Exclusive interview with author Katharine Ashe and a review of her new historical romance
Rating: 4 stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“For years I’d wanted to write a story about a man and a woman who believe they are unquestionably wrong for each other but who, from the moment they meet, can’t keep their hands off each other,” says When a Scot Loves a Lady author Katharine Ashe. “It happens sometimes, that chemical explosion that crashes two people together physically…and it can be Earth-shattering.”
In When a Scot Loves a Lady, Lady Katherine Savege is trapped by a storm in a country village. Leam, the Earl of Blackwood, is stuck in the same village. A member of the secret Falcon Club, he’s come home to Scotland after many years in London. He takes notice of Katherine and is tempted by her. Little does he know that someone is after him and he will need Kitty’s help to survive.
This is the first novel in a new series called The Falcon Club. Katharine Ashe’s characters are well defined and the plot is strong. There is action, excitement and danger. The tension she draws out in the story will keep you reading. The story is sensual as well.
“As soon as I’d come up with their romantic dynamic, I knew right away what I had to do with the plot,” says Ashe. “Trap them somewhere from which they couldn’t easily escape, not at least until they began to see the truth of things. A snowstorm and a tiny country village seemed deliciously suitable, and ideally scandalous for characters from Regency-era high society.”
Heroine Kitty Savege was the sister of the pirate-earl in Ashe’s previous novel Captured by a Rogue Lord. “She’d been hurt as a young woman by a very bad man, and I wanted her to finally find happiness with a very good man,” says Ashe. “But the walls around her heart needed a powerful force to be knocked down. Unwanted, uncontrollable lust turned out to be that force. Just because Kitty thinks she and the Earl of Blackwood have nothing in common doesn’t mean they actually don’t. I loved playing with their consternation over their desire, and their absolute unwillingness to admit to something a whole lot bigger.”
Ashe, who’s a professor of history at Duke University, says she didn’t look at archive documents while researching this book. She did read published works, especially poetry. “For years I’ve been reading history books about the Scots and the role they played in building the British Empire. My hero, Leam Blackwood, owns an estate near Edinburgh. So when I started researching When a Scot Loves a Lady, I focused on Lowland Scotland and its landscape and culture. Then I visited, and I fell in love. It is a breathtaking land, both ancient and modern, and rugged and beautiful. And the people were wonderful…welcoming, generous, funny, intelligent, and kind.”
Ashe is one of Avon Romance’s spokeswomen in a campaign to raise awareness about ovarian cancer. “It was a wonderful and heartbreaking experience for me, carrying information about this quick, whispering killer to women all over the country, and hearing the stories of loved ones lost and, less frequently, battles won.” Proceeds from the sale of the seven books in the campaign, including Ashe’s last book, In the Arms of a Marquess, went to the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance for research and support for families affected by the disease.
When a Scot Loves a Lady has yet to be optioned to be adapted for film or television. Ashe is currently reading proofs of How to Be a Proper Lady, the second book in her new series. That releases June 26th. She’s putting finishing touches on book three, How a Lady Weds a Rogue, coming September 25th.
Ashe is on a book promotion tour for When a Scot Loves a Lady during March and April. Her appearance schedule is at www.katherineashe.co/extras.php.
Ashe lives in central North Carolina. She was born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
When a Scot Loves a Lady by Katharine Ashe. Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages, Publisher: Avon; Original edition (February 28, 2012), Language: English, ISBN 9780062031662
