Spotlight & Giveaway: A Relentless Rake by Anna Harrington

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Anna Harrington to HJ!

Hi Anna and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Relentless Rake!

To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:

Alexander Sinclair, Earl of St James, has been tasked with tracking down the men who attempted to assassinate the prime minister. He has one clue – a snippet of blueprints filled with mathematical equations and the name Everett. It leads him to Henry Everett, a mousey schoolmaster, and to his much more interesting sister, Olivia. Olivia would do anything to protect her brother and the girls’ school they run…except fall for a rake’s charms. When Alec sets his mind on uncovering Olivia’s secrets—ALL her secrets—he isn’t prepared for the way she soon captures his heart. Together, they face down the demons of their pasts, stop another assassination attempt, and discover love in the most unlikely of partners.
 

Please share your favorite lines or quote(s) from this book:

“Is that what you want, Olivia?” Alec murmured, unable to help himself. “For me to seduce you?”
“I’d rather be thrown to the wolves.”
He murmured wickedly, “Same thing.”

Please share a few FUN facts about this book…

• The premise is centered on mathematics, and at one point, Olivia sends a secret message to her bother using math symbols – EYHRN, which are the letters spelling out his name.
• The attack on the regent’s carriage at the end of the book is based upon a real event when he was attacked while traveling back from opening parliament
• I got the idea of a masked man from Elizabeth Hoyt’s wonderful Maiden Lane books
• Roses make a star appearance in this novel because the couple kisses for the first time beneath a rose bower. (I cannot help myself! I always love to work roses into my books.)

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Her bravery! She faces down three attackers in a dark city alley with a kitchen knife after hunting down her missing brother. Alec is used to boring, simpering ladies of the ton who faint at the drop of a hat, but Olivia is the exact opposite—she also has a brilliant mind that intrigues him and a wild side she hides from the world. At first, only seeing him in his mask, Olivia is drawn to Alec’s dark sense of humor and the flirtatious way he gives her a lesson on knife fights. When she learns his true identity, though, it’s his dedication to his family that wins her heart.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I love the scene with a chimney sweep named Filth. In one short conversation, she manages to rescue him from the streets and gives him a job and a new identity he can be proud of.

Olivia reached for his shoulder and stopped him. She knelt in front of him, as gentle and unthreatening as an angel.
“Before you leave, why don’t you go downstairs to the kitchen with Mrs. Adams?” She brushed his hair off his forehead, revealing a white streak across his brow where her fingers brushed the soot away.
Heedless of how dirty the lad was and how he was most likely a breeding spot for fleas and lice, she fussed with the collar of his threadbare coat. Not to straighten his appearance—­only a hot bath, a tub of soap, and an hour’s scrubbing might be able to do that—but to comfort him with the first motherly caresses the boy had most likely had in years. Or ever.
Based on how the boy softened visibly beneath her hands, it was working.
“She made far too much bacon and eggs this morning for breakfast,” Olivia divulged, “so there might be some left over for you. Why don’t you stay and have yourself a good meal for your trouble?”
“I’d like that, miss.”
She smiled. “Then help yourself to as much as you want to eat, Phillip.”
He looked at her as if she’d gone daft. “Me name’s Filth, ma’am.”
Ignoring that, she nodded past his shoulder at the housekeeper. “Mrs. Adams, while Phillip is eating breakfast, would you see if there are any sticky buns left over from the girls’ tea yesterday? You can wrap some up for Phillip to take with him.”
The housekeeper nodded, although it was clear from the expression on the woman’s face that she also wanted to grab the boy by his ears and dunk him repeatedly in a soapy tub. “Yes, Miss Everett. I’ll show Mr. Phillip to the kitchen.”
The promise of sticky buns got the boy’s attention enough to not care that Olivia had given him a proper name. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“And if you come back tomorrow, Phillip, there might be work for you outside in the service yard in exchange for a hot dinner.” Olivia narrowed her blue eyes as she studied him and tapped her finger against her chin with mock thoughtfulness. “Of course, if you’re going to work for the Everett School, you’ll have to wear the new jacket we’ll give you. And boots. That’s a requirement of the job, I’m afraid. We mustn’t let anyone think we don’t take care of our employees, you understand, so you’re just going to have to wear new work clothes, whether you like it or not.”
The boy beamed, transformed. The moment he obediently followed Mrs. Adams from the room, the boy became Phillip. No longer a chimney sweep who would be lucky to live past the age of twenty but now a school employee—­although a dubious one—­with a real chance at a decent future.

