Guest post by Jillian Stone + Giveaway

Filed in featured , Giveaways , Guest Post , Jillian Stone , The Latin Lover Posted on August 13, 2012 @ 7:00 am 38 comments

We are very happy to welcome to Book Lovers Inc an author whose books I’ve had my eye on long before their release due to their exciting and unique premises and beautiful covers, please give a warm welcome to Jillian Stone, author of The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard and Phaeton Black series, who will soon celebrate the release of the second novel in her Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series but until then she stops by BLI to give you an exclusive peek behind the scenes and tease you with what you can expect of A Dangerous Liaison with Detective Lewis, yay!

A Second Chance at Love––on the Run.

As a reader of romance, you may not know that there are hard and fast rules to writing in the romance genre. I did not know this myself until I joined an online critique group in 2009, and found out about all the rules I was breaking! It gave me a few sleepless nights before I came to the realization that I needed to write my historical romances and if they didn’t fit the mold, then, I could live with that. Luckily, as it turns out, all that rule breaking may have helped get me noticed, as editors and readers alike seem to enjoy a fresh take on the brilliant and romantic detectives of Scotland Yard.

A DANGEROUS LIAISON WITH DETECTIVE LEWIS is the second book to be released by Pocket Books in The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series. Here’s the blurb:

When Fanny Greyville-Nugent’s father suffers a gruesome death in the clutches of his own machine, mourning his loss is not the beautiful heiress’s only heartbreak. Scotland Yard is convinced he was targeted in a plot to halt the rise of industry, and Fanny’s former fiancé, dashing and dubious detective Raphael “Rafe” Lewis, has been assigned to the case.

For the estranged ex-lovers, bringing the notorious assassins to justice proves as tumultuous as quelling pent-up desires. Fighting peril and passion at every turn of a dangerous journey from Edinburgh to London, they are pursued by an anarchist group hell-bent on destroying her father’s mysterious entry into the London Industrial Exposition.

When an astonishing discovery about the couple’s failed engagement surfaces, the sleuthing duo realize they can trust no one. Rafe confesses new details about his infidelity and Fanny risks all to avenge her father’s murder. But will Rafe and Fanny triumph over the pain of their past?

So, back to the romance rules. One of the historical romance rules (and romance generally) is that the hero–particularly once he has met the heroine–never looks at another woman again. He never has a single lapse of judgment or failing in the area of fidelity to the heroine.

Naturally, I decided to write a love story that, at its core, asks the following questions: Can true love ever falter and go astray? And is there a way back from such a betrayal, if two people love each other enough? I understand that I am treading on either thin ice or quicksand with some readers but I am willing to take the chance, and so are my wonderful characters, Rafe and Fanny, who are brave-hearted souls, indeed.

Normally these kinds of character plot dilemmas are relegated to Women’s fiction, which allows a much broader scope of issues a writer can explore. But I decided to write the romance plot into a romantic suspense story, and as it turns out, the road trip works for Fanny and Rafe. Being on the run, they forced to depend on one another, even as they attempt to work through the pain of their past. This helps create a good deal of angst, humor and tension between them––all the things so important to a romantic suspense novel!

As to whether Fanny and Rafe ever work out their differences, I’ll give you a hint in the form of a quote from Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray Love) which sums it up nicely: “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow–this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.”

I do hope that you all enjoy the thrills, adventure and romance in A DANGEROUS LIAISION WITH DETECTIVE LEWIS.

Have an affair with the brilliant, stoic, alpha male, Mr. Kennedy for $1.99!

For those of you who have not read the first book in the series yet, the e-book version of AN AFFAIR WITH MR. KENNEDY is currently $1.99 in all formats!

An Affair with Mr. Kennedy by Jillian Stone

Book #1 in the Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series

London, 1887. Part stoic gentleman, part fearless Scotland Yard man, Zeno “Zak” Kennedy is an enigma of the first order. For years, the memory of a deadly bombing at King’s Cross has haunted the brilliant Scotland Yard detective. His investigation has zeroed in on a ring of aristocratic rebels whose bloody campaign for Irish revolution is terrorizing the city. When he discovers one of the treacherous lords is acquainted with his free-spirited new tenant, Cassandra St. Cloud, his inquiry pulled him unexpectedly close to the hear of the conspiracy — and into the arms of a most intriguing lady.

Cassie is no Victorian prude. An impressionist painter with very modern ideas about life and love, she is eager for a romantic escapade that is daring and discreet. She sets her sights on her dour but handsome landlord, but after she learns their meeting was not purely accidental, she hardly has a chance to forgive her lover before their passionate affair catapults them both into a perilous adventure

Buy at AmazonBook DepositoryKindleB&NiTunes

Jillian Stone was born a storyteller. A skill that got her into considerable trouble as a youth until she solved the problem by becoming an advertising creative. And the career did seem to suit her as she won many national ad awards including the Clio and the New York Art Director’s Club Gold. What more could she ask for? Create her own worlds? Become goddess of her own universe? Yes! So, she began to write fiction. Her Victorian Romantic Suspense novel AN AFFAIR WITH MR. KENNEDY won the 2010 Golden Heart and sold to Pocket Books. Her sexy, supernatural Steampunk novel, THE SEDUCTION OF PHAETON BLACK, won the 2010 Romance Through The Ages Erotica category and sold to Kensington Brava. Jillian lives in California and is currently working on the next adventure for both series.

