The Governess and The Beast: Available on Audio!

THE GOVERNESS AND THE BEAST  

Decadent Publishing. Historical/Gothic/Erotic novella 

Book 2 in the Blind Cupid series

Approx 21,000 words

Release: May 14 2013

I adore the Victorian era! It was an amazing time of scientific discovery and industrial improvements. Though Victorian society was outwardly prudish, underneath is a seamy underbelly that fascinates me! In London alone, there was one prostitute for every four men. So if a lot of my heroines are prostitutes, its because most women left on their own had no other recourse to survive. The era was a brutal one for the poor and indigent. In my best-selling novella, The Governess and the Beast, two lonely, damaged people take a chance on love. ~Karyn

BLURB: 

Hiding secrets and a past she longs to forget, Hortense Jennings answers an ad for a governess and embarks on an adventure she did not expect.

Concealed in a gothic, crumbling manor on the edge of a North Sea cliff, Baron Simon Wolstenholme is hiding from life. Horribly scarred from battle wounds, he lives up to his name “The Beast of Stonecliff” in both appearance and attitude until he realizes how lonely he has become.

Simon propositions Hortense for a singular night of passion. Raging weather and storms of anger clash between a lonely man and a distrustful woman to reveal secret desires in an emotional crescendo. Can the Governess and the Beast find calm amid the storm and admit their true feelings, or will pride destroy the fairy tale before it begins?

CONTENT ADVISORY: Light Bondage

REVIEWS:

5 STARS "Karyn Gerrard has written a powerhouse of a story. This novella has the chemistry and passion found in much lengthier stories and the characters are well developed."~Melissa

5 STARS "Packing all of that characterization and emotional impact into a short story of less than twenty-one thousand words shows Karyn Gerrard's formidable writing talent" ~Gaele

Excerpt:

“Do you have courage, Miss Jennings?”

The question confused her for a moment. “I suppose as much as the next person....”

Baron Stonecliff reached behind his head, untied the knot, and unwound the scarf until he exposed his face. Utter ruin. She fought back the gasp of shock but could not prevent her physical recoil and stepped back. Mottled, puckered skin and a maze of nasty wounds, some of them burns, covered the left side. Scars crisscrossed his cheek and disappeared into his hairline. How miraculous his lips and jaw remained intact. What made the destruction harder to bear was the breathtaking masculine beauty still visible on the right. Lord Stonecliff must have been devastatingly handsome at one point. She kept her gaze steady, and she hoped, her emotions well buried. With swelling evident, she surmised his injury must have occurred in the last several months. The skin was red and raw. Would it be it sore to the touch? The scarring continued down his neck and disappeared under his collar. So, not only his face received injury.

“Have you looked your fill?” Stonecliff snapped in annoyance. “You must be able to gaze upon the horror that is my face. When I am in my own home, I do not cover it. The doctors recommended leaving my visage free to breathe in order to aid healing. Since am I told it is not as red as before, I suppose their theory has merit....”

He frowned and shrugged with slight indifference. The words were probably the most he had spoken to anyone in some time, and no doubt more than he wanted to share.

Hortense swallowed and took a step toward him. “Regardless, you are free to do as you wish in your own home. Since I did not run screaming from the room, there should be no difficulty.”

Did one corner of those full, sensuous lips quirk into an almost-smile? Oh, Lord, why was she thinking of his lips?

He bade her to sit again and took the chair opposite. Stonecliff crossed his long legs and regarded her closely.

“What I am about to say may well have you scream and run from the room. I did not bring you here to be governess to my ward. In truth, he is eleven years old and away at school. I lied. I brought you here to be—my companion.” 

BUY AT AMAZON

BUY AT ALL ROMANCE

BUY AT BOOKSTRAND

BUY AT BARNES AND NOBLE

Also available on Audio!

AMAZON|| AUDIBLE

BOOK 1 of The Blind Cupid trilogy  is THE BLIND CUPID (Short Story)

BLURB:  

   Was Cupid blind? 

