That’s
the one thing that all romance novels have to have in common, isn’t it? The
ultimate goal is for the two lead characters to end up together, no matter what
subgenre their tale is set in. The reader won’t be satisfied unless the
characters they’ve invested their time and emotion into get their happy ending
in defiance of the obstacles that are in their way; and it’s those obstacles
that make the story.
Can
you imagine reading a romance novel where the two characters get together and
resolve all their issues in Chapter One? There would be none of the tension or
delicious anticipation that a true tale of romance needs in order to draw in
the reader and bring them along on the journey. That journey by definition
cannot be an easy one, for if it was then the story wouldn’t intrigue the
reader.
The conflicts that make the story a success and keep
the reader’s interest need to come from two directions – internal and external.
Simply put, the things keeping them apart need to be both their own internal doubts and fears holding them
back, whilst at the same time external
forces are working to make it difficult for them to be together.
In
The Falcon’s Chase, Reuben and Ari must face those issues in abundance. Both of them have personal issues that they
must deal with; for Reuben, it’s the prosthetic arm he wears. Though the
nanorobots that control it make it physically superior to the flesh and bone it
replaced, it’s a constant reminder of a terrible and painful secret in his past.
He detests it, for not only does it force him to remember all that he’d rather
forget, he also believes it makes him less than other men; less attractive, and
less worthy.
Ari
has just as many troubles of her own. All she does is driven by her soul-deep need
for the independence that has been denied to her all her life. The only child
of the Admiral of the British Navy, she has been treated as nothing more than a
possession by her father. Her wants and needs have been ignored since she was a
small child, and now she has sacrificed everything in order to win the freedom
she craves. She hasn’t done so simply to fall straight under the control of
another man; and with that consuming her, the thought of submitting to all she
feels for the captain of the Falcon is near unbearable.
Even
if Reuben and Ari can manage to deal with those obstacles, though, circling
around them is a disaster waiting to happen, inextricably tangled around them
both in ways they could never have imagined. The families they both fled from draw them back to the very last place they
would ever want to be, and the enormity of the truth they discover there dwarfs
all else that has come before.
It
might sound formulaic and cliché, but the key to writing a successful romance
is to stick to such time-honoured elements that have been proven to work from
the days of fairytales, through to the era of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and
then right up to the here and now.
***
Kate Monroe is a redheaded author and editor who lives in a quiet and
inspirational corner of southern England. She has penchants for classic sci-fi,
horror and loud guitars, and a fatal weakness for red wine. Her interests in
writing range from horror to erotica, taking in historical romance, steampunk
and tales of the paranormal on the way; whatever she dreamed about the night
before is liable to find its way onto the page in some form or another…
Kate has had short stories published in numerous anthologies including
works by Sirens Call Publications, Cruentus Libri Press, Rainstorm Press and
Angelic Knight Press. The Falcon's Chase is her debut full-length novel.
***
The Falcon’s Chase
Captain
Reuben Costello is just hours away from facing his execution when the
unlikeliest of rescuers storms into his cell. Lady Arianne Dalton needs the
assistance of the infamous Black Swan to flee England and all its constraints.
He finds himself more than willing to help the fiercely independent Ari in
exchange for his freedom.
However,
when they come to find their fates inextricably tangled in a plot that
threatens the very foundations of British society, they are swept away on a
chase that puts not only their lives, but their hearts at risk - and neither of
them can defy the wild and stormy ride they find upon the Falcon.
Author:
Kate Monroe
Publisher:
Pink Pepper Press
Number
of Pages: 298 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0615695662
ISBN-10: 0615695663
Release Date: October 5, 2012
***
Links for Purchase:
***
The Falcon’s Chase Excerpt:
Chapter One
London, 1861
Reuben
Costello knew that he had tried a hundred times to wrench the unyielding iron
bars of his prison cell apart, but he could not resist the urge to try just
once more. However hard he tugged, though, they withstood even the inhuman
amount of force that his prosthetic arm applied to them, just as they had so
many times before.
