In the first line of
THE DUKE'S DISASTER, Noah Winters, Duke of Anselm, announces
to his prospective duchess and to the reader that he is not a nice man. His
offer of marriage has been turned down by the young lady heโs been courting for
months, and because the Season is drawing to a close, and Noah is a pragmatic,
unsentimental sort, he offers for that ladyโs companion.
Lady Thea Collins is well born and past the silly stage. Also pretty. Also
responsible. She really ought to be grateful for Noahโs offer.
Noah thinks he has the problem of acquiring a duchess solved, but the problem
for me as an author is that a guy who maneuvers in this fashionโโacquiringโ a
suitable, grateful duchessโreally might not be very nice. Thea has her doubts
about him, too, but sheโs running out of options, and penniless companions seem
to attract men with wandering hands and dishonorable intentions.
So my job, as an author, is prove that Noah is worth Theaโs love, though our
hero has started off on a very dubious foot.
Itโs tempting as an author to make the hero an isolated, lonely singular person,
one without support, one who must thrash, stumble, and fight his way to a
connection with heroine, because she alone gets the hero and his problems.
Nonetheless, the heroine needs a few hints that itโs worth her effort to thrash,
stumble, and fight her way into the heroโs heart.
Enter the secondary charactersโฆ. Noah has three sisters, and they all have
husbands. All six family members have relied on Noah at some delicate point in
their lives, and are ferociously loyal to and protective of him now. Noah has a
younger brother whom heโs also more or less raised, and while the dukedom is a
busy, demanding responsibility, Noah will drop everything to look after his brother.
Because of the role Noah plays in the lives of the secondary characters, Thea
begins to see that the disaster in Noahโs life isnโt that heโs married the wrong
duchess, itโs that he has the wrong impression of himself. What matters nice,
when a man is honorable, selfless, shy, loyal, and protective?
And the most lovely fun about being an author is that Thea falls in love with
Noah, precisely because โniceโ doesnโt matter a bit compared to those qualities.
Better still, Noah convinces Thea that sheโs worth protecting, worth his
loyalty, and his trust, and love.
The hero of
THE DUKE'S DISASTER is, in fact, a very nice man, if a bit
rough around the edges. I hope you enjoy reading the story of how his duchess
averts disaster for him every bit as much as I enjoyed writing it.
About THE DUKE'S DISASTER
Noah Winters, Duke of Anselm, exercises the pragmatism for which he's infamous
when his preferred choice of bride cries off, and her companion, Lady Thea
Collins, becomes his next choice for his duchess. Lady Thea's mature, sensible
and even rather attractive-what could possibly go wrong?
As a lady fallen on hard times, Thea doesn't expect tender sentiments from His
Grace, but she does wish Noah had courted her trust, lest her past turn their
hastily arranged marriage into a life of shared regrets. Is His Grace courting a
convenient wife, or a beautiful disaster?
Check out Fresh Fiction's review double
feature on THE DUKE'S DISASTER.
About Grace Burrowes
New York Times and
USA Today bestselling author
Grace
Burrowes' bestsellers include
THE HEIR,
THE
SOLDIER,
LADY MAGGIE'S SECRET SCANDAL,
LADY SOPHIE'S
CHRISTMAS WISH and
LADY EVE'S INDISCRETION.
THE HEIR
was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2010, The Soldier was a PW Best Spring
Romance of 2011,
LADY SOPHIE'S CHRISTMAS WISH won Best Historical Romance of
the Year in 2011 from RT Reviewers' Choice Awards,
LADY LOUISA'S
CHRISTMAS KNIGHT was a Library Journal Best Book of 2012, and
THE BRIDEGROOM
WORE PLAID was a PW Best Book of 2012. Her Regency romances have received
extensive praise, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist.
Grace is branching out into short stories and Scotland-set Victorian romance
with Sourcebooks. She is a practicing family law attorney and lives in rural
Maryland.
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