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Today I interview Anne Cleeland and there is a giveaway at the end :)
Welcome!
1. Who is Anne Cleeland?
I’m a mild-mannered research attorney, so I suppose you could say that technically, I’ve always made my living by writing— but instead of fiction I wrote dry-as-dust legal briefs (adverbs and adjectives strictly prohibited.) I love reading, and so I decided one day to try my hand at writing the kind of stories I love to read. My favorite stories are about ordinary women swept up in extraordinary events, so that’s what I like to write.
2. Could you tell me about your new book, Tainted Angel?
Tainted Angel is the first book in a series that I like to call “Regency Adventure,” even though technically there is no such subgenre. The story is basically a Regency version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The heroine is an agent for the Crown, but her spymaster suspects she is “tainted”—a double agent working for Napoleon. Her love interest has his own dark secrets—unless his affection is feigned and he is actually setting a trap to reveal her own treason. The story offers up a compelling game of cat and mouse, as the attraction between the two spies becomes more powerful than their mutual distrust—and the fate of the world hangs in the balance
3. What was the inspiration behind this book?
I’ve always loved the Regency era and it’s a great time period for storytelling, with so many possibilities to choose from. In this series, the year is 1814, and Napoleon is exiled on the Island of Elba after having surrendered for the first time. However, he’s about to escape and try to conquer the world again, and so the enemy is trying to gather together enough money and treasure to fund the next war. Each of the stories features British agents who are battling French agents behind the scenes in order to thwart this treasure hunt. In Tainted Angel, the heroine is supposed to be trying to discover who is stealing shipments of gold that are slated for Wellington’s army—until, that is, she realizes that she is suspected of treason, and the net starts tightening around her.
4. What more can we expect from this series?
Daughter of the God-King is the next book in the series, coming out in November. Also set in 1814, it is about a heroine who travels to Egypt after her famous archeologist parents disappear, only to discover that various factions from the last war are desperate to find her—for reasons that are unclear. She begins to suspect that her love interest is not what he seems, and she doesn’t know whether she can trust him, or trust no one as she uncovers one devastating secret after the other, all while the next war looms on the horizon.
In The Bengal Bridegift, the heroine has grown up in India because her father was a sea captain for the East India Company—unless he wasn’t, and was instead a traitor to the Crown. Meanwhile, the enemy believes she knows where her father hid a cache of diamonds disguised as her bridegift, and they are in ruthless pursuit of her and of this imagined treasure. Her love interest is a former Barbary pirate, who may or may not be after the diamonds himself.
5. And now to a tricky one, tell me which books you love most in the world ;)
I love a wide variety of books but in particular I enjoy the Regency period—Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and Tracy Grant. I also love mysteries and adventure—I was a big fan of Agatha Christie and Edgar Rice Burroughs growing up—so this series combines all those elements into Regency adventure stories.
Thanks so much for allowing me this opportunity; I hope your readers enjoy Tainted Angel, now available at Amazon or in a Barnes & Noble near you.
GIVEAWAY
1 copy of Tainted Angel
1. US and Canada only
2. Ends June 16th
3. Just enter :D
