A Warriner to Tempt Her + Giveaway



A shy innocent wary of all men…
 
After a shocking incident, shy Lady Isabella Beaumont is perfectly happy to stay in the background and let her sister get all the attention from handsome suitors! However, working with Dr. Joseph Warriner to help the sick and needy pushes her closer to a man than she’s ever been before. Is this man worth trusting with her deepest of desires…?


Is your book part of a series / standalone? It is part of The Wild Warriners series but can be read as a standalone

Are there any possible trigger warnings that bloggers/readers need to be aware of? I don’t think so. It tackles mental health issues in the 19th century and there is a smallpox epidemic.


Buy link: http://myBook.to/Warriner3

About Virginia Heath
When Virginia Heath was a little girl it took her ages to fall asleep, so she made up stories in her head to help pass the time while she was staring at the ceiling. As she got older, the stories became more complicated, sometimes taking weeks to get to the happy ending. Then one day, she decided to embrace the insomnia and start writing them down. Fortunately, the lovely people at Harlequin took pity on her and decided to publish her romances, but it still takes her forever to fall asleep.




Hi and thanks for inviting me to Cheryl’s Book Nook!

What I love most about writing and reading romance is watching the hero and heroine fight the obvious attraction that exists between them. In my latest book, A Warriner to Tempt Her, my heroine Bella fights her attraction to the handsome and brilliant Dr Joe Warriner more than most. Thanks to a horrific incident in her past she is terrified and wary of men- aide from the gorgeous doctor of course. Ever since Bella first began volunteering in the infirmary at the children’s home, the pair of them have been thrust together. Something about Joe makes the usual panic disappear and she finds herself not only relaxing around him but enjoying both learning from him and spending time with him. But there is another complication which stands in the path of true love. Joe has asked to court her sister Clarissa…

 

Extract:

Bella was doing her best to look engaged, despite the fact she didn’t give two figs about the glorious society of the capital or the opulence of the grand entertainments in comparison to this minuscule little affair. Clarissa’s admirers hadn’t noticed. Next to her sister Bella was largely invisible. Always had been, but now that Joe preferred Clarissa, blending into the wallpaper had rather lost much of its appeal.

He had yet to make an appearance. The entire Warriner clan were in attendance, all bar the handsome doctor who had wormed his way into her heart and then stamped on it without realising, and in a show of public solidarity both her parents were laughing and joking amongst them. Jake had sought her out over an hour ago and gone to great pains to reassure her that Joe would arrive, just as soon as he had finished with a last-minute visit to a patient. Why he had chosen to single her out, rather than Clarissa, and quite what his reassuring undertone was meant to mean, she couldn’t say. Unless Joe had set his brother straight about the kiss he had witnessed and now the youngest Warriner pitied her as well. Uncharitably, Bella hoped Joe had been called to a birth and that the babe would be reluctant to be born until the Beaumont carriage was whisking Bella and her decidedly more beautiful sister home.

‘Stop gazing winsomely at the door,’ her sister whispered from behind her fan, ‘He’ll arrive when he arrives and it will be good for him to see you chatting to other men.’

‘I’m not sure what you mean.’ Although her cheeks were probably already giving her away as Bella realised she had been staring winsomely at the door.

‘Really? Then I suppose I’ve also imagined the sighing and the sulking? I must be mistaken. You are clearly not waiting for a certain dashing young physician to burst through those doors and sweep you off your feet.’

‘I do not regard Dr Warriner in that way at all, Clarissa! Ours is a professional relationship based on our mutual interests in medical science…’

‘Poppycock. You have always been a shocking liar, Bella, and a terrible actress.’

‘I am not lying!’ Bella turned her back on the dance floor to spare displaying her blotchy and glowing blush to all and sundry and tried to make her outraged hiss sound less hiss-like. ‘I have no romantic designs on him or any other man. Just because I am finally returning to my old self doesn’t mean I am ready for any of that nonsense, thank you very much. It will be years until I’m ready to consider a beau, if at all. In fact, I’m quite wedded to spinsterhood. A husband would only get in the way of my medical studies, and now that Papa has finally agreed I can dedicate time to science I am reluctant to consider anything else.’ By the end of the monologue, Bella was reasonably proud of how convincing she had sounded. Clarissa simply regarded her blankly.

‘I see.’

She plainly didn’t. ‘Dr Warriner is a friend. A colleague. That is the full extent of our relationship.’

