Christmas Stocking Stuffed With Books 1 - Louise Allen

Today I'll start to tell you about the books that are going into the Christmas Stocking for this wonderful prize that you have a chance to win.

I'll talk about the authors alphabetically so the first up is Louise Allen . I met Louise through the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association and I work with her a lot as she currently runs the New Writers' Scheme with great efficiency and skill. I find it hard enough to read my way through the scripts she sends me, never mind organising the scheme, selecting the readers and sending scripts out to them etc . . .

Louise is a very popular writer for Mills & Boon or Harlequin Historicals and she's generously give two titles from her series Those Scandalous Ravenhursts to go into the stocking. The winner will receieve either The Shocking Lord Standon or The Dangerous Mr Ryder as part of their prize.

Here's what Louise has to say about this series of wonderful characters that she has created:

The Ravenhurst cousins emerged when my editor asked me to think about a trilogy featuring brothers and sisters and I realised I already had my first hero - the mysterious Jack Ryder who had made a spirited attempt to take over in No Place For a Lady. As I worked on the family tree I found there were too many ideas for just three siblings, and I kept discovering cousins - seven of them who have six stories between them.

The first three of Those Scandalous Ravenhursts came out this year - The Dangerous Mr Ryder (Jack), The Outrageous Lady Felsham (Bel) and The Shocking Lord Standon (Gareth). Next year in April in the UK it is the turn of Theo and Elinor (The Disgraceful Mr Ravenhurst); in July - Eden (The Notorious Mr Hurst) and September - Clemence (The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst).

In the US they are out with Harlequin in July, August and September, respectively. In May I have one of the new Undone e-books linked to the Ravenhursts. (Title to be decided).

With six books it was fun to play with different ideas and styles: Dangerous is an adventure with a Ruritanian Grand Duchy as a back-drop, Outrageous sizzles by the seaside, Shocking is set firmly in the world of Almack's and polite Society. Disgraceful is another adventure complete with dungeons and mysterious treasure, Notorious is set in the world of the Regency theatre, Piratical takes to the high seas with a villainous Caribbean pirate and the e-book has a highwayman hero.

It was a real wrench to leave the Ravenhursts behind but I am now exploring an equally engrossing set of heroes and heroines with five other authors (Annie Burrows, Julia Justiss, Christine Merrill, Margaret McPhee and Gayle Wilson) for a Regency continuity of eight books to be released in 2010.

If you'd like to know a little bit more about the books Louise has donated - here are the summaries for each of them:

The Dangerous Mr Ryder

(Those Scandalous Ravenhursts: Book 1)
A government agent with a difference, Jack Ryder is not sure he wants to be responsible for smuggling the Grand Duchess Eva de Maubourg out of her castle and across France, one step ahead of Napoleon’s agents, not after what he has heard about her temperament. But if Jack is reluctant, Eva is torn – where does her duty lie? With her beleaguered Duchy or her son in England? And how can she tell what is right, when all she wants is to be in the arms of the thoroughly unsuitable Mr Ryder?

The Shocking Lord Standon
(Those Scandalous Ravenhursts: Book 3)
Gareth Morant, Lord Standon might be contemplating a match with childhood friend Lady Maude Templeton with dismay, but it is not until he finds his arms full of the naked form of Miss Jessica Gifford, respectable governess in a fix, that the solution to his problems presents itself to him - a solution that forces the respectable earl to become a shocking rake, all for a good cause.

Now doesn't that just make you want to read them? If it does then you won't be the only one because I have to tell you that I had to fight to keep these books safe. When I had weekend visitors recently, one of my friends needed something to read on the train going home. I offered her a choice from my bookshelf - which was where the Christmas Stocking Contest books were also stored. She pounced and the Louise Allen titles and would have run off with them if I hadn't explained that these were for the contest. She was very disappointed - and may well enter the contest herself in the hopes of winning one of Louise's titles.

You can find out more about Louise and her books on her website here. And the details of how to enter the Christmas Stocking Contest are on the Contest page of my website.

So these are the first books going into the stocking. Come back tomorrow for more.

PS I had some really good news yesterday but I can't share it with you until it's official - so watch this space!