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Sunday, August 11, 2013

Guest Post with Author Nancy Lee Badger and Giveaway

Please welcome author Nancy Lee Badger to RFTC. Nancy is here to chat about her newest release, My Reluctant Highlander.

She loves chocolate-chip shortbread, wool plaids wrapped around the trim waist of a Scottish Highlander, the clang of broadswords, and the sound of bagpipes in the air. After growing up in Huntington, New York, and raising two handsome sons in New Hampshire, she moved to North Carolina where she writes full-time. Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, Triangle Area Freelancers, and the Celtic Heart Romance Writers. Nancy and her family volunteer each fall at the New Hampshire Highland Games, surrounded by…kilts!

Places to find Nancy:
| Site | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

My Reluctant Highlander's Jake and Bull


This is a story about two characters I created for My Reluctant Highlander, the third book in my Highland Games through Time series. One is my hero, Jake Jamison. He is twenty-seven years old, sports brilliant blue eyes, and a sweet smile. He is a present day New Englander of Scottish descent with a straight nose, long and lean face, and six-foot stature. He reads Robert Frost poetry, and ties his wavy black hair with a leather queue. When performing tasks as a farrier or blacksmith, he prefers to work shirtless in a leather apron. He lives near a forest, rents part of an old house, and owns three horses: Dara, Tavish, and Balfour. He rarely dates because he is always working, though he manages to find time to volunteer. You can find him every autumn at the New England Highland Games wearing heavy leather gloves and working around hot coals in the historical village. Barrels of water and rusty pieces of metal sit near his anvil.


However, there is more to this young man than good looks and muscular biceps. We first met Jake in the first book in my series, My Honorable Highlander. As a dear friend to both Haven MacKay and Iona Mackenzie, he follows a witch back in time in book two, My Banished Highlander, after both women disappear. He has a secret that Skye Gunn uses to force him to help save his friends. You see, on the day she used her moonstone necklace, and spells, to cast her into the future, away from her home in sixteenth-century Scotland, she caught him setting his coals on fire with his breath.

Now, I could talk more about Skye Gunn, my book's heroine, but I created another character that tried desperately to take over my story. I did my best to reel him back in, but Bryce Buchanan would not budge! So, I used him as both a an athlete who competes at modern-day Highland games, and as a possible suitor for Skye, which in turn makes Jake jealous. The twenty-eight year old is massive, and is known on the athletic field as Bull. He stands six-foot-four, and weighs in at two-hundred and eighty pounds. His muscles, chiseled cheekbones, black hair, and ice blue eyes keep the ladies at his side. He can throw the stone and hammer as well as turn the caber with the best of them, and usually wins. By day, he is a Professor of European History at a nearby private school. Brawn and intelligence in one very large package!


When Skye Gunn literally falls in his lap unexpectedly, his adventure begins, entangled with Jake's and Skye's. When Jake realizes the battered and bleeding woman in his friend's arms is the woman he hasn't seen for five long years—and who he assumed was dead—is Skye Gunn, tension grows between the friends. And, when the sorcerer attacks while the three are out horseback riding, all Hell breaks loose.

The creation of a possible love triangle gives my story an edge that weaves through the future and the past. Bull brings Jake and Skye to the brink of romance and back. Bull's unabashed pursuit of pretty Skye is wrapped around a story that treats us to a look at both modern and ancient Highland games activity. The men wear kilts, use weaponry, fight the bad guys, and one of them wins the girl, and not in the way you might think. Did I mention witchcraft, sorcerers, time travel, and firebreathers?

My Reluctant Highlander was released June 14th

Book Blurb

Skye Gunn has spent the last five years trying to forget the blacksmith who followed her back to 16th century Scotland, to help fight evil. Sending Jake Jamison home against his will was a disastrous mistake. Stealing his heart was not part of the plan. Jake must share his secret, Skye must give her heart fully, and both must dare to love in the time they have.