He
delivered a furious kick to the bars that had him inescapably trapped as his
dark eyes settled upon the copper plated arm that he wore like a badge of
honour. Meticulously bonded to the living flesh it clung to, it was just as
responsive and more effective than the arm of muscles and bones that had
existed in its place for the first eleven years of his life; but though he had
worn it for twenty years now and it had served him well for all of those, the
sight of it still filled him with a bitter and resentful disgust.
Even
that painful emotion, though, could not distract him for more than a few
moments. Far more pressing was the grim awareness that with every second that
passed, sunrise drew nearer, and with it would come his execution. Reuben had
lived a far from blameless life, always dancing along the thin, blurred line that
separated the pursuits of an ordinary merchant and the more interesting
activities that he liked to indulge in.
Betrayed
to Her Majesty's Royal Navy after a dalliance with the pirates that roamed the
Red Sea proved too irresistible for his mercenary side to ignore, Reuben had
been captured and dragged to the infamous Tower of London. It had taken no less
than a dozen captains to bring him in. Had he been aboard his ship when they
attacked, he had no doubt that they would not have succeeded.
Reuben
had not been aboard the Falcon, though. Instead, he had been spending the night
with his latest mistress - and when she had brazenly lounged back on the bed
with a cigarillo between her perfect red lips and laughed loudly as they
dragged him away, he had silently cursed his propensity for choosing his
bedmates based on looks alone.
That,
it seemed, was not a mistake he would have the chance to ever make again.
Though his crime was nowhere as severe as it should be to warrant execution,
that was the sentence that had inexplicably been passed. Time was rapidly
slipping away from him and much to his disgust, it was becoming clear that
there would be no escape from the harsh fate that awaited him.
He
sank down to the cold, grimy cobbles that lined his dungeon cell and affixed a
menacing scowl to his face for the sole benefit of any gaolers that should
happen to parade past his cell with their looks of disdain and taunts about the
noose that was so soon to be claiming his neck in the hangman's embrace. Soon,
light footsteps heralded the approach of just such a person.
Reuben
snatched upon the only amusement that would be his on this last lonely night of
life. He wrapped his fingers around the hateful bars of his cell and knelt
down, drawing back his thin lips to expose the gleaming teeth beneath as he
deliberately allowed a low, ominous growl to rise up from the pit of his
stomach and echo around the confines of the dungeon.
He
squinted into the dimly-lit gloom as the footsteps quickened and caught sight
of a distinct shape emerging from the putrid darkness. Far shorter than any of
the guards he had become accustomed to - he would estimate that the top of
their head would not even reach his shoulder - and dressed all in black, the
person reached into their pocket and extracted what was undoubtedly, from the
jangling sound of metal against metal, a bunch of heavy brass keys.
Reuben's
eyes narrowed as they quickly swept across the newcomer appraisingly. Their
head was bowed low, concealed from his gaze by the shadow of the black cap atop
it, and a full-length greatcoat enveloped their body and skimmed across their
ankles to reveal tight-fitting breeches and laced leather boots.
Everything
about the clothing that they wore screamed of masculinity, but an incredulous
suspicion was rising inside him that it was no man that stood before him. The
slender fingers that were now fumbling with the keys were pale and unblemished,
as far removed from the rough and calloused hands of the gaolers as it was
possible to be. As they unlocked the door and hastily slammed it shut behind
them, the shape of a second person stepped out of the shadows in the corridor.
“I
shall stay at the end of the corridor to stand guard, then - just shout if you
need me, ma'am.” They were dismissed with a jerk of the head and an irritable
wave of the delicate hand that had unlocked the door.
Even
if those intriguing words had not made it plain that it was a woman now locked
in the cell with him, any remaining doubt he might have had was extinguished
when he inhaled sharply and a delicate scent that had wafted in with the
newcomer danced around his senses, teasing and tantalising him with its faint
notes of jasmine and gardenia. It was a scent that was intrinsically and
undeniably feminine in origin.
