Sweet Deception : Behind the Story...

In the dark, the greatest lover can become the most dangerous conspirator…

Lord Frederick Aveline, otherwise known as Derick, has successfully kept up appearances as an English nobleman.  What no one knows is that he’s a full-blooded Frenchman—a double-agent for the British against the French.  But there is something else no knows about Derick.  Deciding to leave behind his days of espionage, he’s arrived home to Derbyshire to finish one final order of business: to find and expose a dangerous traitor in the midst. 

But Aveline castle holds its own share of secrets—including murder, and an unexpected lure in Emma Wallingford.  Brilliant and feisty, her loyalty lies with acting as the town’s magistrate, and she doesn’t welcome an unanticipated, though appealing, intrusion like Derick.  As the two of them are drawn closer, the sordid past of Derick’s family comes to light, as does the true nature of his arrival.

But when deception, however sweet, is the name of the game no one can be trusted, and every love—and every life—is at risk.

As promised, today I’m going to share with you one of the movies that inspired SWEET DECEPTION’s theme.

After meeting my Bond meets Bones characters, I’ll bet you’re thinking there is some spy/crime movie that I had in mind while writing Derick and Emma. However, I bet you might be surprised…

When I sat down to write, the log line for this story was this:

Everyone’s been deceived by someone, but it never hurts as much as when you deceive yourself.

For Derick, it is his identity that he deceives himself about. For Emma, however, I wanted her misassumptions to be completely of the heart. And therefore, the movie I thought often of is:

If you haven’t seen it, it’s rather a cute movie centered around a cast of characters. It’s all about the lies we tell ourselves, the excuses we make for why this person or that person does or doesn’t love us. For me, Emma was most like the main character, Gigi. Here are two quotes I kept in mind:

“A girl will never forget the first boy she ever likes.”

and

“Girls are taught a lot of stuff growing up. If a guy punches you he likes you. Never try to trim your own bangs and someday you will meet a wonderful guy and get your very own happy ending. Every movie we see, Every story we're told implores us to wait for it, the third act twist, the unexpected declaration of love, the exception to the rule. But sometimes we're so focused on finding our happy ending we don't learn how to read the signs. How to tell from the ones who want us and the ones who don't, the ones who will stay and the ones who will leave. And maybe a happy ending doesn't include a guy, maybe... it's you, on your own, picking up the pieces and starting over, freeing yourself up for something better in the future. Maybe the happy ending is... just... moving on. Or maybe the happy ending is this, knowing after all the unreturned phone calls, broken-hearts, through the blunders and misread signals, through all the pain and embarrassment you never gave up hope.”

Of course, that quote is as unhistorical as you can get J. However, the sentiment is true. Derick was Emma’s first love, and now that he’s back, her hopes are high. Despite how hard he pushes her away, how much he holds back from her, Emma KNOWS in her heart that they were meant to be together. With Derick by her side, she feels more normal than she ever has.  Emma romanticizes him (and his work as a spy) and begins to imagine the good they could do together. She starts to believe her girlhood dream of a life with him might be within her grasp, only better. But when all of the truth comes spilling out in the end, Emma is stung when Derick points out he’s never deceived her about his intentions. She realizes the bitter truth: she’s the one who’s deceived herself. It’s truly heartbreaking…

Of course, Emma and Derick do find their happily-ever-after. I hope you enjoy discovering how!

Today, I’ll be giving away a copy of my debut, SWEET ENEMY (or, if you’ve already read it, I will substitute another historical romance—many to choose from). You MUST leave your e-mail in the comments section to be eligible…  Here’s a question for you: Do YOU remember the first boy you ever liked?

Heather Snow is a historical romance author with a degree in Chemistry who discovered she much preferred creating chemistry on the page, rather than in the lab.  She lives in the Midwest with her husband, two rambunctious boys and one very put upon cat.  Find out more or connect with Heather at:

www.HeatherSnowBooks.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/AuthorHeatherSnow
Twitter www.twitter.com/HeatherSnowRW

SWEET DECEPTION Available NOW:

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