One Naughty Night2 (39 page)
And then, stick around. Because Mallory’s two Chocoholics-in-crime partners, Amy and Grace, get their own love stories in July and August with
At Last
and then
Forever and a Day.
Happy Reading!
http://www.facebook.com/jillshalvis
Dear Reader,
Ah, June! Love is in the air, and it’s the time for weddings and romance. With KISS THE BRIDE, you get two romantic books in one,
There Goes the Bride
and
Once Smitten, Twice Shy.
Both stories are filled with brides, bouquets, and those devastatingly handsome grooms. But best friends Delaney and Tish go through a lot of ups and downs on their path to happily ever after.
For those of you hoping for a June wedding of your
own, how do you tell if your guy is ready for commitment? He might be ready to pop the question if…
- Instead of saying “I” when making future plans, he starts saying “we.”
- He gives you his ATM pass code.
- He takes you on vacation with his family.
- Out of the blue, your best friend asks your ring size.
- He sells his sports car/motorcycle and says he’s outgrown that juvenile phase of his life.
- He opens a gold card to get a higher spending limit—say, to pay for a honeymoon.
- When you get a wedding invitation in the mail, he doesn’t groan but instead asks where the bride and groom got the invitations printed.
- He starts remembering to leave the toilet seat down.
- When poker night with the guys rolls around, he says he’d rather stay home and watch
The Wedding Planner
with you. - He becomes your dad’s best golfing buddy
I hope you enjoy KISS THE BRIDE.
Happy reading,
Facebook
http://facebook.com/lori.wilde
Twitter @LoriWilde
Dear Reader,
When I was about eight years old, someone gave me a picture book called
Life in Victorian England.
I lost the book in a move years ago, but I still remember the gorgeous watercolor illustrations. Ladies in brightly colored hoopskirts and men in frock coats and top hats doing things like walking in the park, ice-skating at Christmas, and dancing in ballrooms. I was completely hooked on this magical world called “the Victorian Age” and couldn’t get enough of it! I read stuff like
Jane Eyre,
Little Women,
and
Bleak House,
watched every movie where there was the potential for bonnets, and drove my parents crazy by saying all the time, “Well, in the Victorian age it was like this…”
As I got older and started to study history in a more serious way, I found that beneath this pretty and proper facade was something far darker. Darker—and a lot more interesting. There was a flourishing underworld in Victorian England, all the more intense for being well hidden and suppressed. Prostitution, theft, and the drug trade expanded, and London was bursting at the seams thanks to changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The theater and the visual arts were taking on a new life. Even Queen Victoria was not exactly the prissy sourpuss everyone thinks she was. (She and Albert had nine children, after all—and enjoyed making them!)
I’ve always wanted to set a story in these Victorian
years, with the juxtaposition of what’s seen on the surface and what is really going on underneath. But I never came up with just the right characters for this complex setting. The inspiration came (as it so often does for me, don’t laugh) from clothes. I was watching my DVD of
Young Victoria
for about the fifth time, and when the coronation ball scene came on, I thought, “I really want a heroine who could wear a gown just like that…”
And Lily St. Claire popped into my head and brought along her whole family of Victorian underworld rakes. I had to run and get out my notebook to write down everything Lily had to tell me. I loved her from that first minute—a woman who created a glamorous life for herself from a childhood on the streets of the London slums. A tough, independent woman (with gorgeous clothes, of course) who thinks she doesn’t need anyone—until she meets this absolutely yummy son a duke. Too bad his family is the St. Claire family’s old enemy…
I hope you enjoy the adventures of Lily and Aidan as much as I have. It was so much fun to spend some time in Victorian London. Look for more St. Claire trouble to come.
In the meantime, visit my website at
http://laurelmckee.net
for more info on the characters and the history behind the book.
From Mary St. Claire Huntington’s Diary
A Preview of
Two Sinful Secrets
Praise for Laurel McKee’s The Daughters of Erin Trilogy
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Laurel McKee
Excerpt from
Two Sinful Secrets
copyright © 2012 by Laurel McKee
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Forever
Hachette Book Group
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First e-book edition: May 2012
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
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ISBN 978-1-4555-1051-1
