Today I’m taking part in the blog tour for Never Rescue A Rogue. I’m sharing a guest post written by the author with thanks to Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me on the blog tour and to Virginia Heath for writing her guest post!

Blurb:

Why on earth would she want to kiss him when he vexed her so?

Diana Merriwell and Giles Sinclair only tolerate one another for the sake of their nearest and dearest. Everyone believes that they are meant to be together, but Diana and Giles know that it is animosity, not attraction, that fuels their barbed exchanges. Anyway, Diana loves her freedom too much to give it up for marriage, and Giles is happily wedded to his bachelor lifestyle.

After Giles’ curmudgeonly father, the Duke of Harpenden, unexpectedly turns up his toes, it’s only a matter of time before the circumstances of his only son’s birth are revealed. With the threat of blackmail hanging over him, Giles must uncover the truth, or he and all those who depend on him will be ruined.

As Giles and Diana dive into his family’s past, the attraction that they insisted wasn’t there proves impossible to ignore. It seems that the future of the Sinclair estate isn’t the only thing on the line . . .

Guest Post:

Never Rescue a Rogue is a regency romantic comedy caper where two people who like to think they hate one another, when everyone else thinks they are perfect for one another, have to team up to solve a mystery before time runs out. But while they do, the attraction that they both keen to deny proves too strong to ignore and soon the sparks neither want fly. Diana and Giles are frenemies who love to banter and both are too quick witted for their own good.

Although it’s the second book in my Merriwell Sisters series, like all my books it can be read as a standalone as I hate reading a book that makes no sense because I haven’t read book one. This is a self-contained story which requires no prior knowledge to enjoy.

 The inspiration for Never Rescue a Rogue began the second I put Diana and Giles together in the first book of the series—Never Fall for Your Fiancée. I’m not a plotter, I tend to see the story I am writing like a film in my head and their chemistry was instant. So instant I knew I had to thrust them together for their own romantic comedy.

When I came to write it, London and the entire UK were in lockdown thanks to the pandemic, and my husband and I saw nobody except each other for almost the duration. So when we did our nightly dog walks after our working days were done, the twists and turns of Diana and Giles’ relationship and quest to find the truth before the bad guys did was one of the only topics of conversation. Their lives were certainly more interesting than ours were at that time and in a funny sort of way they became real to us.

Bizarrely, because it features quite a bit in the story, I also had a constant craving for shortbread as I wrote it!

For Giles, the attraction for Diana was instant. He not only finds her physically appealing but also admires her clever brain, sharp tongue and dogged determination to live her life the way she wants to live it. However, thanks to some dangerous rattling skeletons in his past he is resigned to never marrying and knew she was the forever kind so kept her at arms’ length. For Diana, her romantic feelings for him build more gradually. Especially once circumstances allow her to see past the mischievous, flirty façade Giles presents to the world to the noble, resourceful and often sensitive soul who lurks beneath.

Obviously, like Never Fall for Your Fiancée, the 1^st book in my Merriwell Sisters series, Never Rescue a Rogue is an ensemble piece, filled with many of the meddlesome family members readers previously loved. However, as you would expect from a new and standalone story, there are some new ones too. The most memorable has to be Dalton, the hero’s one-legged butler. I do love a quirky butler, and I’ve written quite a few over the years, but Dalton is in a league of his own. He also plays a major role in getting Diana and Giles to acknowledge the unthinkable—their unwelcome attraction to one another!

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Never Rescue A Rogue is available from Amazon.