Archive for 'Goddess of the Hunt'

Hope you all enjoyed a great Labor Day weekend! Mine was mostly spent laboring (heh) on book two of my 2010 trilogy, since I’m nearing deadline in a little over three weeks. Also happening in three weeks? The release of A Lady of Persuasion on September 29th! I can’t wait for readers to read Toby and Bel’s story.

And if you’d like to be among the first to read it, click on over to the Borders TrueRomance blogthis morning. There’s a little video that book buyer extraordinaire Sue Grimshaw taped with me during the RWA conference in DC. And I’m blogging about the writing of Surrender of a Siren. Best of all, if you comment, you could win a full set of the trilogy!

More links from the Department of Random Awesomeness:

Can you believe mega-bestselling author Vicki Lewis Thompson took my little book on her summer vacation? Yes, she read Goddess of the Hunt and liked it and added to the Book Club portion of her website! How cool is that? I was completely stunned and so honored. (There’s a little blurb there by Vicki–if you use a browser other than IE, you might have trouble viewing it because it’s light on a light background. You can highlight the text, and then it should show up.)

And Rakehell.com posted a great review of Surrender of a Siren the other day.

It’s just a few weeks until the release of Courtney Milan‘s fantabulous debut novella, This Wicked GiftRead More »

If you’ve read Goddess of the Hunt and would like to chat about the book with me and other readers, I invite you to come on over to the Eloisa James/Julia Quinn Bulletin Board. For the entire month of August, I’ll be the book club guest. We’re talking about GotH and the other two books in the trilogy. All opinions and questions welcome! You have to register for the board to participate, but it’s easy. The EJ/JQ bb members have to be one of the most diverse, welcoming, hilarious, friendly groups on the Internet, led by their ever-gracious esteemed patronesses, Eloisa and Julia themselves.

Speaking of the amazing Ms. Eloisa, she has been kind enough to mention Jeremy, the hero of GotH, in a fabulous column on the alpha hero, posted on the Barnes and Noble website here. (Have you read A DUKE OF HER OWN yet? I’m in the middle and adoring it, of course. The Duke of Villiers is the most complex, delicious hero who completely defies labels.)

Also today, I’ve been interviewed at Number One Novels, a great blog showcasing debut authors. If you’re curious about why I picked the names Jeremy and Lucy, or to hear my “call story”, check it out! As always, a signed book is up for grabs.… Read More »

Woohooo!! At long, LONG last, it is the official release day of Goddess of the Hunt. I am tempted to go into a long, sappy speech thanking everyone I’ve ever met – but truthfully, it’s 1 AM over here and I’m dead tired! That speech will have to wait. (Plus, it’s in the Acknowledgments. See page 361.)

I do want to tell you about some fun stuff I’m doing today to celebrate. And as with any good party, there are prizes involved!

I’ll be guest-blogging today at Romance Vagabonds about the timely topic of friendship–both in romance novels and behind-the-scenes of their creation. The post isn’t live yet as I write this, but I understand there will be prizes up for grabs!

The lovely Vauxhall Vixens also threw me a virtual surprise party to celebrate the release. If you want to read the words of overly generous friends saying completely gushy things about me, by all means, click over.

And last but not least, over at Courtney Milan‘s blog, she explains the day-long Goddess of the Hunt Twitter Talk contest. She’s giving away copies of my book, as well as some of the other fabulous historicals releasing today. All you have to do is get on twitter, use the hashtag #tessadare, and make patently outrageous assertions about GOTH and/or its characters. Elyssa Papa takes an early lead with this hilarious pic of President Obama holding “GotH”. See Courtney’s blog for specifics.

And somewhere in there, if you … Read More »

My first real copy of goddess! Yay! on Twitpic

I got two copies in the mail this morning from my editor’s assistant. (You can click on the picture for a bigger view.) I have since accomplished very little besides gazing into the shiny gold foil and fondling the embossing. It’s real! It’s really real! There are 384 pages inside, and my words are on each and every one!

Goddess of the Hunt
got some lovely bloggage this week. Michelle Buonfiglio listed it as a Top Ten Beach Read over at BarnesandNoble.com’s “Unabashedly Bookish” blog, and on Barbara Vey’s “Beyond Her Book” blog at Publisher’s Weekly, Stacey gave it a fabulous writeup (scroll down to the bottom). I’m in the process of writing up all sorts of promo letters, interviews, and guest blog posts for the coming month. Prepare to get sick of me. 🙂

AND – I had awesome news yesterday in the form of an email from my editor. Rights to all three books in the trilogy have been sold to publisher IKAR, for hardcover Slovak-language editions. I’ll be in translation! I can’t believe it.

Needless to say, it’s been a great week. I hope it’s been great for you, too. Have a wonderful holiday weekend, for those who live in the USA!… Read More »

Thank you so much to everyone who posted (or tweeted) congrats on the Library Journal review!!

