Spotlight & Giveaway: Devil In Disguise by Lisa Kleypas

Posted July 27th, 2021 by in Blog, Spotlight / 57 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Lisa Kleypas to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

Hi Lisa and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Devil In Disguise!

 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Lady Merritt Sterling, a charming and spirited young widow, is running her late husband’s shipping company when she meets Mr. Keir MacRae. He’s a dashing and sinfully handsome whisky distiller from a remote Scottish island. Although there’s no possibility of them having a future together, the attraction between them is irresistible. All they have is one night–and Merritt is determined to make the most of it.
 

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

He rested his head on the pillow and whispered near her ear. “How could it be late, when you’re the sunrise? There’s no morning sky or lark-song before you appear. No butterfly would dare unfold its wings. The day waits on you, my heart, just as the harvest waits the reaper.”

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

  • The heroine, Merritt, has appeared in my three major historical romance series, starting with her birth in the Wallflowers novel “Scandal In Spring,” then showing up in the Hathaways “Mine Till Midnight” as a little girl trying to convince her mother to put more sugar in her tea, and then appearing in the Ravenels novel “Devil’s Daughter” as Lady Phoebe’s best friend.
  • I named Merritt after the wonderful romance novelist Emma Merritt, who I met a couple of weeks before she passed away.
  • Lots of historical fun facts in this book, including the invention of the hypodermic needle, the Victorian mustache cup, and the reason for the QUERTY layout of the typewriter keyboard.

 

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

While they’re polar opposites in terms of education, social class and financial status, Merritt and Keir have very similar values. They’re both sociable people who were raised in loving homes, and cherish their family and friends. They’re also both charming and articulate, so it was very easy to write their dialogue.

 

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

A scene that made me laugh as I wrote it was the one in which Keir goes for a London haircut, and explains why he doesn’t want the barber to shave off his beard:

“You might consider a full shave,” the barber suggested. “You certainly have the chin for it.”
Keir shook his head. “I must keep the beard.”
Looking sympathetic, the barber asked, “Pock-marks? Scars?”
“No’ exactly.” Since the man seemed to expect an explanation, Keir continued uncomfortably, “It’s . . . well . . . My friends and I, we’re a rough lot, you ken. Tis our way to chaff and trade insults. Whenever I shave off the beard, they start mocking and jeering. Blowing kisses, calling me a fancy-lad, and all that. They never tire of it. And the village lasses start flirting and mooning about my distillery, and interfering with work. Tis a vexation.”
The barber stared at him in bemusement. “So the flaw you’re trying to hide is . . . you’re too handsome?”

 

Readers should read this book….

. . . if they enjoy humor, lots of action, historical tidbits, and especially if they love big, brawny Scottish heroes!

 

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

No plans for now! I’m just reading and pondering what kind of project to work on next.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: 2 Signed copies of Devil In Disguise, and 2 signed copies of Chasing Cassandra, each with an infinity necklace

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: In Devil in Disguise, Keir MacRae has a full beard for half the book, and is clean-shaven for the rest. Merritt likes both looks on him! What’s your preference for men’s facial hair?–beard, mustache or clean-shaven?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from Devil In Disguise:

This scene occurs right after Merritt has accidentally sprayed Keir with water from a malfunctioning hand-pump assembly:

