Spotlight & Giveaway: The Disgraceful Lord Gray 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, The Disgraceful Lord Gray!

 
It’s always a pleasure to be here!
 

To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:

The Disgraceful Lord Gray is a Regency romcom and a romantic suspense story all rolled into one. It has a mischevious hero, a very outspoken heroine, a couple of quirky side characters, a very bad guy and a completely untrainable dog who does his own thing.
 

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

Life was too short to ponder what might have been. If it was meant to be, it would have happened. It was as simple as that. There was no point lamenting the fickle finger of fate or wasting time being angry or crippled by remorse. Enjoy the here and now, forget the past which couldn’t be changed and let tomorrow sort itself out.

What inspired this book?

My dog Trevor. He is a mischevious and completely untrainable Labrador and I love him to bits. He posts on my social media and my readers love him. They kept asking when I was going to put him in a book, so I did. He is basically Trefor in The Disgraceful Lord Gray and his behaviour influences a great many things in the story. As do his love of shoes, sticks, water and balls.

How did you ‘get to know’ your main characters? Did they ever surprise you?

The character of Gray pops up in the two previous books in my King’s Elite Regency spy series, so I already knew he had a wicked sense of humour and was a total charmer. However, it wasn’t until I wrote his story that I discovered he was harbouring a broken heart behind all that bravado. Thea, my heroine, came to me fully formed for some reason. Once I put the pair of them together, they constantly surprised me. The banter between them always made me laugh as I typed it.

What was your favorite scene to write?

The meet-cute at the beginning. Gray is skinny dipping with his dog in a brook when Thea stumbles across him…

Thea plunged into the trees following the sound, then skidded to a halt at the top of the bank at the unexpected sight of an exceedingly pert pair of male buttocks.
Very nice and very naked male buttocks.
A pathetic squeak of shock popped out of her mouth before she covered it with her hands and the buttocks disappeared beneath the water a second before the owner of them turned around, his own hands covering the most important part of his modesty. Which was now quite submerged, but leaving little else to her imagination. Her eyes travelled upwards from those hands to the flat abdomen bisected by an arrow of intriguing dark hair which widened over a broad chest. Muscled shoulders. A gloriously strong set of biceps. Twinkling blue-grey eyes stared cockily right back at her, clearly amused and set in one of the most outrageously ruggedly handsome faces she had ever seen.
‘Good morning, ladies.’
‘Er…’ For the first time in her life, Thea had no words at all. Her cheeks were glowing scarlet and it took all her strength to stop her eyes wandering back to where they had just feasted, making her blink and gape like a hooked fished. Because it was the right and proper thing to do, she immediately averted her badly behaved eyes and stared off into space, mortified.
‘Good morning, sir,’ said Harriet’s voice over her shoulder, then she unsubtly nudged Thea with her elbow. ‘I take back everything I said about buckskin, Thea. It is vastly overrated.’ Shamelessly, her friend barged past—no doubt to get a closer look. Harriet would never avert her eyes. ‘And who might you be?’
‘Lord Graham Chadwick.’ In her peripheral vision, the naked man executed a courtly bow with one hand still clutching his unmentionables, apparently completely comfortable and unrepentant in his nudity. ‘But do call me Gray. I am new to the parish.’

What was the most difficult scene to write?

A very hard question- but probably the bit where she finally discovers he is a spy investigating her beloved uncle. I won’t put any spoilers here- but for such a funny, sparring, charming couple, the betrayal felt by her and the split loyalties experienced by him was poignant. It was a very dark moment.

Would you say this book showcases your writing style or is it a departure for you?

This book is a classic romcom and those are always my favourites to write. The chemistry between them is instant but they both have their own reasons to fight it- but that made for some fabulous dialogue. In fact, I think the dialogue in the story is the best I have ever written. Quite a few reviewers have called it ‘laugh out loud’.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

The same as what I always want them to take away- hours of entertainment culminating in a perfect happily ever after!

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

In July, the final book in my King’s Elite quartet comes out. Like all of my books, The Determined Lord Hadleigh can be read as a standalone. He comes out in July. This has a different pace to the rest of the series because Hadleigh isn’t a spy on a mission, he’s the King’s lawyer tasked with bring the bad guys to justice. Except, he cannot get a brave witness out of his mind…

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 3 eBook copies of The Disgraceful Lord Gray

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Obviously, Gray and Thea like to spar with each other. Who are your favourite sparring couple in a romance book, film or TV show?