   Anne Sommer, a spinster firmly on the shelf, does the unthinkable. She hires a man to give her pleasure for one night. Anne wants the erotic memories to keep her company in the lonely years ahead. She did not expect the young man who showed up at her door to move her in ways she never imagined. 

   Desmond Glover gives pleasure---for a price. An orphan whose childhood was mired in scandal and poverty, Desmond has learned to close off his emotions with regard to his occupation. He did not count on a lonely spinster to awaken his hidden passion. 

   Not only do the years separate them, but their social standings. Can Anne and Desmond cross such a chasm and find mutual desire---or love? 

BUY AT AMAZON

BOOK 2 is THE GOVERNESS AND THE BEAST 

BOOK 3 is THE COPPER AND THE MADAM

BLURB: 

   In 1897 London, Scotland Yard Detective Sergeant Rory Kerrigan never expected to find love among the crime-ridden streets he vowed to protect. Kerrigan, a man with a wretched past and hardened heart, keeps emotion from his life and its interference with his police work.  

   Abbess Rea is owner of the brothel, The Blind Cupid, and a woman with a secret and desolate past of her own. Rubenesque and leery of men, Rea lets no one close.       Yet, she cannot deny the ruggedly handsome Rory touches her heart.  

   A grisly murder on Kerrigan’s turf has Rory and Rea teaming up to bring the killer to justice. As danger lurks closer, secrets are revealed and passion is ignited. Will the copper and the madam acknowledge their mutual yearning even at the peril of their lives? 

BUY AT AMAZON 

Karyn Gerrard Bio:

Karyn lives in a small town in the western corner of Ontario, Canada. She wiles away her spare time writing and reading romance while drinking copious amounts of Earl Grey tea.

Tortured heroes are a must. A multi-published author with a few best-sellers under her belt, Karyn loves to write in different genres and time periods, though historicals are her favorite. As long as she can avoid being hit by a runaway moose in her wilderness paradise she assumes everything is golden.

 Karyn’s been happily married for a long time to her own hero. His encouragement keeps her moving forward.

                               Karyn's Site/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest

Historical Alpha Heroes~What’s Not to Love?

Available HERE

By Karyn Gerrard

Everyone has a preconceived notion of what an Alpha Romance Hero should be. Some like the controlling, domineering cold men of the 50 Shades variety. They really don’t do it for me, though I know a lot of women seem to adore this type. Sales bears this out. 

There is also the Shifter/Alpha type male who can also be domineering, but it’s tempered with total, singular devotion and focus on the heroine, loving her for who she is even as he wishes to claim her. This guy for all his outward caveman tendencies, is a pussycat underneath. This type of hero is great for Paranormals and also for that medieval Highlander or Viking. 

Then there is the Alpha hero who is tortured and damaged either inside or out or both. He is cold and haughty, protecting his heart, but when the heroine gets past his defences, she finds a man aching to be touched, to be loved, to be healed. 

This is the guy I love to write about. I find the historical alpha hero can be a mixture of all three types I mentioned. Mix in some historical background and you have a great hero.  I like that the historical setting gives the hero an honorable thread through his character that sometimes isn’t noticeable in some contemporary heroes. For all his alpha-ness, he is a man constrained and ruled by the era he lives in. Love that. 

 In The Copper and the Madam, Rory Kerrigan, my Scotland Yard detective, fits the third type more than anything. He is haunted by his past and comes across a woman whose past might be darker than his. 

Both have to learn to let the other person inside and past those defenses. But I really enjoyed taking the journey with my tough, Victorian era copper as he learns to open his heart and for the first time in his life, put a woman’s wants and needs before his own.  *sigh*

To me, that’s a real Alpha.

Excerpt: 

“Did you enjoy the show, darlin’?”

Rory stepped out of the shadows, the uneven illumination making it impossible to tell his mood. His voice was neither teasing nor angry but flat and devoid of emotion. What a surprise to discover this dispassionate side of Rory.

