Spotlight & Giveaway: Rules for Heiresses by Amalie Howard

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Amalie Howard to HJ!

Hi Amalie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, RULES FOR HEIRESSES!

 
Hi, everyone! I’m so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
 

Tell us about the book with this fun little challenge using the title of the book:

R is for Rules, of course, as there are quite a few in this novel.
U is for Universal love. This is a story about an interracial couple, so this is an important one.
L is for Lust. Lots and lots and lots of lusty shenanigans. The attraction between Courtland and
Ravenna sizzles and they have to fight the pull between them at every turn.
E is for Everybody deserves to be loved. Love is love, in any of its many beautiful forms.
S is for Super Sassy heroines because every powerful, super grumpy hero needs one.

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Lady Ravenna Huntley, unwed sister to the Duke of Embry, was in the biggest pickle of her life, and that was saying a lot, considering she’d been a fugitive on one of her brother’s ships across the Atlantic. Now, she was about to lose a substantial fortune playing vingt-et-un while disguised as a man…unless she did something she’d never considered before.

Unless she cheated.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book.

Courtland is a very multi-layered hero. He’s prickly on the outside because he’s had to build a hard shell to protect himself, after he has been deemed unworthy by the people supposed to love him. Being biracial is a challenge because it’s hard to feel like you belong anywhere. For him to truly love Ravenna, the heroine, he has to learn how to love and accept himself first.

Ravenna is a very sassy, dauntless heroine, who tends to leap before she looks, which gets her into a lot of trouble, but I love this about her. I love that she’s impulsive, and runs headlong into danger, especially if it’s to save the people she loves. She’s fiercely loyal, too. I love how protective she is with Courtland, and she loves him for all that he is. She’s an all-in type of woman.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Rules for Heiresses features a biracial hero, whose family has roots in Antigua. I’m a Caribbean-born West Indian author so this was especially meaningful to me. I grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, but decided to set part of the book in Antigua. History is fascinating, especially with historical research and timelines. Abolition happened nearly 30 years in the West Indies before the United States, and there was quite a lot of racial mixing. As a mixed-race descendant of eastern indentured laborers, living on an ex-colony was my lived experience. I loved being able to write about West Indian culture, climate, and setting.
• I also write about ocean liners in this book. Obviously, the early-twentieth-century Titanic is the most famous of the luxurious passenger liners, but there were some lavish liners in the second half of the nineteenth century when marine steam engines and passenger transatlantic travel had just begun to gather popularity. I took creative liberty with some of the designs and had so much fun with my hero and heroine’s first honeymoon love scene.
• In the story, I also mention the novel Jane Eyre and Brontë’s account of local island women. Much of Bertha’s characterization is derogatory—her madness and savagery attributed to her time in the islands and the fault of what the author claimed to be a hot, terrible climate. She isn’t given much of a voice, and I wanted to have my character point that out. As much as I love Jane Eyre, I always felt that Antoinette got the short end of the stick while Mr. Rochester was unfairly romanticized. If you’re interested in reading a different version of Bertha/Antoinette, please read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

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

I think they’ve always loved each other, as children, so there’s that underlying sense of friendship and familiarity already there. Obviously, their first very passionate kiss in his office sparks the attraction, but the banter and tension between them seals the deal. I think Courtland really falls for Ravenna’s unswerving loyalty, and she falls for his protective, deeply passionate nature.

The First Kiss…

The feel of her was sublime, the demanding pressure nearly making his eyes roll back in his head as she fused their lips together. She smelled of lemon balm, but beneath the citrus, he detected the slightest hint of plumeria. Courtland breathed in, curving his arm up behind her shoulder to cup her nape, parting his lips and coaxing her to do the same with an urgent flick of his tongue.

Moaning into his mouth, Ravenna opened instantly for him. Not wasting a single second, his tongue delved in and found hers, seeking her warm, pliant depths, another sound of pleasure escaping her. A hint of wine from earlier at the tables clung to her lips and tongue, but beyond that was a taste all hers. Like dessert and decadence. Honey with a hint of hot island peppers.

