Spotlight & Giveaway: Never Rescue a Rogue by Virginia Heath

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Virginia Heath to HJ!

Hi Virginia and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Never Rescue a Rogue: A Novel!

 
Hello and thanks for having me again!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Never Rescue a Rogue is a regency romantic comedy caper where two people who like to think they hate one another, when everyone else thinks they are perfect for one another, have to team up to solve a mystery before time runs out. But while they do, the attraction that they both keen to deny proves too strong to ignore and soon the sparks neither want fly.
 

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

Diana and Giles are frenemies who love to banter and both are too quick witted for their own good. One of my favorite bits of that banter occurs in the middle of their quest when they are trying to fool a vicar that they are husband and wife…

Reverend Griffiths offered Giles one of those man to man looks. “Tell me, young man, how long did it take you to propose to your lovely lady?”
“I didn’t propose. She did… didn’t you Cariad?”
Diana narrowed her eyes at Giles, the wretch, then smiled for the older man’s benefit. “My husband is teasing Reverend. Of course I didn’t propose. To be honest, I barely tolerated him to begin with—but he grew on me. Like fungus.”
“And now I am the victorious champignon of her heart.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The inspiration for Never Rescue a Rogue began the second I put Diana and Giles together in the first book of my Merriwell Sisters series—Never Fall for Your Fiancée. I’m not a plotter, I tend to see the story I am writing like a film in my head and their chemistry was instant. So instant I knew I had to thrust them together for their own romance.
• When I came to write it, London and the entire UK were in lockdown thanks to the pandemic, and my husband and I saw nobody except each other for almost the duration. So when we did our nightly dog walks after our working days were done, the twists and turns of Diana and Giles’ relationship and quest to find the truth before the bad guys did was one of the only topics of conversation. Their lives were certainly more interesting than ours were at that time and in a funny sort of way they became real to us.
• Bizarrely, because it features quite a bit in the story, I also had a constant craving for shortbread as I wrote it!

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

For Giles, the attraction for Diana was instant. He not only finds her physically appealing but also admires her clever brain, sharp tongue and dogged determination to live her life the way she wants to live it. However, thanks to some dangerous rattling skeletons in his past he is resigned to never marrying and knew she was the forever kind so kept her at arms’ length. For Diana, her romantic feelings for him build more gradually. Especially once circumstances allow her to see past the mischievous, flirty façade Giles presents to the world to the noble, resourceful and often sensitive soul who lurks beneath.

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

There is a scene where they are trapped hiding behind a bush while another couple has an amorous tryst in a moonlit garden…

“We shall have to be quick Alec…” Of all the people, fate had to send Diana next, it had to be Lady Sewell and her fake count. Two people most definitely outside for a tryst. “Before we are missed.” Their feet came closer then disappeared inside the pergola right next to Giles and Diana’s hiding place.
A male voice laced with broad cockney came out in a silky murmur. “Nobody will find us here Gertrude. This is the perfect dark place to do dark deeds.”
Dark deeds!
Oh no!
There was the ominous squeak of metal as they lowered themselves on to the seat inside and then a giggle laced with innuendo which was smothered by a noisy kiss.
Beside her Giles groaned in despair. Moments later, Diana did too, for it turned out Lady Sewell was every bit the game old girl she had always suspected because she was only too happy to throw herself at her paramour and immerse herself in those dark deeds with rampant enthusiasm.
“Oh how I have missed you, my darling. How I have missed your kisses…”
Diana winced at Lady Sewell’s lusty moan, her toes cringing inside her slippers that she had to hear it beside Giles of all people, while her vivid imagination decided to analyse it against her will.
What on earth was the fake count doing to make the woman lose her head so?
Giles obviously knew because he was wincing too—but at her in an apologetic way as if he expected the sounds from the pergola to get much worse before they got better. Thanks to his nearness, she did not need to see his expression to know what he was thinking, she could feel it the tension in his muscles. So close she could feel the alluring heat from his skin beneath all the layers of his clothes. So close every nerve-ending she possessed fizzed at the intimacy of the situation, and with mortifying curiosity too. As if they suddenly were eager to know if they might work in the same way as Lady Sewell’s with the right encouragement. The sort of encouragement who was currently sniggering beside her and whose seductive kisses had awoken her stupid nerve endings in the first place!
Annoyed, she nudged Giles hard in the ribs to shut him up and that only made the wretch laugh more.
“Oh Alec… my darling.” Lady Sewell made a scandalous sound as her lover did something to her which involved much rustling of petticoats until the greedy kissing resumed with a vengeance. “…Oh yes Alec… touch me there… right there…”

Readers should read this book….

If they adore a frenemies to lovers romance. If they like a bit of suspense and peril in their romcoms. And if they like seeing the heroine rescue the hero for a change!

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

I’ve literally just finished the edits the third and final instalment of the Merriwell Sisters series, but readers will have to wait until next year for Never Wager with a Wallflower. However, for me its an exciting time as I’m in the early stages of the first book in my next Regency romcom series for St Martin’s Press. Miss Prentice’s Protégé’s will be a four book series that follows four graduates from a school that teaches down-on-their-luck young gentlewomen how to be governesses and ladys’ companions. The first story—All’s Fair in Love and War— is a cross between The Sound of Music and Pride and Prejudice because the upright and uptight naval captain hero has to hire an emergency governess when his sister leaves him with her three children when she goes off to with her explorer husband to find the source of the Nile.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One print copy of Never Rescue a Rogue by Virginia Heath, USA Winner only

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you could rescue any fictional rogue, who would it be?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Book Info:

Virginia Heath’s Never Rescue a Rogue, the next book in the Merriwell Sisters series, is filled with whip-smart banter, swoony romance, hilarious mishaps, and twisty reveals that will make you gasp and laugh in delight.

Diana Merriwell and Giles Sinclair only tolerate one another for the sake of their nearest and dearest. Everyone believes that the two of them are meant to be together, but Diana and Giles know that their constant pithy barbs come from a shared disdain—not a hidden attraction. Diana loves the freedom of working at the newspaper too much to give it up for marriage, and Giles is happily married to his bachelor lifestyle. But they do have one thing in common—the secrets they can’t risk escaping.

When Giles’ father, the curmudgeonly Duke of Harpenden unexpectedly turns up his toes, it’s only a matter of time before someone comes crawling out of the woodwork who knows the true circumstances of his only son’s birth. As the threat of blackmail becomes real, Giles must uncover the truth of his parentage first, or else he and all those who depend upon him will be ruined—and dogged bloodhound Diana is his best hope at sniffing out the truth. As Giles and Diana dive into his family’s past, the attraction that the two of them insisted wasn’t there proves impossible to ignore. Soon, the future of the Sinclair estate isn’t the only thing on the line…
Book Links: Book Links: Amazon | B&N |
 
 

Meet the Author:

When Virginia Heath was a little girl it took her ages to fall asleep, so she made up stories in her head to help pass the time while she was staring at the ceiling. As she got older, the stories became more complicated, sometimes taking weeks to get to the happy ending. Then one day, she decided to embrace the insomnia and start writing them down. Now her Regency romcoms (including the Wild Warriners and Talk of the Beau Monde series) are published in many languages across the globe. Twenty books and two Romantic Novel of the Year Award nominations later, it still takes her forever to fall asleep.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |