Twilight Thursday

Welcome Author

Kat Martin!!!

We welcome back author Kat Martin today! The first part of her interview was "aired" here on Tuesday and, as promised, the second part "airs" today.

We'll get to the interview in a moment, but first I want to talk about her newest book, Reese's Bride. It's the second book in her Intoxicating Bride's Trilogy. It began with Royal's Bride, which I will definitely have to read, continues with Reese's Bride, and will conclude with Rule's Bride which will be out next May.

From the first word of Reese's Bride, I was hooked, which, as you've discovered if you've read my reviews lately, doesn't happen easily. From the beginning, I felt the anger and loathing Reese felt toward this woman, Elizabeth.

So right away, there's this mystery of what did this woman do to incur such wrath from this man? Then when you find out why he's so mad with her, you then want to find out why she did what she did. That's just the first couple of pages!

This book proves to offer some interesting encounters between Reese and Elizabeth, but before we get to that, let's get to part 2 of my interview with Kat:

ME: Why the Romance genre? What was the draw for you?

KAT: I loved reading romance novels. Still do. I think any story is better when there is an element of romance involved. I write both historical romance and romantic suspense. I love reading those sorts of books, so it was a natural choice for me to make.

ME: If you could describe your writing with a word or phrase, what would it be? Please delve into the core of your writing to tell us what word or phrase you want readers to take with them when they've finished reading your story.

KAT: “I couldn’t put it down.” That is the phrase I love to hear from readers. I think my books are page turners, which is exactly the kind I like to read.

ME: With the current movement to encourage people to give books as gifts, what, in your opinion, makes your story unique? What makes it stand out among all the others?

KAT: THE CHRISTMAS CLOCK is kind of like watching one of the Hallmark movies I talked about. When you get to the end, you just feel really good all over. What better gift for Christmas?

ME: Do you prefer throwing snowballs or serving hot cocoa? Does that show through in your writing? If so, how?

KAT: Definitely throwing snowballs. Gets the blood pumping. Afterward, however, I want a delicious cup of hot cocoa to savor the fun we had.

ME: Who decides what your characters do, you or your muse? What kind of influence do you have over your story, or is the muse always the one stuffing the stocking?

KAT: I mostly call the shots, or at least my characters are smart enough to let me believe I do. Sometimes, however, the muse just has to have its way. I try to run with it when that happens, see where it leads me. It’s harder to write that way, though, because you are never completely certain it will work and you might have to do a rewrite.

ME: What character did you have the most fun creating and why?

KAT: Probably I’d have to say Leif in HEART OF HONOR. He was a Viking out of his time, shipwrecked in England, captured by a circus who eventually took him to London. I loved the fish out of water aspect of the story and how Leif eventually managed to fit in.

ME: If you had the opportunity to meet just one of your characters in real life, who would it be and why?

KAT: Chance McLain from THE SECRET. He’s a Montana rancher, the sexiest hero I ever wrote. He’s smart and gorgeous, brave and loyal. As you can tell, I fell a little in love with him.

ME: Which of your characters would you never want to meet under any circumstance and why?

KAT: Mason Holloway, the villain in my upcoming novel, REESE’S BRIDE, would definitely be one of them. He’s a conscienceless man and determined to ruin the heroine’s life.

ME: If you could give any of your characters a Christmas gift, who would it be and what would you get them?

KAT: I would give little Teddy Sparks, the orphan boy in THE CHRISTMAS CLOCK, a home. But then I think he might be getting one this year.

ME: If you could be any Christmas Character, who would it be and why?

KAT: I don’t have a favorite. It would NOT be Santa Clause, or Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. If I were still a kid, I’d want to be the little boy in Home Alone.

BLURB:
Wounded in battle, Major Reese Dewar returns to England – but his damaged leg is nothing compared to his shattered heart.

Years before, love-struck Reese departed his home at Briarwood with a promise from raven-haired Elizabeth Clemens: that she would make a life with him upon his return. But mere months later, she married the Earl of Aldridge, attaining wealth and status Reese could never match. Memories of that betrayal make his homecoming far more bitter than sweet.

