Guest Post with Author Jess Michaels and Giveaway

Meet author Jess Michaels.

Jess Michaels writes erotic historical romance set in the Regency period. She lives in Tucson, AZ where she hangs out with her awesome husband and does geeky things in the desert.

Places to find Jess: 

| Site | Facebook | Twitter | 

The Top Reasons 4 Bad Boys Need a Smart Wallflower

Hi everyone and thanks to Danielle for letting me be a guest on her blog once again. I thought for a long time about what I might write about this time around. I didn’t just want to describe my newest release, Pleasuring the Lady (available NOW at retailers everywhere), but what else to say?

So I started thinking more and more about my book. My heroine, Portia, is a wallflower, ignored and alone most of her life for a wide variety of reasons. And my hero? Why a rake, of course! A scoundrel of the highest order who readers fell in love with as a secondary character in An Introduction to Pleasure last June. It’s a common combination in romance, the wallflower and the rake. Why? Well, the bad boy just needs taming, I suppose and the shy and retiring lady seems the perfect fit to do that, even in intensely erotic stories like mine. I’ve thought of four reasons why this is true:

1. The Challenge – Both characters in this mix are a challenge. The wallflower isn’t as easily seduced as some other heroine archetypes. Otherwise, she would have been seduced already and wouldn’t be a wallflower. The hero has to look past the reasons why she has either been made an unattractive match to others or has made herself to be unattractive. He has to work for her, which is often very alluring to the rake, who normally has women falling over him.

But the hero is also a challenge! He’s off gallivanting around and could have (and has had) almost any woman he desired. The heroine has to offer something beyond just her body or her attention to captivate him. There is something special, something just in her, something she might not even know she has, that makes her irresistible to an irresistible man.

2. Discovering the Undiscovered – Part of that irresistible quality is discovering the undiscovered. No, not just the idea of deflowering a virgin (which the wallflower isn’t always, you know). It’s more about finding out what is remarkable about the heroine that no one else has ever seen. Her keen mind, which has turned off other men who want an empty, beautiful piece of arm candy, might be amazing to the hero. He can overlook for financial or familial ties and see… her… in way no one else in the world has ever done. She might not be perfect, but she is perfect for him. How could he resist loving her?

3. Unrequited Love Can Be So Sweet – Often in wallflower/rake stories, the hero and heroine have known each other for a long time. Sometimes the heroine has harbored feelings for him all this time and he never even knew it. There is something so amazing in writing that kind of longing, that kind of helpless love that the heroine has probably all but given up on until a moment that throws them together and changes everything in her life. The payout can be so fun and so touching and so sexy. Plus, it will often lead to a grovel, which I always enjoy.

4. Ying + Yang = True Love Always – The wallflower and the rake are often so different. But sometimes very different people make the best love matches. While she is quiet and reserved, he might bring out the fun in her. If he can be dismissive of others, she will gently remind him that he is only the center of her world, not THE world. Opposites attract and that can be awesome.

I know you all love these stories, too. So what are your favorite wallflower/rake stories? And be sure to pick up MY wallflower/rake release, PLEASURING THE LADY, out now!

Her mother’s madness and her father’s and brother’s irresponsibility have relegated Lady Portia to the life of a wallflower. The only shining light in her life is her best friend, Ava, who is suffering a rift with her own brother.

Portia’s quest to help takes her to the notorious Donville Masquerade in the hells, where—behind the safety of a mask—she witnesses shocking public acts of sin. And succumbs to the touch of Marquis Miles Weatherfield.

Unfortunately, they’re discovered. And now, tainted by scandal, she and Miles are destined for a marriage neither of them want. But Portia makes a bargain that raises even Miles’s eyebrows.

In return for saving her mother from the asylum, Portia will do anything Miles wants in bed. Shocked by his driving desire for Portia, Miles agrees. As they explore every wicked desire, every forbidden act that pleases them, they discover something that goes far deeper than flesh. But the lies that brought them together could be the very wedge that drives them apart.

Warning: This book contains wicked encounters, erotic voyeurism, lies, a brief threesome, and unexpected kindnesses.

Purchase: | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo |

Check out the Pleasure Wars series:

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Check out what's up for grabs.

Up For Grabs:

• 1 eBook copy of Taken By The Duke

To Enter: 

• Please answer Jess's question: So what are your favorite wallflower/rake stories? 
• Please fill out the Rafflecopter form.

Good Luck! 

Special thanks to Jess Michaels for sponsoring this giveaway.

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