Furious rage overcame her embarrassment. “You have been out here the whole time? Who told you? By God, when I find out who it is, I will toss them out into the street—”

“Easy, Rhiannon. You forget, I’m a detective. I can observe a place for hours. Standing in this hall was no time at all to me. Besides, no one had to tell me anything. Well, that’s not quite true. Someone informed me ages ago you like to watch. So I began to wonder. It did not take long to find your hidden door. How long and why?” Annoyance deepened his voice.

Caught good and proper. What should she tell him—that the only way she could feel anything at all was to observe others having sex? And that watching him gave her the greatest pleasure she had ever experienced? She shook her head. “It is my private business.”

She turned to stomp away, but Rory reached out and clasped her arm.

“Not so fast, Rhiannon. What you invaded was my private business. How. Long?” Barely banked fury colored his tone.

“Three years. Let me go.”

Rory pulled her against him. He clutched her arm tighter and she winced.

“Now, you will tell me why.”

Hot tears blurred her vision. “Fine. Maybe it’s the only enjoyment a fat, lonely whoremonger can acquire.”

Rory clasped both her arms and glared down at her. His eyes danced with emerald fire.

“Do not call yourself fat, not in my hearing. I know portly when I see it, and you’re not it, darlin’. You have ample curves, aye. Fat is rolls, waddling when you walk, and ten steps have you breathing hard. That is fat.” He trailed his hands down her arms and rested them at her sides. After a few moments pause, they moved over her hips up to her waist. A groan tore from his lips. “Curves, Rhiannon. Luscious, succulent curves. Breasts a man could happily get lost in. Don’t get me started on your arse.”

Well. Heat lingered across her body where his hands roamed. Rory stopped below her breasts, his thumbs brushing the undersides. He caught her earlobe between his teeth then his tongue whorled her ear. A lustful shudder quaked her all over.

“Next time you want to watch me, sit in a chair in the room with me. Don’t hide in a broom cupboard with holes drilled into the walls, you follow?” 

Heart of Rock and 1974!

Buy Heart of Rock HERE

By Karyn Gerrard

I decided to set Heart of Rock in 1974 because at heart, I’m nostalgic. Also, if I was going to set a story in the 70's, I wanted to do it before disco (not a fan) caught on in a big way.

I will no doubt age myself, but I was a tween in 1974, so I remember a lot. Hard to believe but color TV only started making inroads in the early Seventies. By 1974 it had become the standard. It’s the year we got one. Watching Bonanza reruns...in color! Far out!

We also obtained cable TV. After a childhood of black and white TV and two Canadian channels (which did show some American programming) we now had all the channels from Bangor, Maine! Whee! (I grew up on the East coast of Canada)

One of the top selling songs in 1974 was Kung Fu Fighting by one-hit wonder, Carl Douglas. Yep, I had the 45 record. Though classified as Funk, it had that annoying disco beat that soon took over the music charts. 1974 is also when Abba hit the charts. (not a fan) However, on the upside, Canadian rock group, Rush, hit the charts as well!

My hero, Brogan Byrne, is a rocker all the way (and Irish!).The name of his rock group?—wait for it—Byrne n' Flame. Sorry. Couldn't resist.
This erotic romance is not about the technical ins-and-outs of the rock music world, but rather a story of boy meets girl. Girl (heroine Carly Montgomery) doesn't take any guff; her tough outer shell is a protection from past hurts. Boy isn't exactly likeable a lot of the time, and carries a lot of baggage. Brogan may just have found the one woman to help him carry the load.

Blurb:

Irishman Brogan Byrne is at the pinnacle of 1974 rock-music success. Handsome, charismatic, with a three-octave voice, you’d think he had it all. But Byrne sinks to new depths of depravity with women, liquor, and drugs.