Well, the Dare family is back from vacation. We dug for dinosaur bones, saw the (great!) movie UP, visited a living history farm, and ate and ate and ate deliciously artery-clogging and therefore ironically named Heartland fare. Most importantly, we spent a lot of quality time with our family–it’s not every day you get four generations in one place! We had a great time. Now we’re home, and the laundry is (mostly) done, and the refrigerator is cleaned out, and the groceries are restocked, and the darelings are (bless them) back in school. Time for me to update the blog and website!

And what an exciting day to do it, because I woke up to two more great reviews!

The first was another starred review from Publisher’s Weekly! You can read the whole and see the actual star here, if you scroll down a ways.

Here’s what it says:

Dare’s sparkling Regency romance debut introduces a cunning and instantly likable tomboy heroine. Lucy Waltham has been besotted with her brother’s friend Toby since she was 11. Now 19 and determined to get Toby away from ladylike, well-dowried Sophia, Lucy decides to practice seduction techniques on another family friend, Jeremy Trescott, earl of Kendall and 10 years her senior. Their innocent trysts become a sizzling affair that leads abruptly to the altar, after which Lucy must use all her considerable wit and intelligence to

Read More »

The Dare Family is here in the balmy Midwest on vacation, but I just had to share this exciting news.

Goddess of the Hunt has received a starred review from Library Journal! You can read the whole review here. A snippet:

This is an exceptional debut novel, from the first hilarious “practice” session to the gradual melting of Jem’s outward reserve and Lucy’s maturing realization of whom she really loves. VERDICT: A beautifully crafted tale that captivates with sassy wit, a lush, sweetly intense sensuality, and an abundance of beautifully articulated, appealing characters.

I’m so very excited by this, because not only is a starred review a tremendous honor, but because this is Library Journal, and I’m a librarian. Aside from the thrill of a great review, I know an LJ starred review means a lot more libraries will buy my book, and that makes me so happy. More copies of GotH out there in the world, freely circulating amongst the public! Hooray!… Read More »

First, I extend the usual apologies for scattershot blogging.  My deadline for the first Stud Club book is May 1st, and I need every (childfree) minute between now and then to finish and polish it up.

But I had to share this – my editor emailed me this morning to let me know that Goddess of the Hunt, Surrender of a Siren, and A Lady of Persuasion have all sold to the book clubs!  They will be featured alternate selections in July/Aug/Sept respectively, in the Rhapsody, Doubleday, and Book of the Month Clubs!  I am beyond excited.  So far beyond excited, I can’t think of a word for it.

But wait, there’s more!  You may remember that Courtney Milan and Ann Aguirre and Dear Author and I engaged in some werestag-themed April Foolery a few weeks back, regarding were-ruminant trademarks and the infringement thereof.  Well, Ann was good enough to actually read my novella, The Legend of the Werestag (coming May 12th from Samhain!), and give this stunning quote:

“Tessa Dare writes with incandescent emotional ferocity, balancing story and character with knife-edged elegance. This is the best novella I have read all year.”
~Ann Aguirre, national bestselling author of Blue Diablo

I think there is more gorgeous writing in that quote than there is in my whole novella. I’m not sure that’s fair. 🙂 But I’m beside myself with glee about it anyhow.

If you haven’t already bought Blue Diablo, what are you waiting for? I just … Read More »

Enter my contest to win a copy of this movie, and other goodies!

The fastest way I can describe the plot of Goddess of the Hunt (the first half of it, anyway) is like so: Think My Best Friend’s Wedding, set in the Regency–except replace witty, charming, gay Rupert Everett with a brooding, intense, most definitely straight earl.

If you’ve never seen this movie (and you should!), Julia Roberts’ character, Julianne, learns that her best friend of several years, Michael (played by Dermott Mulroney) is getting married.  Julianne is the low-maintenance, wisecracking, hang-with-the-guys type, and Michael’s new fiance is a young, gorgeous, nauseatingly perfect blonde (played by Cameron Diaz). And since Julianne’s been in love with Michael since…oh, forever…she decides to break up the wedding and get him back. Hijinks ensue. Oh man, do they ever ensue. To get her man, Julianne is willing to resort to tactics both ruthless and ridiculous, and her reluctant partner-in-crime, George (played by Rupert Everett), becomes more of a hindrance than a help, as he begins to play the voice of reason, insisting that Julianne wake up and realize it’s just not meant to be.

Aside from the setup, the daring heroine, and the elements of screwball comedy, Goddess shares another quality in common with this film: the “Other Woman” you want to hate…but just can’t. In Goddess, heroine Lucy’s rival is Sophia Hathaway–a young, gorgeous, nauseatingly perfect blonde. And despite all Lucy’s best attempts to despise her, she just can’t do … Read More »

Okay, I know the world is abuzz with exciting news, but this is my own little tiny piece of excitement.

My first book, Goddess of the Hunt, is now listed on Amazon It’s not available for pre-order quite yet, but imagine it will be soon. You can pre-order it now!  Hooray!

Actually, you can already pre-order it from the Random House site here.

It’s all starting feel so…real.… Read More »