Spotlight & Giveaway: The Stranger I Wed by Harper St. George

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Harper St. George to HJ!

Hi Harper and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Stranger I Wed!

 
Thank you so much for having me on Harlequin Junkie today. I’m excited to be here to talk about The Stranger I Wed.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

The Stranger I Wed is the first book of my new series The Doves of New York. The series is about three illegitimate sisters of a prominent man in New York. In order to get them out of his way, their father puts a peculiar condition on their dowries – they must marry foreign noblemen to collect it. This first book follows Cora, the older Dove sister. She takes charge and takes her small family to England intent on marrying an earl.
 

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

I love this part because it’s the first time Cora realizes that her intended husband might actually mess up all of her carefully laid plans:

“Yes, that was the Earl of Devonworth,” Camille confirmed for her.
That name was in her journal. Cora had written down his family members, his family history, and the fact that he was passionate about his seat in Parliament. She had thought he might be an ideal candidate for husband because he met all the requirements. Except now she knew he was handsome. Too handsome, really. He completely violated the last rule.
For the first time, Cora understood why Jenny had insisted on that rule. It would be terribly difficult to divorce a man so tempting.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

I listened to the Folklore album by Taylor Swift pretty much exclusively while writing this series.
I had to research a lot of Victorian food for the dinner parties and I am very glad I do not have to eat Victorian food.

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

Leo is an earl in desperate need of funds for his estate. The fact that Cora comes with money and very few strings attached attracts him first, but once they begin talking, he’s pulled in by how intelligent and articulate she is. She negotiates her own marriage contract and later she helps him with his speeches and that’s what pulls him in.

Cora has researched Leo and knows many details about him. On paper, she’s attracted to how he advocates for those less fortunate than him in Parliament. However, once she meets him, she falls head over heels because he’s the most handsome man she’s ever seen in her life.

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

Well, Cora and Leo decide to have a true marriage of convenience, but they have a shared bathroom between their bedrooms. This leads to some unintentional encounters. Specifically, Cora comes home one night and doesn’t realize he’s in the bath…

The chair was hidden but when she took a step further into the room the mirror in the corner came into view. The reflection she saw made her bring her hand to her mouth to cover her surprise.
Her husband was sprawled in the chair, towel around him as if he had sat down while drying himself. Only the towel had completely fallen open to reveal him completely to her. His hair was wet, darkened to a dirty blond, as if he’d come straight from the bath, and it was pushed back from his face. It made his handsome looks nearly devastating as it emphasized the plains and angles of his face.

Readers should read this book….

if you enjoy a steamy marriage of convenience romance with history interwoven in the story.
 

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

I’m working on the next book in the series, Eliza and the Duke. This one will follow the youngest sister Eliza and Simon Cavell, who you meet in The Stranger I Wed. It’s a really fun one to write, because Eliza is so impetuous and Simon is fresh from the streets of Whitechapel.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A signed copy of The Duchess Takes a Husband

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Leo plays association football/soccer in his spare time, do you like to read heroes who play sports?

 
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Excerpt from The Stranger I Wed:

