TGIF … Heroes

Welcome to my new Friday blog, TGIF … Heroes. I think you may enjoy this one. Today I’m going to be talking about the men behind my characters in my upcoming historical romance To Catch A Duke. This is a sequel to my Christmas historical time-travel from The Wild Rose Press titled Season of Love. At the end of the story, in the epilogue, Jeremiah is trying to find out what happened to the girl he knew as his sister Tabitha Devereaux and his aunt Cora Thornton. By doing genealogy searches he finally found a lead and discovered that his cheeky little sister married a duke and lived the rest of her life in England.

Since I write American historicals for The Wild Rose Press I had to find a way to get the Duke of Stratford, Nicholas Larken to America to meet Miss Tabitha Devereaux. As with most any family there is a black sheep hidden some where. And Nicholas just happens to have a wayward cousin Gregory Walters that he has been saving from one scrap or another all his life. When Gregory is dismissed from his job with Sir Martin Glover for losing important trade documents that were found by the French Ambassador’s clerk, Nicholas is sent with Jasper Reynolds, one of the  Crown’s spies to America to find Gregory and bring him back to England.

If  you’ve seen my To Catch a Duke board on pinterest then you already know that I have pinned Gabriel Garko as my inspiration for Gregory Walters. Finding this picture really put Gregory in perspective for me. It even inspired me to see what role he was going to play in the story instead of just the wayward cousin and a possible hero in another book, so yes, Gregory will have his own book eventually.

But I’m sure you are wondering if this is Gregory then what does the Duke of Stratford look like. Well Nicholas has wavy hair so I had to find someone that would fit that image. I also needed someone that would make me want to get into the story everytime I turn on my laptop since I set the background image on it to the hero. (I started doing this with The Good Luck Potion when I found the perfect inspiration for Alex Jones.) I have to say it wasn’t easy finding someone to fit this need. But I think you will agree that Mr. Man Candy himself, David Gandy is a perfect choice. And there are so many different pictures of him on the internet so I can really change visual the scene in any way I want by the choice of picture I choose. This one here has him with the wispy, curly look for Nick’s wavy hair. But if I want to see him in a steamy scene I could go with this one. Now doesn’t that just call to you ladies?

Of course, then there is Jasper Reynolds the spy who has traveled with Nicholas to America. He dresses in black for the most part. Even Tabitha is curious about the man in black. Cora finds him charming. But what do we know about Mr. Jasper Reynolds? Not much, except he is excellent at his job. He tracks down Gregory easy enough which according to Jasper proves that Gregory isn’t a deviant and therefore meant no real malice toward Her Majesty or their homeland when he allowed the trade documents to be pinched. But who is this Reynolds chap that Gregory doesn’t care to much for?  Well I decided he needed to be handsome and roguish. He’d have to be if he was able to charm the ladies, right? And don’t we love rakes and rogues in our historicals? So I am bestowing this honor to none other than Mr. Robert Downey, Jr. 

However, ladies, I am not saying at this time if Jasper Reynolds will have his own story or not. For one reason, a story idea for him has not revealed itself to me yet. And for another, I don’t like to think that far ahead because I have another story idea that needs cultivating, but I’ll save that tidbit for another post.

Enjoy your Friday! I know I will.