Today I'm leaving the blog in the capable hands of talented romance author Virginie Marconato. Welcome, Virginie! Wedded To Her Golden Knight is my latest release, and my first friends to lovers romance. The theme of unrequited love was one I have wanted to explore for a while and from that starting point Sebastian and Catriona’s story came out easily. It is set in the middle of the Hundred Year’s War, at a time when luck was favouring the English. My hero takes part in the famous Battle of Agincourt in October 1415, which was a resounding victory for Henry V of England, who annihilated the French troops despite being vastly outnumbered. Sebastian will find that war is not the glorious enterprise he imagined. Although that opinion is perhaps representative of what we think today, I cannot help but think that people would have considered such massacres just as horrific as we do. Why focusing on the 14th and 15th centuries for my historical romances? Quite simply, because I have always been drawn to the Middle Ages. I don’t really know why. It could have been the Egyptians, or the Romans or the French revolutionaries who captured my imagination but for some reason I can’t explain, as soon as the teacher started to talk about this particular conflict, I was hooked. I imagined myself as a henin-wearing lady staring into the distance as her valiant knight rode away to war. This image never left me and is always at the forefront of my mind when I start a new book. Ironically, being French myself, I ended up married to a British man. It pleases me to prove, six hundred years later, that our two nations don’t have to hate each other! I have written three other books set during the Hundred Years War and two during the War of the Roses, all set in England. You can find them on Amazon. Thank you for giving my books a chance! Friends becoming lovers in the middle of the Hundred Years War. Catriona has been in love with Sebastian all her life. But the rakish future Earl of Whitley has eyes for every woman – except his best friend. Then one day, against all odds, he proposes to her to save her from marriage to a man who scares her. Or so she thinks… It will come as a bitter blow to realise that he only did so to gain back his inheritance. Can a woman deeply in love with her husband accept the fact that she has only been married to be used as a brooding mare? What will it take for Sebastian to realise that what he feels for his wife is love of the deepest kind? His departure for war will precipitate them into a whirlwind of self-discovery and when secrets are revealed, Catriona and Sebastian will have no choice but to accept what they cannot change. Excerpt: Damn the girl! How dare she meddle where she had no business to? He should make her pay for her impudence, accede to her request to kiss her. He allowed himself a smile. Let us see how long it would be until she admitted that she had bitten off more than she could chew and ran away in fright. The idea made him choke on a laugh. Catriona had probably never kissed anyone before and she might literally bite and chew at his mouth. Her kisses would never compare with Arabella’s expert ones, she might even draw blood if he wasn’t careful. The laugh he had tried to contain escaped his throat at the thought. When Sebastian laughed the sound pushed Catriona over the edge. He had called her a child and now he was laughing at the idea of kissing her, as if such a thing was too ludicrous to even contemplate. She could not countenance it. The man she loved saw her as a twelve-year old girl. Well, he was about to see how wrong he was. With a cry of frustration she launched herself at him, aiming for his mouth. It was not easy, as he was much taller than she was and in her outrage, she misjudged it. Sebastian, utterly unprepared for the assault, staggered backwards and tripped on a rock. They both fell to the floor, Catriona landing on top of him, panting in surprise and fright. She was unhurt, he had cushioned her fall most efficiently, but for a long moment she stared at him in mortification. Dear. Not the best start. “What the devil do you think you’re doing?” he exclaimed at length, sounding winded by the fall, and not a little annoyed. “Giving you no choice. Now you are going to have to kiss me, or I won’t let you get back up.” The blue eyes widened. “You won’t let me get back up?” he said slowly, as if that was the most ludicrous thing he had ever heard. “No. Not unless you kiss me first,” she said boldly, feeling both daring and deliciously vulnerable. “Cat, I’m quickly running out of patience and I’m still aroused from my encounter with Arabella. Are you certain you want to tease me?” “Certain.” All she heard was a grunt. Then there was a sudden jerk and, without understanding just quite how Sebastian had managed it, she found herself with her back onto the floor, pinned under a hard masculine body. “My dear little Catriona. No one makes me do something I do not want to do. I thought you knew me well enough to have realised that by now.” His lips curled into the hint of a smile. “And now I would very much like to see you get up. I think we can both agree that it was not exactly difficult for me to overcome you. The reverse might not be quite as straight forward I’m afraid.” The smile he had been fighting bloomed on his lips. “But I’d love to see you try.” Catriona knew she had no chance of lifting him off and she refused to humiliate herself by even trying. Besides, she did not want push him off, rather the opposite. The heat of his body against hers was sending her senses into a wild tangle. It was the first time they had touched thus, so intimately, like lovers. It was intoxicating, delicious. Why on earth would she want to put an end to the moment? She could tell he was careful to keep most of his weight off her despite his annoyance and as a consequence she could experience the pleasure of the contact without the inconvenience of having to fight for her every breath. She lay there, breathing heavily with a mixture of apprehension and barely controlled desire. Her breasts were straining against his chest, one of his legs was lying between hers. Feeling him so close to her was creating havoc within her body, filling her mind with all sorts of lewd thoughts. She licked her lips and the light in his eyes changed. Suddenly Catriona was not so sure she was in a position of weakness. Sebastian had strength on his side but she had… something else, something she could not quite identify but which seemed to keep him firmly under her spell. Available at Amazon. ![]() About the Author: I think I became a writer the day I decided to write a (very bad, shamefully close to the real story) version of White Fang when aged nine or ten! As for the Middle Ages I fell in love with it at school during a history lesson, then Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood put its final seal on it all. A girl of twelve then, I never recovered!
8 Comments
Virginie Marconato
8/9/2022 00:01:50
Thank you for having me Anastasia!
Reply
Anastasia
8/9/2022 11:42:50
Thank you for your beautiful post, Virginie! I'm enjoying Wedded to Her Golden Knight and look forward to reading all your books!
Reply
8/9/2022 07:56:06
Loved the excerpt! As a history major in college, I was always fascinated by the English wars. This looks like a marvelous read.
Reply
Virginie
8/9/2022 10:26:01
Thank you, I’d be glad to gear what you thought if you do read it!
Reply
Anastasia
8/9/2022 11:43:29
I'm enjoying it tremendously! Thanks so much for stopping by, Kim!
Reply
8/9/2022 13:29:13
Your novel sounds amazing. I love historical novels and just finished one for TWRP's Wylder West series. Leaning something about a bygone era while getting lost in a romance is the best!
Reply
8/10/2022 05:15:11
A lovely excerpt, and how nice you're doing your part to keep that war in abeyance by marrying an Englishman! :-)
Reply
Virginie
8/10/2022 06:30:32
A Welshman, if you please! ;)
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Romance!It's no secret that I prefer fat HEAs. Where better than in a beautiful romance? Archives
January 2025
Categories
All
NewsletterFrom me to you with a smile. Thank you!You have successfully joined our subscriber list. |