She sidestepped the ball, somehow managing to miss Briggs but stepping into the path of the golden-haired man. He tried to stop, but the change in momentum sent him skidding over a patch of mud and directly into her. Her breath rushed out of her at the initial contact, sending her umbrella and journal flying, and her own feet caught the mud and they tumbled to the ground together. He twisted, catching the brunt of the fall, but they rolled several more times before coming to a stop in the soggy grass. The players were still following the ball and as they lumbered closer, sounding like a herd of cattle, she closed her eyes expecting them to fall over them. The expected disaster never happened as they continued running down the field. She opened her eyes to see his staring down at her. They were green like emeralds and intense with concern. She had never seen a color like them on anything but a cat.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
She took in a breath, surprised to find that nothing was sore. “I don’t think so.” Her voice came out sounding winded.
He leaned over her as he ran a hand over her ribcage, and up over her breast. She gasped as he pressed, no doubt looking for injury, but her nipple tightened beneath his touch just the same and her blood warmed in a way that was unseemly. She sucked in a hard breath. “Excuse me!”
“You are hurt.”
“No!” She wrenched his hand away.
His brow furrowed, flummoxed by her outrage. “No?”
Perhaps he hadn’t realized that he had all but fondled her breast with his pawing. She took in another breath and managed to speak in a calmer tone. “I am uninjured.” She attempted to sit up as embarrassment began to creep in, but she was stuck beneath the weight of his thigh over hers—his very large, very solid thigh. In fact, his entire body seemed very large and very solid above her. She ought to feel more put out, but suddenly she didn’t quite mind lying here like this beneath him.
“Let me help you up,” he said just as she was becoming accustomed to his attentions. Removing himself from her, he offered her his hand.
She took it, still too aware of him in a physical sense. Her heart pounded as heat suffused her cheeks. At his full height he stood nearly a head taller than her. His torso might well have been double the width of hers. Aside from a few dances she had never been this close to a man before, and certainly not one so attractive.
“You might watch where you’re going next time.” She was struggling to catch her breath as if she were the one who had run across the field. Her hand shook when she took it back, so she wiped at the blades of grass stuck to her bodice to hide the tremble. His hands followed, helping her wipe them away and sending her nerve endings teetering wildly.
Before she could gather herself to protest—which might have taken a while considering a very real part of her was enjoying the attention—he said, “You might have stayed off the pitch.”
His words cut through the havoc within her. “I wasn’t on the pitch. I was off to the side. Your friend, Briggs, was outside of the boundary.”
“You play association football, do you?” His gaze narrowed in obvious irritation.
“No, but every game has a boundary line. I was outside of yours.” She turned to indicate that fact, but there didn’t actually seem to be a line designating any boundary.
His brow rose dubiously.
“Are you blaming me for the fact that you ran me over?” she asked.
His lips tightened in what might have been a suppressed grin. “No, of course not.”
“Good.” She wiped at her skirt.
He walked the few steps necessary to pick up her journal and umbrella, handing them back to her. After she took them, he scraped his hair out of his face, sending rivulets of water running down his cheeks. She couldn’t help but watch one make its way to his mouth where it slid smoothly over his bottom lip.
“Perhaps the next time you see the ball and an entire team of men coming toward you, you might consider removing yourself from the field of play.”
There was a spark of humor in his eyes that somehow softened his words. The result was that she felt mildly annoyed but greatly intrigued. “Perhaps you might consider keeping your ball and your men on the pitch.”
He smiled, but only for a second before someone called out, “Dev!” and his head swiveled in that direction.
He sobered a bit, the spark of mirth dying out as he glanced toward Camille and Eliza who were hurrying toward them before asking, “You’re an American, are you?”
Damn. She’d forgotten all about not talking to anyone. “Yes, I’m visiting friends.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

New to wealth and to London high society, American heiress Cora Dove discovers that with the right man, marriage might not be such an inconvenience after all. . . .

Cora Dove and her sisters’ questionable legitimacy has been the lifelong subject of New York’s gossipmongers and a continual stain on their father’s reputation. So when the girls each receive a generous, guilt-induced dowry from their dying grandmother, the sly Mr. Hathaway vows to release their funds only if Cora and her sisters can procure suitable husbands—far from New York. For Cora, England is a fresh start. She has no delusions of love, but a husband who will respect her independence? That’s an earl worth fighting for.

Enter: Leopold Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, a no-nonsense member of Parliament whose plan to pass a Public Health bill that would provide clean water to the working class requires the backing of a wealthy wife. He just never expected to crave Cora’s touch or yearn to hear her thoughts on his campaign—or to discover that his seemingly perfect bride protects so many secrets…

But secrets have a way of bubbling to the surface, and Devonworth has a few of his own. With their pasts laid bare and Cora’s budding passion for women’s rights taking a dangerous turn, they’ll learn the true cost of losing their heart to a stranger—and that love is worth any price.
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Meet the Author:

Harper St. George grew up in the rural backwoods of Alabama and the northwest Florida coast where her love of history began. She now makes her home in the Atlanta area writing historical fiction romance set in various time periods from the Viking Era to the Gilded Age. Her novels have been translated into ten languages.
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