Spotlight & Giveaway: The Scot Who Loved Me by Gina Conkle

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Gina Conkle to HJ!

Hi Gina and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Scot Who Loved ME!

Hi! It’s great to be here.

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

Scots in London after
Culloden
Operating as a League
These

Women
Hunt
Outlawed

Livres of gold with
One kilted hero
V
E
D

M
E

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Torchlight flickered over a monster of a man sitting on the ground, his braw arms manacled to the wall of Marshalsea Prison’s strong room, the outbuilding for troublesome criminals. The floor reeked of piss. Night soil’s scent clogged the air. Rebellion had a cost, and it was paid for in the shed.

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

Anne and Will are commoners. They fell in love right before the Uprising of ’45 and the war tore them apart. Both nurse wounds of loss and sacrifice and have moved on with, but that summer of passionate love branded their hearts.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

The Lost Treasure of Arkaig has never been found. About 20 years ago, a boot sale (English “garage sale”) uncovered 18th century ledgers, noting secret payments to clans who supported Bonnie Prince Charlie. However, these entries were for a small portion of the treasure, which was about 30,000 livres or French gold coins.

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

Will loved Anne’s take charge spirit. She’s the only female in a house of brothers and widower father. He mistakes her for a char woman when they first meet and flirts outrageously with her.

Anne loved Will’s brashness. He’s mercurial, while she’s steady as a rock.

The First Kiss…

Will’s big hand slipped inside her cloak and found her hips. Five fingers and his palm, the warmth an imprint she’d remember for the rest of her days. Will sought her chest-petting hand, brought it slowly to his lips.
He touched a knee-watering kiss to her wrist, the same as he did the first time he kissed her years ago. She was crushed and elated, her body pliant, her soul stiff.
How could he do that? Give so reckless a kiss?
If she was lost, Will was equally taken. His eyes a torrid storm, his breathing that of a desperate man. Their mouths touching was inevitable, yet they stood in the unknown. Their past dust; their future without hope.
A connection lost forever.
Will’s grip on her wrist tightened painfully and a tempest broke fast and furious.
Their mouths met, hot and agitated. Longing and need fused them. Will was velvety smooth, salty and sweet. He was life and she kissed him deeper for it. His strong hand cradled her hip, wooing her, drawing her close, as if to say Your body belongs right . . . here.
With me.
She gloried in being close to him. Will’s arms holding her. The moon and the stars blessing them. It was a kiss to melt a woman’s resolve and scatter her wits, a kiss that ended too quickly. Eyes closed, she held fast to the pleasure of her passionately kissed mouth. To simply feel again.
But life demanded her presence.
Sand crunched under restless boots. Will.
When she opened her eyes, he was once again the haunted man she’d found in Marshalsea prison.

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

I’d use the scene where Will is having clothes altered for an evening event because it showcases the subtle tug-of-war between Anne and Will (with other older league women present):

“I like the black and gold,” he said.
Anne eyed Will who eyed her boldly back. A silent skirmish was afoot.
“With his size, shouldn’t we consider something paler? A creamy yellow or a sky blue?” she suggested.
Creamy yellow? Will mouthed.
“And have him looking like a cake?” Aunt Maude huffed. The woman had stern opinion’s about London’s mincing fops. Tartans were dark, serious shades, which met with her approval. “What do ye think, Flora?”
“Oh, I don’t know.”
Will was the center of a feminine universe, arms out at his sides, his smirk growing as if he could do this all day. Rather sure of himself. Or was he glad to needle Anne? Revenge at finding her door locked last night? She’s heard his pillow thumping last night.
“Pale colors are the height of fashion,” Anne said defensively. “I’m sure we can find something else in that sea chest. Something better suited to make him look more . . . or perhaps less of—” her hand flapped inelegantly “—of this . . .”
“Of what?” Aunt Maude pursed her lips.
Aunt Flora waited, and Will was the devil’s own, his smirk increasing.
She was in a verbal pit, and shoveling herself in deeper. “Lighter colors would be safer.” She hesitated. “Black and gold simply is . . .”
“Is what?” Will goaded.
She was on a knife’s edge, her thumbnail digging an indent into her quill. Irritation flared. Other indescribable emotions surged.
“You look dangerous.”
There. She’d said it.
Will’s predatory smile spread. “Black and gold it is.”

