New Review: Pamela Clare’s RIDE THE FIRE – Exciting Story of Love on the American Frontier!

This is the third in the Blakewell/Kenleigh family trilogy, set in the 1760s, a time when the frontier was a wild place with Indians seeking to kill or torture white men who were taking over the Indians’ land. Nicholas Kenleigh (oldest son of Cassie and Alec from book 1), served George Washington against the French, but was never the same after being captured and tortured by the Wyandot tribe.

Uncomfortable with the trappings of civilization, Nicholas lives his life as a lone trapper. One day he stumbles into a farm on the edge of the Ohio frontier, wounded and needing help.

Elspeth (“Bethie”) Stewart, a widow and pregnant with her first child, tends Nicholas’ wounds but she is wary of him, particularly since she was abused by her stepfather and stepbrother and fears men. While Nicholas is sleeping, she hides his weapons and ties him to her bed.

Alone on the frontier, Bethie must rely upon Nicholas to help her, even to deliver her child. The longer Nicholas stays, the more enamored he becomes with her. And then the Wyandot show up…

A great story from American’s frontier days with a brave heroine who overcomes her difficult background to triumph and a worthy hero who stands by her side. Clare vividly portrays the issues the settlers faced as they tried to survive. She has done much historical research into the times and it’s reflected in the story. This is a well written story with some exciting scenes as Nicholas and Bethie fight to defeat a band of warrior Indians—more than once. A solid finale to a great trilogy.

Blakewell/Kenleigh family trilogy:

Sweet Release, set in 1730, Cassie Blakewell and Alec Kenleigh
Carnal Gift, set in 1754, Jamie Blakewell
Ride the Fire, set in 1763, Nicholas Kenleigh

New Review: Pamela Clare’s CARNAL GIFT: Wonderful Irish Love Story

This is the second in Clare’s Blakewell/Kenleigh Family trilogy and it’s a good one.

Set in Ireland (and some in England) in 1751 (prologue), 1754 and 1756 (epilogue), it tells the story of Jamie Blakewell (brother to Cassie in SWEET RELEASE), an Englishman with a tobacco plantation in the Colony of Virginia, who has returned to England to try and persuade Parliament to provide money for ships to defeat the French and their Indian allies in the war that has just begun.

To help Jamie with the House of Lords, he seeks the aid of a friend from Oxford days, Sheffield, Lord Byerly, whose lands lay in Ireland. On a hunt in Ireland, they come across some Irish Catholics illegally observing their faith while conducting a child’s funeral. Among them is 18-year-old Brighid whose beauty catches Jamie’s eye. While debauched Sheff would kill the priest and throw the rest in prison, Jamie argues for their lives. Without his knowing it, while Sheff appears to release them, he actually plans to kill the priest and take Brighid as a gift for Jamie. But Jamie is of noble heart and when Brighid is brought to him against her will, he only pretends to have his way with her.

Clare weaves a complex tale that puts us in the heart of the Irish-English conflict in Ireland and the persecution the Catholics faced. She creates some wonderful characters who will live long in our hearts. She also gives us a picture of what brought people to America and the blending of the classes in the New World.

It’s a wonderful love story and I highly recommend it.

Blakewell/Kenleigh family trilogy:

Sweet Release, set in 1730, Cassie Blakewell and Alec Kenleigh
Carnal Gift, set in 1754, Jamie Blakewell
Ride the Fire, set in 1763, Nicholas Kenleigh

New Review: Pamela Clare’s SWEET RELEASE – 1st in a great trilogy set in America before the Revolutionary War

This is the first in Clare's Blakewell/Kenleigh family trilogy--stories set in the 1730s to 1760s in the American Colonies in a time when farms dominated the landscape. Eventually they were replaced in the South by growing plantations. It's also a period when colonists came to see themselves as Americans, distinct from the English.

This first story tells of Alec Kenleigh, head of an English shipbuilding empire, who was beaten and thrown aboard a ship transporting criminals to the colonies as indentured servants. Alex wakes up in the Virginia Colony with no idea who is behind this. He has a derelict brother and an angry ex-mistress but he can’t see either of them doing something as horrible as this.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, he is told his name is Cole Braden, a convict convicted of ravishing women, and his 14-year contract has been purchased by Cassie Blakewell, a young woman left in charge of her family’s plantation by her father who is in England. When Alec heals, she realizes the half dead convict is a very handsome man, one who claims to be a wealthy Englishman.