Intoxicating.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

I would love this! I think I would use the scene where Courtland discovers who she is because the banter is great, along with the sexual tension, and it’s funny as well.

Turning pink, Ravenna tossed her head. “What Embry doesn’t know won’t hurt him, and besides, he’s just had a new baby and deserves every joy. If he knew where I was, he’d be frantic with worry instead of focusing on his own happiness.”

“For good reason, you daft girl!”

“Because I’m female?” she shot back. “Why should men have all the adventure and women be forced to sit at home tending the hearth? We are not possessions or brainless biddable toys designed for male consumption.”

He almost choked on his drink at the images her provocative words produced, but the hostility beneath was clear. “Because it’s not safe or smart for a woman to be traveling on her own.”

“I know how to use a pistol, Cordy,” she said. “I was a better shot than you, remember? Or perhaps you choose not to remember how many times I bested you just to preserve your insufferably delicate male pride.”

He didn’t remember her being this…caustic. Silent laughter rippled through him. Who was he fooling? She’d always been a hothead. “We were children then,” he said. “And my name is Courtland, not Cordy.”

“Apparently, it’s Ashvale now,” she reminded him. The sound of the ducal title set his teeth on edge. He was going to have to deal with that complication as soon as possible, too. “How did you get here anyway?”

“I took one of Embry’s clippers.” She lifted an ungloved hand to sift through the pressed strands of her shorn mane. “Hacked off my hair and disguised myself as a boatswain. Learned a lot over the last few years from my brother and his old quartermaster so it was easy. Kept my head down, did the work, and no one was the wiser.”

Courtland balked in horror—she’d spent close to five weeks on a ship full of male sailors? His hands fisted at his sides at her foolhardy actions. “Why not an ocean liner?”

“Too easily tracked. I didn’t need luxury, I needed to disappear.”

“Why?”

Her lip curled. “None of your deuced business.”

If your hero had a sexy-times play list, what song(s) would have to be on it?

Haha, I love this question because I have some really weird, eclectic musical tastes when writing, especially sexy-times scenes. *Opens iTunes*

• Comptine d’un Autre été: L’Après-Midi by Yann Tiersen
• Take Over by Hidden Citizens featuring Ruelle
• Manic by Halsey
• Wicked Game by Ursine Vulpine featuring Annaca

If you could have given your characters one piece of advice before the opening pages of the book, what – would it be and why?

The advice I give all my fictional couples in my head…communicate. If we were all mind-readers, life would be so much simpler, but it’s not, so talking is important, even if it makes you feel too vulnerable. Hard to do, I know. I’m the worst at opening myself up to possibly being hurt.

What are you currently working on? What are your up-coming releases?*

I’m currently writing the third book in this series, but my next release is a novella in the Regency Rogues world, THE WOLF OF WESTMORE, coming next March in an anthology with some other awesome historical romance authors called BIG DUKE ENERGY. How’s that for a title? My next full-length novel is ALWAYS BE MY DUCHESS with Forever, out next summer, and I am super excited for that…it’s Jane Austen meets Pretty Woman!!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

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Excerpt from Rules for Heiresses:

It wasn’t in her to be what anyone expected her to be… She simply wanted to be herself. To be alone. To make her own choices.

But as she was, she would never be good enough…not for the Dowager Duchess of Embry, not for Lady Holding, not for the ton, and maybe now not even for her new husband.

Sod him, then. Sod the bloody lot of them!

Ravenna reached for the glass of brandy that wasn’t there and scowled when she saw the book in her hand instead. Where had her tasty liquor gone? Someone had bloody stolen it! She’d have their hide if she could remember who she could make her grievance to. The Duke of Ashvale, no doubt. That was the name of the cad who was to blame for all her tribulations. She shook a fist at the ceiling, noting the lovely mural of flying cherubs. She squinted up at it. How did cherubs fly? They were much too plump for those tiny wings.

“Your Grace, are you well?”

Her gaze flopped back down. “Oh, Mr. Bingham, hullo! I didn’t see you there. Where on earth did you come from?”

He shot her a queer look. “You invited me to sit with you, Your Grace.”

