Spotlight & Giveaway: Willful Depravity by Ingrid Hahn

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Ingrid Hahn to HJ!

Hi Ingrid and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Willful Depravity!

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

W is for: What a marquess does with his you-know-what
I is for: Inspired, which is what Giles—an artist—is by Patience
L is for: Linseed oil
L is for: Library, where Patience first experiences carnal delights with Giles
F is for: Could have been for fornication, but fornication is a given, so I will say feline…one big ol’ ratter of a tomcat plays a small but important role, notably in what the epilogue reveals
U is for: Under him, which is where Patience likes to be positioned relative to Giles
L is for: Lust

D is for: Desire
E is for: Erotic
P is for: Poldark, a show I like to watch
R is for: Risk, which is what I took writing this book
A is for: Ashcroft, our willfully depraved hero
V is for: The heroine’s mystery initial
I is for: Instagram, where a modern-day Patience would happily be tagging her gorgeous selfies with #effyourbeautystandards
T is for: Temperance, a character trait that Patience has but Giles lacks
Y is for: Ye olde romance booke forbears, which Willful Depravity and Ingrid Hahn humbly and gratefully acknowledge, while stepping into a new age of continuing to represent a more diverse people and body types.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Since the first chapter is easily available on Amazon and the Entangled website, I’m going to cheat and give the first lines of chapter two, where we meet our intrepid hero…

The moment Giles Warrington Hale, Marquess of Ashcroft,
had seen this exquisite creature across the ballroom, he’d
gone hard. She was the sort of woman he lusted after. She
was perfect, actually. A vision from his dreams.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I have an art history background and dug into some enjoyable research for this story, none of which appears in the book.
• I very nearly never “cast” my characters with an actor or model, Patience Emery being the notable exception. I cast a Tess Holliday & Ashley Graham love child as my Patience.
• In the book, Giles has dark hair. I don’t know why because I imagine him with light hair.
• I include something about death in almost all of my books. In To Covet a Lady’s Heart, a death-related thing is the heroine’s grand gesture to the hero—which I won’t spoil here. In To Seduce a Lady’s Heart, the hero was proud and honored to have been present for his violin teacher’s death. Lady of the Crescent Moon is an unadulterated gothic set in 17th century France, so, you know…death stuff. In Willful Depravity, Giles has a nice memory of going to cemeteries to sketch alone without being totally alone.
• Because I wanted a scene that was sexy and intimate without being sex, I imagined Giles painting vines and swirls on Patience’s body…with glitter paint. Think how beautiful that would be by candlelight. Without any idea of whether it would work, I gave myself extreme creative license and made up an egg white and crushed mica “paint.” This is fiction and supposed to be fun; why not? It turned out to be one of my very favorite scenes out of all I’ve ever written.

Was there a scene in this book that was harder to write than others?

The book flowed relatively well, but I agonized all the way through. I felt a lot of responsibility for my heroine, Patience, and getting her and her love story right. First, she had to find a happy partnership with a man who loved her for her, not because or in spite of her weight. He had to be madly attracted to her and think her the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, but not fetishize her body. I had to include some of the realities of nasty people being ugly to her about her weight, but not make the story about her weight. She can’t have been sitting around waiting for a man to complete her any more than any heroine (I wouldn’t want to read that any more than I’d want to write it), nor could she only find value in herself only after a man found her attractive—extra tricky because Giles is artist and wants to paint her, so she’s subjecting herself to the male gaze (which she finds totally hot). I hope I did justice to her, to the story, and to Giles.

That said, I’m going to throw in a random sample I particularly like…when Giles is in the first throws of lust-at-first-sight:

She was young, unmarried, and, by her own admission, significantly lower than him by birth. Not the sort with whom he usually dallied. He’d planned to leave her alone.
That was, until she’d smiled. Instantly, he’d known he couldn’t merely admire her from afar. Her sparkling eyes had set the depths of his crooked heart alight. What a surprise to discover that sensation to be jealousy. It wasn’t entirely pleasant, either. It was, however, strong and clear. Without doubt, her smile should have been for him and him alone.
Giles had to meet her. Not later. Now. Tonight. Had to coax that smile from her lips himself—a smile brighter than the sun.
He was under orders from his sire to find the host of tonight’s ball and request an introduction to Lord and Lady Munge and their daughter, Lady Sophie. Giles had only relented tonight in order to be able to tell his father he’d been nothing less than the shining example of a dutiful son. He had no intention of marrying a woman his father selected.
Then he’d seen this woman. Abasing himself to play the dutiful son had instantly lost all its dubious charm. Instinct had taken over. Unable to help himself, he’d followed her. He had to see her for himself. To see if she was as beautiful up close as she had been across the room.
He’d meant to ask her for nothing more shocking than a dance. But when she’d slipped onto the terrace, he’d paused. The unguarded expression she’d worn had been weary and defeated. It was the wrong time for an intrusion, and he’d set his selfish whim aside. Almost. He’d turned around, intending to leave the terrace and allow her privacy, when those three horrid little girls had appeared.
When Miss Patience Emery had unsheathed her tongue on them, Giles had known then and there he had to —- her. Or die trying.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 

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

A big smile, a happy sigh, and crippling despair that the book is finished. Plus lots and lots and lots of orgasms and good memories to kindle more.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: An e-copy of Willful Depravity by Ingrid Hahn.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Have you ever or would you ever pose nude as an artist’s model?

 
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Book Info:

Giles Warrington Hale, Marquess of Ashcroft, was born to do two things. Paint and rut. But lately, nobody but Miss Patience Emery has inspired him. The moment he sees her, he knows he must paint her and have her– anywhere and everywhere.

After a lifetime of trying to appear smaller, Patience no longer cares what anyone thinks. She’s resigned herself to a life having a man in her dreams only. But when the mysterious Lord Ashcroft approaches her with a chance to act on her bold, scandalous, and depraved desires, she suddenly sees her opportunity to indulge in every wicked fantasy she’s ever had…

Note: This erotic romance features a BBW heroine and a scandalous hero.
 
 

Meet the Author:

Ingrid Hahn is a failed administrative assistant with a BA in art history. Her love of reading has turned her mortgage payment into a book storage fee, which makes her the friend who you never want to ask you for help moving. Originally from Seattle, she now lives in the metropolitan DC area with her ship-nerd husband, two small sons, and four opinionated cats. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves knitting, theater, nature walks, travel, history, and is a hopelessly devoted fan of Jane Austen.

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