Spotlight & Giveaway: A Scot to Wed by Callie Hutton

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Callie Hutton to HJ!

Hi Callie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Scot to Wed!

 
So glad you stopped by.
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

He doesn’t want the clan he inherited until she shows up to claim it for herself.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Fife County, Scottish Lowlands, Autumn, 1818

Mistress Katie Stirling, the only daughter of the Right Honorable Lord Stirling of Stirlingshire, studied the worn map she carried from her home on the trek to the MacDuff castle in Fife. The paper was dark, the writing faded, and it had been folded and refolded so many times that she feared it would fall apart.

“Is that it, miss?” Meggie, Katie’s maid and close friend, pointed off into the distance. In the haze, which had not yet been burned off by the morning sun, a large castle, like a child’s fairy tale, rose from the mist in the hills of Fife. All that was needed was a flame-blowing, foul-breathed dragon to complete the scene.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

Laird Evan McNeil almost runs Katie down in the road when they first meet.
Evan doesn’t want animals in the castle, So far Katie has allowed a horde of puppies, several cats and a goat.
Katie didn’t move just her family and household to the new castle, but her entire clan!
His ancestors had it easier with a castle siege. They didn’t want to bed the enemy.

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

Evan sees in Katie not only a pretty lass with delectable curves, but a smart and brave woman.
Katie sees in Evan a stubborn, arrogant laird, but his smoldering eyes and fine form has the female in her forgetting he is the enemy to her plans.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Hot
exciting
passionate
loving
memorable
 

The First Kiss…

Not unexpected, but sooner than Katie would have thought.
 

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

When Evan first discovers the goat in his castle.

“Stop grinning like a loon, brother. The lass is still a stranger to us, and we need to watch ourselves around her.”
“What?” Alasdair had the nerve to laugh. “If ever there was an uncomplicated lass, it’s that one.” He motioned with his thumb toward the ceiling.
“And what do ye ken of complicated lasses? Most of yer bed partners have no more brains than that goat.” He waved his cup in the direction of the animal standing in the library doorway. He dropped his coffee cup and jumped up “What the hell is that?”
Alasdair turned in his chair. “I think ye already said it. Appears to be a goat.”
The animal stared at him, then ambled into the room. “What the blasted hell is a goat doing in the house?”
“Oh, so sorry, my laird,” .” Meggie rushed in after the animal. “I’ll take him outside.”
“Is he one of the tenant’s goats?” Evan asked as the animal walked farther into the room, looking around like he owned the place.
Meggie grabbed the animal around the neck. “Nay. He is Agnes’s pet goat, Myrtle.”
“The wee lass?” He thought he remembered her name as Agnes.
“Aye.” She tugged. The animal refused to move.
“Her pet goat?” He he repeated.
“Aye. She keeps him in her cottage, and he sleeps alongside her.” She walked around the goat and attempted to push him forward.
Evan looked over at Alasdair. “He sleeps alongside her in her cottage.”
His fool brother was laughing so hard, he couldn’t speak. This day was certainly not going the way he’d planned. First, Stirling clan members had arrived before he expected them, the interviews he and Mistress Stirling were conducting had been cut short, and now there was a sick lass upstairs, and her pet goat was munching on one of his books. “God’s toes!”
Evan glared at a red-faced Meggie. “Get the blasted animal out of here and outside. Find MacDuff and have him put the thing somewhere.”

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

The first kiss:

Evan studied her as he continued to swirl and sip his brandy. Suddenly, she was aware of the quietness of the house, the darkness of the room they sat in, with one small lamp burning, and the sound of her own heart pounding in her chest. Why did he study her that way?

She licked her lips. “Shall we make more visits tomorrow? It would probably be a good idea to find more empty cottages.”

“Aye.” Nothing more, just the continued swirling and sipping of brandy…and studying of her.
Katie drank the last of her sherry and placed the glass on the small wooden table next to her chair. “I find I am quite peaked. I believe I shall retire.” She stood and moved to go past him when a large, warm hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist.

“Nay, stay a while, lass.” He tugged, and she landed on the old, worn settee alongside him.

“Oh.”

“Aye.”

After a few moments of them staring at each other, Evan reached out and cupped her face in his large hand. She shivered at his touch, and surely he heard her heart beating. His skin was dry, warm, and calloused.

“What?” Her word was barely a whisper.

“Something I’ve wanted to do.” Slowly, as if giving her permission to jump and run from the room, he lowered his head until his lips brushed over hers. Softly, tenderly. When she didn’t do anything but stare wide-eyed at him, he chuckled and pulled her close, against his chest, his fingers linked behind her back. “Have ye never been kissed, lass?” His warm breath, smelling of mint and brandy, wafted over her, and she closed her eyes.

“That’s better,” he murmured. Again his lips claimed hers, but this time there was no doubt that he was kissing her. No light brushing of his lips. He covered her mouth hungrily, nipping, sucking, nudging her sealed lips with his tongue until she opened.

Readers should read this book …

It is humorous, romantic, and I love Katie and Evan, and I think you will, too!

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

I just finished the second book in my cozy mystery series. In July the hard cover copy of the first book in the series, A Study in Murder will release. Although the ebook released in May, the print was delayed because of distribution issues and closed book stores.
I will also release a self published book, the last in my Merry Misfits of Bath series, The Doctor and the LIbertine.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: An ebook copy of His Rebellious Lass, the first book in the Scottish Hearts series. Also, a $10 Amazon gift card.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: This book could be considered an enemy to lovers trope. What is your favorite romance trope?

