Spotlight & Giveaway: Claimed to Save His Crown by Pippa Roscoe

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Pippa Roscoe to HJ!

Hi Pippa and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Claimed to Save His Crown!

 
Hi, thank you for having me. It’s so great to be here to talk about the conclusion to The Royals of Svardia Trilogy, Claimed to Save his Crown.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

As the new King of Svardia, Aleksander must find a Queen to help stabilise the country while he sets about making some much needed changes that will ensure Svardia is a leading player on the world’s stage. But the person he enlists to help him find a fiancé becomes much more of a distraction than a help! Soon he’s struggling with his feelings for his sister’s lady-in-waiting and he can’t help but wonder, will Henna save him or ruin him for ever?
 

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

‘I can’t give you what you want Henna.’
‘Who are you to tell me what I want?’
‘Your King,’ he growled.
‘You’re a boy, who found me in a maze. To me, you will always be that first.’ Rather than tearing strips off his arrogance, her tone had been simple, sincere and it cut him off at the knees.
***
His heart pounded as it worked to force blood around his body, sluggish with desire and want.
‘Before, you asked me for everything. Is that still what you want?’ He demanded, his voice dark with a lust he could leash only if she commanded it.
‘Yes,’ she said meeting his gaze in the mirrored reflection of the lift doors.
‘Even though it will never be more?’ he warned.
‘If you give me everything tonight, it will be enough,’ she assured him.
And even though he knew it was a lie – because it would never be enough for him – he allowed it because his need for her was now too great a thing to be stopped unless she commanded it.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I’m not a writer who listens to music while I work. I need silence really. But Robyn’s Dancing on my Own was a song that I heard over and over again while writing Aleksander and Henna’s story, especially in the ballroom scene towards the end.
• And one of the things that I love about creating fictional countries for my characters is that I get to design and create landscapes and locations as I see them in my mind. The cabin that Aleskander and Henna stay in was based on the seacabins in Manshausen, Nordskot. One day, if I’m lucky enough, I hope I’ll get to stay there.

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

For Henna it’s almost immediate. Aleksander finds her when no one else even knew she was missing. He is her hero, right then and there. But he is also utterly beyond reach as the future King of Svardia.
For Aleksander it is much more complicated. His life is about his future, everything orchestrated to ensure that he is the perfect King. After a heart-braking relationship in his teens, Aleksander cuts himself off emotionally. It’s only when Henna smashes through his boundaries that he starts to notice her as something more than the role he had mentally put her in.

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

I had always known that the final confrontation between Henna and Aleksander would be a hard one to right. Aleksander’s past hurts are deep and he is stubborn, but what makes Henna perfect for him is that she will stand up to him, despite his position, she will challenge him and expect more from him. But digging deep into the hurts that fundamentally shaped them both was quite emotional to write for me.

‘Get out,’ he whispered, with no less power in his words than the force of a tsunami.
And still she stood against him, immovable, her power that strong.
‘I am your King!’ he yelled.
‘And if you say that enough times, will you finally believe that it is an excuse for your manipulations? For taking the same choice away from others that you were denied yourself?’ she demanded, seeing straight to the heart of him.
‘Don’t,’ he warned.
‘Don’t what? Challenge you? Question you? Are you such an autocrat that you would rule by your will alone?’
He took a step back as she took one forward.
‘It is time for you to honour your pain and hurt and guilt. Use the support that you have around you now, overcome it and be better for it. You deserve it, and so do they.’

Readers should read this book….

If you like royal romances, themes of duty verses desire, if you want the man who pushed Freya and Marit to their happy-ever-afters find his own. It’s passionate, at times emotionally challenging, but ultimately a deeply satisfying end to The Royals of Svardia trilogy.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

The Wife the Spaniard Never Forgot is a marriage reunited story that is fun, passionate, fiery and – dare I say it – one of my favourite books so far! Spanish billionaire Javier Casas is about to get much more than he bargained for when he finds himself unexpectedly reunited with his estranged wife Emily! Onsale 27th of December.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A signed copy of the UK 2in1 featuring a Pippa Roscoe book for three international readers.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Who is your favourite Royals of Svardia character and why?