‘Then you won’t care that he has just arrived and is currently striding in your direction.’

Pride made Bella stiffen her shoulders. If he was striding anywhere, then it was in the direction of her sister, the Beaumont whose face was not as red as a ripe summer strawberry. Perhaps she could scurry away in a manner convincing enough to make everyone think she urgently needed the retiring room? Because her silly body could sense him, and was heating with awareness, while her stupid face decided to spontaneously combust, but escaping now was out of the question. Far too obvious. Far too much like defeat.

‘Why, Dr Warriner! How lovely to see you again.’ Clarissa slid her arm around Bella’s in case she bolted and pulled her close, forcing her to face him. ‘We had quite despaired of you ever arriving. Didn’t we, Bella?’

‘Good evening, Dr Warriner.’

Floor, open and swallow me now.

‘I trust you are well.’

‘Yes. I am well.’ His hair was mussed. No doubt as a result of driving his curricle too fast. ‘Good evening ladies.’ His eyes locked with Bella’s with such intensity, it made her more nervous. She couldn’t tell what the odd look meant. The optimistic and deluded real her inside hoped it was something to do with the intense feelings he had miraculously developed for her since he had asked her father to court Clarissa. The pragmatic scholar realised it was probably doctorly concern for her unnaturally high colour tinged with pity for her poor addled mind. Because only the most pathetic of individuals would have to resort to begging for their first kiss in the interests of science.

‘We are most well, although peeved that neither of us is dancing.’ Clarissa’s voice was filled with mischief. ‘When I can clearly hear the first bars of the waltz.’ Bella found herself shoved forward a few inches and was mortified.

His eyes darted from hers to her sister’s, then slowly returned again. ‘Lady Isabella—Bella—would you do me the honour of dancing with me?’

And now he was being polite and solicitous because Clarissa had forced his hand both saddened and enraged her in equal measure. Bella opened her mouth to curtly decline, only to find herself propelled further forward by her sister. ‘She would love to…
 

 

Guest post by Virginia Heath

I’ve always loved reading a series. It means I don’t have to say goodbye to characters I’ve become attached to because they pop up in other books and give you a warm, fuzzy glow when you see them. I assumed that was how I would feel when it came to writing my first series, and to begin with that was true. My four Wild Warriner brothers first took shape in A Warriner to Protect Her and from the outset I adored them all.

The eldest Jack, the responsible one, sacrificing his own happiness and working himself into the ground for the sake of his younger siblings. The surly Jamie, fresh back from war and broken inside and out. The studious Joe, too generously-natured for his own good and desperate to be a doctor. The charming and frivolous Jake, a rake in training at the tender age of twenty. Each Warriner had their own distinct character in that first book and as I wrote the end on one, I was desperate to begin writing the first chapter of the next.

It took a year to write all four books. Jack and Jamie’s stories came out in the Summer of 2017, so I already knew as I was writing this third book- A Warriner to Tempt Her- that readers loved my dark-haired, bright-blue-eyed boys as much as I did. That made writing the third book easier in some ways and very difficult in others. What if I had peaked too soon and the next instalment didn’t do my heroes justice? In the end, like all my books, the characters told me what was going to happen, and I’m delighted with the end result.

However, after the initial flurry of excitement at starting the final story- A Warriner to Seduce Her which comes out in May- my writing stalled. Not writer’s block exactly, but a reluctance to finish the book from the midway point. The story was there in my head but I couldn’t muster the energy to type the words into my keyboard. This was an odd and new experience for me. It took a few weeks to work out what was wrong. It wasn’t that the story was bad or that I’d lost my mojo, it was simply the unconscious fear of saying goodbye to the four gorgeous men who had occupied twelve glorious months in my imagination and taken root in my heart. I realised I was going to miss those Warriner boys too much to let them go.

Fortunately, I came up with the perfect solution when I resurrected two characters from another book Her Enemy at the Altar and plopped them front and centre into my Christmas book His Mistletoe Wager. Why say goodbye at all? They were my characters and I could do what I wanted with them. I can recycle them whenever I want. They could turn up as friends, guests at a ball or as distant family members! I didn’t need to say goodbye, merely see you later.

That’s why the start of my second series- The King’s Elite- picks up exactly where Warriner four left off, and a couple of Warriners are there, waving in the background. I’ve decided that’s how I’ll keep things going forward. Not goodbye, but goodbye for now. Until we meet again…

 

 
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