Author Interview and giveaway: Gina Concle

Today's interview is with Gina Concle. There is 2 giveaways here.

Welcome!

1. Welcome to my blog. Could you tell us about yourself?

Gina: Hi, thanks for inviting me to be part of your blog. I love where you live (from your pictures on twitter).

I write Viking and Georgian romance because I love those eras of history  - specifically the end of the Viking Age and the middle Georgian period. I’m a wife and mom (of two teen boys) and some time organic gardener.

2. Also tell us about your new book, Meet the Earl at midnight.

Gina: Meet the Earl at Midnight gives a Georgian spin on Beauty and the Beast only this ”beast,” Edward thinks life is fine as is. He needs a wife and Lydia needs help – a midnight bargain is struck. Distracting chemistry and troubling secrets soon change their course.

I wrote the book to take a break from the Vikings and Edward kept showing up in my head. Before long I knee deep into Edward and Lydia’s story and having a lot of fun with it.

3. As most go for regency, what made you write Georgian romance?

Gina: I see Georgian England as gritty with a veneer of refinement. The mid-1700s were pivotal with inventions and the Canal craze. The Bow Street runners were founded in 1749, and there were changes with the colonies and the middle class. 

You could say Georgian England is to the Regency period what America’s Wild West was to the Gilded Age.  In all of the Midnight Meetings series there’s only one (maybe a second) ballroom scene, and they’re not dazzling. There’s more cocky Bow Street runners, pretty mid-town coffee shop girls, middle class Royal Exchange traders, and flirtatious mantua makers than dukes and earls in this series.

4. Tell us 3 things about Lydia?

Gina: Passionate self-taught artist, favors bold colors, likes Scotch now and then

5. And 3 things about Edward?

Gina: Brilliant, lives a world of science and books, driven crazy with Lydia getting him out of his head and into his body with sex

6. Last, what are you working on now?

Gina: I’m working on dual series – Midnight Meetings (Georgian romance) and the Norse series (Viking romance). The Lady Meets Her Match, book 2 in the Midnight Meetings series, releases April, 2015. Book 2 tells the tale of Cyrus, a self-made man dubbed England’s King of Commerce. Cyrus meets a mysterious woman named Claire at a masked ball and sparks fly. She flees at midnight, leaving behind a common brown shoe. He hunts for her, but what happens when his Cinderella doesn’t want her shoe back?

At the same time I’m deep into Norse Fire, book 2 in my Norse series out December, 2014. This story features Brand a rough-souled, lone wolf warrior who must work with a feisty slave to save the kingdom. Then book 3, Norse Wolf, tells the story of Addis, a bad boy Viking who finds himself at the mercy of a tender-hearted healer, Gisla (out March, 2015).

Thanks!

And now to the Giveaway. First mine.
1 copy of The Earl at Midnight

1. Open to the US and Canada
2. Ends May 24th
3. Just tell me in the comments if you enter for this one :)

And then to Gina's

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MEET THE EARL AT MIDNIGHT BY GINA CONKLE – IN STORES MAY 2014

The Phantom of London. Enigma Earl. The Greenwich Recluse.

Half of his face, shadowed by gold and brown whiskers, showed male perfection, but the other half, a bizarre pattern of scar lines and puckered flesh. Truly, staring at his face was akin to seeing a painting of two men, split down the middle. Lydia recoiled as much from the hot anger flashing in his eyes as from astonishment.

HE’S A MYSTERIOUS RECLUSE… 

Lord Greenwich is notoriously elusive. His tendency to hide his face in public and refusal to appear in London Society have even earned him some choice monikers, including “the Phantom of London.” Is he disfigured? Mad? Hiding something? With a reputation like that, no woman wants to get near the dark earl. And no one is more surprised than Miss Lydia Montgomery when she is betrothed to the earl in order to save her family from penury. But if Lydia wants a chance at happiness, she’ll have to set aside her fear of Lord Greenwich and discover the man hiding behind the beastly reputation…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

GINA CONKLE, a history nerd to the core, loves castles and museums. Her motto: “the older and moldier, the better.” When not enjoying relics, she lives in the present, dabbling in organic gardening. Gina married her favorite alpha male, Brian. The two live with their boys in San Diego, CA. Learn more at www.ginaconkle.com, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GinaConkleWriter, and on Twitter, @ginaconkle.

To Purchase Meet the Earl at Midnight:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Books-a-Million

Chapters/Indigo

IndieBound

iBooks

Sourcebooks

Early review: Meet the Earl at Midnight - Gina Conkle

It's going to take a Beast to tame this Beauty 

Enigma Earl. The Phantom of London. That's what the gossip pages call Lord Edward Greenwich, a mysterious nobleman who doesn't show his face in London Society. With a reputation like that, no wonder Lydia Montgomery is horrified to be dragged from bed and packed off to live with him to save her mother from penury.

While Lydia has received all of the training a lady should endure, she's decidedly un-ladylike. She despises her corset and isn't interested in marriage. She'd prefer to remain unmarried and spend her time improving her art. But if she wants a chance at happiness, she'll have to set aside her fear of the earl and discover the man hiding behind the beast.

Will Edward and Lydia's greatest discovery be each other before time runs out?

My thoughts:

It's not often I come across a hero like this. Half his face normal, the other side filled with scars. He does not want to go out in society, he can't get anyone to marry him. He just sits at home.

There is our story, he needs a woman and an heir. Luckily he finds Lydia, a spinster, an artist, a woman who says what she wants. But a woman who needs to save her family. While Edward is a scientist and now a recluse, and I liked him. And I sure wanted Lydia to save him, for him to move on, for them to be happy.

Most of the book, and then I mean most takes place in his house. It really is about them getting to know each other. I liked that as when they spent so much time together I believed them falling in love.

Conclusion:

A nice romantic tale.

Cover

I guess it's the other side of the face that scares people

Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages
Expected publication: May 6th 2014 by Sourcebooks Casablanca (first published January 1st 2014)
Midnight Meetings #1
Historical romance
for review