I have the book so don't need to be entered. I love Christmas books, Grace, because if they are done well, Christmas is actually a character--the main character! That is, the story would not work at any other season. It is the spirit of Christmas that seals the love of the two main characters. You do it well! I loved Sophie's Christmas story as well as Louisa's.
I am delighted that so far you all agree with me that beta males can make great heroes. Not all the time, of course--I could not give up creating alpha heroes like my Duke of Tresham, and I would hate not to be able to read about them either. But variety is the spice of good romance reading as well as of life. Thank you for your comments.
Thank you all for the lovely comments. I have noted, though, that readers who are not from the U.S. are feeling a bit left out by the competition. Let me offer amends. Leave a message here, leave the same message in a private post in the guest book at my web site ( www.marybalogh.com ) with your postal address, and I'll make a drawing tomorrow, May 5, for a signed copy of the book. Note that this offer is open only to NON-U.S readers. And good luck, everyone, with the draws!
I am turning off for tonight--will check again in the morning. But thank you all for your responses and comments. This has been interesting. Good luck to all in the book draw!
Stefanie, tell people you read love stories--"you know, like PRIDE AND PREJUDICE or THE NOTEBOOK." People take Jane Austen seriously and male writers of love stories, especially the ones with unhappy endings. That makes them gritty and REAL!! And of course, they never end up in the romance section of a bookstore but in the real fiction section. But if we line up with books like that, some people who never read romance will get the message. "Oh, LOVE stories!" As if they had never made the connection between love and romance.
What lovely comments everyone is making. Thank you. And Mallori. I never watch reality shows, or much else on television for that matter except Jeopardy and some sports. So I am not qualified to comment. It's hard to narrow down the requirements for an enduring relationship to one predominant one, but since you are twisting my arm to do just that, I would have to say trust. And I don't mean just trusting each other not to have affairs on the side. I mean the total trust that allows each partner to bare their soul and know they will be understood, sympathized with, helped, and accepted. The sort of trust in which you can fall backward into the other's arms and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will be caught and not end up on the floor with a cracked skull.
Ah, a very timely comment. And what a glorious thing to say: "She makes me feel the love in the silences between her characters." In today's quota of the new book (Constantine's story) that I have just finished writing, Con and his heroine have been sharing silence. She has been teaching him that most silences are not truly silent (and would be undesirable, even frightening, if they were) but are filled with birdsong and insect chirpings and the rustling of leaves and grass and the distant mooing of cows, etc. (assuming one is in the outdoors and in the countryside as they are, of course). And it becomes an eureka moment in their love story.
Yes, it's funny, isn't it, that love is one of the most used and least understood words in the English language. But that very fact perhaps proves how very much love pervades our lives in all its many guises, both trivial and profound. And finding the right word for its most profound manifestation is impossible because love transcends language and, therefore, definition. It's frustrating, but it inspires our poetry and our religions and our souls. Oh, and my stories!
Thank you all for the comments. Carrie, that is a question I get asked a lot--why are the last two books of the quintet in hardcover? Actually, the more relevant question would be why the first three were in paperback. For the last few years Dell has been publishing me in hardcover first and then paper a year later. But because I was ahead of myself when this quintet was planned and was willing to work even harder for a while, I suggested that the first three books be published one after the other in paperback before the usual routine resumed. Dell was willing, but then they decided to publish SEDUCING AN ANGEL in hardcover RIGHT after the first three. I had to put motors on my wrists to get four books written in time! I am just coming up to the three-quarter mark on the writing of TAMING THE DEVIL.
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