Find out more or connect with Jillian at her website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*~*Giveaway*~*~
 
Jillian has generously offered a signed ARC copy of A Dangerous Liaison with Detective Lewis to one lucky commenter!
 
All you have to do is answer her question:
 
Compassion is a truly remarkable aspect of love––can you name a love story (book, movie or TV) that moved you in this way?
 
(You can read our full giveaway policy here)
 
Please be sure to include a valid email address in the comment form (need not be in the actual body of the comment).
 
This giveaway is unfortunately open only to US shipping!
 
Giveaway ends on 25 August 2012 and we will announce the winner on Sunday.
 
Good Luck!

About Stella


Stella is a proud bookaholic and a self-taught multilinguist in training. Besides reading, her other great passions are travelling and baking. When she is not globetrotting she lives in sunny Budapest, where she loves to spend her free time preparing (and feasting on) delicious cookies or devouring equally yummy books. Her favourite genres are urban fantasy and romance and she couldn't live without her daily dose of sunshine. Besides being the Latin Lover on BLI Stella also blogs about books and a bookish life on Ex Libris.

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38 Comments

Join the Discussion
  • Sandra Sookoo August 13, 2012 at 9:56 am

    I can’t wait to read this book! And yes, I agree with you that sometimes as an author you have to break the romance rules. Characters can’t be stuffed into a mold. Besides, overcoming weakness is part of their development 🙂 My most compassionate hero answer? I always liked Wesley in The Princess Bride. That dude went above and beyond for love. 🙂
    sandra.sookoo@comcast.net

    • Jillian Stone August 13, 2012 at 6:32 pm

      Thanks Sandra!
      Rafe has a lot to make up for and I think I’m pretty tough on him…so is Fanny for that matter. Lol!

  • Jane August 13, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    Congrats on the new release, Jillian. One book that really moved me was Linda Howard’s “Cry No More.”

    • Jillian Stone August 13, 2012 at 6:35 pm

      Thanks, Jane
      I love Linda Howard, but missed this one. Now I’m curious!

  • Cecile McGee August 13, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    I have never read this author, but I do love a cop in romance stories.

  • Jillian Stone August 13, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    Haha! The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard work for Special Branch and are the late Victorian London version of like…the CIA or Homeland Security.

  • Susan August 13, 2012 at 6:47 pm

    I have An Affair w/ Mr. Kennedy in my eTBR pile already. Soon!

    One of my favorite romances, Sherry Thomas’s Not Quite a Husband, has a true love that falters and goes astray. It’s risky, but Thomas pulled it off–so it can be done!

    There are many stories that have evoked compassion in me. One was Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm–I felt compassion for both Maddy and Jervaulx.

  • Jillian Stone August 13, 2012 at 7:04 pm

    Hi Susan,
    I do hope you enjoy Mr. Kennedy and Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm is one of my all time favorites!

  • Lexi August 13, 2012 at 8:00 pm

    Way to break the mold Jillian! =)
    Sometimes not knowing the rules is good.
    Mistress of the Storm was a book that began with compassion. It is about a woman forced to whore to protect her sister. A horrible life, but the hero is able to see past that and see her.

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 2:56 pm

      Hi Lexi! Thanks! The book sounds wonderful and griity!

  • Barbara Elness August 13, 2012 at 10:47 pm

    I would choose Bladerunner as a movie that moved me with the compassion shown by the hero for the replicant Rachel that he was supposed to destroy.

    Barbed1951 at aol dot com

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 2:59 pm

      Hi Barbara,

      Yes! I love the sweet irony in how she inspires him to be more human, and how he then begins to see the other replicants with more compassion.

  • Melody May August 14, 2012 at 12:08 am

    Ok my answer is silly, but I really like this movie Easy A. When “Woodchuck” Todd comes to Olive’s rescue while everyone else shuns her. I just love how he sees the real Olive.

    countessofmar (at) yahoo (dot) com

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:06 pm

      Hi Melody! I love heroes who see beyond the obvious/surface. Such good guys!

  • Kerry August 14, 2012 at 10:03 am

    Sounds like a great storyline – I am definitely picking up the first in the series today!

    kerryjcj@verizon.net

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:06 pm

      Thanks so much, Kerry! Hope you enjoy!

  • Maria D. August 14, 2012 at 10:28 am

    I say make up your own rules as you go along – if it works for you – do it.

    As for a compassionate hero – mine is from a book that has been made into a movie – Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. Nicholas is very compassionate and loving to a young man, Smike, who he doesn’t realize is secretly his cousin and also to Madeline Bray, a young woman he meets who he later falls in love with.