Elizabeth knows when she appears on Reese's doorstep dressed in widow's garb that she is twisting the knife. But fear for her young son’s safety has overcome guilt and shame: she begs Reese for protection against the forces that would see the boy Earl dead to possess his fortune. The former lovers forge an uneasy alliance, but Elizabeth still harbors some deep secrets—and Reese knows that protecting her means placing himself in danger...of losing his heart all over again.

EXCERPT
Reese's Bride, by Kat Martin

TEASER: Their eyes locked, hers troubled, filled with some emotion he could not read. His own gaze held the bitterness and anger he made no effort to hide. He loathed her for what she had done, hated her with every ounce of his being.

CHAPTER ONE
England
September, 1855

The crisp black taffeta skirt of her mourning gown rustled as the woman walked out of the dress shop a few doors in front of him.

Reese Dewar froze where he stood, the silver-headed cane in his hand forgotten, along with the ache in his leg. Rage took its place, dense and heavy, hot and seething.

Sooner or later, he had known he would see her. He had told himself it wouldn’t matter, that seeing her again wouldn’t affect him. She meant nothing to him, not anymore, not for nearly eight years.

But as she stepped off the wooden walkway, a ray of autumn sunlight gleamed against the jet black curls on her shoulders and anger boiled up inside him, fury unlike he had known in years.

He watched her continue toward her sleek black four-horse carriage, the crossed-saber Aldridge crest glinting in gold on the side. She paused for a moment as one of the footmen hurried to open the door and he realized she wasn't alone. A small, dark-haired boy, nearly hidden in the voluminous folds of her skirt, hurried along beside her. She urged him up the iron steps and the child disappeared inside the elegant coach.

Instead of climbing the stairs herself, the woman turned and looked at him over her shoulder, her gray eyes finding him with unerring accuracy, as if she could feel his cold stare stabbing into the back of her neck. She gasped when she realized who it was, though she must have known, in a village as small as Swansdowne, one day their paths would cross.

Surely she had heard the gossip, heard of his return to Briarwood, the estate he had inherited from his maternal grandfather.

The estate he had meant to share with her.

Their eyes locked, hers troubled, filled with some emotion he could not read. His own gaze held the bitterness and anger he made no effort to hide. He loathed her for what she had done, hated her with every ounce of his being.

It shocked him.

He had thought those feelings long past. For most of the last eight years, he had been away from England, a major in the British cavalry. He had fought in foreign wars, commanded men, sent some of them to their deaths. He had been wounded and nearly died himself.

He was home now, his injured leg making him no longer fit to serve. That and the vow he had made to his dying father. One day he would come back to Briarwood, he had been forced to concede. He would make the estate his home as he had once intended.

Reese would rather have stayed in the army. He didn't belong in the country. He wasn't sure where he belonged anymore and he loathed his feelings of uncertainty nearly as much as he loathed Elizabeth.

She swallowed, seemed to sway a little on her feet as she turned away, climbed the steps and settled herself inside the carriage. She hadn’t changed. With her raven hair, fine pale features, and petite, voluptuous figure, Elizabeth Clemens Holloway, Countess of Aldridge, was as beautiful at six-and-twenty as she had been at eighteen.

As she had been when she had declared her love and accepted his proposal of marriage.

His gaze followed the coach as it rolled off toward Aldridge Park, the palatial estate that had belonged to her late husband, Edmund Holloway, Earl of Aldridge. Aldridge had died last year at the age of thirty three, leaving his wife a widow, leaving her with his son.

Reese spat into the dirt at his feet. Just the thought of Aldridge in Elizabeth's bed made him sick to his stomach.

Five years his senior, Edmund was already an earl when he had competed with Reese for Elizabeth's affections. She had been amused by his attentions, a handsome sophisticated aristocrat, but she had been in love with Reese.

Or so she had said.

The carriage disappeared round a bend in the road and Reese's racing pulse began to slow. He was amazed at the enmity he still felt toward her. He was a man who had taught himself control and that control rarely abandoned him. He would not allow it to happen again.

Leaning heavily on his cane, the ache in his leg beginning to reach through the fury that had momentarily consumed him, he made his way to his own conveyance and slowly climbed aboard. Aldridge's widow and her son had no place in his life. Elizabeth was dead to him and had been for nearly eight years.

As dead as her husband, the man she had betrayed Reese to marry.

And he would never forgive her.