Readers should read this book….

…Because Olivia is the overly smart academic nerd whom a lot of us were in high school, the girl who would rather have her nose in a book than go out on a date and who never ends up winning the attention of the football captain. Because Alec is a hero who values a woman for the brilliance of her mind and the joy of her spirit. Because when the two of them come together, sparks lead to flames that eventually burn their lives down around them (literally), only for a new love and lives to rise from the ashes. It’s a book about underdogs winning the day, hearts learning to trust when nothing is certain…and mathematics!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m currently finishing the last book of the Lords of the Armory series. It’s Clayton Elliott’s story. In the end, he captures both the evil group trying to overthrow the government and a princess’s heart. England is on the brink of revolution, and the only person who can stop it is Princess Cordelia of Monrovia, a woman who longs to be anything but a princess and the very last person Clayton has any right to fall in love with. But romance—and revolutions—seldom goes as planned.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: (2 ) Print sets of Book 1-3 of Lords of the Armory (Inconvenient Duke, Unexpected Earl, Extraordinary Lord)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Alex and Olivia both keep personal secrets about their pasts from the world—and from each other. Is it ever okay to keep secrets from the one you love, even to protect others?

 
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Excerpt from A Relentless Rake:

In this scene, a masked Alec has sneaked into her room to search for clues related to the assassination attempt, but Olivia wakes and discovers him going through her undergarments. What begins as an interrogation to find answers about the assassins turns into a lecture about mathematics…and ball gown blackmail.