Reuben
swallowed hard, for a woman's appearance in his cell could mean only one thing.
He let loose a soft groan. He had been alone in his cell for over a month now
and the company of a woman was perhaps the only thing that might make him able
to forget his imminent execution. With a deep, primal hunger raging inside him,
he stared at her intently as she slowly pulled away her cap to reveal the face
of the woman that had come to offer him the scant comfort she could provide.
“Ah!
You are to be this condemned man's last meal, I presume?” Reuben's low voice
was hoarse, for the instant that she had removed her cap and revealed herself
to him, he had been consumed by such a forceful throb of aching desire that he
knew he had to have her, prostitute or not. Not even pausing to think upon the
surprising and uncharacteristic generosity that his gaolers had shown in
sending such a rare beauty to him on the eve of his execution, he roughly
backed her up against the stone walls of the cell.
Her
soulful eyes widened and her lips parted, but before she could speak Reuben
devoted himself to the far from unpalatable task at hand. If this was to be the
last woman he would take before his execution then, he thought wryly, it was
fitting that she was by far the loveliest he had ever had in his arms, despite
her manly attire - attire that he intended to waste no time in stripping away
from her shapely form.
He
shook his tangled, jet black braids back out of his face, lowered his head and
laid forceful, triumphant claim to her wonderfully soft and pliant lips,
already dizzy with the strength of his desperate yearning for her. Reuben
slipped one hand behind her head to caress the delicate nape of her neck and
hold her in place as his fingers wound through the silken curls of hair
escaping the tight bun attempting to restrain them, his arousal rapidly
spiralling out of control as he pushed himself up against her to mould himself
against every feminine contour of her body.
He
forced his prosthetic arm between their bodies to reach for the intricate buttons
of her greatcoat and tugged them apart with such force that they ripped free of
the fabric, but even that was not enough to persuade him to break the kiss.
Never before had a mere kiss managed to arouse him with such ferocity. Perhaps
it was the adrenalin pounding through his body in anticipation of his death
intensifying all that he felt, but Reuben had never craved any woman as much as
he did this one.
As
his fingers insistently moved between their bodies to seek out the fastenings
of her shirt, though, brushing against the agonisingly tempting curve of her
high, full breasts as they did so, she twisted her head to the side with a loud
and rasping cry. “What in God's name do you think that you are doing, sir?!”
Reuben
arched one dark eyebrow incredulously as he fought for breath and ruthlessly
kept her pinned up against the wall. “I thought that was more than obvious! I
was beginning to avail myself of all the pleasures that your sweet mouth had to
offer to me. Is that not why you came here?”
“No!” Rage burned in her wide, darkened
eyes as she struggled desperately to free herself of his hold. “Good God, I am
no...no...” She trailed off, blushing hotly as a small smile began to quirk
back the corner of his lips.
“Prostitute?”
Reuben offered mildly, his anger at being interrupted fading away in the face
of her evident reaction to his proximity - a reaction that it seemed she was
not simply falsifying for the sake of her wages.
“Indeed
I am not!”
Her
curt denial seemed genuine, much to his bemusement. As he allowed his fingers
to work their way underneath the shirt she wore to caress the bare skin he
found beneath, he tilted his head to the side. “But I don't understand - how
did you get in here if you are not a prostitute, little lady?”
Her
flush deepened but her lips twitched with what could only be irritation as she
plunged one hand into her pocket and extracted a furled piece of parchment. She
unravelled it and thrust it at him contemptuously. “Admiral Dalton's seal tends
to open any door that happens to be in one's way.”
“Admiral
Dalton signed an order for my release?”
“No,
but I am very adept at forging my father's signature; I am Lady Arianne Dalton.
My friends call me Ari, but you may call me milady - and you can let me go
now!”
