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Never Wager Against Love by Maureen Driscoll

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel

 

Never_Wager_Against_LoveNever Wager Against Love by Maureen Driscoll

ASIN: B007PX6I10

Release: May 2012

Source: I received a copy of this book from the author to read and review

 

 

When Arthur Kellington was fifteen, a Romany fortune teller predicted that his true love would be killed. Since then, he’s resolved to never fall in love. He has no trouble keeping his resolution until he meets Vanessa Gans, an agent with the Home Office who is on the trail of two hardened criminals. As he finds himself falling for her, he must keep his distance emotionally as the only way to protect them both.

 

Despite her illegitimate birth, Vanessa Gans has worked her way up to being one of the Crown’s finest agents. She’s reluctant to accept Arthur’s help initially because she doesn’t want to place him in danger. Then she realizes her heart is truly at risk because there can be no honorable future between them.

 

NEVER WAGER AGAINST LOVE is a romantic tale of bravery, sacrifice and love. It contains explicit language. The earlier books in the series were NEVER MISS A CHANCE (Book 2) and NEVER A MISTRESS, NO LONGER A MAID (Book 1), which USA TODAY’S HAPPILY EVER AFTER blog called “enjoyable, suspenseful and satisfying.”

 

 

Never Wager Against Love is the 3rd book that I’ve read by Maureen Driscoll in her Kellington series.  This is a wonderful series about the members of the Kellington siblings – their trials and their loves.  This family is now headed by the eldest brother Liam, now that their parents are gone.  Liam is a wonderful big brother – a disciplinarian when necessary, but a guiding light for his siblings.  I look forward to his story as we are getting glimpses of it as we read through the series.  He apparently is book 5, so I have a bit to wait!  I have read Edward’s story in the first book, Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid (and loved it) and I’ve read Lizzie’s story in Never Miss A Chance (was cheering out loud while reading that one!) and now we come to Authur’s story, appropriately named Never Wager Against Love.

 

As you find out from the blurb above, Arthur found out at an early age that his true love would be killed,  The gypsy that told him this was rarely wrong, but encouraged him to live his life regardless.  As would happen, he decided to never fall in love.  This decision was easy to keep until he runs into Vanessa Gans.  Vanessa is an agent of the home office whom we meet at the end of the first book when she is tracking some criminals and she was the woman for Arthur.  She annoyed him, she didn’t listen to him like a proper lady would, and she could ride and shoot better than him. Their interaction through the first part of the story was delightful and had me smiling and chuckling.  Arthur was determined not to be outdone by a mere woman.

Never Wager Against Love is available on Amazon

My blogging philosophy – do you agree??

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Happy Monday everyone!

I have an unexpected day free!

I thought I’d take the opportunity to just chat about blogging and stuff!  I was at a conference a few weeks ago and we  had several discussions about blogging philosophy.  These conversations got me thinking about the direction I want this blog to go in.

I started this blog for two main reasons:

1) the technological challenge

2) to write down my thoughts on books that I’ve read

 

I didn’t aspire to be a writer, in fact, I’ve never aspired to be a writer.  I am a reader, a voracious reader.  I am never without a book close at hand.  I can remember reading a post shortly after I started this blog about someone who received free books in the mail.  I thought to myself – that will never happen to me.  Holy cow, has it happened to me!  I have a TBR pile that numbers in the multiple hundreds and I have had to close to reviews to try to catch up.  The reality is that I can’t possibly read all the books that I have been offered.

Books

This made me realize exactly how many authors there are out there that have books that need at least a little voice.  In fact, if it wasn’t for this blog, I wouldn’t have met some wonderful authors like Maureen Driscoll, Norah Wilson, or Virna DePaul.  I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to read some of the best stories that I’ve read in my life!  Feel free to drop by and say hi to these wonderful women….and read their books!!

Frankly, before this blog, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to read something that didn’t come out of a New York Publishing house.  If I couldn’t buy it at a bookstore or Walmart or the grocery store, I didn’t read it.  I didn’t have any sort of an ereader and I preferred to be able to hold the book in my hands. That has changed also!  I understand the advantages of my Nook!