Carly Montgomery is an ambitious record executive offered an opportunity to be manager for the last leg of Byrne's tour. Though she’s detached and tough as nails, Carly’s cool facade comes under attack. Somehow Byrne manages to slip by her frosty defenses.

Brogan, for his part, is broken inside. A past memory weighs on his soul, affecting his actions. Is Carly the one woman to help him forget his guilt and heal his heart of rock?

NOTE: This is a re-release, it was available a few months in 2012 before I had to get back the rights from another publisher. With more than 5000 words added and a new edit, this story...rocks!  My thanks to Decadent Publishing! 

The Scarred Hero

Buy The Governess and the Beast HERE

By Karyn Gerrard

Considering I am a voracious reader, I came to romance reading late, about seven years ago. One of the first books I read was the historical, Simply Love, by Mary Balogh. Both the H/H were wounded souls, but the hero, Sydnam Butler, had outer scars as well (The blurb says severely maimed, and yikes, he was, eye and arm gone)

I was immediately drawn to this hero, his nobility and bravery in the face of his liabilities and the vulnerability he tried so hard to hide. This book made me cry, and I not only became hooked on the romance genre, but scarred heroes in general. I also love the concept of the heroine seeing beyond the physical outer shell and physical impediments to the man underneath.  It’s what we all want really, for someone to see the real you.

The Governess and the Beast is my first attempt at my own scarred hero.  This short novella is book 2 in my Blind Cupid series (Book 1 is The Blind Cupid, The Edge series) Scarred heroes seem a perfect fit for a historical setting, and Baron Simon Wolstenholme, the Beast of Stonecliff, fits the bill.  Scarred in The Boer War, this lonely man gets more than he bargained for when he advertised for a governess for his ward.

Here is the blurb:

After answering an employment ad in a London newspaper for the position of governess, Hortense Jennings embarks on an adventure she did not expect. Hortense has many secrets and a past she longs to forget.

Concealed in a gothic, crumbling manor on the edge of a North Sea cliff, Baron Simon Wolstenholme is hiding from life. Horribly scarred from battle wounds, he lives up to his name “The Beast of Stonecliff.”

Simon has a proposition for Hortense that involves a singular night of passion. Raging weather and storms of anger clash between a lonely man and a woman revealing their secret desires in an emotional crescendo. Will they be able to find calm and admit their true feelings?

Check out The Governess and the Beast at Decadent Publishing

HIGHLANDERS: WHAT APPEALS ABOUT THESE LADDIES?

By Karyn Gerrard
There is something innately sexy and thrilling about a highlander. Especially one from the past.

What appeals? The kilt? The sword? The longish hair blowing in the wind? All of the above to be sure. Usually these laddies are brawny and muscular and huge—in all the right places. They have the touch of barbarian, something dangerous and primal. He's carnal, sexy, and sensuous. Not afraid to voice his needs and his wants. And let’s talk about how sexy a deep Scottish burr is. Who wouldn’t want a handsome, rugged highlander whispering hotly in your ear “Och, lassie, ye are verra beautiful...” Or something much more naughty! *swoon*

Delve under the handsome, gruff, tough exterior and you find an honorable stout heart. A man who is capable of deep emotion and passion.

Or so the romance novels tell us. And why not? It’s fantasy, it’s fun! Who wants to read of a short, toothless, dirty warrior who lives in a mud hut? Not me! Bring on the six-foot-four Scottish stud who wields a large sword and wears nothing but a kilt~

One of my favorite reads is Kiss of the Highlander By Karen Marie Moning. Time-travel? Sexy highlander? Alpha, kilted, walking sex bomb?
Perfect. After I read this a couple of years ago I vowed I would try to write a highlander time-travel of my own.
I did it! MY HIGHLAND COVER MODEL from Decadent Publishing.
My Cailin Thorburn is everything I find appealing about a romance novel highlander. This is fantasy all the way with a dash of magic thrown in. Cailin is intelligent, witty, honorable, and sexy as hell. Brave too, as he adjusts to a crazy situation that occurs out of his own time. I LOVE anything with Highlander in the title. These guys are rough-hewn, muscular, dangerous warriors with a great capacity for passion and love. My Cailin is all that and more.