 
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Excerpt from Claimed to Save His Crown:

A knock on the door of her suite pulled her from thoughts so all-consuming that when she opened it to find Aleksander standing there she simply blinked at him, waiting for him to morph into Sven or another member of the staff who lived on this corridor.
His hair was ruffled and yet still somehow sexy and, although his hands were in his pockets, tension thrummed through the corded muscles of his forearms, visible thanks to the rolled-back shirtsleeves. His jaw pulsed as they stared at each other, and she wished for all the world that she knew what he was thinking.
Wrestling the spike of adrenaline that had lurched through her at the mere sight of him, she pressed her lips between her teeth, stepping back and gesturing for him to come in. She supposed it was silly to be self-conscious of her living space, given it was just the same as any other live-in staff member’s. But feeling silly and Aleksander seemed to go hand in hand these days.
He stalked to the centre of the room, gaze on the floor until she closed the door and turned to face him.
‘I need you to come work for me,’ he said, his dark brown eyes revealing absolutely nothing.
The statement drenched her body in a volatile combination of heat and fury. Heat that he dared look that good, and fury that he dared ask her that.
‘No.’
Internally, Aleksander reeled. People just did not say no to him—usually because he made sure of the answer before he asked the question, if not by knowledge then by orchestration. And although he allowed for the fact that the manner in which they had last parted made his question extremely difficult, if not downright inexcusable, he was still King of Svardia.
‘Just for three days,’ he bartered.
‘No.’
He snapped his jaw shut, before he could say something he couldn’t take back. Taking a breath to calm the pulse that was unusually quick for such a simple confrontation, he couldn’t help but register that the perfume that was uniquely Henna was so much stronger here than he’d been prepared for.
‘What will it take?’ he asked.
‘For you to get a secretary, I would imagine,’ she said, reaching for a jumper on the bed that was part of the open-plan living arrangement and he immediately looked away. That wouldn’t help either of them.
He didn’t want to be here. He disliked intensely that she was the only person in the entire palace that he needed while he was in Öström, but what really pushed him to the edge was the lack of control he had over his body around her.
‘You could ask for anything,’ he threw at her.
‘Really? What should I ask for?’ she enquired.
‘A good reference?’ he bit out in frustration.
Her eyebrows skyrocketed. ‘You would give me a bad reference?’ She held his gaze until he felt the air in his lungs press against his ribs.
‘No. No, I wouldn’t,’ he said.
A large window dominated the space, a small table right in front of it. He could so easily picture her there in the mornings, hair twirled up in a messy bun, flicking her fringe from her eyes like she did when it irritated her. A fist formed in his stomach when he realised Henna wouldn’t be at that table for many more mornings.
‘When do you start?’
He watched her unfold and fold the jumper in her hands. ‘A month,’ she replied.
‘So soon?’ he couldn’t help but ask. He was worried for Freya, of course.
It was strange to be in her living quarters, the space enclosed and intimate in ways that were unexpected and undesirable. He looked around, realising that it was the first time he’d seen any staff member’s suite. The entire surface area was perhaps half the size of his private living room and it didn’t make him feel much better.
‘What is it that you need?’ she asked, and he wondered if it were too much to hope for that she would relent.
‘I have to attend an event that needs to be completely off the radar. No press, no schedule, no travel plans, no trace whatsoever.’
‘An event?’ she demanded, bright red slashes marking her cheeks. ‘If you think,’ she said, impassioned and outraged, ‘even for one minute that I am going to arrange for you to have some… some… assignation—’
‘Oh, God, no!’ he said, horrified that she would think him capable of asking her to do such a thing after… And then he remembered that he had left the palace with the taste of her still on his tongue and met with Tuva. He bit back the impulse to groan. He was making such a mess of this.
He gestured to the table. ‘Can we sit and I’ll explain?’