 
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Excerpt from A Scot to Wed:

When Meggie told Katie that Evan had insisted Gavin be moved from her bedchamber to the one with all the other children, she was angry enough, but when she learned he had also taken it upon himself to teach him to ride, anger turned to fury.

She growled at Meggie, gathered up her skirts, and couldn’t run fast enough to the stables. The nerve of the man! She was Gavin’s only parent, and she would make all the decisions where he was concerned. When she saw her brother walking out, leading a horse, her heart dropped to her stomach. He’d always been petrified of the animals. Evan was smiling and chatting away like there was nothing wrong.

She stopped right in front of them, attempting to catch her breath. “My brother is not fond of horses. He will need some time to get used to the idea.”

He waved her off like some pesky insect. “Ye smother the lad.”
“Nay. I dinnae.”

“Aye, ye do.”

“Nay, I dinnae.” Katie turned to Gavin. “We will be right back.” She grabbed Evan’s arm and dragged him to the back of the stable. “’Tis my right to decide how to raise the lad. I dinnae feel he is ready to ride yet.”

“Is that right?”

“Aye.”

“And how old were ye when you started riding?”

That stopped her cold. She began to count and realized she’d been younger than Gavin. Somehow she’d seemed older. She’d always felt older. First, because she’d been alone with her mum and da, and then when Gavin was born, and Mum had died within days, she’d taken over the entire keep as well as the raising of her brother.

“That dinnae matter, since I was older than Gavin when I was his age.”
He grinned at her, raising her ire even more. “Did ya hear what ye just said? That makes no sense.”
“It does.” She waved her hand around. “I had responsibilities he never had to handle.”

“Then ’tis time he did take on some responsibilities. He’s a lad, not a bairn still in nappies, and will grow into a mon—if ye allow it.”

“If I allow it! Of course I want him to grow into a moan. It’s just that he is sensitive, and shy. He is not the type to—”

“There is only one way to shut ye up, lass.” Evan pulled her flat against his chest, taking all the air from her lungs. Before she could inhale, his mouth covered hers in what could only be called a frenzy. He nipped, sucked, nibbled, and nudged her sealed lips until she opened. Then he entered with a vengeance, a master taking control.
His kisses, along with her lack of air, almost had her swooning. Something she never did, since only Sassanachs were so weak.
“Ah, lass, ye make me crazy,” he mumbled against her neck as he scattered kisses along her jawline to the soft skin underneath her ear, then back to her mouth again. His hands wandered over her shoulders and back, then covered her bottom, pulling her tight against him.
Her body relaxed against his warmth. Again, she had the urge to rip her clothes off—his too—in an attempt to cool off. Or continue with what he’d started, which would probably go much better without clothing.

Her own hands did some wandering of their own, over his muscled chest, large shoulders, and strong arms. The scent of soap, along with leather and man, teased her nose. Her fingers twisted his hair, and she held on for dear life, since she’d apparently lost all her common sense.
“Katie?” Gavin’s voice broke into her scattered mind, nudging her back to time and place. For goodness sake, she stood in the very visible stable, in the middle of the day, in a passionate embrace with the man to whom she’d come to deliver a set-down.

She pulled away, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. She turned and walked away, stumbling at first, until she accepted Evan’s hand to right herself. “Yes, my love,” she almost gasped breathlessly to her brother. “I am here. I only wanted a few words with the laird.”
He watched her anxiously. “Is he still going to take me riding?”

Riding? Was someone going riding? She hesitated for a moment, then smiled what she hoped didn’t look like a grimace. “Did you want the laird to take you riding?” Still trying to put the pieces of her mind back together, she ignored Evan when he walked up to Gavin.

“Aye. I would like to learn to ride. The other lads do, and they tease me about being afraid of horses.” He patted the old, weathered horse he held by the halter. “Except this one. This one is nice.”
Nice. She had to admit there was nothing at all frightening about this horse. He looked as though he would be happy to take a nap right where he stood. Katie glanced up at Evan, who stood next to Gavin, his arms crossed over his chest, and a smirk on his face. Oh, how she hated him being right. Especially when it came to her brother, whom she’d taken care of—by herself—his entire life. She should probably be happy that he’d found someone he trusted enough to teach him to ride.

But it should have been her.

She brushed the hair back from the lad’s forehead. “Are ye sure?”

“Aye, the lad is sure, mistress. ’Tis no need to continue to question him.” He clapped his hand on Gavin’s shoulder. “Shall we be off, lad?”

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Highlander Laird Evan MacNeil cannot believe Mistress Katie Sterling just shows up at the MacDuff castle with this faded piece of parchment laying claim to the lands he just legally inherited. Not that he really wants to be here in the lowlands, but he has responsibilities to his clan and the exasperating Katie has uprooted the remnants of her father’s clan and moved them across the country to live here. There’s no way he can leave to go back home now.

Katie has nowhere else to go and she refuses to bow down to the arrogant yet undeniably handsome Highlander. She’s had enough with men trying to control her and she is quite capable of handling herself.

Now that Evan must spar with a beautiful lass for the rights to the lands, he will fight to the end. This battle is nothing like the ones his ancestors fought with crossbows and boiling oil. They never wanted to bed the enemy.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

USA Today bestselling author, Callie Hutton, is the author of more than forty-five historical romance books and historical mysteries. She writes humorous and spicy Regency and Victorian with “historic elements and sensory details” (The Romance Reviews). With a million novels sold and translated into several languages, she continues to entrance readers with her heartfelt stories.
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