Skye has spent the last five years trying to forget the blacksmith who followed her back to 16th century Scotland, to help fight evil. Sending Jake Jamison home against his will was a disastrous mistake. She risked everything attempting to defeat Andreas Borthwick. Jake might have defeated the evil sorcerer, preventing her husband’s death. When she prevents the sorcerer from grabbing her nephew, he takes her instead. To escape, she defies time to find Jake. The last person Jake wants to see is the young woman from ancient Scotland; the same woman who has haunted his dreams since she blackmailed him into traveling back in time. Before he could save Skye Gunn’s people, she had sent him home. Until he met Skye, his life had been normal. Quiet, and uncomplicated. No one knows he is a firebreather, except her. His ancestry is a mystery. When Skye falls into his bed—beaten, bloody and beautiful—Jake must choose to trust her, or turn his back on the only woman he’s loved across time. Skye encourages Jake to use his ability to help her kill the sorcerer. Stealing his heart was not part of the plan. Jake must share his secret, Skye must give her heart fully, and both must dare to love in the time they have.

Purchase: | Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | All Romance | iTunes | Smashwords |
Check out what's up for grabs.


Up For Grabs:
  • 1 lucky person will win a $15 Gift Card (Amazon or Barnes & Noble)
  • 1 lucky person will win an eBook copy of one of Nancy's Backlist Books
  • 1 lucky person will win a Dragon Window Sticker

    To Enter: 
    • Please leave a comment or question for Nancy.
    • Please fill out the Rafflecopter forms.

    Good Luck!
    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    19 comments :

    1. I don't have one favorite Highlander. I have many :)

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    2. I have to say Jamie Fraser. :)

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    3. I don't have a favorite, because I haven't read any highlander books yet. They have always been something that I want to read, and this one sounds great! Jake sounds wonderful!

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      1. Oh he is! I loved reading these books, and I sincerely suggest you start reading Nancy's books, starting with the first one, and continuing to this one. I can't wait to read the one she's going to write about Bull! (At least I hope she will...)

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    4. I can't choose, there are so many!

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    5. OMG this is so lame (and slightly off-topic) but my FAVORITE Highlander was from that tv show on in the 90s, called Highlander. The actor's name is Adrian Paul...talk about hot!

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      1. You found my favorite. He was much cuter than the guy in the Highlander movies. Hmm...maybe that is why my hero, Jake, wears his black hair long and tied in a queue.

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      2. Great minds think alike---he was cute!!

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    6. Christopher Lambert from the original Highlander movies and Sean Connery, yum.

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      1. Ohhhhhh, ALWAYS Sean Connery!! And the older he gets, the better...whoa!!

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    7. Hello Nancy! So glad to be introduced to you on this blog today. I love finding new authors to read from...and so, I want to read your first book in your Highland Games series. I'll be going to Amazon after I hang up this comment. :-) You asked who my fave Highlander is. I've loved Sean Connery for quite awhile--in his early James Bond movies and the Indiana Jones movies and others he's done since. I've not seen any historical Highlander movies. As for stories, I've read every Highlander story I could get my hands on...too many to recollect any favorites. And I still like to read Highlander stories to this day. jdh2690@gmail.com

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    8. A little embarrassed to admit, Duncan McLeod of the Clan McLeod, aka the television version. Thanks for asking. lisagk(at)yahoo

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    9. My favorite highlander is Ian MacDonald from Margaret Mallory's The Guardian

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      1. OmiGod! I LOVE Margaret Mallory's heroes. I tried not to mumble when she sat across from me at lunch at the RWA Conference last month!

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    10. I would say any Highlander that Karen Hawkins writes about is my favorite...but probably Gabriel MacBain from Jule Garwood's Saving Grace would by my all time favorite!

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    11. Hi Nancy, You continue to write such interesting story lines. You introduced me to my first Highlander, Kirkwall Gunn. He is my absolute favorite.

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    12. Nancy, what a great book! I'm adding to my list to read and always enjoy your reads! Good luck!

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    13. My favorite all time Highlander is Gabriel McBain from Julie Garwood's Saving Grace. There are many more that gave him a run for his money though.

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