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

Conversations in the Dark – John Legend
Movement – Hozier
Break My Baby – Kaleo
You and Me – Lifehouse

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

Let go of the past.
Will can’t get over the loss of Anne and Scotland. Anne keeps trying to save what was lost.

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

I am finishing A Scot is Not Enough (Scottish Treasure, bk 2) which will release 2022.

I have an anthology, A Midsummer Night’s Romance (also commoners as lead characters). My novella is ‘Until You.” Releases May 18, 2021
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Anyone of my (Gina Conkle) print books. Reader’s choice and it’s open internationally.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Will brazenly wore his outlawed kilt to a London tavern. Why do you think he did this?
It’s seven years after Culloden, and Anne can’t let go. She is “mission above all else.”
What would you tell a woman who methodically lives for her mission?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from The Scot Who Loved ME:

THE SCOT WHO LOVED ME (Scottish Treasures, bk 1)
Excerpt – Will meets up with Anne at the White Lamb (a haven for criminals) and finds two men chatting her up.

Will’s bone-cleaving stare traveled from one man to the other.
“Leave.”
She was shocked to her toes. At his harsh command and her dancing pulse. At Mr. Gunderson’s hasty exit (no loss there, the man was a trifle dull). At Mr. Harrison briefly sizing up Will before bidding her adieu with a neat bow. She expected more from him. Mr. Harrison had sailed around the world twice and fought pirates, if his tales were true. How could he give up so easily?
It might be the tiny detail of her sudden betrothal, but she couldn’t fully countenance that.
A woman at the White Lamb was fair game until she was wedded and bedded, and even that was negotiable to some. Men were wolves on the hunt, seeking where they might scatter their seed.
Or was it the hulking beast who scared them off?
Will. Upon spying her legs, his calm humor coiled to a snarl. His size would daunt the heartiest, and his hair was on the mussed side, the queue loose with hanks of hair framing a handsome, if unfriendly face. Definitely not Hades. That version of him was rough refinement. This man was nostrils flaring, eyes burning, tension on two legs. He prowled. A great grace surrounded him and she fell into the depth of his amber eyes.
The beast she’d unchained from Marshalsea was back. He’d cleared the field, and by the look, he’d walked all the way from Southwark to do it.
New heat washed her limbs, sounding an alarm. No rules, save one, existed in their new arrangement. She was to give him something in return for his service to the league. Beyond that, theirs was an open field, tenuous and unnegotiated.
She needed to . . . reassemble.
She sipped rum and twirled her foot. “You might as well post a no trespassing sign.”
“Your garter is showing, madame.”
“So is your ill temper.” She couldn’t stop from peering at her knee.
A red silk bow peered back.
“Do you always conduct business with your petticoats at your knees?”
“When I want to, yes.”
Will leveled a hard look at her.
She feigned innocence and tucked her hem an inch higher. “Should my hem be here?”
Will’s gaze locked on the bit of skin exposed at her knee.
“Or . . . here?”

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Proud Scot, Will MacDonald is in prison for wearing his kilt when a former lover enters his cell. Anne Fletcher never thought she’d cross paths with Will again, but she needs his help to steal the Treasure of Loch Arkaig from English hands to return it to the highlands.

Taking back the fortune could mean death but after being parted from Anne for so long, Will can’t leave her side. As they work together to steal the treasure from watchful eyes, will they return to their lonely lives or will they risk everything for a love they thought was lost forever?
Book Links: Amazon | B& N | iTunes | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Gina’s fate was sealed when her mom read aloud the poem, The Highwayman–the perfect historical romance hook. But, Gina grew up in California where no dukes or Vikings live. She always did prefer stone castles over sand castles and books over beaches. Years ago, she fell in love with her favorite hero, Brian, and they eloped to Vegas at midnight. Together, they raised two sons who like history almost as much as their mom. Now most days, Gina pens sparkling Georgian romance with a dash of Scots or Viking romance with heat and adventure. When she’s not writing, you can find her wandering a museum or with her nose in a book. The other place to find her is ginaconkle.com.
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