lenfazreads: Special Feature - How to Love a Duke in Ten Days by Kerrigan Byrne

Today this blogs features special information from How to Love a Duke in Ten Days by Kerrigan Byrne. I read this book recently and loved it. You can read my review in this post.
And here's a Q&A with the author about the book and a lovely excerpt from the first chapter.
Enjoy!

How to Love a Duke in Ten Days Blog Tour Q&A

Q: What inspired you to write How to Love a Duke in Ten Days?
A: I’ve always been one of those women who have enjoyed fierce female friendships. I think
that soulmates, even for heterosexual women, can be just as necessary with other women as
with men, and a real hero must not just love and respect you, but also your tribe. I wanted to
write a series where historical heroines could truly have it all, education, dreams, businesses,
wealth, genius, revenge, hot sex, AND true love. Where the sacrifices were made on their
behalf instead by them, and where their heroes learn to lift them up in all ways, heal their
pains, calm their fears, become their best friends, and protect them with what I hope is a great
balance between alpha hotness and progressive sensitivity.

Q: Is there one thing you would like readers to take away from this story?
A: That’s tough because I packed a lot in there! I would say the one thing from this book,
specifically, is that happiness is attainable against the odds, even when overcoming the worst
that people can do to one another. Even though I’m a grown up and a cynic, I still like to
write books that remind me that true love conquers all, because that love can come from so
many people.

Q: Can you describe your typical day writing this book?
A: This book was especially difficult for me to write, so I spent a great deal of time in my
bathrobe. I would get up, my fantastic husband would make me coffee, I’d call my critique
partner and we’d do a bit of brainstorming, and I’d write and rewrite for hours, stress, cry,
throw things, walk the dog, eat, snack, eat some more, facebook way too much, and then
finish under word count, binge a tv show or a book until I stared at the ceiling into the wee
hours. Oh, and there was drinking in there at regular intervals.
Glamorous, I know!

Q: Describe the hero and heroine of How to Love a Duke in Ten Days in three words each.
A: The Duke of Redmayne: Wary. Wounded. Wicked.
Lady Alexandra Lane: Brave. Brilliant. Beautiful.

Q: What is the one thing that the heroine, Alexandra, can’t live without?
A: She cannot live without her two dearest friends in the entire world, Miss Cecelia Teague,
and Lady Francesca Cavendish. They literally buried a body for her, and would defend her to
the death.

Q: What was your hardest scene to write in How to Love a Duke in Ten Days? Your favorite?
A: As with many (most) of my novels, the prologues are the hardest to write, and read, I
suspect. Usually I take the characters to the very edge of their breaking point, often times
pushing them over so they have what seems like insurmountable conflicts to overcome both
internally and externally. So, for this book, Alexandra’s assault was the most difficult thing
to get through, and boy did I enjoy being able to help Piers put her back together, because he
was just the perfect hero for her. Tender, empathetic, a good sense of humor, and a large dose
of protective alphaness.

Q: Why do you write historical romance?
A: I’ve always romanticized the past. I can’t help it. I love the pace and the aesthetic, the
gowns and the suits and the manners and the manors. I love to do historical research and it’s
so fun to see how much we are influenced by the past and how, even though so much has
changed through the centuries, people really haven’t. Also, it’s fun to play with language,
mystery, and sex in a time when a scandal was still possible. *wink.

Q: Is there another particular author that inspires you or that you enjoy reading?
A: There is a LIST! I would say in historical romance, though, it’s always always Lisa
Kleypas. She has a grasp on the characterization of historical folks that I can never hope to
attain. I’m just in awe of her every word.

Q: Where do you go or what resources do you use to make sure your novels are historically
correct?
A: I love to find books about a time period at B&N or my local bookshops. I go to Harper’s
Bazaar for fashion, and a slew of Victorian references for the time period. I do read blogs and
sometimes consult with historians and experts.

Q: Did you learn anything surprising while researching for this novel?
A: Many things! I learned how truly difficult it was to attain an education as a woman as
little as a hundred years ago. It’s really incredible how far we’ve come in a century.

