Rules of Passion
Novel Spotlight previously
featured October 2005 Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to read and review this novel for The Society. Being my first novel ever by Sara Bennett I was taken in by matter of fact writing and gripping story telling. I recently sat down with Sara and asked her a few questions about her latest release Rules of Passion. With your novel coming out this month, can you give the readers a brief synopsis of Rules of Passion? This is the second book in my Greentree Sisters Trilogy, and is the story of Marietta. Marietta, who because of a youthful indescretion considers herself ruined, has decided that the only way she can have the sort of independent life she wants, without interference from her family and the frowns of society, is to become a courtesan like her mother, the famous Aphrodite. On a visit to London she tells this to Aphrodite. Her mother is less than enthusiastic but realises she cannot dismiss Marietta's desire out of hand in case it drives her away, so she suggests a suitable gentleman for Marietta to practice upon, to see if she really is suited to the life. The gentleman is Max Valland, the disgraced son of the Duke of Barwon. Max is, at first, unwilling to help, but it isn't long before he falls for Marietta and decides that if passion is the only way he can bind her to him, then passion it must be. What challenges do your heroine and hero face together in this novel? Both Marietta and Max are strong-willed and want their own way, so they have to learn to compromise and to trust each other. Marietta in particular has been hurt by a man and she finds it difficult to trust. And then, of course, there's the villain who is out to get Max, and who must be defeated before he and Marietta can find happiness. I have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing this novel early; I found it very steamy, and exceptionally well written. Can you tell us how you came up with the idea of having your heroine descend from a courtesan? Thank you! That's a good question. I don't think I consciously went looking for a courtesan storyline, it just came to me. I wanted to write a series of books and because so many writers choose to write about brothers, I thought I'd be different and write about sisters. Then I had to give them a mysterious past, and I was planning to make this series steamy, so the courtesan idea was born. This is the second novel in a trilogy about the Greentree Sisters. As a reader would they be able to pick this book up and read it. Or is it better to read Lessons in Seduction first? Rules of Passion can be read as a stand alone, but I think the reader would get more out of it if they had read Lessons in Seduction. The characters grow in each book, and there are lots of subplots running through the two stories. Your heroine is strong willed in this novel and set on becoming a courtesan like her mother. Can you explain to the readers why a heroine would be set on this path to ruination? Marietta sees it as the only way she can have the sort of independent life for herself that she wants. As a ruined woman in Victorian society she is already an outcast, and would be unlikely to make a good marriage. Because her brother in law, Oliver, is wealthy, she may gain a husband through his intervention, but Marietta delcares she does not want a man who has been bought. Besides, she's finished with love--or so she thinks--and one of the rules of being a courtesan is to never all in love. Can you tell us about your Hero in this novel, why will readers fall in love with him? I love Max, I think he's the perfect hero. He is madly attracted to Marietta, and yet he's still a gentleman. When he decides he loves her and wants her, he binds her to him with passion. The fact that he has lost everything, his dukedom, his fortune, and yet doesn't sink into gloom, well not for too long anyway! He sets his sights on a new life, and sees his misfortune as a chance to reinvent himself. Max Valland, the hero of Rules of Passion won a KISS Award from Romantic Times Magazine |