Alec is desperate to get home to London and his shipping enterprise, but he is attracted to Cassie to whom he has vowed to serve until his name is cleared.

Clare has created a wonderful story of life in the colonies with some exciting scenes and some worthy characters. The love scenes are very sensual as Cassie and Alec find they are unable to resist each other. Cassie is a strong woman determined to make it on her own; Alex is an intelligent hero who believes he can rise above this to return to the life he once had. Both will be wrong.

Included in the action is a suspenseful murder trial when Alec’s life is on the line. I recommend this one and the others in the trilogy, which I'll review in days to come.

Blakewell/Kenleigh family trilogy:

[Note: the author has changed the second book to add material in her new eBook edition. I read the paperbacks.]

Sweet Release, set in 1730, Cassie Blakewell and Alec Kenleigh
Carnal Gift, set in 1754, Jamie Blakewell
Ride the Fire, set in 1763, Nicholas Kenleigh

Gifted Cover Artist, Author and Photographer Lynn Sanders!

I am so pleased to have with me today Lynn Sanders, the gifted cover artist who, with her partner Cherif Fortin, has produced commercial art and photography for clients around the world.

Lynn is an award-winning photographer who began her career as a photo retouch artist and hand-colorist of black and white prints.

In an effort to create the feeling she admired in the work of the old world masters, Lynn pioneered an innovative mixed media technique drawing from an ancient oil-glazing process once used to augment religious iconography. Her efforts resulted in a unique procedure whereby she applied layer upon layer of oil and lacquer to a photograph, creating a work highly luminous and suggestive of the style seen in masterpieces of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood during the late 1800's.

Lynn has three adult children, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild, and lives in northern Illinois.

Not surprisingly, Lynn's art has graced the covers of many romance novels--including one of my own,  my new medieval romance, The Red Wolf’s Prize. And you might note that Cherif is the Red Wolf!

The Interview: 
    

       When did you first begin working with Cherif? How did it happen?

 

My family and I attended the Schaumburg Medieval Times dinner show back in 1993. Cherif was champion knight that evening for our section. The show was great, all the knights were wonderful. I thought I would be polite and go up to our knight (Cherif) and thank him for the wonderful show.

Being a professional photographer for many years I have worked with many models and good-looking people, but I was taken aback at just how beautiful he was. Green eyes, beautiful mouth. Good teeth, a mane of hair that framed a perfectly symmetrical face. (Sounds like I was checking out a racehorse, I know). 

I asked if he needed modeling comp pictures. He was receptive and very easy to talk to. We hit it off right away. I gave him my card and left with my group. I really didn’t expect to hear from him, but two weeks later he called the studio and made an appointment. We did a shoot of about 50 images. 

I couldn’t take a bad picture of him. He won every photographic competition I entered him in. As time went on, and other people and agencies wanted him to do work for them, he realized being the classic male model was not the direction he wanted to go.

Lynn & Cherif shortly after they met

An image that was taken a few weeks later confirmed my thought that we could get his face on the covers of romance novels. He was easy to direct. 

We were trying for more dramatic poses.  I placed him by a window and he had a sword his hand down on one knee wounded. We had dribbled some fake blood from one lip and he was in place for the dying scene. His head was down and I said “Cherif give me pain in your eyes.” He and I laughed because that is one of the cheesy lines a lot of directors use. I watched him tighten in the shoulders his hand formed in a fist. He slowly lifted his head and looked right into the camera. His jaw clenched, his eyes glistened and a vein popped up in his forehead. 

I said to myself, Oh my God. Click.

Passion's Blood

That image led to our writing Passion’s Blood, a book that grew out of the images, rather than the other way around.



Regan: The cover is gorgeous, Lynn. 

So that my followers can see the other images, I've also included your video trailer below, which is also amazing.

Both of you are photographers, illustrators and writers…that’s amazing to me. How do your skills complement each other?

Based on one of Cherif’s doodles, I knew he was artistic. I was running a photographic background business at the time in addition to the studio. I created huge backdrops for the photographic community. I needed help with that business or I was going to close it down. I told him that I would offer him a partnership if he was up to hard work and travel to the conventions. He took to it like a duck to water. I was the background lady and he was to join the company. He can paint the prettiest roses you ever did see.

The photography was just natural for him. I taught him some of the old posing techniques that have been somewhat lost in today’s candid society. When we do the final paintings he’s more precise than I am. I have a little more abstract side. We work off each other’s eye. It makes for a good combination.

