Christmas, takes place at Lord Westcliffe's manor house, Stony Cross Park.



Now then, getting back to the De-lish Christmas story that is sure to dazzle you this Christmas season. A Wallflowers Christmas:

The heroine,  Miss Hannah Appleton, is a lady's companion in the employ of her cousin, the lovely society darling, Natalie Blandford.  Hannah is a poor relation and must stand in the shadows as Natalie's chaperone at balls and wait on her more glamorous single cousin at home. Hannah is summoned to Lady Lillian Westcliffe's rooms for tea, where she meets the hero of the story, Lillian's brother from America. Lady Lillian has summoned the paid companion of Miss Blandford there to find out how her brother, Rafe, might win the hand of her charge. Rafe Bowman is a rake, a wall street 'pirate', if you will. He's made his fortune pushing speculative stocks to ill advised patrons and making money off them. Thus, his personality is one of being unconventional and quite capable of scandal and wild behavior.

Rafe Bowman has grown up with a heavy burden on his shoulders as the oldest and the heir to his father's soap manufacturing company. He was beaten often, and treated with cold disdain and disapproval by his father all his life. He's learned to go his own way and be independent, to train himself not to care about others as a sort of protection. In adherence to his father's wishes he agrees to come to England and meet the woman his father has chosen for him to marry--not Hannah, of course--but Hannah's cousin, Natalie.  He's prepared to commit to a loveless marriage with a boring society woman who will make his life conventional. But then he meets Hannah. He finds he doesn't want to marry the society darling everyone is pushing at him, no, he wants her paid companion!

The story takes place at Rafe's sister's country mansion. It's Christmas, so the four former wallflowers are together again (it's fun to see each of them in their married lives), and they are plotting again, plotting to get Rafe and Hannah together. Rafe is quite a charmer, and he's very impudent and saucy at the same time, a little like Greg House with his caustic and deadpan wit in pointing out others faults, but not quite as vicious as House. It's a fun romp with plenty of the things we love about Christmas, the parties, the annoying family members, the mistletoe kisses, and the unlikely couple falling in love during the magic season. You'll not be disappointed with this offering by Kleypas.

Here's a delightful excerpt, an exchange between the hero Rafe and the heroine, Hannah. It is their first meeting: 

Hannah: "Lady Natalie is a delight. Her disposition is amiable and affectionate, and she has every grace of character one could wish for. A more intelligent and charming girl could not be found."

Rafe: "A paragon. Unfortunately, I've heard other young women advertised in equally rapturous terms. But when you meet them, there is always a flaw." 

Hannah: "Some people will insist on finding flaws in others even when there are none."

Rafe: "Everyone has flaws, Miss Appleton." 

Hannah thought he was too provoking to be endured. She met his keen dark gaze and asked, "What are your flaws, Mr. Bowman?" 

Rafe:  "Oh, I'm a scoundrel, I take advantage of others. I care nothing for propriety, and I have an unfortunate habit of saying exactly what I think. What are yours?" He smiled, "Or are you by chance as perfect as Lady Natalie?" 

Hannah was struck speechless by his boldness. No man had ever spoken to her in such a manner. 

Lillian (Rafe's sister); "Rafe, I'm sure our guest doesn't wish to be subject to an inquisition before we've even brought out the scones." 
Copyright Lisa Kleypas,  A Wallflower's Christmas.

As an avid historical romance reader, I cannot say enough about Kleypas historical romances. She's my go to girl for a good read with fun, witty, and unconventional characters. She has two series on my desert island keeper shelf, The Wallflowers, and a spin off featuring the gypsy Cam Rohan we met in the Wallflowers series as the hero in the first book of The Hathaways Series.

Together, that's ten, count them, ten wonderful books to keep you entertained throughout the winter.

And since it's Christmas, I'm feeling very, very generous. I'd like to gift one lucky person who reads this blog and leaves a comment with a complimentary e-book copy of A Wallflowers Christmas. Just leave me a comment here (with your email address so I can contact you if you win) telling me what your favorite historical romance Christmas story is, if you have one. If not, then share a special Christmas memory of romance with me. Last day to leave a comment is December 24th, Christmas Eve!