Q: What do you do when faced with writer’s block, if you ever are?
A: Oh man. I often am. I usually try to shake it loose with a brainstorming conversation with
a few friends I have who always seem to be able to unstick me. I rely heavily on the
creativity of others as well as my own.

Q: How did you feel the first time you realized one of your books was a big success?
A: I didn’t believe it. It seems surreal every time I truly realize that a story I wrote
entertained another human. Let alone more than one. I’m like… they paid to read it? WHAT?

Q: What’s next for the Devil You Know series?
A: I’m especially excited for the next book ALL SCOT AND BOTHERED because it’s
about Alexandra’s best friend the curvy vicar’s daughter, Cecelia Teague. She inherits
London’s most infamous and successful brothel, and one imposing, surly Scottish enemy
along with it. She and Lord Ramsay, the Lord Chief Justice with an axe to grind against her
establishment, can’t be in a room together without the sparks flying. I can’t think about this
book without smiling.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A: I hope you enjoy this trio of roguish redheads as much as I enjoyed writing them!

How to Love a Duke in Ten Days Excerpt

Chapter One

Maynemouth, Devonshire, 1890 Ten years later

Alexander,

Accept the invitation to Castle Redmayne. I’m in danger. I need you. —Frank

Alexandra Lane had spent the entire train ride from London to Devonshire meticulously pondering those fourteen words for two separate reasons.

The first, she had been unable to stop fretting for Francesca, who tended to give more than the appropriate amount of context. The terse, vague note Alexandra now held was more of a warning than the message contained therein.

The second, she could no longer afford a first-class, private railcar, and had, for the last several tense hours, been forced to share her vestibule face-to-face with a rough- featured, stocky man with shoulders made for labor.

Alone.

He’d attempted polite conversation at first, which she’d rebuffed with equal civility by feigning interest in her correspondence. By now, however, they were both painfully aware she needn’t take four stops to read two letters.

It was terribly rude, she knew. Her carpetbag remained clutched in her fist the entire time, except when her hand would wander into its depths to palm the tiny pistol she always carried. The sounds of the other passengers in adjoining vestibules didn’t make her feel safer, per se.

But she knew they would hear her scream, and that provided some relief.

For a woman who’d spent a great deal of the last ten years in the company of men, she’d thought these painful moments would have relented by now.

Alas, she’d become a mistress of manipulating a situa- tion so, even if she had to endure the company of men without a female companion, there would be more than one man. In the circles she tended to frequent, people behaved when in company.

It had worked thus far.

Alexandra braced herself against the slowing of the train, breathing a silent prayer of relief that they’d finally arrived. She’d been terrified that if she’d glanced up once, she’d be forced into conversation with her unwanted companion.

Rain wept against the coach window, and the shadows of the tears painted macabre little serpents on the conflicting documents in her hands. One, a wedding invitation. The other, Francesca’s alarming note.

A month past, she’d have wagered her entire inheritance against Francesca Cavendish’s being the first of the Red Rogues to capitulate to the bonds of matrimony.

A month past, she’d assumed she’d had an inheritance to wager.

Their little society had seemed destined to live up to the promise they’d once made as young, disenchanted girls to never marry.

Until the invitation to an engagement masquerade— given by the Duke of Redmayne—had arrived the same day of her friend’s cryptic and startling note.

The invitation had been equally as ambiguous, stating that the future duchess of Redmayne would be unveiled, as it were, at the ball. Included in Alexandra’s particular envelope was a request for her to attend as a bridesmaid.

The subsequent plea for help from Francesca—Frank— had arrived in a tiny envelope with the Red Rogue seal they’d commissioned some years prior.

Alexandra hadn’t even known Francesca had returned from her romps about the Continent. Last she’d heard, the countess had been in Morocco, doing reconnaissance of some sort. Nothing in her letters had mentioned a suitor. Not a serious one, in any case. Certainly not a duke.