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Excerpt from The Disgraceful Lord Gray:

‘I said, if you got any more sleep, you’d be dangerous. Obvious decrepitude aside, you are quite beautiful enough already, Miss Cranford. I’m not entirely sure I could cope with any more. I find myself already totally smitten with you.’
Internally she was sighing and was in grave danger of melting into a puddle at the man’s feet. He thought her beautiful. Was already smitten… How lovely. Of course, outwardly, she hoped she looked unimpressed because she was far too sensible to be waylaid by flowery words any more—no matter how lovely Impetuous Thea thought they were to hear. ‘Oh, my!’ She fluttered her hand in front of her face and batted her eyelashes. ‘What a swoon-worthy compliment! If only I hadn’t seen you similarly flirting with my aunt a short while ago, I’d be tempted to be flattered.’
‘There is a distinct difference. Your aunt flirted with me first and it would have been rude not to respond in kind. That was merely social flirting, Miss Cranford, and therefore innocuous. My flirting with you was wholly unsolicited and wholly spontaneous. It was genuine flirting.’ The arrogant grin suited him and Thea found herself enjoying it.
‘Ah—I see.’ She tapped her lip and attempted to look thoughtful, enjoying this unexpected sparring match with a man who met none of her strict criteria, but seemed to be able to pick the locks which bound the chains around the inner Thea’s locked box. ‘So if social flirting is innocuous, does that make genuine flirting noxious?
‘It makes it dangerous. Especially when both of us engage in it as we are now. It hints at intent.’ He raised his dark eyebrow. ‘At promise…’
Instinctively, she folded her own arms, mirroring his casual pose. ‘I hardly think I am flirting, Lord Gray.’
‘Gray will do just fine. And you are most definitely flirting, Miss Cranford. I’m afraid I recognise all of the signs.’
‘Really? Pray enlighten me, for I confess I am at a loss.’
He shuffled closer on the bench and leaned in conspiratorially, smelling sinfully of sunshine and spicy cologne. ‘To the unobservant, it would be difficult to tell, but there are subtle clues. Your insistence on reminding me of this morning, for example. Unconsciously, despite all my very proper clothes, your mind is scandalously picturing me naked.’
She scoffed, bristling, wondering if he really could read her mind. ‘I most certainly am not! Ewwwgh!’ She shuddered for effect. ‘I can assure you my brain has far better things to think about than the unsavoury picture of you in the altogether, although even if I was, which I most definitely am not, a person’s private thoughts hardly constitute flirting.’
‘The coquettish side glances and pretty pink blushes which accompany them does.’
Thea turned her head and stared him dead in the eye. ‘I’m a red head and if I am a bit pink, then I have clearly been in the sun a tad too long, my lord.’
‘A plausible denial, to be sure—but it doesn’t fool me. And I thought we agreed you could call me Gray going forward, seeing as you’ve seen me in the altogether? But…your preoccupations with my impressive nude manly body aside, there are other damning clues which only a true connoisseur in the subtle art of flirting would pick up. A moment ago, for instance, when you brought your finger to your lips… Why, it was obvious you were doing so to purposely draw my eyes there and set me wondering if they are as soft and inviting as they look.’
She had touched her lips quite innocently, or so she had thought, but now they tingled. ‘You are delusional.’
‘Right now, we both know the position of your arms has only one true purpose.’
She didn’t unfold them. ‘To show you I am not a fool, nor suffer fools gladly?’
‘To display your figure to its best effect.’ She hastily uncrossed her arms and gathered the shawl tighter, irritated at the missish response when he reacted with a knowing chuckle. ‘And…’ The word came out in a sultry whisper as his head leaned closer still before he paused and failed to finish his sentence.
‘And?’
‘That was a test and, I’m sorry to tell you, you failed.’
‘I did?’
‘Indeed. Because you leaned closer, too, obviously eager to hear what I had to say despite my intimate, wholly inappropriate conversation and my close proximity to your unchaperoned person being most impertinent.’
‘You are impertinent.’
‘I am—but you’d like to kiss me regardless.’

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

A spy on a mission… Until he meets this heiress!
Miss Theodora Cranford’s learned to keep her impetuous nature locked away. She won’t be deceived by another man who can’t see past her fortune. She wants an honourable, sensible sort – not a self-assured scoundrel like her new neighbour, Lord Gray. Although she’s sure there’s more to him than meets the eye… But after that first captivating kiss, she’s certainly left wanting more!

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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. But it still takes her ages to fall asleep.
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