The writing just evolved. He is a very strong writer. We used to write on the airplane when we were traveling to the photographic conventions.  I would write a page the he would pick up story and do a page. I loved romance and mush and he like blood and gore. He would invariably kill off my hero in his pages and I had to think of a way to bring him back.

What are your favorite projects—what gives you the greatest satisfaction?

I like this one with a mask…

I have loved doing the covers for other authors. We did several for Virginia Henley, including A Year and a Day and A Woman of Passion. 
 

A Year and a Day

 

A Woman of Passion

Working with Heather Graham on There be Dragons was especially fun.

I know that when you and I were working together, Lynn, you were very patient with my many requests for changes. What’s the hardest thing about “getting it right”?

Probably getting in sync with the author’s vision. The period, expression, whether it’s to be a series or not. There are many ways to tackle a problem. It sometime clicks right away and other times it takes some re-tries. Stock photography is an image that is pretty much what you see is what you get. That is the least expensive way to go for an author. Then we go into light custom up to major changes.  A commissioned image is most expensive

because everything is custom. Costumes must be rented, the models employed, locations to be traveled to, etc.

How has your work changed over time? How do you see it changing in future?

I think we have gotten better. Practice makes perfect you know. If you want to get good just keep at it.

Digital photography and the computer has changed everything. It has speeded up things. We sometimes don’t even hand paint the images now. It’s kind of a shame not to have the oil for the wall. Some things are less expensive since you don’t have to print hard copy. eBooks are a whole new world.

At the end of the day you can pour your heart out and write the greatest novel, or create the most beautiful piece of art, but if you don’t promote and market it to the world at large it’s no more or less than a piece of insignificant dust, lazily floating on a warm late afternoon ray of light, blissfully unaware that it is escaping from a dying sun.

What are you working on now?

A novel titled Fall From Grace. It’s illustrated of course. Cherif plays Sir James Drake Glenmore, 12th Duke of Berwickshire, an artist who gets caught up in a murder and fathers, unknown to him, a pair of twin boys that were raised in the states. Chase is a rock star and Mitchell his manager. There’s a shooting, and a desperate race to save a life.  I am presently shopping the novel, which begins in England then moves to the US.

Images from Fall From Grace

 

I also have a collection of illustrated children’s books that will be coming soon.

The holidays are upon us…what do you look forward to the most?

Getting together with family. On Thanksgiving I’ll be with my daughter and two sons. Sometime over the weekend, I’ll visit with Cherif and his family. He has two girls and a boy (who, though small in the photo below, has grown up to look like his handsome father).

Lynn & Cherif,  Cherif's wife Dawn and two of his children, Kai and Lara, taken a few years ago

I do hope you and Cherif and your families have a wonderful holiday season, Lynn. Thanks so much for being my guest and sharing your work with us!

For those of you who want to keep up with Lynn, you can see her on Facebook.

Best Historical Romance Trilogies: Superb Talent in Threes!

It takes talent to write a great historical romance novel, but it takes even more to write three in a row and make them all worthy reads. Of course, I recognize this omits some wonderful single titles and some great multibook series, but if you like to read trilogies, as I do, here’s my list of the top ones I recommend--and the list is not in any particular order, but all are rated 4, 4 and 1/2 or 5 stars:

1.       Laurie McBain’s Dominick trilogy: MOONSTRUCK MADNESS, CHANCE THE WINDS OF FORTUNE and DARK BEFORE THE RISING SUN

2.       Virginia Henley’s Medieval Plantagenet trilogy: THE FALCON AND THE FLOWER, THE DRAGON AND THE JEWEL and THE MARRIAGE PRIZE

3.       Virginia Henley’s Medieval Plantagenet trilogy: THE FALCON AND THE FLOWER, THE DRAGON AND THE JEWEL and THE MARRIAGE PRIZE

