From Michelle: While, sadly, we never can offer you a trainwreck here at RBTB, today I encourage you to hop on board the Tessa Dare Express, the lightning-speed making of a stellar career that's happening right before our eyes. Then, when everyone else's riding on the bandwagon, you can say, "Oh, I've been reading Tessa forever..." Tessa begins a "Back2Back" GuestBlog series here at RBTB that coincides w/the releases of her Back2Backs, beginning with her spectacular debut, "Goddess of the Hunt." Please offer Tessa your warmest, "Can't I choose more than one Bachelor?" Bella buongiorno...

From the titles, to covers, to admittedly even the plots, my historical romance trilogy is fairly heroine-centered. But I am quite proud of my heroes, too. And I’m so glad to have a chance to come share each of them with the Bellas here at RBTB! Over the next few months (this is a back-to-back trilogy!) I’ll come by to give a short introduction to each hero and share an exclusive excerpt.
Today, I’m dishing about the hero of "Goddess of the Hunt":
Regency Bachelor #1: Jeremy Trescott, the Earl of Kendall.
Age: 29
Appearance: Tall, athletic and strong. Black hair, heavy brow, strong jaw, and intense, ice-blue eyes. Think Clive Owen.
Okay, now stop thinking of Clive Owen and come back to me. I know, I know. It’s difficult.

Occupation: English lord.
Attire: Typical Regency gentleman’s sporting attire: breeches, shirt, cravat, waistcoat, topcoat or greatcoat, knee-high boots (Hessians). However, in the course of the book, Jeremy often ends up sans cravat and coat, and soaking wet. *grin*
Personality: Intelligent, jaded, aristocratic and autocratic, brooding, intense. Haunted by a childhood tragedy, but never whiny.
And Jeremy’s an alpha, through and through. "Goddess of the Hunt" takes place during an annual hunting party amongst four old friends. Jeremy’s the group’s undisputed leader. As “the responsible one”, it’s fallen to him to keep their host’s young sister, Lucy Waltham, out of trouble.
You see, Lucy’s had a crush on Toby for years, and Toby’s about to marry another girl. As she indicates in the first scene of the book (which you can read on my website, TessaDare.com)
Exclusive Excerpt: He tried to believe he had better, nobler reasons for keeping Lucy out of Toby’s bedchamber. Perhaps he did, somewhere, in some forgotten recess of his mind, filed under Gentleman. But a wild, savage, lust-crazed Beast was currently prowling the earth in his skin, and the idea of Lucy in any man’s bedchamber—other than his own—incited the Beast to violence.
Jeremy raised his gun to his shoulder, took aim at a distant tree stump, and fired. Chips of rotten wood exploded into the air. Henry, Toby, and Felix stopped in their tracks and stared at him as though he had burst into song. “There was a pheasant,” he said.
Three heads swiveled in unison to regard the cratered tree stump, then turned back to face him. Henry opened his mouth to speak, but Jeremy silenced him with a look.
The Look.
There were few aspects of his father’s demeanor Jeremy found worth imitating, but The
The Look meant different things at different times, depending on the recipient and the occasion. It could mean, “Hold your tongue.” It could mean, “Lift your skirts.” On one particularly memorable occasion, it had meant, “Put down the damned candlestick before you embarrass us both.”
But whatever The Look meant, it conveyed authority. The Look said, without equivocation, I lead, and you follow. There was only one person in Jeremy’s acquaintance who remained utterly impervious to The Look. And damn, if she wasn’t leading him around by a satin ribbon.*
So that’s Jeremy, or at least the surface of him. Bellas. Have you ever been on the receiving end of The Look? And if it was the sexy kind -- and came from a pal of one of your older brothers whom you just happened to be crushing on, perhaps -- do dish the story of that flirtation! And who are your favorite alpha heroes?
Join Tessa at RBTB August 28 to meet Regency Bachelor #2 w/a shot at scoring a copy of her August release, "Surrender of a Siren!" Oh, he's hawt, lemmee tell ya...
*From "Goddess of the Hunt." Copyright Tessa Dare 2009.
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What if our fave romance novel couples' love didn't make it past HEA?
Head to H2H to write a Relationship Obit...Shocking!
Head to H2H to write a Relationship Obit...Shocking!
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Monday: Red Sage Secrets authors visit; Tuesday: Amy's Take; Wednesday: Amanda Grange; Thursday: Becke's Take; Friday: hmmm...