I now realize that more and more book bloggers are the new gatekeepers of book promotions.  I don’t post more than once a day, but I have 7 days a week to give some publicity to some authors. I simply can’t read fast enough to post 7 reviews each week.  As a result I post about 3 reviews on average each week and then offer up the rest of the days to author interviews or promotions.  I want to use the vehicle of my blog to promote as many authors as I can.  Does it matter to me that I may not have read their books?  Not really.  I feel that everyone deserves a chance to talk about their book.  My readers are smart cookies!  I think that everyone can decide for themselves if they want to read a book that is being talked about.  They don’t need my 2 cents on every book they read!

So, have I met my original blogging objectives?  Yes! I have conquered the technology and in fact spend a good portion of each week teaching WordPress and optimization to other WordPress users.  I have had the opportunity to write down my thoughts on the books that I have read, and met so many wonderful authors.

I have discovered that my readers, like me, like romance, be it contemporary or historical or erotica, but they like romance.  When I try to promote an author from a different genre, there isn’t much interest – ie hits.  Because of this, you will see a bit of a change in the next few months.  I’ll be narrowing the focus of this blog to just adult romance.  I might as well stick with what I like!

 

Thank you to everyone who has filled out my survey – more to come on that in the next few weeks, and thank you to everyone who continues to share my enthusiasm for romance novels.

Hope you all have a great week!

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Interview with Maureen Driscoll, author of Never Miss a Chance and Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel

Today we are continuing with Maureen Driscoll.  Yesterday I posted reviews of Ms. Driscoll’s books – Never Miss a Chance and Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid.   I really enjoyed reading these two books and we are currently giving away a copy of each book.  See the post at the top of the blog to enter to win!

For now, let’s learn a bit more about Ms. Driscoll and her books!
Barb – Tell us a little about yourself.

Maureen – I grew up in Helena, Montana. It’s the home of Myrna Loy and Gary Cooper, so I am guaranteed to never ever be the most famous person from Helena, Montana. After studying journalism in college, I worked in Washington, D.C. for ten years, mostly as a press secretary in Congress. I got married, then when I went through a very painful divorce, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a writing career. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster professionally, with some great jobs (writing for Jimmy Kimmel Live when it first went on the air) and some not-so-great jobs (I wrote a few late night informercials: Call now and you’ll receive…).

Unfortunately, no kids, but I do love living in LA.

Barb – How long have you been writing?

Maureen – I’ve basically been writing in one form or another pretty much since college. I answered a Senator’s mail for two years, which taught me a lot about research. I read my first romance novel four years ago and fell in love with the genre. I wrote the first draft of NEVER A MISTRESS, NO LONGER A MAID two years ago. I had a terrific agent who sent it out. But when we finally got all the rejections, she suggested I self publish on Kindle and the Nook, which I did this past May.

Barb –  Who are your cheerleaders? Who encourages you to keep writing?

Maureen – My mom has always been my rock and so encouraging. I have great friends who keep me going. And I’ve met some wonderful people through the books. It’s been so touching to hear from readers. I had a review from Rakehell that wasn’t very favorable about either book. But in the first one, she said she was highly suspicious of all the glowing comments on Amazon. Believe me, none of the comments have been solicited. I’ve been fortunate that a lot of people have just responded to the books. It’s a dream come true that people seem to like the Kellingtons so much. Of course, I’m also someone who gets quite depressed with the negative reader comments – I hate disappointing people!

Barb – What do you love about writing?

Maureen – I love when it goes well. I’m primarily a comedy writer for TV and the Internet, so I love it when I write something that makes people laugh.

Barb – What’s the hardest part of writing a book?

Maureen – Working on the plot. I’ve been a bit stuck on this next book because I don’t want to get it wrong. I try to make myself just sit down and do it, but I always find some excuse to run to the kitchen and eat chocolate.