4.       Brenda Joyce’s THE CONQUEROR, PROMISE OF THE ROSE and THE PRIZE

5.       Judith McNaught’s Westmoreland trilogy: A KINGDOM OF DREAMS, WHITNEY MY LOVE and UNTIL YOU

6.       Johanna Lindsey’s Wyoming trilogy: BRAVE THE WILD WIND, SAVAGE THUNDER, and ANGEL

7.       Pamela Clare’s Blakewell/Kenleigh Family trilogy: SWEET RELEASE, CARNAL GIFT and RIDE THE FIRE

8.       Pamela Clare’s MacKinnon’s Rangers: SURRENDER, UNTAMED and DEFIANT

9.       Kaki Warner’s Runaway Brides trilogy:  HEARTBREAK CREEK, COLORADO DAWN and BRIDE of the HIGH COUNTRY

10.    Kaki Warner’s Blood Rose trilogy: PIECES OF SKY, OPEN COUNTRY and CHASING THE SUN

11.    Heather Graham’s North American Woman trilogy: SWEET SAVAGE EDEN, A PIRATE'S PLEASURE and LOVE NOT A REBEL

12.    Heather Graham’s Civil War trilogy: ONE WORE BLUE, AND ONE WORE GRAY and AND ONE RODE WEST.

13.    Heather Graham’s Viking trilogy: GOLDEN SURRENDER, THE VIKING’S WOMAN and THE LORD OF THE WOLVES

14.    Marsha Canham’s Pirate Wolf trilogy: ACROSS A MOONLIT SEA, IRON ROSE and THE FOLLOWING SEA

15.    Marsha Canham’s Scottish trilogy: THE PRIDE OF LIONS, BLOOD OF ROSES AND MIDNIGHT HONOR

16.    Marsha Canham’s Robin Hood trilogy: THROUGH A DARK MIST, IN THE SHADOW OF MIDNIGHT and THE LAST ARROW

17.    Kresley Cole’s MacCarrick Brothers trilogy: IF YOU DARE, IF YOU DESIRE and IF YOU DECEIVE

18.    Iris Johansen’s Wind Dancer trilogy: THE WIND DANCER, STORM WINDS and REAP THE WIND

19.    Shirl Henke’s Cheyenne trilogy: CAPTURE THE SUN, THE ENDLESS SKY, and SUNDANCER

20.    Shirl Henke’s trilogy: NIGHT WIND’S WOMAN, WHITE APACHE’S WOMAN and DEEP AS THE RIVERS

21.    Elizabeth Lowell’s Medieval trilogy: UNTAMED, FORBIDDEN and ENCHANTED

22.    Jennifer Blake’s Medieval trilogy: BY HIS MAJESTY’S GRACE, BY GRACE POSSESSED and SEDUCED BY GRACE

23.    Lisa Jackson’s Medieval Welsh trilogy: ENCHANTRESS, KISS OF THE MOON and OUTLAW

24.    Lisa Jackson’s Medieval Welsh trilogy: IMPOSTRESS, TEMPTRESS and SORCERESS

25.    Susan King’s Medieval Maiden trilogy: THE SWAN MAIDEN, THE STONE MAIDEN and the SWORD MAIDEN

26.    Mary Wine’s Highlander trilogy: TO CONQUER A HIGHLANDER, HIGHLAND HELLCAT and HIGHLAND HEAT

27.    Connie Brockway’s Scottish trilogy: THE PASSIONATE ONE, THE RECKLESS ONE and THE RAVISHING ONE

28.    Laura Parker’s Rose trilogy: ROSE OF THE MISTS, A ROSE IN SPLENDOR, and THE SECRET ROSE

29.    Emma Jensen’s Regency Spy trilogy: ENTWINED, FALLEN and MOONLIT

30.    Renee Vincent’s Emerald Isle trilogy: RALIKSEN, MAC LIAM and THE FALL OF RAIN

31.    Tina St. John’s Warrior trilogy: WHITE LIONS LADY, BLACK LION’S BRIDE and LADY OF VALOR.

32.    Amy J. Fetzer’s Irish trilogy: THE IRISH PRINCESS, THE IRISH ENCHANTRESS and THE IRISH KNIGHT

33.    Laurel McKee’s Daughters of Erin trilogy: COUNTESS OF SCANDAL, DUCHESS OF SIN and LADY OF SEDUCTION

34.    Christine Dorsey’s trilogy: THE RENEGADE (first published as THE RENEGADE AND THE ROSE), THE REBEL and THE ROGUE

35.    Judith E. French’s Fortune trilogy: FORTUNE'S MISTRESS, FORTUNE'S FLAME and FORTUNE'S BRIDE

36.    Aleen Malcolm’s Cameron trilogy: THE TAMING, RIDE OUT THE STORM and THE DAUGHTERS OF CAMERON

37.    Sandra Worth’s The Rose of York trilogy (Richard III’s life and love): LOVE AND WAR, THE CROWN OF DESTINY and FALL FROM GRACE

And do consider my own Agents of the Crown trilogy: RACING WITH THE WIND, AGAINST THE WIND and WIND RAVEN