We have Jane Feather with us today chatting about her release, TRAPPED AT THE ALTAR. Β Help me in welcoming Jane to Cocktails and Books.
Tell us about yourself.
I live in DC, love cats , travel a lot, spend a few months a year in the UK, which I still think of as home. I spend a lot of time and energy when Iβm not working on getting my family all in one place for a couple of weeks, they live variously in the UK, Philadelphia and Malaysia so family reunions are particularly important. Β
What three things about you might surprise your readers?
Iβm not in the least romantic, I donβt read romance novels, and I have a rather cynical view of life.
Is there a genre(s) that you think βI might like to write one of those.β?
One day Iβd like to write a really intricate, complex thriller.
Tell us about [release associated with this interview].
Itβs a historical romance set in Restoration London at the court of Charles 11. The protagonists are cousins, members of the same renegade family outlawed for political reasons after the execution of Charles 1. Childhood friends, they are forced into marriage by the elders of the family in order to achieve the familyβs political rehabilitation and reinstatement at court. The heroine is in love with another man and resists all feelings of anything but friendship for the hero, until he persuades her to see the light.
Where did the idea for the storyline come from?
Iβve always wanted to use the Monmouth Rebellion, Judge Jeffries and the Bloody Assizes as background to a novel. This one started out with that in mind but got a little sidetracked. IΒ also have to acknowledge a debt to R.D Blackmoorβs Lorna Doone. As someone once said, there are only so many stories in the world, and theyβve all been written at least once.
What do you think readers will like/love about [hero and heroine]?
I hope theyβll find Ivor as sexy and compelling as I think he is, and I hope theyβll respond to Ariadneβs fierce independence and sympathize with her on the sometimes rough road to understanding what love and trust really mean.
What was your favorite scene from the book?
Ariβs seduction of Ivor with some unusually decadent props.
Who are some of your book boyfriends?Β What draws you to them?
The Frenchman in Daphne Du Maurierβs Frenchmanβs Creek. I am always drawn to competent men, who are absolutely at home in their enviroment but are also unconventional risk-takers.
If you had to pick a favorite cocktail of choice, what would it be?Β (It can be non-alcoholic too)
βI dearly love a martini, but only one at the most, with two Iβm under the table, with three Iβm under the host.β (Courtesy of Dorothy Parker)
Whatβs next for you?
Iβm working on a historical romance set in London at the end of the 18th century, at the close of the French Revolution and the start of the Napoleonic Wars. Itβs very fertile ground for an exciting and passionate love story with plenty of spying, intrigue and danger.Β
The first in an all-new, sizzling historical romance series fromΒ New York TimesΒ bestselling author Jane Feather.
Torn between a true love and family dutyβ¦
Ariadne “Ari” Carfax has never been one to play by the rules; sheβs an heiress to the Carfax family, banished from London when Oliver Cromwell seized the throne from King Charles, who has since gained notoriety for pillaging, thieving, and ruling the Carfax Valley with an iron glove. All too soon, Ari finds herself in her familyβs legendary vise, forced into a marriage to Ivor Chalfont, Ariβs childhood friend and confidante, against her wishes.Β
While the Carfax family has only its own interest at heartβa union between the Catholic Carfaxes and Protestant Chalfonts will guarantee the Carfaxesβ reinstatement at London court, and the rehabilitation of their noble nameβAri cannot bear the thought of being separated from her secret lover/poet, Gabriel. She vows to fight her familyβand Ivorβevery step of the way, even when forced into the marital ceremony at her own grandfatherβs wake, in a treacherous coup de etat that leaves her wed to another, and eternally broken-hearted.
Sending Gabriel to the temporary safety of Lord Monmouthβs outpost at The Hague in Scotland, Ari resigns herself to her new life as Lady Ivor Chalfontβat least until the newlyweds travel to London, and she can escape her new husband and reunite with Gabriel. As the two make their preparations to travel, however, Ari finds herself entertaining entirely uncharacteristic thoughts about her new husband: she finds that she likes him as perhaps more than a friend, after all. Not wanting to be disloyal to Gabriel, but simultaneously more and more attracted to Ivor, Ari canβt help but give into the physical pull between her and her new husband, and the two embark on a tentative, post-marital courtship that just might hold the seeds of loveβ¦until, that is, Gabriel spots Ari in London and makes it his mission to get her back. Ari is caught between a lover who might be better left in the past, and a husband who she just might be able to love; who will win Ariβs heart?
Set in 1600s England during the tumultuous Monmouth Rebellion, this is the epic story of what happens when the one thing we think we can trustβour heartsβturns out to be the most duplicitous.
Shannon
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Loving the sounds of this book!