Barb –  Who is your favorite character in Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid? Why?

Maureen – I think I have the same favorites that a lot of people do: Liam, the duke and Rosalind his love interest. Unfortunately, their story doesn’t come to fruition until the 6th book, but you’ll get a little bit in each book until then. I really like Rosalind because she wears glasses (like I have since the 2nd grade), she’s not the prettiest girl (ditto), but she’s a great friend and has what she believes to be a case of unrequited love. Of course, the pressure will really be on once it’s time to write that book. I’ll be eating mountains of chocolate.

Barb –  What is your favorite character in Never Miss a Chance? Why?

Maureen – I really like Lizzie, but there was a character that completely snuck up on me….Edith. She’s supposed to be one of the villains of the piece, but I ended up really liking her.

Barb –  I loved the heroines in both your books. Did you plan to have such strong and unique-for-their-time characters or did it just evolve that way?

Maureen – Thank you, I like them, too! I really like strong women. Some of the harshest – and most deserved – reviews have been that I made them both too modern. Which I very much understand. But I like that they went up against the standards of the time. My mom has always been really strong – she had to be as a single mom with two kids. I definitely like that character type.

Barb –  What is the hardest type of scene for you to write?

Maureen – I always wonder if I’m crossing the line with the love scenes. In August of this year, I had my 30th high school reunion. At the closing night banquet, they posted one of the racier scenes on an overhead projector and now I have a new most embarrassing moment from high school. It was all in good fun. But I definitely blushed.

Barb –  Do you have to do alot of research on historical details before/during your writing?

Maureen – I read the great book What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool, and read numerous online articles. I should’ve done more research, and am doing a lot more for the third book since it involves travel across England and geography is always my weak point in all areas of life. But part of it was just being a voracious reader of Regency novels. There was one detail that was 100% out of a different era that no one probably even cares about, but I used it anyway. The part in the book about boiling hair from a horse’s tail having the unforeseen benefit of fewer infections was actually a discovery from the American Civil War. But I figured someone could’ve come across it accidentally a few decades earlier. I was once on a horrible vacation in a guest cottage where the only book to read was a 1960 edition of The History of Surgery and I geeked out on that thing. Of course, I loved how in the last chapter they said “there may be some evidence that smoking might be bad for you.” But I digress.

Barb –  What are you working on now?

Maureen – Arthur’s book. It is not going swiftly. I thought it’d be easy because I was going to base it partly on King Arthur, but that’s much harder to do than I thought it’d be, in part because Guinevere cheats on Arthur and we’ll have none of that in this book. However, there is a Lancelot type character in the book. Hal’s book is actually going to be the easiest to write. That one’s already completely mapped out.

Barb –  Where is the best place for readers to find copies of your books?

Maureen – Right now, the only places are Amazon and Barnes & Noble because they’re only e-books. But even if you don’t have a Kindle or Nook, you can download them to your computer. I wish I had hard copies of the books, but it’s just too expensive to do.

Barb –  What is the best way for readers to keep in touch with you?

Maureen – I have a Facebook page Maureen Driscoll Fan Page. I hate the title, but Maureen Driscoll is a really common name, so people were searching for me and not finding it. So I added the “Fan Page” and now it just looks like I’m a jerk. In theory I’m re-doing my blog, but that hasn’t happened yet. I’m also on Twitter but rarely update. All of those things make me reach for the chocolate.

Barb –  Anything else you’d like to add?

Maureen – I just feel very blessed by the outreach of people like you and the readers. Thank you for giving me a chance. I love romance novels and I feel very fortunate to be writing them. I wouldn’t be doing this without the kindness and encouragement of the readers. And…if it’s a dream of yours, it’s never been easier to do. If you want to write, WRITE.

I’d like to thank Maureen for not only dropping by and sharing, but offering up copies of her books for our current giveaway.  Make sure you take a few minutes and have a look at her books!

Amazon Purchase Link for Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid (Kellington Book One)

Amazon Purchase Link for Never Miss a Chance (Kellington – Book 2)