“Call me Ravenna, or Lady Ravenna, if you please.” She waved an arm and nearly smacked herself in the eye with the spine of her book. “Her Grace sounds like a terribly stuffy kind of person.” Her mouth formed a wry twist. “And while I’m at sea, I’d rather be me.”

“And who is that, er, Your Grace?” Mr. Bingham regarded her with curiosity before murmuring something to a nearby footman. A glass of something cold was pressed into her hands. “It’s water,” the solicitor said.

She gulped gratefully, the cool liquid soothing her parched throat. When had she become so thirsty? Or when had water ever been so refreshingly delicious? What had Bingham asked her? Oh yes, who she was. Who was she? “A daughter. A misfit. A sailor. A gambler. A wife.” She peered up at him through a lock of damp, springy hair that had fallen into her eyes. She blew a stream of air upward, but it did little to dislodge the clump. That didn’t stop her from trying again and again—futilely, she might add. Hair was so bloody stubborn! Like men. Like dukes. “Have you known the duke long?”

“Perhaps only as long as you’ve known him.”

“Oh, I’ve known Cordy all my life. He was my neighbor,” she explained helpfully. “We were engaged once, you know, but he was a dreadful bore. So bossy and such a know-it- all. He was insufferable. Everyone liked him, except me. He was the thorn in my side.” She trailed off with an indelicate hiccup. “Oh, I do beg your pardon, sir.” She sipped her water, noticing that the glass had been refilled. Her voice grew soft, heavy with memory. “But I think I rather loved him. He looked out for me. And then one day… poof!…he was gone.”

“What happened?”

She smiled sadly. “He died. Or at least that’s what Stinson told me.” Ravenna brightened at the thought of one friend she had in England. “Do you know Stinson? He’s lovely.” She lifted a hand and separated one blurry finger to point at nothing in particular. “I think he might have fancied me. But now he’s too late. I married the not-dead, cruel, heartless brother. He’ll be so crushed, my poor friend, because he has a heart.” She let out a sorry sound. “He said I couldn’t see him.”

“Who said?”

“Ashvale.” She spat out the word as if it burned her mouth. “The portentous Duke of Ashes and Despair.”

“That’s enough.”

The harsh command wasn’t Mr. Bingham’s. No, it came from the entryway to the library. Ravenna’s vision was starting to blur, so all she could see was a menacing, looming form that looked uncannily like what she imagined Hades, the mythical lord of the underworld, would look like: godlike, grim, and sinfully hot.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

USA Today bestselling author Amalie Howard whisks you away with a historical romance full of drama, true love, and the perfect happily ever after. Readers will devour this tale of:

A rebellious heiress determined to be independent
A shunned duke forced to return to his family estate
And a scandal between them that will have the whole town aflutter
Sometimes, finding love means flouting the rules…

Born to a life of privilege, Lady Ravenna Huntley rues the day that she must marry. She’s refused dozens of suitors and cried off multiple betrothals, but running away—even if brash and foolhardy—is the only option left to secure her independence.

Lord Courtland Chase, grandson of the Duke of Ashvale, was driven from England at the behest of his cruel stepmother. Scorned and shunned, he swore never to return to the land of his birth. But when a twist of bad luck throws a rebellious heiress into his arms, at the very moment he finds out he’s the new Duke, marriage is the only alternative to massive scandal.

Both are quick to deny it, but a wedding might be the only way out for both of them. And the attraction that burns between them makes Ravenna and Courtland wonder if it’ll truly only be a marriage of convenience after all…
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Meet the Author:

AMALIE HOWARD is a USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling novelist of “smart, sexy, deliciously feminist romance.” The Beast of Beswick was one of Oprah Daily’s Top 24 Best Historicals to Read. She is also the author of several critically acclaimed, award-winning young adult novels. An AAPI/Caribbean-born writer, her articles and interviews on multicultural fiction have appeared in the Portland Book Review, Ravishly Magazine, and Diversity in YA. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found reading, being the president of her one-woman Harley Davidson motorcycle club #WriteOrDie, or power-napping. She currently lives in Colorado with her husband and three children.
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