BLURB:  Skye Bancroft is a hard-working assistant art director at Night Moon Publishers. Dealing with the occasional spoiled and egocentric model is part of her job description. But she didn’t count on one so delusional to think he was a Scotsman from the highlands of 1814.

Cailin Thorburn is every woman’s dream—a warrior who is fierce, passionate, and wields a very large sword. Rendered unconscious during battle, he awakens in another place, time, and seemingly in another man’s body. Was it all a dream? Convincing the bonnie lass, Skye, that he is Cailin, the Highland warrior, is a daunting task.

Can an extraordinary man from another world prove he is who he claims to be? Will their attraction be enough, or is Cailin just a cover model in a kilt? 

COVER MODELS: OUT OF MY REACH?

by Karyn Gerrard

I am very excited to be here to celebrate my first (and not last) release with Decadent Publishing! MY VAMPIRECOVER MODEL~ available August 10th

I had to do a little research before I tackled the subject. I was inspired by cover model of the moment Paul Marron, who went on a rock-star type tour with Paranormal Romance best-seller Kresley Cole. My fevered brain began to spin: What if the model posing as a vampire really was —a vampire? A couple of weeks later, I had the short novella completed.
For research, I read many blogs from people who showed up at the events and I also read a lot of interviews with romance cover models to get a 'feel' for their motivation.

After reading these interviews, I came to one conclusion:

  I will never attract a romance cover model. 

Just about every one of them loves the outdoors. Hiking! Camping! Rock Climbing!

Forget it. I hate the outdoors. HATE. It started at age twelve when I went to Girl Guide (Girl Scout in U.S.) summer camp. Of all the tents, only ours leaked. We had to sleep for two nights in a spider infested woodshed. You haven't lived until you've found a dead spider in your ass-crack. Needless to say, when my parents showed up at the end of two weeks to get me, I fell to my knees in front of them, sobbed my eyes out,  and pleaded for them to take me home.

LONE EXCEPTION: I love the beach. If said cover model wants to take me to the beach where a cool ocean breeze keeps the gross bugs away, I can sit there for hours.

Next thing these guys like: Exercise and Sports.

Forget it. Back when I was young, slim and svelte I tried a myriad of sports. Judo, Tennis, Field Hockey. HATED it.  So I won't be joining said cover model in kick-boxing and cardio workouts and sharing an alpha-sprout shake. Spending six hours in the gym just doesn't appeal to me. Though I love watching baseball in my leather recliner, Go Red Sox! 

Which leads me to the next point. All these guys want a woman who is fit, disciplined and beautiful, inside and out. Yikes, I strike out again. I'm middle-aged, overweight, and not really disciplined. Unless said cover model wants a chubby cougar-type who can whip up gooey Mac and Cheese in a heartbeat, I'm ready! If not, I'm toast. (Hey, I can make that, too!)

Beautiful? I've been called cute, even pretty once or twice, but that's as high as it goes. I'm no raving beauty. Also, I can be snarky and sarcastic and a tad vindictive when pushed. I'm a cancer, so I love to cuddle and watch old movies. I think one model liked that, so Jimmy Thomas, I'm your 'cuddle and watch movies girl'!

So in conclusion, I really don't have the prerequisites to attract a cover model. Neither does the heroine in MY VAMPIRE COVER MODEL. Deanna is cute, not a raving beauty, nor is she tall and slim. She works in a department store. Dean charms ‘Burn the Cover Model’ nonetheless.

Kudos to these hunky cover models for their intelligence, discipline, and good humor! (Great abs also a bonus!)

So share! Do you have what it takes to attract a cover model? Just go with me here ;)

A random commenter will win a copy of 

MY VAMPIRE COVER MODEL!!