MacRae smiled, a flash of spendthrift charm amid the tawny beard. His teeth were very white. He was so gorgeous that Merritt’s fingers went nerveless and she dropped the dishcloth. Her insides were singing with giddy excitement.
She waited for him to step back. But he didn’t. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d stood so close to a man that she’d felt the touch of his breath on her skin.
A question hung suspended in the silence.
The temptation to touch him was too overwhelming to resist. Slowly, almost timidly, she reached up to his bearded jaw.
Her stomach went light and she felt oddly weightless, as if the floor beneath her feet had suddenly disappeared. The illusion seemed so real that she gripped his arms reflexively, his muscles whipcord-taut beneath the wet layer of his shirt. She looked up into his eyes, the searing pale blue of hottest flame.
Her touch had spurred his breathing into a new, ragged rhythm.
“Milady,” he said gruffly, “I’ll be relying on your common sense now. Because at the moment, I have none.”
Merritt’s mouth had gone dry. Attraction pulsed all through her, making her fingers tighten rhythmically on his arms like the kneading of a cat’s paws. “Wh-what about the honor of Scotland?” she managed to ask.
His head dipped lower, and she felt the brush of his lips and the coarse velvet of his beard against her forehead. An erotic sensation, rough and smooth all at once. She closed her eyes and wilted against the sink.
“The problem is. . . Scotsmen have a weakness.” His murmur went through her skin and thrummed at the quick of her body, as if her spine had been replaced by a violin string.
“They do?”
“Aye . . . for bonnie dark-haired lasses who try to boss them.”
“But I wasn’t,” she protested faintly, and felt the curve of his smile.
“A man knows when he’s being bossed.”
They stood together, motionless, with him braced over and around her.
His body was so close, so big and powerful. She wanted to explore the masculine terrain, charting every hard inch with her mouth and hands. It shocked her, how much she wanted him. Since Joshua’s death, those needs had been set aside.
But something about Keir MacRae had made it impossible to ignore them any longer.
Carefully he clasped her chin and tilted it upward. Her blood was racing. He stared down at her intently, his eyes bright with glints of frost and fire.
When he spoke, his low voice was flicked with wry humor.
“You’ll have your way, lass. I’ll go wash in the other room, since you’ve already made a start of it for me. As for you . . . Dinna move. Dinna touch anything. Because I doubt a lady would want to see a dobber like me dashing about in the a’thegither.”
Which, Merritt thought dazedly, showed how little he knew about ladies.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

The devil never tries to make people do the wrong thing by scaring them. He does it by tempting them.”

Lady Merritt Sterling, a strong-willed young widow who’s running her late husband’s shipping company, knows London society is dying to catch her in a scandal. So far, she’s been too smart to provide them with one. But then she meets Keir MacRae, a rough-and-rugged Scottish whisky distiller, and all her sensible plans vanish like smoke. They couldn’t be more different, but their attraction is powerful, raw and irresistible.

From the moment Keir MacRae arrives in London, he has two goals. One: don’t fall in love with the dazzling Lady Merritt Sterling. Two: avoid being killed.

So far, neither of those is going well.

Keir doesn’t know why someone wants him dead until fate reveals his secret connection to one of England’s most powerful families. His world is thrown into upheaval, and the only one he trusts is Merritt.

Their passion blazes with an intensity Merritt has never known before, making her long for the one thing she can’t have from Keir MacRae: forever. As danger draws closer, she’ll do whatever it takes to save the man she loves… even knowing he might be the devil in disguise.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Audible |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Lisa Kleypas is a New York Times bestselling author of both historical and contemporary romance. Her novels have been published in twenty-eight languages and are bestsellers around the world. Lisa lives in Washington State with her husband Greg.
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57 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: Devil In Disguise by Lisa Kleypas”

  4. Nicole (Nicky) Ortiz

    Depends on the person and how well the look

    Thanks for the chance!

    • Ellen C.

      Depends on the man. Facial hair should be well groomed, whichever choice.

  20. Diane Sallans

    clean shaven is generally best, but mustache or beard is fine if well kept. Scruff only ok on occasional casual situations

  24. Pammie R.

    I like beards but not the long scraggly beards so many men wear these days. I like my guy with a neatly groomed beard somewhere between an unshaven look and a short beard or mustache/goatee combo. Think Riker on ST:TNG.

  45. Janie McGaugh

    I prefer clean-shaven, though a modest beard and mustache are fine, too.

  46. Terrill R.

    I used dislike beards, but my husband has grown and kept his beard for a few years now and I like it on him. They’re not as bad as I had originally thought.

  51. Patricia B.

    Clean shaven is what I prefer. My husband has had a beard, but it irritates him in warm weather, so he has never kept one very long. He did have a mustache once, but I liked that even less than the beard.