“My brother works here, helping me run the school,” Olivia informed the masked man. “His room is just down the hall. Should I call for him and introduce you?”
Her question was a subtle warning that if he tried to harm her, a single cry for help would have everyone in the building running to her rescue. She wasn’t afraid of him…but trusting him was a completely different matter.
“He’s not the Everett I’m interested in knowing better.”
Her breath hitched at that blatant flirtation, and her suddenly blank mind couldn’t latch on to the cutting reply he deserved. Not when her traitorous body wanted to let him do just that.
“Tell me, Miss Everett,” he murmured. “Do you often let your brother take credit for your work?”
So…not a flirtation after all.
Ignoring an inexplicable pang of disappointment, she arched a brow and challenged, “And do you often break into ladies’ bedrooms in the middle of the night?”
A slow grin crossed his face. The charm of it was disarming. “You’d be surprised.”
All kinds of wanton images filled her head, and beneath the coverlet, her body tingled shamefully. If she knew what was good for her, she would scream and end this encounter. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “Then you’ve entered the wrong—­”
“It’s all you, isn’t it?” he asked.
She blinked, confused. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“His mathematical work, the lectures, the articles…” His eyes gleamed in the light of the banked coals like the devil’s own, tempting her into revealing the truth and selling her soul. “Henry Everett didn’t do those. You did.”
His husky whisper twined down her spine, and she shivered. She would never admit that. Doing so would end Henry’s fellowship with the Royal Society before it had begun.
“I have no idea what you mean,” she repeated.
“It’s admirable, really, the brilliant gift you must have for it,” he mused, the compliment warming her more than his flirtations, “to be able to outshine your brother, who is no doubt a fine mind in his own right. What I don’t understand is why you let him take all the credit.”
Because that’s what a younger, foolish sister does for a brother who risked his own career to save her reputation. “We’re collaborators.”
“Oh? On what do you collaborate?”
From the way he asked that, as if he couldn’t have cared less what the answer was—oh, he very much wanted to know! But why? “Architectural mathematics, mostly.”
“Is there truly such a thing?”
She crossed her arms and blew out an aggravated sigh. Now her work was being disparaged by a masked intruder. Wonderful. “It’s a vital connection, I’ll have you know, that allows for—­”
She broke off as an idea struck her. A devilishly preposterous idea…but could anyone blame her? She tilted her head as she studied him. Fairy godmothers came in all shapes and sizes, she supposed.
“Would you like to know more?” She dangled the question in front of him the way a little girl dangles a string of yarn in front of a kitten. Although as a cat, he was really more of a panther. “I could tell you…”
His jaw tightened. The panther knew he was being toyed with. By the mouse. “If you care to enlighten me.”
Tracing her fingertip idly over the coverlet, she coerced, “I would be happy to, but…I need a dress.”
“A dress?” he repeated as if he couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly.
“A gown, actually. You see, I’ve been invited to a ball tomorrow evening, and I don’t have an appropriate dress to wear.”
His eyes narrowed. “What does any of this have to do with mathematics?”
“Oh, a great deal.” Her fingers plucked at the coverlet, no more concerned with his dark glare than if he’d invited her for an afternoon picnic. “I need a dress, you want answers…” She shrugged.
He pushed away from the dresser and drew himself up to his full height. “Blackmail, Miss Everett?”
“I prefer to think of it as an exchange of favors.” She pinned him beneath her gaze, all feigned interest in the coverlet now gone. “I’ll tell you about my brother’s work, and you’ll have a gown delivered to me tomorrow.” And then she would find a way to repay him the cost of it…somehow. One ha’penny at a time.
He cursed beneath his breath, then snarled, “Stand up.”
Her heart skipped at the brusque order, and she squeaked out, “Why?”
“If I’m going to find you a dress, then I need to know if it will fit.” He gestured for her to crawl out of bed and approach the faint glow of the banked fire. “Unless you’d prefer I take one of your stays with me for measurements?”
She shot him a glare as she slid out of bed. She grabbed her dressing robe from the chair and scrambled into it, then cinched the belt tightly around her waist.
With a crook of his finger, he called her closer. “Come.”
She approached slowly on bare feet, her heart pounding harder with each step.
He rotated his finger in the air. “Circle.”
She hesitated. This man was certainly no fairy godmother, and stealing a magic wand would surely have been easier than coercing him. Yet she pulled in a deep breath and did as he ordered, turning in a circle so he could have a complete look. His gaze felt as palpable as if he were touching her with his hands…down her front and across her hips, down her legs to her bare toes.
Then his eyes slowly retraced their path, this time lingering in places that made her flush and stirred a low ache between her thighs. As if she weren’t wearing her dressing gown. As if she were wearing nothing at all.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

For fans of Grace Burrowes, Sarah Maclean, and Bridgerton, USA Today bestselling author Anna Harrington brings you a sexy feminist historical romance with:

An unapologetic rake attempting to cover up his past
A rule-following heroine unafraid to speak her mind
Thrilling action and mystery
Passionate attraction that overrides their deepest resistance
Notorious rake Alexander Sinclair, Earl of St James, takes pride in displaying his sins. When he’s tasked by the Home Office with finding the men who attempted to assassinate the prime minister, his hunt leads him to Olivia Everett, a most proper schoolmistress who wants nothing to do with a profligate nobleman like him.

Unknown to her, Olivia’s brother Henry has been working with the revolutionary group planning to overthrow the government. Shocked and hoping to save her brother, Olivia agrees to help the persuasive earl. But the closer they get to uncovering the villains, the more Alec and Olivia will need to trust each other.
 
 

Meet the Author:

Anna Harrington is an award-winning author of Regency romance. She writes spicy historicals with alpha heroes and independent heroines, layers of emotion, and lots of sizzle. Anna was nominated for a RITA in 2017 for her title How I Married a Marquess, and her debut, Dukes Are Forever, won the 2016 Maggie Award for Best Historical Romance. All About Romance named her Best Debut Historical Romance Author for her first series, The Secret Life of Scoundrels. A lover of all things chocolate and coffee, when she’s not hard at work writing her next book or planning her next series, Anna loves to fly airplanes, go ballroom dancing, or tend her roses. She is an English professor in Chattanooga, Tennessee.