Virtual Tour + #Giveaway: Her One True Love by Rachel Brimble @RachelBrimble @GoddessFish

Her One True Love

by Rachel Brimble

GENRE: Victorian romance

BLURB:

Jane Charlotte Danes has loved the squire of her idyllic country town for as long as she can remember. He is good, kind, and alluring beyond words… and he chose to marry another. Tired of dwelling on her futile longings, Jane plans a move to Bath, where she dreams of a new beginning. But the man who has so imprisoned her heart is only a few steps behind…

Until now, Matthew Cleaves has endeavored to meet the responsibilities of his position with dignity and good spirits--including his dutiful marriage. But when his wife leaves him for another man, Matthew is at last free to pursue his one true love. Only one vital question remains: will the captivating, stubborn, beautiful Jane allow him the challenge, and the pleasure, of winning her back?

EXCERPT:

Jane’s heart ached to see such deep anguish in his gaze. There was no rage, no anger, not even a trace of the moroseness she had seen so many times in his eyes during the preceding months. He stood in front of her as the true, loyal, and honest man she’d always loved and admired.

All the months she fought her feelings for him and now he wished to be with her. Tears escaped and rolled over her cheeks. He brushed his thumbs under her eyes, and it took every ounce of her strength not to collapse against him and damn the right and wrong of her yearning.

“Jane, please understand how hard it is for me to see you cry and not fix things to be with you overnight. What is starting between us, what I am feeling, cannot be ignored.”

Jane took a strengthening breath. “I am not the same woman I was a year, even six months ago, Matthew. I’ve changed. You’ve changed. Neither of us should rush headlong into the idea of us being together when there are so many other people involved.”

He frowned. “Like Elizabeth?”

She nodded. “And the villagers. And for me, the children at the boardinghouse. I can’t stop my dream to do good now that I have found the courage to pursue it.”

“Everything will work out. I will ensure it.”

He smiled softly, the gentle determination in his gaze seeping deep inside her until impassioned hope squeezed like a vise around her weakening heart.

He brushed the curls from her temple and pressed his lips to her forehead. “I have been blind. My sense of pride and loyalty to my father, a man who thought of me as little more than a cog in his ambitious wheel, has meant I wasted two years with a woman I tried hard to make happy. I refuse to waste any more of my life.”

His words twisted and tore at Jane’s heart. The last thing she wanted him to do was act impulsively and jeopardize anything that might be good for the people of Biddestone. “So what are we to do now?”

Character Blog:

Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?

I love this question! Many readers assume a novelist has all their characters established and ready to go BEFORE they start writing. This is rarely the case for me.

Right now, I write Victorian romance for eKensington and contemporary romance and romantic suspense for Harlequin Superromance. All the books are linked through the characters and the setting…although, fear not, I consciously write each book so they can be read stand-alone.

The link came because as I wrote THE SEDUCTION OF EMILY (Victorian) and FINDING JUSTICE (Harlequin), the two debuts in my series, characters appeared that were in danger of taking over the story. Very soon, I knew these characters would need their own book if they were ever to be silenced, lol!

So as lucky as I feel to have the hero and heroine more or less established for my next book, new characters continue to appear whether I wanted them in the story or not. I’m a plotter and tend to write a full-length synopsis and chapter plan before I start to write. Both the synopsis and chapter plan will only feature the hero, heroine and villain, if I have one.

There is no mention of any secondary characters or other characters from previous books at this stage.

Yet, lo and behold, a new or old character will nudge their way into the book as I write. The more vocal they are or the easier they are to write whenever they appear on the page, leads me to know pretty quickly how long, or how often, they will appear in subsequent books.

I love it when a character appears unexpectedly because it means I am truly listening to the characters and letting the story flow how it’s supposed to be told rather than how I THOUGHT it should be told. A wholeheartedly believe an author has to have a certain amount of trust in her characters for a story to read authentically and realistically.

In romance, characters drive the story rather than the plot, so it’s vital that the characters are understandable, even if not always likeable.

Characterization is key – always!

AUTHOR BIO:

Rachel lives with her husband and two teenage daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK. After having several novels published by small US presses, she secured agent representation in 2011. Since 2013, she has had five books published by Harlequin Superromance (Templeton Cove Stories) and recently signed a contract for three more. She also has three Victorian romances with eKensington/Lyrical with a fourth due for release in March 2016.

Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America, and was selected to mentor the Superromance finalist of So You Think You Can Write 2014 contest. When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family. Her dream place to live is Bourton-on-the-Water in South West England.

She likes nothing more than connecting and chatting with her readers and fellow romance writers. Rachel would love to hear from you!

Links:

Website ~ Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook

Facebook Street Team - Rachel's Readers

Giveaway:

$25 Amazon/BN

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