Spotlight & Giveaway: The Governess and the Duke by Lydia Drake

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Lydia Drake to HJ!

Hi Lydia and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Governess and the Duke!

Thank you for having me!

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

When a precocious teenage girl conspires to get her governess and the nation’s most eligible duke to marry, everything goes hilariously wrong and then oh-so-right.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

It is the rare woman who falls in love twice in the same day, but such was Miss Viola Winslow’s fate on the morning of April 18, 1807. The twenty-year-old had just made the exhaustive trek from Northumberland all the way south to Somerset to take a posting at Lynton Park, the Duke of Ashworth’s seat. She was two miles from the house and trudging along a muddy road that the spring rain had inconveniently left in her path. The stagecoach had broken an axle half a mile back, and she couldn’t wait for it to be fixed. She was expected, and as far as Viola saw it, being expected to do something meant it was already good as done.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• There’s a little bit of a Parent Trap situation as the governess’s charge and the duke’s whimsical teenage sister try to get the pair together.
• I had a lot of fun poking at Gothic romance tropes in this book. Storms that spring out of nowhere and ravens who recite dirty limericks abound here.
• The Duke of Huntington is my favorite type of man, brooding and powerful on the inside, a cinnamon roll deep within.
• There’s a seance that goes horribly wrong.
• The scene in the groundskeeper’s cottage during a storm is my personal favorite in the book. 🙂

What first attracts your main characters to each other?

Viola is immediately swept away by the duke’s looks, charm, and gallantry. She spends ten years pining over the perfect version of him she’s created, and so she’s surprised when she spends time with him and learns she loves him even more deeply as she gets to see his flawed, human side. Hunt, meanwhile, is impressed by Viola’s intelligence and kind spirit. She also argues with him about William Blake, so her passionate side excites him.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe your main characters”love affair?

Tender, forbidden, erotic, playful, loving
 

The First Kiss…

takes place in the ruins of an old chapel. It’s moody and beautiful, the perfect place for a little romance.
 

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

“If I were kind, I’d have left Moorcliff Castle yesterday, or sent you and Miss Berridge home to Somerset. I would not have kissed you, or danced with you, and I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here now thinking only of the taste of your lips. No, not only that. Thinking of what a rare creature you are, how bright and beautiful, a woman of infinite compassion. The world doesn’t deserve you, and I sure as hell don’t, either.”
“You’re wrong.” She’d left the earth now, was spinning somewhere up toward the stars. This moment had been worth a lifetime of waiting. “I always felt that I didn’t deserve you. That I never could.”
“I hope now you’ve seen how foolish that was,” he murmured. A tear slipped down her cheek. It was like standing at the edge of a lake on an early summer morning, preparing to dive in and feel the instant of shock at the cold. But she knew that once she adjusted, it would feel like heaven. The plunge was the hardest step.
“I think perhaps we’ve both been foolish.” She smiled. “In fact, I believe we’re about to be very foolish indeed.”
“How so?”
It was like gravity. One body collided with another because it was the will of nature. Viola moved toward him and, without hesitation or thought, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

The seance, without a doubt. Felicity and Isabelle are my chaotic duo.

“All right everyone, sit down! Lady Isabelle and I must concentrate.” Felicity scooted herself to the table, nearly knocking over the furniture in her excitement. All talk had to cease as the adults settled in and watched the girls at their supernatural excitement. Isabelle had laden the table with candles of varying heights and stages of melting. The candles’ glow suffused the girls’ faces while lightning flashed through the room. The storm cascaded against the windowpanes.
“I fear a bloody skull will rise from the floor and begin screaming at any moment,” Viola whispered. Hunt chuckled.
“O former Duchess of Huntington! We invoke you to come to us tonight and speak, o spirit! Give us a sign that you are with us now.” Isabelle took up a handbell and rang it several times. “Come and ring the bell to show us you are close!”
They all waited a moment. Then another moment. Felicity began to look antsy in her chair, and finally nabbed the bell and rang it herself.
“Oh! My hand! Something grabbed my hand and made me ring!” she called out, not exactly selling the performance. “What’s with the bell nonsense?” Felicity hissed.
“The artistic temperament moved me!” Isabelle hissed back.
Hunt’s grandmother looked like she had a tremendous headache.

Readers should read this book …

If they love Gothic castles, love conquering all, happy endings and scenes that are as steamy as they are sweet.

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

I’m working on a draft of something currently titled The Writer and the Rogue. It’s about all the shenanigans one can get up to during the Season by blackmailing an earl.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I’m giving away three paperback copies of THE GOVERNESS AND THE DUKE!

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you could live in a castle, where would it be?

 
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Excerpt from The Governess and the Duke:

“I’ve spent my life looking for something–and someone–purely honest. Entirely herself. I’ve often thought that once I found such a rare creature, I’d bring her to Moorcliff and live out our days in peace. I like to think of myself as a responsible man. There’s no point to life without doing what’s right, really. I’d live for two things, my duty to my tenants…and my wife. A man who lives for anything else is a fraud.”
Viola had never been so certain of what she was feeling and what it meant. She felt both free and secure, excited and almost cozy with belonging. She shivered as he drew even closer. “If this particular woman were to ask you to leave this chapel untouched?”
“Not a stone would be altered. If she wanted the place restored to its former glory, it would be done.” The air about them seemed to buzz with tension. “She only ever has to ask for a thing in order to have it.”
“She must be very careful, then. A woman who receives that kind of power over a man has someone at her mercy. She must never abuse such a gift.”
“What could have given you such a unique point of view?” he whispered.
“I suppose I know what it’s like to be mishandled,” Viola said.
“I hate that you know that.”
“You do?” Her heartbeat was loud.
The duke towered above her, and she felt so small against him. There was security in this, a promise of safety that was also strangely exhilarating. In that moment, he was a buffer against everything bad in the world. Viola felt as if she had been searching for this moment her entire life and had stumbled upon it almost by pure chance.
“Of course I do.” His arm circled her waist.
She was filling a place she’d dreamed of occupying for years. “Why?”
In answer, he leaned down to kiss her.
Be careful what you wish for; more tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones; wanting something is often more exhilarating than getting it. Viola had believed that those sayings were true. That if she ever touched Huntington, or kissed him, it would never live up to what she had imagined. As it turned out, all those terribly wise people had been wrong.
The brief instant his lips touched hers was more than she could have imagined, and she’d imagined a great deal.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Governess Viola Winslow is quite familiar with the rules of society and her place in it. Still, it hasn’t stopped her from being horribly in love with the Duke of Huntington for years. But while the duke knows little of her foolish passions, the same cannot be said of Viola’s charge–a precocious fourteen-year-old obsessed with her governess’s secret romance.

As a confirmed bachelor with no interest in marriage, the Duke of Huntington prefers his estate at Moorcliff Castle to the hustle, bustle, and utter nonsense of London society. He’s far more content with a glass of excellent whiskey and the calm of the country. Until his peace is shattered by the enchanting Miss Viola and her injured young charge.

Unable to travel or leave, Viola has no choice but to remain at Moorcliff–where avoiding the duke is all but impossible. Somewhere between late-night run-ins and a fake date in the most unlikely of places, their chemistry stops feeling one-sided. But when he discovers the secret she’s been hiding all along, there’s nothing that will save them from scandal.
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Meet the Author:

Lydia Drake is a reader of all things romance and a drinker of all the tea. A New Jersey resident, her favorite activities include taking the train to New York City, scouring used bookstores, spending time with her family and wrangling her hyperactive cockapoo puppy. She loves talking romance with her fans.
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