    Thanks for the giveaway

    junegirl63 at gmail dot com

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:09 pm

      Thanks Maria! Dickens is one of my favorite authors. No one quite captures working class Victorian London the way Dicken’s did.

  • erinf1 August 14, 2012 at 10:44 am

    Thanks for a fun post and congrats on the upcoming release! I have an Affair w/ Mr Kennedy next up in my TBR pile and I can’t wait 🙂

    One movie that always almost makes me cry (and I don’t cry so this is the equivalent of me crying my eyes out) is Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. It’s about CS Lewis and how he fell in love, slowly and reluctantly. He marries her as a favor and falls in love with her and her son.

    • erinf1 August 14, 2012 at 10:44 am

      efender1(at)gmail(dot)com

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:16 pm

      Hi Erin, I do hope you enjoy An Affair with Mr. Kennedy and what an interesting pick, Shadowlands.

  • aurian August 14, 2012 at 2:32 pm

    Thanks for the guestpost, I enjoyed reading it. One of my favourite movies is Sleepless in Seattle. You feel so sorry for that young boy who has lost his mother. Or how about While you were sleeping (I fell in love with your brother…).

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:18 pm

      Hi Aurian, Tom Hanks is such a good guy in the movies and in real life!

  • Diane Sallans August 14, 2012 at 4:51 pm

    when I think of compassion I think of the stories about a military hero who has been badly injured, perhaps hides away, but the heroines kind compassion without pity brings him back into the world.

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:24 pm

      Hi Diane,
      Compassionate heroines may be more prevalent in love stories, but they can be wonderful! In A Dangerous Liaison with Detective Lewis, both the hero and heroine show compassion and forgiveness in different ways.

  • Victoria Zumbrum August 14, 2012 at 7:27 pm

    I love the movie. A walk to remember. That was really sad. To meet and fall in love and find out the person is dying is really hard.

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:26 pm

      Hi Victoria, Yeah, sometimes, we’re just in the mood for a good cry!

  • Jeanne Miro August 14, 2012 at 9:17 pm

    Hi Jillian!

    I loved reading Zak’s story in An Affair with Mr. Kennedy and am definately “hooked” now The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series! I can’t wait to read A Dangerous Liaison with Detective Lewis and am thrilled that A Private Duel With Agent Gunn will be available later this year!

    The first movie my husband and I went to after we got married in 1970 was Love Story which starred Ryan O’Neil as Oliver and Allie MacGraw.

    Several weeks before our wedding I hadn’t been feeling well and had gone to my physician and been told I was a Type I diabetic (which runs in my family). My sister had a kidney transplant just several months before.

    At the time my husband was attached to a Navy squadron during Vietnam and knew he would be leaving soon. He is a brave stoic man but at the end of the movie when Jenny talked to Oliver and told him she was dying and tells him to avoid blaming himself, and asks him to embrace her tightly before she dies. After we left the movie and went to our car as soon as we got inside my husband leaned over and hugged me and told me I had to promise him that when he got back I would be there waiting for him – and then he cried.

    Needless to say the movie was moving for both of us and one we will never forget!

    Ironically some of the movie was filmed in Rhode Island where we lived after he completed his enlistment in the Navy and part of it was also filmed at Union College in Schenectady, NY which was just 3 blocks from where I grew up!

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:33 pm

      Hi Jean!

      OMG, you made me cry! And what a touching, romantic moment. Straight out of a Jodi Picault novel––only better…because it really happened. A love real life hero story!

      I do hope you enjoy the next two Yard men coming up!

  • Yadira A. August 15, 2012 at 12:17 am

    Hi Jillian!
    There are quite a few movies on the Hallmark Channel that I really enjoy because they display compassion so well.

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:37 pm

      Yadira, Sometimes, I just get in the mood to tell a story that has deals wit overcoming mistakes, the kind many of us make in relationships. I love the idea of second chances––do-overs!

  • bn100 August 15, 2012 at 1:23 am

    I’d say Win from Lisa Kleypas’ books.

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:42 pm

      Hi bn100, Oh yes, there is plenty of compassion to go around in Seduce Me at Sunrise!

  • Kim August 16, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    In The Lost Duke of Wyndham, Grace was compassionate about Jack’s learning disability.

    penfield716(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 3:59 pm

      Hi Kim,
      I remember two books, there was a follow-up story, Mr. Cavendish, I Presume?
      Loved them both.

  • Maria pronounced Mariah August 16, 2012 at 10:20 pm

    I don’t know if it is the late hour or what but I can’t think of any story off the top of my head. Now I’m going to be really thinking about this!

    Thanks so much!

    • Jillian Stone August 17, 2012 at 4:00 pm

      Hi Maria, That’s okay, add a reply if you think of one. 😉

  • Sheree August 20, 2012 at 6:17 am

    Compassion is important since it shows that a person can see him/herself in the position of the other person.

    I jus want to applaud you for your cover models: first Thomas Maher and later Paul Marron! I don’t know the male model on your recent release though.

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