Reluctantly, she sat at the table and he took the chair opposite, but she still looked as if she might bolt at any minute. The only way he could get her on side was to tell her the truth. And everything in him warned him against it. Nothing good ever came of trusting someone. But he had no other choice.
‘I have an important meeting with several people who must not be seen with me for various reasons, none of which are illegal,’ he said when he read the question in her eyes. ‘And I need you to run interference for me during what will most likely be, at least, two full days of intense discussions.’
‘What kind of interference?’
‘I’ll need you to create a cover story and to answer and field emails and messages during that time.’
Her eyes widened. He knew he was asking a lot of her, and he knew it was ridiculously last-minute. ‘We’d fly out this evening.’
‘Aleksander!’
He held up his hand to ward off any more admonishment. ‘I know, I know.’
‘I need more information than that.’
‘You don’t. And I won’t give you more than what I’ve told you.’
That he’d told her this much was more than he’d ever told anyone, even Lars, and it was costing him. The meeting in Öström was the only thing outside of the kingdom of Svardia that meant something to him. It gave him the chance to do good in a way that would not be manipulated or misinterpreted by the world’s press and he valued that chance and the responsibility that came with it. He would never betray the organisation’s secrets.
‘It is definitely not illegal?’
‘Definitely not.’
She levelled him with a gaze that could only mean trouble. ‘I’ll do it on one condition.’
‘Anything,’ he said, truly that desperate.
She bit her lip, and it curled his stomach, but not in a good way; it was a warning and he braced for impact.
‘I need to know what happened. What made you so incapable of trust that you cannot find a secretary, and so resistant to love that you would cut it from your marriage?’
‘You don’t,’ he said, his heart turning hard.
‘Then find someone else to run interference, Aleksander.’ She got up and, absolutely incensed, he slammed his palm down on the table, making her jump, but she did not give him the satisfaction of turning to face him.
‘You do not know what you’re asking, Henna. If you did, you wouldn’t—’ He bit his tongue before he could say another word.
Staring at the table, he heard her say, ‘I know that, whatever it is, it’s eating you up inside and making you reckless. And you can’t afford to be reckless, Aleksander. You’re playing Russian roulette with your meetings and your schedule and you’re manipulating people into outcomes that you think you can control, but you can’t.’
It was a warning that he didn’t want to hear but couldn’t deny. He got up from the table and paced across the room, feeling as if he were in a cage. Henna was right, he knew that. But so was he. She really didn’t know what she was asking of him.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In this dramatic romance from Pippa Roscoe, will she become a part of his royal world?

From Cinderella in the palace shadows…
To his unexpected queen!

Lady-in-waiting Henna would do anything for the royal family that gave her a home when her own wouldn’t. So after Henna stops a marriage that would protect King Aleksander’s throne but ruin his life, she must face the Ice King’s fury!

Aleks’s coldhearted reputation isn’t a secret. His tough exterior is designed to fiercely guard against the heartbreak that once tore his world apart. But then a transformational kiss with Henna awakens him to a surprising new possibility that could save his crown… And it starts with her!

From Harlequin Presents: Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds. Read all The Royals of Svardia books:

Book 1: Snowbound with His Forbidden Princess
Book 2: Stolen from Her Royal Wedding
Book 3: Claimed to Save His Crown
Book Links: Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Pippa Roscoe lives in Norfolk near her family and makes daily promises that this is the day she will leave the computer and take a long walk in the countryside. She can’t remember a time when she wasn’t dreaming of gorgeous alpha males and misunderstood heroines. Totally her mother’s fault of course – she gave Pippa her first romance at the age of nine! She is inconceivably happy that she gets to share those day dreams with you! @PippaRoscoe www.pipparoscoe.com
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